Despite the wide public embrace of greenways here from Chattanooga to Collegedale, East Ridge to Lookout Mountain, the Soddy-Daisy rails-to-trails project has been stuck on the track way too long. But after seven years of arduous efforts by hard-working advocates and new support on Thursday from the Soddy-Daisy commission, the project is back on track. It’s only obstacle now appears to be Fred Skillern, the obstinate county commissioner who apparently can’t believe that his fellow Soddy-Daisy residents can cross streets safely and actually want and need such a neat place to gather, walk and exercise.
The town’s rails-to-trails project centers on a plan to use a 6-mile leg of unused railroad track for walking, bicycling and horse riding. The town’s newly elected mayor, Jim Adams, has just received approval from the town’s governing body to sign an agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority to lease the 3 miles of its abandoned railroad track that lie in the city. To complete the project, however, the County Commission needs to approve use of the 3-mile segment of the track that lies outside the city.
Owing to County Commission tradition of allowing commissioners to lead decision making for projects in their individual districts, the commission’s approval, in this case, hinges on Skillern’s approval. And he opposes the idea.
Cost is not an issue. The citizens’ advocacy group that is promoting the project has taken responsibility for organizing and funding it. The group will pay TVA the $5,000 cost of the 25-year lease for the entire 6 miles of railroad track. TVA will remove the rails and cross-ties, and the citizens’ group will pay for the paving and construction of the trail.
Jim Adams, Soddy-Daisy’s newly elected mayor and Laura Oakley Solyom are co-chairs of the Soddy-Daisy Rails-to-Trails Advocacy Group. They have also spearheaded a petition drive in support of the project that has been signed by 1,000 of the town’s residents.
Still, Skillern stubbornly opposes the idea.
“I just don’t support it,” he told this paper’s reporter, Pam Sohn. “This (track) crosses six county roads and numerous county driveways. Until I’m satisfied that all the safety factors, and the cost and upkeep, have been satisfied, I am not in support of it.”
His reasoning strikes us as excessive governmental nannyism. It’s also unworthy of a Republican who otherwise could be expected to get nitpicking government officials out of the way of worthy projects that citizens put together through patient and widely supported grass-roots efforts.
We would assume that children and adults in Soddy-Daisy have developed a reasonably safe level of skills in bicycling, walking, jogging and horse-riding along well-trafficked roads and past driveways and other obstacles. The 6-mile stretch of railroad track right of way is probably far safer for such activities than the country roads that people otherwise have to use for such exercise and activities. Indeed, much of it is wooded, and it’s certainly freer of traffic than common streets.
Skillern may not be as prone to exercise as those who value the grand opportunity of a dedicated 6-mile stretch (12 miles roundtrip). Or he may be, as some believe, carrying a grudge against Solyom, who ran against him for the Republican nomination in the last County Commission race.
Regardless, he is doing the residents of his home community a great disservice by standing as an obstacle to an extremely valuable local resource – a greenway that many will come to use and value.
If Skillern and County Mayor Claude Ramsey refuse to exercise their larger vision and give approval for this project, Skillern’s eight fellow commissioners should step up and approve the lease without him, and direct Ramsey to sign the lease. There’s no rational reason for Skillern’s obstructionism to thwart such a fine community initiative.