A big heartfelt Thank You......

I am a new home owner as most of you already know and last month during a storm here in Smyrna we had winds that split a tree that is in the right of way near my back yard. The tree split where the big branches grew apart and it was just Entangled in another tree. These trees are a part of the old neighborhood and I hated to see this happen for I enjoy them in my back yard and they bring me many evenings of nice cool shade. Well I had called several tree removal services and they quoted me a high price which I could not afford at this time. One gentleman told me to leave it but since it was in the easement of my property I should try to call the city and ask them. Well I had already done this and the one lady told me it was on my property and I would have to deal it myself. I thought hmmmmm maybe I should just let it fall and see what happens. The cost to have it cut down would be the same as my deductible and why spend the money now? Well this morning as I was sitting on the couch I noticed a truck in my back yard and thought WTF! I went outside and this nice man told me someone from the city came out to look at this tree and they decided to have him cut it down at the city's expense. Why do you ask the city pay for it? Well the tree is hanging over the side street here and this street is very busy with people speeding up and down it and if the tree were to fall someone could be killed or even worse me! I sit in the back of the house most of time. I just want to take this time to say Thank You to the city of Smyrna of doing this and making things right. The tree is maybe one foot off the street as for the others that sit here too. The easement should be the city's responsibility and I am glad they saw this as a hazard. Once again THANK YOU!!!

The Curse of David the Good

On March 2nd I posted that it was the last day to apply for committee positions on town boards. David the Good commented that he had applied for the beautification committee.

I must've missed you. I stopped in about an hour ago to put in an updated application to the Beautification Board. Here's to Smyrna!

Sadly the agenda for the town meeting this coming week has this bit of information.

Consideration of an ordinance relative to the amendment of Town of Smyrna Municipal Code, Title 2 “Boards and Committees, Etc.”, Chapter 1 “Beautification Committee”, related to disbanding of the committee and the elimination of the Beautification Ordinance. First Reading.

It seems that their duties are being sent to other boards such as Parks and Rec and even Storm Water. They talked at length about this issue during the last town council workshop.

Sorry David. Unemployed before you even start. Harsh.

An invite

I hope he did not think it was a joke. On April 1st I emailed the following to Tim Morrell. He is the newest council member on the Smyrna town council.

Tim.

I'm not sure if you know about the local website I write for. It is called "This is Smyrna, TN". I would like to invite you to do a guest column for the website on any subject you feel strongly on, or just about how your first few months on the council have been.

Drop by and get a feel on the website if you've never been before. We have archives back to 2004 on a whole slue of subjects.

http://thisissmyrnatn.blogspot.com/

Gunner Miller

I am waiting for a reply, and hope that he will submit a column for your reading enjoyment.

Body Snatchers

Maybe the town council has been switched with pod people and we need to look for the shrunken husks of the originals....but I like the replacements so let us keep these new ones for now.

The town council met this week and formalized the final version of the liquor ordinance and damned if I am left in shock and awe.

The first item is the residency requirement.

The Town Council will likely loosen residency rules for those looking to operate a liquor store..
..........
The state only requires anyone who desires to open a store has lived in Tennessee for two years

Out the door. I can understand the feeling that this would be the best for the towns residence, but it had no real purpose in an ordinance and I'm so glad to see it gone.

The next item uses a phrase that simple dazzled me.

...as well as eliminate a cap on the number of stores in town.
...
Officials initially discussed allowing one store per 10,000 residents, but decided that it would be best to allow the market to determine how many stores should be open.

Yes! The limit on numbers was one of the more bothersome things put forth and to see it die simply is glorious. The people and market place should decide. Yes!

They still have a setback of 500 feet. I thought I had heard that 1000 feet was being bantered around, but 500 is better then that.

In the end the new package liquor ordinances as reported in this news article is not as regulatory as I worried it would be. By removing a few of the more goofy parts I'm pretty happy on how the town performed.

