A new day in Spring Hill...TONIGHT!

For those of you that have been looking forward to this day for a long time, enjoy it! Tonight is the start of a new day in Spring Hill. If you get a chance, stop by City Hall this evening to show your support for the outgoing Aldermen, and those that are new to the position. It is what makes our country great, and everyone that takes part in the system should be applauded.

Now, speaking of this evening...

Expect the Historic Commission to pass with relative ease, and expect the next argument to begin over this proposed subdivision on Cleburne Road.

For those that have not been paying too much attention, there is a new development being proposed on Cleburne Road that includes over 1,200 lots (making it the largest subdivision in our city so far). The developer and Maury County are both unwilling to make all of the necessary road improvements, so this will place an extreme burden on the city to make the improvements ourselves, in excess of $2,000,000.

Now, in the middle of this subdivision is one of five proposed schools sites for the area, which will make it a pretty "hot button" issue. Many in Maury County have been trying to place Spring Hill over the barrel on this for quite some time, and make no mistake, the threats are rolling from the school board members. Some in this city (and Maury County) are playing on the fears of parents in order to get some pressure on our BOMA to pass this subdivision, even though it places our children and community in greater danger than other school sites. Now, I will get to some of the motivations behind this decision, but for now, let's take a look at an email from our Maury County School Board Representative. (I will add comments as they are needed to clear up some things)

Hello to all of you.

My name is Tommy Dudley and I am the School Board representative for the 11th district of Maury County. The 11th district consist of a very large area which covers the northern parts of the county from Carters Creek Pike around to Bear Creek Pike on its eastern end. Spring Hill is in my district, but I want to represent the entire district equally and fairly.

As most of you are aware, Maury County does not have a middle school located in the northern end of the county. Middle School students from the northern end of the county are required to attend Cox Middle School in Columbia. This requires the students to endure lengthy trips and creates hardships for the parents of the students.

The School Board has for sometime now, been trying to obtain a middle school site in the northern end of the County. Only two sites were offered as a donation to the School Board until recently. The first site was off Port Royal Road. This site was not suitable for a middle school due to it contains wetlands, TVA easements and development of the site would be very expensive due to requirements established by the property owners. After development of the site the usable land would not be sufficient for a middle school.

Now let's be honest here, the Port Royal site does in fact contain some flood plain. Of the 60 acres available, flood plain takes up around 10% making over 50 acres usable for building, and the other 6 acres or so available for use in ball fields etc. I would consider 6 acres extensive, but I live on about 1/4 acre. In a 60 acre development, 6 is not too bad, especially considering 54 usable acres is better than 33 just about anywhere.

Now let's talk about the "development of the site would be very expensive due to requirements established by the property owners." Since our city has gone to a gravity system for sewer in that area, there is no longer a need to pay for the pumps, etc that were required. It just doesn't make sense to me why this decision is so tough, something fishy must be going on.

...back to Mr. Dudley.

The second site is a 33 acre tract off Cleburne Rd. This site is not perfect but it is a better site than the first site. The property is on the western side of Spring Hill just past the railroad tracks off Beechcroft Road behind the GM Assembly Plant. Buses will have to cross the railroad tracks if coming from the east, but we have buses going over railroad tracks not only in Maury County but also in Williamson County daily. Buses going all the way to Bear Creek Pike in Columbia create just as much concern for me as the railroad crossing on Beechcroft Rd. The Cleburne Rd. site has more usable land and will carry less development cost with it. Utilities are already available at or near the site. If we can keep the development cost low we can use the savings to build a nicer school or even be able to better equip the school.

Over $2,000,000 in road development on Cleburne Road is not free. Placing a development of over 1,200 hundred lots is not currently appropriate in that area, much less adding to the congestion a middle school. I have no idea how a 33 acre site in the midst of an area with little of no development is more appropriate than a 60 acre site in the midst of our current growth. Especially when you consider the road network that is being installed in the Port Royal area, I cannot understand why we would voluntarily take on additional dangerous roads to have the city fix RIGHT NOW with our own money. Remember, we still have a nice handful of roads to fix, so why are we volunteering to fix another? I forget for a second that we are also voluntarily placing our CHILDREN in danger on Cleburne Road and around those railroad crossings.

Anyway...

An additional site has since been offered in the Spring Hill area next to I 65 off of Jim Warren Road, but the developer and the City of Spring Hill have yet to establish that the roads are any safer, that the site development will be any less expensive or that the infrastructure will be there to support a school when completed. As a member of the School Board, I certainly appreciate the offer of this additional site, but a final decision needs to made now.

If you were present at the last planning commission meeting, you saw exactly what roads are planned for this area. You would have also seen that they are going to be paid for by the developer, not the city or county.

Now, Mr. Dudley is correct in saying that the decision needs to be made now, but for very different reasons (both to them, and for our city). Most of you may not know, but Shaw Daniels, chairman of the school board, works for SSOE. If you did not know, SSOE is the architect and builder that is currently on contract with the county for school building. SSOE's contract expires pretty soon, like in July. I wonder if the reason Mr. Daniels is so "hot to trot" on this particular site has something to do with that contract? After this contract is up, it will be put back out to bid, and SSOE may or may not be awarded the contract.

