Thanks to everyone who attended our meeting earlier this month to hear an update on the fight to stop the Rogers Group. And thanks to the many more who said they couldn’t attend but wanted an update on activities.
At the meeting, we learned about Bethel Baptist Church’s decision to ask the Clinton Baptist Association and other churches to help stop the quarry and asphalt plant.
Thirty-five years ago, when I-75 was completed, Bethel Baptist received a promise that the old quarry would never be reopened. After receiving that promise, the church invested mightily in its current location, creating structures that both serve as home to that important institution’s work AND and create a beautiful and unique visual gateway to eastern Anderson County. Now that investment and work are at risk. The quarry property, and the blasting that will occur there, is adjacent to the church property.
At our meeting, we were asked to contact the Clinton City Council to ask the council to reconsider their zoning decision to allow the asphalt plant and quarry. And we were also asked to work in our own churches to get them to express their opposition to the quarry and to contact Clinton City Council.
If you wish to take part in this effort, here are some points to consider in your communication with council members:
Points to consider
** Be polite, honorable, and sincere, just as you would expect others to be with you. Assume good intentions all around and act accordingly.
**Ask that the Clinton City Council revisit its decision to zone the Rogers Group property to M-2.
** Talk about your hopes for our part of the county, how cities and the county government need to work together for the benefit of us all. Over the past decade, there has been much rancor and ill will over intergovernmental decisions. Clinton is in a position to establish a new era of cooperation for all of us, and to put community interests first.
** Remind them of the investment that the Bethel Baptist Church, the oldest Baptist church in Anderson County, has made in its building and programs since the closing of the original quarry, and that these investments were made as a result of the promise that the quarry would never be reopened. The promise is being broken. People of good will ensure that promises are honored.
Please share this with your friends in Clinton and your church.
Clinton City Council contact information
Mayor Scott Burton — 116 Masthead Drive, Clinton, TN. 37716, (865) 457-8851, sburton@clintontn.net
Larry Gann — 604 Timbercrest Drive, Clinton, TN. 37716, (865) 457-4669, lgann@clintontn.net
Robert Herrell — (865) 567-2917, robert.herrell@novartis.com
Jerry Shattuck, 322 Edgewood Creek, Clinton, TN 37716, 457-3990 (home), 457-1781 (office), no email address listed
Larry Gann — 604 Timbercrest Drive, Clinton, TN 37716, (865) 457-4669, lgann@clintontn.net
Jim McBride — 1106 Eagle Bend Road, Clinton, TN. 37716, (865) 457-5134, jmcbride@clintontn.net
Charlie Lyons, 315 Orchard Ave., Clinton, TN. 37716, (865) 457-1803,
clyons@clintontn.net
E.T. Stamey — no contact information listed