Hello Smyrna. Rhetorically I ask if it could get any prettier outside. A lovely nip in the air and yet just the right amount of sunlight. Simple glorious.

Our town government has the following scheduled for this week.

Parks Advisory Board: March 17, 2009 -6:00 PM
Board of Zoning Appeals: March 19, 2009 - 5:00 PM
Liquor ordinance workshop: March 19, 2009 -5:00 PM

Odd that they have two meeting scheduled for the same time.

In local events...not much.

Farm Bureau Insurance of Tennessee Boys Basketball Championships
March 18, 2009 - March 21, 2009
Held at Murphy Center, MTSU campus, Murfreesboro. Tickets on sale at the gate. Boys' high school basketball teams competing for state championships. Contact: TSSAA, (615) 889-6740
www.tssaa.org

Just one item listed by the Rutherford county chamber of commerce.

That's it people. A slow week ahead. Be careful driving tomorrow due too St. Patricks day and the resulting increase in idiots on the road.

Town council meeting

The Tuesday night town council meeting (streaming video link) started with a public comment from Steve Morgon about parking on the grass and limits on vehicles. Like I suspected he talked about the towns enforcement of this ordinance and the affect it is having on him and his home business.

Steve made a few comments worth noting. The first was that the town issued during the last 60 days 414 citations for parking on the grass and another 160 letters about having 5 vehicles or more. He also had pictures of town vehicles that were parked on the grass seemingly in violation of their own codes.

He asked that there should be adjustments to the ordinance. Removing the restrictions on boats, campers, and trailers, and that allowing for short term cars for sale to be placed in yards.

Steve ended by saying that unless something could be done he might have to move his business out to the county. Sadly this would be the result of restrictive regulations. A loss of taxes and another unneeded cost for a business.

The town council did say a special workshop is needed to start the process to pass a package liquor ordinance. The law will take two months to pass and since we are just shy of 40,000 they will only allow three permit/licenses to be initially issued.

The rest of the meeting had little in the way of eye opening events.

This edition of 'This week in Smyrna' is coming out Sunday night as Monday I will be rather busy starting a multi page report on the advances in rifling in Civil War artillery.

Well the town government has a meetings to start with.

Beer Board: November 10, 2008 - 7:00 PM

My motto is "no free samples, no attending beer meetings'..

Local events are as such...but is pretty light

Living History

Homefront/Battlefront: The Hord Farm of Rutherford County Program
November 13, 2008
Held at the Heritage Center of Murfreesboro and Rutherford County, 225 West College Street, Murfreesboro.7:00 p.m., Discover how one local plantation coped with the trials of battle and occupation during the Civil War.No admission charge. Contact: Heritage Center, (615) 217-8013

Horses

Tennessee Volunteer Ranch Horse Show
November 15, 2008 - November 16, 2008
Held at the Tennessee Miller Coliseum, 304-B West Thompson Lane, Murfreesboro, Free admission. Contact: Miller Coliseum, (615) 494-8879

This is a light week...almost a let down after an election week.

I AM SO DUMB!!!!

I made the classical error of doing what the government agency said to do and that has screwed me in attempting to find the Rutherford County Government Access Channel.

It seems that when their website said

To view a live feed from Channel 19 click here. This feature requires Windows Media Player.

it really means "it aint going to work"

That "click here" link goes to

mms:\\media1.rutherfordcounty.org\live

My wife noticed a link inside the link bar on the left and under the RCTV channel 19 is this link.

mms://media1.rutherfordcountytn.gov:1031/live

This hidden second link DOES work. Please go by and at 7:30 pm the Smyrna council candidates will be up, and as I type this the candidates for the LaVergne town council are up.

Watch...It's important that you are informed.

Workshop agenda

Here is the town workshop agenda for tomorrow night. To my delight they do have as item 17 a "Discussion relative to Smyrna Municipal code 10-101 and 10-102 regarding animals running at large and ordinances restricting certain animals from being kept near a business or residence." Hopefully they will add it to the agenda for next month's town meeting.