Here is another reason that time is of the essence, but in this case for a very different site. On June 1st, the offer for the 60 ACRES on Port Royal Road expires. There has yet to be a contract offered on the Cleburne Road site, so why are we not taking the larger site (Port Royal Road) that is in the middle of our city's growth, and is larger to place one or more of our schools, and getting the Cleburne Road site in contract for to exercise at some point in the future when our city is ready to have development in that area? I guess "common sense" is not so common when we are dealing with politics and $$$.

Other sites may be available in the City limits of Columbia also, but do you want your middle school students to have to attend school that far away?

The Cleburne Rd site offers the best opportunity for a middle school site in the northern end of the county. The School Board is ready to act upon the building of a middle school, but if we continue to have delays, other school projects could be placed ahead of it. If this were to occur, it could be years before another opportunity for a middle school in the northern end of the county comes around again. The Cox Middle School could be expanded or an additional middle school could be built in Columbia.

So this is the new threat! If we do not accept the site now, for NORTHERN MAURY COUNTY I might add, then we could choose to just expand Cox Middle School. I was at a school board meeting a couple of weeks ago when the Mr. Hickman stated in from of an audience that this school was being built SPECIFICALLY for Spring Hill. He went on to elaborate that the VAST majority (something like 85%, I will check my notes) of development is going on in Spring Hill as compared to the rest of the county. He then continued to say that this school is specifically for our students here in the city. Now, IF that is the case, why the threat Mr. Dudley?

Why would the county not take EVERY SINGLE PIECE of free land being offered? Build on the Cleburne Road site when it is feasible for all of the players? If the city and county are in partnership here, why is this such a hot issue and why all the threats? Again, Eddie Hickman himself said that this school needed to be in Spring Hill, and there were several available properties for that to take place. Why is he now not returning phone calls about those wanting to extend offers?

Some of the members of the Spring Hill Board of Mayor and Aldermen have stated that they do not want a school on the Cleburne Rd site and have even suggested that they would prefer the school to be built in Columbia. I ask you to contact them, and let them know that you want a middle school built here. They are scheduled to vote on the approval of the developers plans which include the school site on Cleburne Rd. on Monday April 16, 2007 at 7 PM. Please call the members prior to the meeting or plan on attending the meeting at Spring Hill City Hall. Kathie Johnson has given you the phone numbers of all of the members of the Mayor and Aldermen.

The other sites offered may be used in the future for additional schools. The School Board is not turning down their offers. With the expected growth of Maury County over the next few years, we will need many more school sites.

If you have any questions, call me.

Thank you.

Tommy Dudley
931-486-2982

Well, I do hope that you all call Mr. Dudley's hand on this one. While you are at it, call the aldermen as well! I have a feeling you will hear a very different story from each.

Here are some quick points to remember about all of this:

1. In 2004, the developer of Royalton Woods offered and signed a 3 year option contract with Maury County Schools for 60 acres off of Port Royal and Kedron Roads. This option expires June 1, 2007. Why would we not take 60 acres of free land now while we can? Why haven't we taken it already...it is in prime location considering our growth both now and in the future.

2. The developer of a proposed 1,200 lot subdivision (the largest subdivision in Spring Hill to date), has made a VERBAL offer of 33 acres to Maury County Schools as part of a proposed subdivision off of Cleburne Rd. Put it in writing and let's build out there when we are ready to handle it as a city.

3. Some have continually said that the Cleburne Rd site is 'free' and has no costs associated with it. That is absolutely incorrect! The city will have to spend in excess of 2 MILLION dollars to repair the roads to even think about placing our children on them.

4. In March, the Spring Hill BOMA deferred voting on the proposed Cleburne Road 1,200 unit subdivision because costs had not been determined on the road improvements that would be required on Cleburne Road (specifically, the at times 12 foot wide road with railroad crossing and 2 single lane bridges between Petty Lane and Carters Creek Station Road).

5. After the BOMA vote to defer in March, Maury County Commission voted to not fund any road improvements to Cleburne Road.

6. Since the BOMA meeting in March, 3 other sites have been offered in Spring Hill / Neapolis for schools; 2 off of Derryberry Lane and Jim Warren Road (just down from Wright Elementary School), and at least 1 in Neapolis. This brings the total number of proposed sites to 5.

7. In April, the City of Spring Hill identified the cost of improvements on Cleburne Road to be in excess of $2,000,000.

8. Schools should be built where the growth is located. With over 7,000 lots approved on the east side of the city, and only 600 lots approved on the west side of the city, how can this be considered proper planning? Isn't that what we are trying to do here...plan for our growth. Why make the same old mistakes now?!

The City of Spring Hill has made proper planning a priority. Building a middle school on the west side of the city where the growth does not currently exist is not proper planning. Additionally, approving the largest subdivision in Spring Hill on Cleburne Road is not proper planning. What exactly is going on here?

Tonight, our NEW Board of Mayor and Aldermen are ultimately deciding whether to approve a 1,200 unit subdivision on Cleburne Road. The do not have the luxury of approving schools, just subdivisions.

So I guess in the end my question is simple. Would we even consider a 1,200 unit subdivision (with insufficient road improvements) on Cleburne Road if a school wasn't involved?

Personally, I hope that we have learned something from our past!