Tag: Anthony Holt

  A group of residents in rural Sumner County say County Executive Anthony Holt wants to use eminent domain to build a sewer and a sidewalk on their properties, and that puts them in peril. Financial peril. Legal peril. Even physical peril. These property owners, in the Upper Station Camp Creek area, say it’s OK for county officials to build a sewer through their properties to connect to a nearby school. But constructing a concrete sidewalk atop that sewer — that’s unacceptable, property owners told The Tennessee Star this week. County officials also refer to the sidewalk as part of a greenway. Instead of paying for these properties, county officials will instead pay for a lifetime lease to use them, property owners said. “When government decides they can do whatever they want, whenever they want, whether it is theirs’ or not, then they can come knock on your door and turn your farm into public access and you still have to pay taxes on it,” Gallatin resident Deborah Holmes said. “You have to maintain it, and you are still 100 percent responsible for it. I don’t see how that is good for me or as a homeowner.” Holmes’ neighbor, Tony…

by Chris Butler To hear some people in Sumner County tell it, County Executive Anthony Holt is “hell-bent” on building an industrial park north of Gallatin along Dobbins Pike. The park’s would-be neighbors don’t want it. But Holt, in his third term as county commissioner, says he’s dismissed the idea of using county money to pay for the park, mostly because he couldn’t persuade other commissioners to play along. “I’m confident the commissioners in general are doing what they need to do. But it’s Holt I’m concerned about,” said Brad Wear, one of the many people who live adjacent to the proposed park and whose property values could suffer if it’s built. He and several of his neighbors told Tennessee Watchdog the proposed industrial park may push them to leave their homes. As reported, local developers seem to have taken an interest in the park, enticed by state taxpayer money to help get it built. As reported, those developers hold positions of influence in county government, thanks to Holt. “This is a story about local officials, starting with the county executive, who have tremendous power. Holt gets to appoint all the committees, and they are either approved, or not, by…

  by Chris Butler Sumner County Executive Anthony Holt hoped last year to use taxpayer money to buy land for a new industrial park. But the county already has such a park, in Gallatin, with lots of acreage left for future needs. A public outcry ensued, and Holt’s idea didn’t get far. But that doesn’t mean this story is over, and it doesn’t mean a fight isn’t brewing. Sumner County is about 40 miles northeast of Nashville. A group of landowners in Sumner’s rural farming areas say they had the most to lose because that park would have been built adjacent to their properties. Their property values, they went on, would have suffered. A nearby industrial park might have displaced them from their homes. The properties they own are small compared to those of their neighbors, who own large tracts of land awarded their ancestors by the U.S. government after the Revolutionary War. The smaller property owners said they believe Holt and other people of influence, especially developers, are working discretely to make the industrial park a reality. These property owners said the already existing Gallatin Industrial Park can fill whatever industrial needs the county has — and then some.…