Here is a view of the workshops agenda for those interested.

Read this doc on Scribd: Town Workshop -April

I might just show up with a "Free the Chickens" sign for fun.

Note

It has been brought to my attention that town council member Paul Johns is going in today for surgery. Please keep him and his family in your prayers. He's a real asset to our town in so many ways, and has served this town in many manners in the past.

Municipal building smoking ordinance.

An smoking ordinance in front of the city council had it's first reading this month.

The ordinance put forward by James Yates is not going to be new for many reasons. What it does is define the limits of smoking in municipal buildings. These are buildings owned, rented, or leased by the city.

Michele Elliott commented that this was already in effect in the cities municipal building and simply codified the rules.

Many may find this odd, but I support this one. I believe that if you own, rent, or lease a building, that you should be able to make the rules for said building.

The people of Smyrna, TN

This is the first of what I hope to make a regular column. I have come across so many interesting people recently that I thought a series written by the people of Smyrna Tn. would fit in nicely on this site.

With my time watching the town meetings, I felt that the first people to invite should be the ones who represent us on the city council. Our first responding guest columnist is James Yates. A Smyrna Town Councilman At Large and in real life a Realtor and General Contractor.

He asked me if there was a specific subject I could recommend. "Why he decided to run for the council" was my suggestion.

Politics has always interested me. A few years ago I made a decision to throw my name into the local political arena. After a conversation with my family about concerns I have in our Town, I decided to be a decision maker rather than a bystander. I announced my intentions to my family at a Thanksgiving Dinner. Life intervened and various things caused me to delay my plans. After a slight set back, the time finally came to make the move.

First, I began talking about it to “poll” people and get a feel for the support level. Once I decided I had enough encouragement, I picked up my qualifying papers and began my trek.

The undertaking proved to be a BIG challenge. It consumed an enormous amount of time, required me to miss a lot of work, and helped to define me as a whole. I must admit… It was a hard row to hoe (as my father would say)!

The election came to a head in a very unique way. My opponent and I tied! That’s right… we tied! Each of us had the exact same number of votes! To my knowledge, that has never happened before in the Rutherford County area. Never again can anyone say to me that their vote doesn’t count! All it would have taken was for one more person to go to the polls, for either candidate! This led to a runoff race that essentially made me start the entire process over again.

At the end of the runoff, the citizens made their choice and I was graced with the position. I was blessed to have run with others who did not encourage or participate in “mudslinging”. I never saw anyone, especially my direct opponent, say or do anything that was less than “professional”. All of Smyrna should be proud of this fact.

So, in conclusion, I hope I am making the Town’s citizens proud with the way I conduct myself and with the way I vote. Thanks to all for allowing me to serve as your Councilman!

Sincerely,

Honorable James Yates
Smyrna Town Councilman At Large
www.TownofSmyrna.org

Thank you Mr. Yates.

Odd happenings last night

Last night something that I titled "ODD" in bold in my notes happened. The town has just finished a master plan for the city parks system. For the most part the city council have been rightly proud of this plan. It looks into the future and tries to make Smyrna a city that everyone can enjoy.

Last night the Mayor talked about the current dealing with the county and that a pretty solid number for the land had been worked out. Up to now the numbers had been pretty costly.

The council offered $1.5 million for the site last summer, but county officials turned it down, saying they wanted $2.2 million for it. That's $27,500 an acre, compared to the $12,500 per acre the county paid for the property a few years ago. Smyrna also spent $3 million to extend sewer lines to the site.

Last night the Mayor said the number very likely would be $17,500 per acre.

Now this is strange on the surface. As 80 acres at $17,500 equals $1,400,000. A cost that is supposedly $100,000 LESS then the DNJ article said had been earlier offered.

I asked someone in the know and they said that there was a changing of the guard in the county and more agrreeable people came into office. This likely lead to the lowering of the cost. To the advantage of the tax payers of smyrna.

Then the really ODD thing happened last night.

