Miscellaneous

Random Thoughts from Experience – Who should decide what we look like? BSers or ASers?

February 25, 2010 ⋅  Email this post ⋅  Print this post ⋅ Post a comment

It was November 1996 when I came to Spring Hill to start my “dream job.” Although I had reached my goal of becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist, I had specialized in Employee Assistance Programs (EAP). After cutting my EAP teeth on several area businesses I wound up with the United States Postal Service. It was the same time that the term “going postal” was becoming popular. I lasted less than two years with the USPS. TennCare case management replaced EAP. The pay was better, but something was missing. There was no face to face contact with clients. I guess that is why I wasn’t very upset when I was told that I was being laid off. My employer had lost the State contract. I was only three years from 60, but felt that something good was going to happen, and it did.

I got a call from my friend, the Clinical Manager of the Saturn Team Members Assistance Program (TMAP). Sharron told me she was leaving her position to take a job at Vanderbilt. “Was I interested in her old position?” At that point I felt like Sharron was an angel delivering the message of my rescue. It was the job I had dreamed of for the past ten years or more. I made the necessary contacts, completed the interview process and was hired. I was back in EAP.

Spring Hill had a population of less than 5,000. The Mayor was a Saturn Team Member. During the first year. I commuted from my home in East Nashville. That got old and very tiring so in October 1997 I became a resident of Spring Hill, living in one of the three subdivisions along Duplex Road. There was New Town, Wyngate Estates and Spring Meadow. There were signs announcing the coming of Ridgeport and Candlewood, but from my Spring Meadow front porch, I could hear the “Moooo” of cows in what was to later become Augusta Place. I learned from Effie Heiss that my home was located on property that was, at one time, her family’s farm. I had also learned that not many of the “BSers” (before Saturn) liked what was happening to “their home.”

I continued listening to the messages of the BSers. They felt they were losing control of “their home.” It wasn’t until 2003, when TMAP was closed and I retired a little before I had planned, that I got involved in what the BSers were concerned about. In 1999 the BSers had succeeded in electing one of their own as Mayor. Although Ray Williams was a native of Columbia, he had set down deep roots in Spring Hill. As Mayor, he established a strong, business-like operation at City Hall. Growth was starting and Ray had the City in a sound financial state.

Growth took off. Spring Hill became the 14th fastest growing city in the USA. Along with that growth came many people with no commitment to Spring Hill other than the new home they had just purchased. They had no understanding of the history of Spring Hill other than the fact that GM had made a gigantic investment in the City. GM however, was new history. These ASers (after Saturn) were primarily young people looking for affordable housing to start their families and commute to their jobs in Nashville or other nearby cities. They had little to contribute to Spring Hill other than what they considered a “vast knowledge of how a city should be.” The ASers cried out “Our City is being run by the ‘good ole boys’.” Houses were not being built, subdivisions were. The ASers didn’t like that. They already had their home, so why build any more? The BSers said I wish these ASers hadn’t come in either. The battle lines were unclear, but the battle had begun. And it continues.

The current Board of Mayor and Aldermen and Planning Commission includes no Spring Hill native. None has lived in Spring Hill for more than fifteen years. Some have little sympathy for the feeling of the BSers

Here are two sets of circumstances to make my point.
In Newport Crossing subdivision, there is a group of condos called Newport Cove. Behind those condos is a small stream that empties into Aenon Creek. This stream is a perfect example of the stream buffer plan adopted about a year ago after much heated debate at Planning Commission meetings. Developer, John Maher, tried to assist with the new stream buffer plan. He was treated as if he was trying to rape the City by slipping in an inferior system that would only benefit developers.. Two ASers on the Planning Commission (both less than 30 years of age and having lived in Spring Hill less than six years) insisted they knew better than John Maher, a former high school teacher who had built more than 1,000 quality homes in Spring Hill. Mr. Maher had personally hired professionals to assist in the process of developing a good stream buffer plan to protect water quality. He was repeatedly ignored and ridiculed. A plan of the young AS commissioners’ liking was adopted.

Oh, by the way, John Maher was the developer of Newport Cove back about 2004, where he protected that little stream behind Newport Cove when there was no required buffering by the City Code.

Currently, in the Planning Commission, the same two ASers are challenging the plans of a life-long resident of Spring Hill in much the same way they treated John Maher. Jeff Harvey is attempting to develop his family’s property along Main Street. He wants to sell his property to businesses, but the “all wise” commissioner and Chairman act as if Mr. Harvey is going to do something that will destroy the “Duda vision” of Spring Hill. There was no problem when Jeff Harvey’s father, Doug, donated the property on which Harvey Park is located or the land which now allows Spring Hillians to drive on the Miles Johnson Bypass. That land was “given,” not sold, to the City. I doubt that Mr. Harvey now wants to do anything that will harm the quality of that area of Spring Hill.

What Jonathan Duda and Michael Glass are actually doing, whether intended or not, is delivering a message to potential businesses, that Spring Hill does not welcome them and will make it difficult for them to locate here if they try.

I am old, so you may say that I side with the Old BSers. I am sorry, but I was raised to respect elders. Mr. Harvey is not an elder. He is young enough to be my son, but he has roots in Spring Hill that deserve to be respected. Mr. Maher has done more for the City of Spring Hill than most residents could imagine. He is an honorable man who deserves our respect. I wish all the members of the Planning Commission and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen would step back, recognize that youth does not provide great wisdom. Wisdom comes from life experience and when you grow up loving a place you call home, you are not going to do anything to destroy the image of that home. The BSers have far more right to determine what Spring Hill will look like 20 years from now that all the ASers.

By Charlie Schoenbrodt