Correspondence with County
The following is the response that I just received from Gary Hamm as well as my return response.
Dear Chris,
Thank you for your letter of concern regarding RotaryPark. The majority of debris along the roads and around the pavilions andrestrooms have been cleared. We are awaiting the repair of the chipping machine to continue. On Friday, 02/10/06 I met with the County's insurance agent and a GAB Robbins adjuster to inspect the park. We have been given permission to move forward in order to secure bids for repair of all the parks facilities toinclude ADA compliance and code upgrades. The Maintenance Department worked a solid month after the tornado and has averaged two days a week at the park in addition to their regular duties. A massive amount of work has been accomplished and much more needs to be done.
We are close to allowing volunteers in the park although there is still danger from falling trees and limbs. I would welcome a meeting to start the trail rebuilding process with you and your board. Chris, I have checked all e-mail files and phone logs and have only two phone calls concerning the park and no e-mails. Please check the e-mail address as I do wish to respond. My cell phone number is 3202340, office - 9201865 and fax -6489206. My office is in the Historic Court House, 1 Millennium Plaza, Suite103. Please call for an appointment as I am often out of the office.
Chris, I would appreciate your contact list from Montgomery Bell State Park asthe PARTAS Consultant has not yet had a chance to respond to our requests fromour January 9 and 11, 2006 meetings. I checked the Conservation Board minutesand my own notes but did not see any comments concerning Montgomery Bell State Parks tornado difficulties. Chris I would like to see their plan of action, sounds like a good idea to really keep the ball rolling.
MontgomeryCounty is a wonderful place in which to live and I am saddened that some members of our community feel any hostility at all towards the county as a whole. Chris, I look forward to working with you. Please call me or respond to my e-mail so that I know that we have better communications. Looking forward to working with you.
Thank you for your time and patience,
Gary
Gary:
It is good to hear from you and good to hear that there is some progress at the park. My contact for Montgomery Bell State Park is Tommy Hatcher (615 316-9417, 3130 Stafford Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37214). He is the key volunteer for the Mountain Bike park at Montgomery Bell. He designed and coordinated the building of all trails in that part of the park and works closely with park rangers regarding rules, regulations, and ongoing trail maintenance. I'm sorry that I don't have his e-mail address. I'm sure he will be glad to discuss the ongoings there at the park.
I have seen the debris clean-up around the park entrence/roadway and what has been done looks good. I took pictures of the damage a day or two after tornado so I remember how bad it was.
The reason for my e-mails and my concern is that I am getting calls/e-mails from people saying that they have called the phone number on the gate sign at the park and are getting the run-around from different county employees about what is going on. I don't know why your records only show that there were two calls and no e-mails. I have been using the e-mail address on the county's website. It is hypertexted so I just click on it. Perhaps it needs to be updated.
Just yesterday I got a call from someone who said he called the number on the sign. He explained that he was forwarded to several people, none of which knew what was going on. He then was put through to someone who told him that the situation was so dangerous that the county could not find volunteers willing to go in and clean it up. When the caller informed him about our group and that we were just waiting for permission to work, the person backtracked and changed his story. This is not the first time that I have heard this type of story. Users of the park are getting worried that the lack of communication coupled with the changing stories may mean that county is planning on selling the park and using the "its too expensive to fix" story as an excuse to do so. I certainly hope this is not the situation.
I think a lot of the frustration on my (our) part is two fold: 1) I don't like not being able to be "hands on" with the park's rebuild (at least at this stage) after a period of being over there every week. 2) J.R. had to resign as President of our organization due to his upcoming App. Trail trek. This somehow stuck me with that title. Due to this title, people are constantly looking to me for information on what is going on. It is frustrating not being able to tell them. Call me a victim of the corporate world but as an attorney I love action plans, time tables, and deadlines. I feel that by putting these things in writing and opening the line of communication between us we can greatly improve both of these problems.
I would really like to be able to communicate to my group a clear action plan with tentative dates to have each stage complete. I find that people respond more positively to situations when these things are clear.
With that said, I have the following questions:
1) By what date do you plan on having the park ready for volunteer labor?
2) Can volunteers begin clearing/rerouting the trials before the facilities work is completed? (I see the two as separate tasks that can be completed independently of the other. Do you agree?)
3) We were set to begin re-routing a section of trail left of the park entrance in the TVA easement. We worked on sections of the trail before and after this section waiting until winter for this section due to the thick brush that grows the other three seasons. Since there are no trees in the easement, can I begin working on this section now before the spring brush begins to grow? It can be accessed from the top without going through the park entrance and there is no danger of falling trees. It will require a substantial full-bench cut. With your trail building experience, I know you are aware of how labor intensive this is.
4) What is our absolute deadline for having the park open?
I look forward to hearing from you on these issues and having a more open line of communication.
