The grass and bushes and small trees are so thick, so tall, I literally drove by the address three times wondering where the house was.
The property owner has two homes on Lawing Drive just off Old Hickory Boulevard in the Belshire community.
His corner lot is so overgrown at the curb, that cars have difficulty seeing on coming traffic and his second home, which neighbors say has not been occupied for decades, is a jungle.
Willard Short has lived next to the man since the 60s.
When I tell Short that I couldn’t see his neighbor’s home from the street, he bursts out laughing.
“It’s a big mess. It’s been this way since his wife divorced him 35 years ago. We’re lucky if it is cut once a year.”
I ask why he doesn’t maintain the property.
“He is tight as bark on a tree,” Short replies. “He won’t let go of the money.”
“How does this make you feel?” I ask.
“It makes me feel bad. [There are] skunks and possums and coons and they come out at night and we can’t even leave out bird feeders.”
“What do people say?”
“There’s not a house there is it? This used to be one of the nicest houses on the street.”
“What would you say to the man?”
“I would tell him to get off his lazy butt and do something about it.”
Wayne Denton works with the Metro Health Department, an agency that gets, on average, 3,400 high grass complaints every year.
Denton says he’s seen worse yard problems but admits Lawing Drive is pretty bad.
“We’re trying to get this property cut. The owner has been in court several times. We have a show cause hearing to get it cut.”
A show cause hearing, according to Denton, is where the judge orders the resident to prove that court order has been obeyed.
Denton says the first complaints on the man’s two properties date back to mid-May.
“He needs to cut it or clean it or he’ll be fined,” he adds.
Officials say the judge has imposed a $100-a-day fine on the property owner until he proves the property has been cut.
Denton takes Messed Up around back where he finds a myriad of violations, not the least of which is buckets full of stagnating water.
“These are mosquito breeders, there is some trash here and some buckets here that could be mosquito breeders,” he says. “We can cite him for breeding mosquitoes.”
Inspectors have done all they can to get compliance. It is now up to the court to decide if the owner must pay the $100 per day injunction or possibly go to jail.
Riding a horse in Davidson County parks is free today but beginning in January, the Metro Department of Parks and Recreation is going to require a permit to ride.
According to Tommy Lunch, director of the parks department, the permit will cost $30 and will verify that the horse is free of disease and the rider is properly insured.
“In March of this year, the park board directed our staff to look at all fees for all facilities. The park board implemented new fees across the board and the implementation of [the fee for horses] was delayed until January 2011. The permit will do two things. We wanted to make sure was the horses coming into our parks have the Negative Coggins test and they are healthy and able to use the facilities. There is a yearly permit of $30 for Davidson County residents to also provide us with confirmation that they have insurance and this allows them access to bridal paths and horse trails,” he said.
The fees are not just for horseback riders, according to Lynch. Other park users who are also seeing fees include people who make picnic shelter reservations and those who fly model airplanes. There are also new golf course and baseball fees.
Horse lovers like Jennifer Tieche say the fee for horses is a tax and if they are going to tax horseback riding, they shouldn’t discriminate and tax all park users.
“Horse people were not consulted. I have lots of ideas and was not consulted. It is a tax targeting horse people. There are many park users. Why choose this segment to permit and show liability insurance?” she asked.
According to Tieche, many people who use city parks are renters, and do not contribute to the property tax base, which helps pay for parks. Almost all horse people are land owners and pay property taxes.
She calls the permit fee a tax on horse riders.
“There are those who think they are trying to reduce or eliminate horseback riding in the parks,” she continued, adding that horses have minimal impact on trails and unlike dogs, there are no known instances of horses injuring anyone in the parks.
Lynch says this is not a fee just targeting horse people, though he says horseback riding in parks is much different than jogging with a dog.
“They are not being singled out. It is a fee as we looked at everything. It was a fee that had not been applied in the past. One of the things it will do is tell us how many do we have, how many trails are good and appropriate for the horses using these trails. It’s good to have the data to know what is being used,” he said. “Let’s compare it to a bike. If someone falls off the bike, the bike falls with them. If someone falls off the horse, the horse is loose in the park. There are potential liabilities to that extent. Everyone has the right to feel how they feel. We are being prudent managing parks department and apply permits for some activities and other activities that are free and will remain free. We think we are good stewards of the parks, and feel we are acting appropriately from parks standpoint.”
It’s been more than 100 days since the flood and Middle Tennesseans everywhere still feel the pain.
In Hendersonville, floodwaters damaged the bridge over Drake’s Creek on Stop 30 Road.
With the bridge out, residents are severely inconvenienced experiencing long drives and frequent traffic jams.