Lance Lee brought a worry forward that he had with the whole master plan. Financing the purchases is all good, but can the city afford to maintain it? An 80 acre park, and all the rest that the city will cost a lot in upkeep, and if the city budget is tight now, how bad will this giant park and other expansions make the budget look? He said all of the residents he had talked to were all for the parks, but were also united in that they did not want more taxes to support it.

Mr Johns, also said he would be against the park if more taxes were required.

I had heard no ripples of discontent against the plans until last night and I was honestly surprised when two council members spoke up as they did.

Last night made the whole 80 acre park issue a little more interesting then it was a few days ago.

Last nights town meeting

Last nights meeting started with a crowded room and a LOT of people who wanted to talk about one specific issue. The annexation of the ROW(right of way) on Seminary road(PDF). So many showed that it was standing room for some. The room was simply not big enough for all the people.

This Map shows the part of Seminary Road that the city wanted.



The first people who addressed the council told of a whole list of problems that they had with the road at this time. Everything from flooding, to bad lights, to slow law enforcement response. The first commenter used the term "seminary raceway" when she talked about road racing that occurs there. In all a lot of problems were brought to the city councils attention.

James Yates was really the first council member to talk about the ROW last night and said the residents had many legitimate issues. He sounded so supportive that the audience broke out in applause. This caused the mayor to chastise the people a bit.

H.G. Cole brought up his main worry.



The I-2 lot to the right of the map is going to become a recycling center. I'm not sure who would have been the owner, but it pretty much depended on the side entrance. The Seminary road is not made for industrial and the recycling company would have improved it up to their entrance. The red line on the above map shows how far they would have upgraded the road. Now on the surface that may sound good, but it leaves an opening for the city to get shafted down the road. No pun intended.

H.G. Cole's main worry is based on the future us of the northern I-2 lot. If another industrial business moves in, they would be responsible for upgrading the road along the edge of their property. That's the yellow line.



At this point the city, and you the tax payer, would be responsible to repair regularly, or upgrade the red section of this map. The part the recycling center does not plan on upgrading.

H.G. Cole was not comfortable with that idea, and it seemed others on the council agreed. That, with the many issues the city would have inherited, made this annexation fail unanimously when the council voted. The crowds were not subdued when the vote went their way.

Tennessee crosses the Rubicon

There was in Italy a river called the Rubicon. It was more then a waterway, it was also a border between action and limits. For you see when a commander was returning to Rome from a campaign, he could not bring his legions south of the Rubicon. This line was there to keep a man from feeling that he not only ruled the battle field, but should rule the Roman senate. If he did bring more then his private staff with him across the Rubicon, then he had gone over the line.

"Crossing the Rubicon" has morphed into a modern saying that implies there is no going back. A point has been crossed, and it cannot be uncrossed.

We, as a nation, and state, have crossed the Rubicon, and cannot retreat.

Tennessee, and to a smaller extent Smyrna, are in the middle of a political and social storm. Should a public smoking ban or limit be instituted? Let me rephrase that. Should a smoking ban, or limit, be enforced on us? We should at least be honest when approaching how it will be carried out.

Now I have posted previously on the subject of the proposed smoking ordinance that James Yates will soon be putting forward for council vote. I am against it for many reasons. One reason why I am against it that is hard to articulate without a bit of ancient and modern history thrown into the post.

I have no doubt that this new law from the legislature in Nashville will soon pass. Why? Because politicians do not get re-elected for NOT doing something. Action, even if misguided, gets votes. I have never heard of a politician who got elected on the platform that "I did nothing during my last term". A politician must have something to take credit for so they can fill the airwaves with the soundbites of their deeds.

We are reaching the point where everything in life is regulated. From the tank size of our toilets, the water flow from our shower heads, and even to the size of the holes in cheese. However, the things the government can control and legislate are finite. With that limit approaching they must turn their controlling eyes towards us.

That's you and me for sake of this post.