Sincerely,
Chris Clark
Dear Chris,
Thank you for your letter of concern regarding RotaryPark. The majority of debris along the roads and around the pavilions andrestrooms have been cleared. We are awaiting the repair of the chipping machine to continue. On Friday, 02/10/06 I met with the County's insurance agent and a GAB Robbins adjuster to inspect the park. We have been given permission to move forward in order to secure bids for repair of all the parks facilities toinclude ADA compliance and code upgrades. The Maintenance Department worked a solid month after the tornado and has averaged two days a week at the park in addition to their regular duties. A massive amount of work has been accomplished and much more needs to be done.
We are close to allowing volunteers in the park although there is still danger from falling trees and limbs. I would welcome a meeting to start the trail rebuilding process with you and your board. Chris, I have checked all e-mail files and phone logs and have only two phone calls concerning the park and no e-mails. Please check the e-mail address as I do wish to respond. My cell phone number is 3202340, office - 9201865 and fax -6489206. My office is in the Historic Court House, 1 Millennium Plaza, Suite103. Please call for an appointment as I am often out of the office.
Chris, I would appreciate your contact list from Montgomery Bell State Park asthe PARTAS Consultant has not yet had a chance to respond to our requests fromour January 9 and 11, 2006 meetings. I checked the Conservation Board minutesand my own notes but did not see any comments concerning Montgomery Bell State Parks tornado difficulties. Chris I would like to see their plan of action, sounds like a good idea to really keep the ball rolling.
MontgomeryCounty is a wonderful place in which to live and I am saddened that some members of our community feel any hostility at all towards the county as a whole. Chris, I look forward to working with you. Please call me or respond to my e-mail so that I know that we have better communications. Looking forward to working with you.
Thank you for your time and patience,
Gary
Gary:
It is good to hear from you and good to hear that there is some progress at the park. My contact for Montgomery Bell State Park is Tommy Hatcher (615 316-9417, 3130 Stafford Drive, Nashville, Tennessee 37214). He is the key volunteer for the Mountain Bike park at Montgomery Bell. He designed and coordinated the building of all trails in that part of the park and works closely with park rangers regarding rules, regulations, and ongoing trail maintenance. I'm sorry that I don't have his e-mail address. I'm sure he will be glad to discuss the ongoings there at the park.
I have seen the debris clean-up around the park entrence/roadway and what has been done looks good. I took pictures of the damage a day or two after tornado so I remember how bad it was.
The reason for my e-mails and my concern is that I am getting calls/e-mails from people saying that they have called the phone number on the gate sign at the park and are getting the run-around from different county employees about what is going on. I don't know why your records only show that there were two calls and no e-mails. I have been using the e-mail address on the county's website. It is hypertexted so I just click on it. Perhaps it needs to be updated.
Just yesterday I got a call from someone who said he called the number on the sign. He explained that he was forwarded to several people, none of which knew what was going on. He then was put through to someone who told him that the situation was so dangerous that the county could not find volunteers willing to go in and clean it up. When the caller informed him about our group and that we were just waiting for permission to work, the person backtracked and changed his story. This is not the first time that I have heard this type of story. Users of the park are getting worried that the lack of communication coupled with the changing stories may mean that county is planning on selling the park and using the "its too expensive to fix" story as an excuse to do so. I certainly hope this is not the situation.
I think a lot of the frustration on my (our) part is two fold: 1) I don't like not being able to be "hands on" with the park's rebuild (at least at this stage) after a period of being over there every week. 2) J.R. had to resign as President of our organization due to his upcoming App. Trail trek. This somehow stuck me with that title. Due to this title, people are constantly looking to me for information on what is going on. It is frustrating not being able to tell them. Call me a victim of the corporate world but as an attorney I love action plans, time tables, and deadlines. I feel that by putting these things in writing and opening the line of communication between us we can greatly improve both of these problems.
I would really like to be able to communicate to my group a clear action plan with tentative dates to have each stage complete. I find that people respond more positively to situations when these things are clear.
With that said, I have the following questions:
1) By what date do you plan on having the park ready for volunteer labor?
2) Can volunteers begin clearing/rerouting the trials before the facilities work is completed? (I see the two as separate tasks that can be completed independently of the other. Do you agree?)
3) We were set to begin re-routing a section of trail left of the park entrance in the TVA easement. We worked on sections of the trail before and after this section waiting until winter for this section due to the thick brush that grows the other three seasons. Since there are no trees in the easement, can I begin working on this section now before the spring brush begins to grow? It can be accessed from the top without going through the park entrance and there is no danger of falling trees. It will require a substantial full-bench cut. With your trail building experience, I know you are aware of how labor intensive this is.
4) What is our absolute deadline for having the park open?
I look forward to hearing from you on these issues and having a more open line of communication.
Sincerely,
Chris Clark
posted by Rotary Park | 9:00 AM
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