The city has put in a stop light at the only passable intersection to the Stop 30 community, but still residents are frustrated wondering when the bridge will be fixed.
Pictures from the city’s Web site show the bridge underwater and the subsequent damage.
Don Long is the city of Hendersonville mayoral assistant and tells Messed Up the city is very aware of the resident’s frustrations.
“This bridge was built in the 1940s,” Long tells me. “There was a lot of upstream damage underneath it. We had an engineer look at it and his recommendation was to close it to make sure it is safe, especially for school buses.”
Long says the city has been in contact with both FEMA and TDOT regarding what needs to be done, how much it might cost and who will ultimately pay for it.
“We have three options. We can replace a portion of the bridge, we can replace all of the bridge or we can widen the bridge and raise it,” Long explains.
He says FEMA is working with the city but obviously, in light of May’s flood, has a lot of projects to consider.
Long estimates that it could cost up to $800,000 to fix the bridge, which he says would be expanded to three lanes with a sidewalk and raised so it would not flood every time Drake’s Creek floods.
Residents meet with Messed Up and Long to express their concerns.
Tom Bruce has lived in the community for six years.
We stand in front of an old city vehicle that is being used as a barricade to keep traffic from crossing the bridge.
“Shopping is up there,” Bruce says pointing past the blockade, “restaurants and Joseph Bank clothing store and theaters and Walmart.”
Paula Johnson has similar concerns.
“We feel this bridge should be fixed or reopened. It’s hindering all these people. The city doesn’t realize what a burden this is,” he says.
Phillip Witherspoon has this to say: “The traffic back up and delays, the whole subdivision is one way in and one way out. There was a wreck up there the other day [and] it had everything tied up for hours.”
Sue Varboncoeur is concerned about emergency crews getting in and out.
So is Kaitlyn Haley.
“My grandma lives down the road and she had a stroke. My mom could get to her in three minutes, now it is more like 15 minutes and she might not make it.”
As fate would have it, while we are doing this story, a Sumner County ambulance races down Stop 30 Road to the bullet riddled Hendersonville vehicle blocking the bridge.
A female EMT hangs out the window and begins shouting for News 2 camera man Al Devine and I to move the vehicle.
It quickly becomes obvious that the crew has no ideas the city has blocked off the bridge.
“Hey, we got to get through,” the woman shouts. “What is on the other side of the truck?” she hollers.
The woman asks if the vehicle is mine, and I tell her no, it is the city of Hendersonville’s property.
“Are you kidding me?” I shout. “They didn’t tell you about this?”
“No,” she hollers as the ambulance races backward and does a three point turn to find its way to the location.
As it turns out the emergency was not life-threatening, but it does illustrate how a call on that side of the bridge can be delayed because the bridge is out, for possibly another year and a half.
“That is a problem,” I say bluntly to Mr. Long.
“Yes. 911 should be aware not to route them this way,” he says.
The director of Sumner County EMS tells Messed Up that the one crew was unaware of the bridge out, but all other crews have been reminded.
As of this date: 6/21/10 people are still cleaning up.
The key is people are cleaning up.
Now imagine your house filling with several feet of water. Imagine keeping that house locked up, not going into it for almost 50 days. Imagine the mess, not to mention the black mold growing on the walls.
One Bellevue woman doesn’t have to imagine because it’s going on next door to her and she is concerned that the home is a health problem and bringing down property values.
Kris Best’s home didn’t flood, and for that she is grateful.
But the unemployed attorney is concerned about the condition of the home next door, which she says has been empty since the Harpeth River flooded it.
“They have been out for months. It was a while since the grass was cut. During the flood, critters crawled out of the woods and into the property. We were concerned about health issues. When this house was built it was worth $500,000 and they have been out four months.”
We stand in front of the open windows and the pronounced smell of mold filters out.
Best says she is asthmatic and concerned what the black mold on the walls inside this house could do to her and others.
“Those spots are black mold. I don’t like it from health stand point, and detracts from neighborhood and devalues our property and banks put people out of their homes but had they kept them in the house it would be less prevalent.”
In addition, Best says the house caught somewhere in the foreclosure process is bringing down home values in the rest of the neighborhood.
We bring the issue to the Metro Health Department where Brian Todd says Black Mold is a problem, but not one that Mrs. Best needs to be concerned about.
“Mold in a house is contained. It is a challenge. Some might be allergic and others not, like tree or grass pollen. In any case, we want people to take precautions. If you live next door or in the neighborhood, it won’t grow into your house. It will stay contained.”
