EXPANSION OF HERITAGE CENTER

ONE WAY TO SALUTE VETERANS

It’s appropriate that during the month Veterans Day is celebrated that the Hamilton County Commission will vote on contributing $400,000 to the Charles Coolidge National Medal of Honor Heritage Center as part of a $3 million capital campaign that will include an expanded exhibit on Capt. Larry Taylor, the Chattanooga native who was presented the Medal of Honor in September for his service in Vietnam more than 40 years ago.

The commission is expected to vote on a resolution Wednesday that would use $200,000 this year from the county’s withheld hotel-motel tax revenues. Another $200,000 would be contributed next year. Officials say the city is likely to contribute a similar amount, with the state and private individuals kicking in even more.

The exhibit featuring Taylor, who Hamilton County Mayor Weston Wamp told the commission is battling cancer, is expected to include the placement of a Cobra attack helicopter similar to the one Taylor flew in his 1968 mission in which he rescued four trapped men while taking on enemy fire.

The second feature to be funded by the capital campaign is expected to be an interactive theater experience — complete with cargo seats from an actual attack helicopter — surrounding the special operations mission in Mogadishu, Somalia, in 1993, which was depicted in the 2001 movie “Black Hawk Down.” Two snipers from the battle were posthumously honored with Medals of Honor, the first ones presented postVietnam. One of the pilots central to the mission was from Clarksville, Tenn., and the special operation commander also was from the Volunteer State.

Heritage Center officials hope the exhibitions will be in place by the date of a 2025 national convention of Medal of Honor recipients in Chattanooga. It is expected 30 to 40 recipients could be on hand.

COST OF ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS

Taxpayers often wonder what their cost is for the seemingly uninhibited flow of illegal immigrants into this country. A report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform has calculated an answer. For Tennesseans, the cost in 2023 is $971,300,000, or $364 per Tennessee household annually.

The report further states the education of 49,882 illegal immigrants costs the state $571 million, or $4,456 per illegal immigrant.

To get the $364 per household amount, the report also added the expense of $175.6 million for police, legal and correction services, plus health care, public assistance and general government service expenses.

The number of English language learners in the state’s public schools, according to the report, increased 45% between 2011 and 2017.

SCHOOL BOARD RACES HEATING UP

Incumbents in any election are thought to be most vulnerable in an election if they are appointed or don’t serve a full term in office. Apparently, several people who have picked up petitions to run against the newest Hamilton County Board of Education members may believe that.

Faye Robinson, a Republican who represents District 10 in the eastern portion of the county, has not picked up qualifying papers to run for a full term, but two others, Republican Rodney Spooner and Democrat Angie Stone Jackson, already have done so. Neither have qualified, but they — and Robinson — have until Dec. 5 to do so.

Jill Black, a Democrat who represents District 11, already has picked up papers to qualify, but a woman who has observed school board members for years also has picked up papers to oppose her. Republican Sherrie Guinn Ford, who has been the longtime executive assistant to the board of education, is soliciting signatures to qualify on her Facebook site.

Although Republican Joe Wingate in District 7 (East Brainerd) has not publicly announced he is not running for a third term, three people have already qualified to run, leading to speculation he does not plan to run. All three, Republicans Ed Garcia, and Jodi Schaffer, and independent David Sean Kelman already have qualified for the March primary election.

CLARIFICATIONS

We wanted to use this space to clear up a couple things from a couple of recent editorials.

A Tuesday editorial that dealt with the sentencing of Garrian King, who was charged as a felon with a gun in the 2022 McCallie Avenue shooting that left three dead and 14 injured, referred to the gun as an “AR (automatic rifle).” But AR is not short for automatic rifle, but ArmaLite, manufacturer of the AR-15 rifle. A later news story said the weapon he was charged with possession of was an Anderson Manufacturing AM-15 AR pistol. Earlier new stories had referred to it as an “AR” and an “AR pistol.”

In this space two weeks ago, we referred to a planned fundraiser for Planned Parenthood in Chattanooga, referring to two of the fundraiser’s Democratic hosts as offering support in high places for abortion. Although Planned Parenthood in some places across the country provide abortion services, host Chris Anderson — senior adviser to Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly for legislative initiatives — properly reminded us that the reason for the local fundraiser was women’s health care. The organization does no abortions locally.