Now to be truthful, they do not see it as control. No sane person has a desire to control and manipulate the actions of others. The problem is what our government has become as it has evolved through time. In history there is a philosopher named Kant, a man under-taught in schools today. He formulated his ideas of freedom and liberty in Principles of Rights.

The first of these rights was the "Liberty of every Member of the State as a Man". A certain part of it stands out as important in this debate on smoking and other acts.

:*'No one has a right to compel me to be happy in the peculiar way in which he may think of the well-being of other men; but everyone is entitled to seek his own happiness in the way that seems to him best, if it does not infringe the liberty of others in striving after a similar end for themselves when their Liberty is capable of consisting with the Right of Liberty in all others according to possible universal laws.'*A Government founded upon the principle of Benevolence towards the people*after the analogy of a father to his children, and therefore called a paternal Government*would be one in which the Subjects would be regarded as children or minors unable to distinguish what is beneficial or injurious to them. These subjects would be thus compelled to act in a merely passive way; and they would be trained to expect solely from the Judgment of the Sovereign and just as he might will it, merely out of his goodness, all that ought to make them happy. Such a Government would be the greatest conceivable Despotism; for it would present a Constitution that would abolish all Liberty in the Subjects and leave them no Rights.

I remember as a youth asking my dad to shoot off some fireworks. he told me that I was too young and that they were dangerous. He was my father. I look and see municipalities banning fireworks for the same reason. Daddy government? Paternal you might even say. I also remember going about building a small cabin with my cousin. We were halted from the first site because my Uncle said it would be a problem there. Today if I try to build a shed in my backyard I would need to get the local governments permission and OK. Daddy government again?

We have so silently slid into the paternal government that Kant warned us of so many years ago.

Now a smoking ban on public places may seem such a small thing when compared to the ills and sins of the world. "It's just smoking" you may say.

Back to the Rubicon.

When you cross that point there is no going back. Tennessee is standing in the river and can still see the line below it's feet, and the next few months may be very important to all of us.

Some states have crossed the river long ago. You could not find a finer example then New York. Here is just a short list of things that they have tried to ban, or have banned, in that state.

* Trans-fats.

* Aluminum baseball bats.

* The purchase of tobacco by 18- to 20-year-olds.

* Foie gras.

* Pedicabs in parks.

* New fast-food restaurants (but only in poor neighborhoods).

* Lobbyists from the floor of council chambers.

* Lobbying city agencies after working at the same agency.

* Vehicles in Central and Prospect parks.

* Pit bulls

* Cell phones in upscale restaurants.

* The sale of pork products made in a processing plant in Tar Heel, N.C., because of a unionization dispute.

* Mail-order pharmaceutical plans.

* Candy-flavored cigarettes.

* Gas-station operators adjusting prices more than once daily.

* Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.

* Wal-Mart.

California follows the state of New York with attempts to ban smoking in your car when children are in it, and even Incandescent light bulbs. Berkley California has even banned coffee they don't like. After all, Daddy knows best.

These states crossed the river so long ago that it has become a faded memory. Tennessee stands shakily on that line, not sure whether to go forward, or pull back.

Now it rests upon the shoulders of the politicians and that frightens me.

Last night I sat in the Smyrna city council chambers and watched the latest town workshop. A short one when compared to others. It ended for me on a foul note. Mr Yates asked the town attorney if she was still working on his smoking ordinance. One that he is putting forth to require a smoking section in all restaurant's. The mayor, Mr Spivey, laughed and said that the way things are going in the capital, that it would not be needed. That moment of laughter from several made me think.

Why are they working on a limitation, when a ban would soon be enforced from Nashville? Why waste city time, and resources?

It was at that moment that Kant famous words came to mind.

These subjects would be thus compelled to act in a merely passive way; and they would be trained to expect solely from the Judgment of the Sovereign and just as he might will it, merely out of his goodness, all that ought to make them happy

It's hard for a government to break the habit of control.

We all stand as a state in the river Rubicon. Tomorrow we will find if we have crossed that line.