Messed Up has also spent a great deal of time talking to officials who represent Bank of America:
Jumana Bauwens writes:
“We still have not foreclosed on the home. As you know, there is a legal process that needs to take place before a foreclosure sale actually takes place. Remember, that until the foreclosure sale occurs, the property is still in the homeowner’s name. During the foreclosure process, we begin inspecting the property. If it is deemed vacant, we secure the home and begin maintaining the yard which was the case in this instance.
Normally, Bank of America does not begin maintaining properties until a house has been completely foreclosed and it comes into our possession. On occasion, we become aware that a property is vacant prior to the foreclosure sale and it is at that point Bank of America begins maintaining the home to neighborhood standards. Bank of America became aware that the property was vacant in May. With the flooding in Tennessee, it created a mold issue at this property and we have requested a contractor to go to the property and complete the work today. “
Mudslides caused by the recent rainfall and flooding are to blame for the collapse of a portion of Highway 31E, north of Gallatin and just south of Westmoreland.
According to Tennessee Department of Transportation worker Noel Sullivan, the floodwaters washed away portions of ground underneath the road.
A portion of the northbound lanes collapsed approximately four feet.
TDOT estimates between 8,000 and 10,000 vehicles use the road each day.
TDOT has signed an emergency contract with a company to begin repairs of the major artery north of Gallatin.
TDOT said the repairs should take two to four weeks to complete.
Sullivan told News 2 crews will “have to put rock and everything to keep it from shifting anymore.”
Metro Parks officials are urging citizens to stay off the hiking and horse trails at Percy Warner Park for at least another week.
Spokeswoman Jackie Jones tells News 2 it is not safe due to the historic flooding.
Jones says mudslides and downed trees make the paths unsafe.
News 2 went to the park and found hikers, bikers and runners.
Shirley Wise, frequent visitor of the park, was running with her dog Milley on a trail that was mostly clear, but there was evidence of debris along the side of the path.
Wise describes what she had seen and compared the damage to the park prior to the rains.
“I usually don’t see snakes, but I have seen snakes,” she said. “It is destroyed. Everything is destroyed. It will take years for it to come back like it used to look.”
Jogger Pierre Howell also commented on the devastation.
“There are roads buckled up, and a lot of nature is lost right now,” he said. “The worst I saw was the landslide in a couple of areas and the trees fell and dismantled the pavement.”
Both citizens felt parks crews were doing a good job getting the park back in shape.
There’s a brewing environmental controversy in Robertson County.
How long should it take to clean up an approximately 500 gallon diesel leak?
If the diesel fuel had spilled on top of the ground, it would have been dealt with months ago but because the leak developed underground, the clean up is still very much ongoing.
The Mapco station is just off the I-65 at the Springfield exit. Mapco officials reported the leak on January 26, 2009.
Since that time, the state has aggressively monitored the clean up, working closely with contractors hired by Mapco.
Robertson County EMA and fire officials have also been very diligent, monitoring the site and the clean up efforts.
It’s been 15 months, and some residents are concerned it is taking too long.
Jeff Christian is a businessman and local land owner. Christian has property near the site of the leak and he is concerned that the sale of a $2 million piece of property could be jeopardized by a buyer’s perception that the land is poisoned.
“I have a pond at the end of the runoff,” Christian tells Messed Up. “I have spent $65,000 building a pond and the diesel is going in it.”
A recent state lab test will show that discoloration seen in a stream that heads into Mr. Christian’s pond is fecal and not petroleum based.
State officials say the source of the fecal/ coliform could come from the nearby cattle auction.
Still, Christian is concerned.
“It seems like an acre. Just dig it up. Here’s my main problem. I turned over a diesel tank at my business five or six years ago and it was just a 200 gallon tank. You would have thought the world was coming to an end. We had to spend $9,000 and have it up at the end of the day…for 200 gallons!”
Christian says the state should have dug up the ground and dealt with the spill months ago. Now he is afraid that the length of time it is taking to remediate it is going to harm him financially.
“If I ran my business like this deal, I would be out of business,” he said. “Let me tell you, I have a $2 million estate up for sale, and if one person says they won’t buy my house because of this diesel running cross this property then it is on then!”
R.L. Douglas, Robertson County Emergency Management Director, tells Messed Up he gets complaints every day about how long it is taking Mapco and the state to clean up the leak.
“We still have diesel on the ground,” he says, pointing at dark patches of land below the Mapco station. “The state says they are following procedures, because it is underground, and not above ground, but the fact of the matter is, we have contaminated soil and with each rain, it washes diesel fuel onto neighboring property’s here. They dug a retaining pond here and the booms here are jet black, they are completely saturated. They have not been changed out and once they are full, petroleum floats past them, that is what we are dealing with. They use the word release, and spill, that is their buzz-words, but it doesn’t matter if it is a spill or release. It’s a play on words, what we look at is this: we have contaminated soil, when it rains, the petroleum product washes off the soil and leaches onto another man’s property.”
