CLEVELAND, Tenn. – Billy and Cathy Goins are surrounded.
After living near the edge of Lee University’s grounds for 14 years, the couple’s home has become an island enveloped by the school’s swelling campus, especially after Lee’s recent purchase of the nearby First Baptist Church property.
“They own the apartments beside us, they own the house next door, they own everything behind us and they own everything in front of us,” Billy Goins said.
University officials recently visited the Goins’ Sixth Street home to take pictures and ask about buying it, he said, but he won’t sell until the price is right. When that time comes, he said, he plans to move to 14 acres he owns in Charleston, Tenn.
The Goins’ neighbor, Wilma Mae Hicks, 94, lives with her 89-year-old sister on Seventh Street on the edge of Lee’s campus. She said Lee students sometimes offer to wash her car or mow the grass or even stop what they’re doing to help her with household tasks.