by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

At the Oct. 27 meeting, the Sewanee Community Council grappled with the problem of service truck traffic on Kennerly Road occurring as a result of GPS routing and right-of-way rules. The council revisited the long-debated dog control policy and heard an update on University employee apartments slated for construction.

Kennerly Road resident Chris Barton insisted heavy truck traffic on Kennerly Road had significantly increased in the past year both from construction equipment for home building and from service trucks for Facilities Management and Sewanee Dining. “Kennerly Road was never engineered to handle heavy truck traffic,” Barton stressed. “The road has significantly deteriorated.”

In a statement read to the council, Assistant Vice President of Facilities Management Robert Benton cited two reasons for the difficulty in diverting truck traffic. One, “reasonable access requirements” prescribed by TDOT gave trucks “the right of way on a road from a highway to their place of delivery.” Two, GPS led drivers up Kennerly Road as the shortest route.

Benton suggested a possible remedy was to work with the Franklin County Road Commission and TDOT to reroute traffic. A local agency would need to prepare a rationale for the rerouting and draft an ordinance or resolution, a public review and comment period would be required, and both TDOT and the local government would need to approve the rerouting.

Barton said he had met with some success in reducing heavy truck traffic by contacting Sewanee Dining and Facilities Management. Caroline Thompson with Sewanee Dining agreed to urge food suppliers to divert their delivery trucks to a different route. Benton conceded the location of loading docks on Kennerly Road limited his ability to curtail heavy truck traffic.

Provost Scott Wilson pointed out speed humps were planned for Kennerly Road, although they had not yet been installed. Chief Financial Officer Isabelle Love suggested prioritizing Kennerly Road for repaving.

Taking up the issue of dog control, Police Chief Jeremy Thomas said, “We need a report done to let us know [an incident] took place in a timely fashion. If it takes 30 or 45 minutes to be reported, that dog could be in Monteagle.”

Council member Marilyn Phelps observed in a recent dog bite attack reported to the police, a dog at large citation was issued, but there was no citation for the attack.

Thomas responded, “The citation was written for what happened in the presence of the police officer, the dog at large. There was a report generated for the alleged dog bite. I can’t swear to something that didn’t happen in front of me. We do a report. The [individual attacked] can take the report to the Justice Center and swear a warrant if that’s what they want to do.”

Paraphrasing former district attorney Steve Blount, who spoke at last month’s council meeting, Phelps countered, “[Law enforcement] doesn’t have to see something. They just have to have a reasonable belief that what was reported to them was true.”

“It’s the victim’s responsibility if they want to press charges,” council member Michael Payne argued. “A police officer can’t be a judge and jury. You want them to issue a citation for something they don’t see.”

“We need more clarification,” Phelps maintained.

Following the council meeting, Phelps contacted the Messenger urging Sewanee residents “to not hesitate to report dog issues. If you are afraid of dogs that are loose in your neighborhood or have been threatened or attacked by a dog, please report it to the Sewanee Police Department. They said they will investigate and proceed accordingly.”

Wilson noted proposed changes to the University dog control policy call for changing the language to state what action law enforcement “will” take, not what action law enforcement “can” take.

Vice President for Economic Development and Community Relations David Shipps confirmed “the funding for the University apartments was finalized by the Board of Regents. That will allow the project to restart.” Plans call for two three-story buildings with construction slated to begin in May or earlier. The University is also planning to sell some rental homes, further alleviating the shortage of employee housing, a priority objective of the Strategic Plan.

Revisiting a discussion at the September meeting, Love explained why Claras Point Road residents were not notified of repaving. The directive from Road Commissioner Johnny Hughes called for the repaving to be done “in the next calendar year.” A misunderstanding resulted in the directive being interpreted to mean in the next fiscal year which was three days later. “The directive was acted on so quickly, the necessary communications did not go out,” Love said.