Much to the chagrin of Signal Mountain officials, even a funded path for pedestrian travel can anger a segment of the town’s residents.
The Signal Mountain Town Council hosted a public hearing Wednesday on a controversial sidewalk that would run the length of James Boulevard, spanning one mile from the Signal Mountain Library to the Old Town neighborhood.
Signal Mountain Public Works Director Loretta Hopper contends that someone who tries to walk along James Boulevard must cross a thoroughfare where an average of 2,600 cars per day travel. She said a sidewalk on the south side of the street would keep walkers on one side of the road.
But Signal Mountain Golf and Country Club President Doug Fisher wrote a letter asking the club’s 600 families to oppose the town’s efforts.
The town’s preferred option would place the sidewalk next to the golf course. Ellis Gardner, a member of the club, said the proposed location is where trees protect residents from a golfer’s “worst shot.”
But James Boulevard resident Racie Miller showed off a bucket of golf balls she has plucked from her yard within the last month.
“I do sympathize with anyone who’s been killed or wounded with one of these,” she said. “I have golfers all the time prancing in my yard to get their balls. If we’re talking about privacy, privacy goes two ways. Chop the trees down and build it.”
Some golf club members expressed concern about the cost of the project.
“My biggest question is the premise of this thing,” said Rick Morris. “This grant money came from us in taxes. We’re now looking at a $14 billion federal deficit. Why are we spending this money we don’t have on a sidewalk?”
But Ms. Hopper said residents requested funding for sidewalks in 1998. Official minutes from that year show the town council asked the country club to remove trees because they were planted on city property intended for the sidewalk.
The council granted the club’s request to wait five years before starting the project.
Signal Mountain then received a grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportation in 2003, according to officials. A majority of citizens supported a new sidewalk running on James Boulevard, said Town Manager Honna Rogers.
The trees continue to stand next to the club’s golf course.
“If you give the state of Tennessee the money from this grant back, they’ll turn around and give it to the next community,” said Jeff Sikes, the project’s manager from Thompson Engineering.