Cross Plains Fire Chief Tommy Jackson is more blunt. The fire chief reaches into the dark, moist soil, apparently saturated with diesel fuel and begins mashing the soil in his nubby fingers.
“There is diesel and sewer floating up out of the ground,” he says. “It’s been a year.”
I tell the fire chief the clean up is complicated and the state is on record as saying based on the extent of this leak, they are working rather fast.
He rolls his eyes, throwing the diesel dirt on the ground.
“They might think they are moving, but I don’t.”
“If you were running this operation, what would you do?” I ask. “You clean spills all the time?”
“We don’t leave it sitting for a year. They let fuel run on other people’s property. We are the ones getting the complaints. People want something done, one guy has land for sale and he [doesn’t] know if it is causing him problems selling or not. We would have come in and we’d have removed the dirt and put booms and pads in and monitoring it and kept going.”
“What would you say to the state?” I ask.
“They need to get off their butts and move the dirt.”
Drew Storm is a highly educated geologist for the state of Tennessee. He works for the Underground Storage Tank Division of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. » Continue Reading
Residents who live in the area of Elliott Drive and 24th Street in Lakewood say the sidewalks are a problem.
At one corner, the sidewalk is steep and littered with bumps and broken bits of asphalt.
Joy Houghton has lived in the house at the corner for 47 years.
She has had five back surgeries and a broken hip. The mother of 11 has other medical ailments as well, and needs a wheelchair to get around.
She would like the freedom to maneuver around her neighborhood but says because of the steep angle of the sidewalk and the broken asphalt issues, she is afraid to use her manual wheelchair or new power chair.
“I can’t use my new wheel chair,” she tells Messed Up. “I’m afraid I’ll run down the hill and get killed. I don’t know what I did to deserve this.”
Jeff Houghton says he has complained to the city time and time again.
He says he is going to file a complaint with the ADA to force the city of Lakewood to fix the sidewalk in front of his mother’s home.
“Mom is 77 years old. This is where it is too steep,” he says, pointing to the severe drop off toward the street. “A person could lose control and roll backward. It is not level, not where it should be. The ADA says you must fix the sidewalks.”
Messed Up goes to the city of Lakewood and we talk to City Manager Bobby Franklin.
“The problem at this residence is elevation,” Franklin said. “The problem is not as much the sidewalk or condition of the sidewalk it is the elevation relative to where she wants to go. In the small amount of right of way we might make it worse or more dangerous and we don’t want someone forced into the road.”
At the request of Messed Up, Kenton Dickerson of the Center for Independent Living comes to inspect the sidewalk.
Dickerson measures the angle and notates several problems.
After a few minutes, he tells Messed Up the sidewalk is a clear violation.
“The ADA has been in effect since 1990. [The city of Lakewood] did it wrong and they need to fix it. This is not rocket science. If you did something to a sidewalk, now you have to fix it so it is accessible.”
Dickerson says while “it would take some work,” it is doable.
Councilman Darren Jernigan, who uses a wheelchair to get around, says the following in an email to Mr. Houghton:
Hello Jeff,
I contacted public works and Metro legal this morning to see what can be done. If we cannot do anything due to Lakewood being a city, I will personally hook you up with an ADA attorney or help walk you through the process of filing under Title II of the ADA with the Department of Justice. Either way, I will get you Metro’s answer soon. There is no reason why you shouldn’t have accessible sidewalks when the ADA will be 20 years old this June.
After a close call between a train and a school bus in Sumner County, residents demanded action.
Kerri Collins lives on Keytown Road. To get to her home, she has to cross a one lane wooden bridge and two railroad tracks.
Like other residents in the area, she says the railroad tracks are in need of gates and flashing lights and says that need was magnified when a train nearly struck a school bus full of students.
“A school bus almost got hit. I kept thinking there are kids on the bus. He came across the bridge. A moment later the train whistle blew and it was so scary,” she recalled.
Collins contacted CSX after the incident, who wrote her back but not much else was accomplished.
She then contacted That Is Messed Up.
I called CSX, where officials said the railroad has no authority to regulate vehicle traffic in Sumner County.
I then called the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
Spokesperson BJ Doughty says by luck, the old wooden bridge is scheduled to be replaced and because the railroad tracks are within 200 feet of the new bridge project, warning lights and gates will be included in the project.
According to Doughty, it will cost about $200,000 to replace the bridge and more than $350,000 to install the warning devices.
When told the good news, Kerri Collins is pleased.
“There are a lot of families who are concerned,” she said. “I think that something being done will make many people happy.”
The Sumner County Sheriff’s Department reports there have been no fatal accidents at the crossing. Residents want to keep it that way.
The project is scheduled to begin by the end of the year.
A Messed Up investigation has initiated a probe by the state Department of Environment and Conservation and Robertson County Emergency Management officials.
At the heart of the investigation is who is responsible for illegally dumping medical waste and medical records in an abandoned mansion in Springfield, Tennessee.
A tip to Messed Up leads Photo Journalist Al Devine and me to the 9,000-square foot mansion located on Memorial Boulevard, behind a busy Kroger shopping center.
The front of the mansion is boarded up, and there is a padlock on the door.
Behind the mansion, however, the windows and doors are wide open.
The first floor is covered with thousands of pieces of paper. Upon closer examination, we see that these are patient medical records. There are so many, it is difficult to focus on any one item.
I notate records from as early as 1984.
There are boxes piled on boxes piled on boxes. Some are empty, but most contain medical records like those we find on the floor.
The walls are painted with graffiti.
Though the front door is locked, someone has written this message on the inside.
It reads, “We’re always gonna find a way in this B*&$!.”
There are needles scattered around the main room.
In a rear hallway, we find bags of medical waste. There are thousands of needles. Many appear to be used. There are vials of medicine and containers for body fluids.
As of this writing, who owns the house and who dumped the material is being investigated.
EMA officials say they are meeting with state and city authorities to discuss how best to secure the house and remove the medical waste.
TDEC officials tell Messed Up, once the material is secured, the agency will look into who dumped the material.
I have spoken to Maynor Schott, emergency management coordinator for Robertson County.
“Quite honestly, we are in the process of trying to contact the owner of the property to clean up the property,” he said. “We want it boarded up. If we take charge of this, then the city of Springfield is liable for disposal.”
TDEC tells Messed Up penalties are certainly possible for this kind of dumping.
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The grass and bushes and small trees are so thick, so tall, I literally drove by the address three times wondering where the house was.
Wayne Denton works with the Metro Health Department, an agency that gets, on average, 3,400 high grass complaints every year.
Denton takes Messed Up around back where he finds a myriad of violations, not the least of which is buckets full of stagnating water.
Horse lovers like Jennifer Tieche say the fee for horses is a tax and if they are going to tax horseback riding, they shouldn’t discriminate and tax all park users.
Loading …
It’s been more than 100 days since the flood and Middle Tennesseans everywhere still feel the pain.
Tom Bruce has lived in the community for six years.
“Hey, we got to get through,” the woman shouts. “What is on the other side of the truck?” she hollers.
The key is people are cleaning up.
“They have been out for months. It was a while since the grass was cut. During the flood, critters crawled out of the woods and into the property. We were concerned about health issues. When this house was built it was worth $500,000 and they have been out four months.”
In addition, Best says the house caught somewhere in the foreclosure process is bringing down home values in the rest of the neighborhood.
Metro Parks officials are urging citizens to stay off the hiking and horse trails at Percy Warner Park for at least another week.
Shirley Wise, frequent visitor of the park, was running with her dog Milley on a trail that was mostly clear, but there was evidence of debris along the side of the path.
There’s a brewing environmental controversy in Robertson County.
A recent state lab test will show that discoloration seen in a stream that heads into Mr. Christian’s pond is fecal and not petroleum based.
“If I ran my business like this deal, I would be out of business,” he said. “Let me tell you, I have a $2 million estate up for sale, and if one person says they won’t buy my house because of this diesel running cross this property then it is on then!”
“We don’t leave it sitting for a year. They let fuel run on other people’s property. We are the ones getting the complaints. People want something done, one guy has land for sale and he [doesn’t] know if it is causing him problems selling or not. We would have come in and we’d have removed the dirt and put booms and pads in and monitoring it and kept going.”
Residents who live in the area of Elliott Drive and 24th Street in Lakewood say the sidewalks are a problem. 
She would like the freedom to maneuver around her neighborhood but says because of the steep angle of the sidewalk and the broken asphalt issues, she is afraid to use her manual wheelchair or new power chair.
Dickerson measures the angle and notates several problems.
After a close call between a train and a school bus in Sumner County, residents demanded action.
She then contacted That Is Messed Up.
The first floor is covered with thousands of pieces of paper. Upon closer examination, we see that these are patient medical records. There are so many, it is difficult to focus on any one item.
