Monday, May 5, 2008

Candidates jump in dairy farm debate

Well, looks like a couple of county commission candidates have jumped into the Cherokee Farm debate in an attempt to save the panorama of Sequoyah Hills. To bring you up to speed – UT has seized the dairy farm from UTK and wants to turn it into a world class research campus. This action basically tossed out the 2001 UTK campus master plan that included athletic fields on the dairy farm site.

Ruthie Kuhlman and Finbarr Sanders have now both commented on the topic.

I don’t particularly blame the Cherokee Boulevard folks for not wanting athletic fields across the river but why must student recreation be the casualty in all of this maneuvering? Student activity fees were raised on the promise of more recreation activities based in part on the 2001 UTK campus master plan. So, is there a new plan that includes fields for UTK since UT has taken the dairy farm off the table?

Maybe Ruthie and Finbarr can find out if there will be a new plan for UTK that includes space for student recreation. I know that quite a few constituents in the 4th District have paid that activity fee for the past several years on the promise of more and better facilities.

Details and history of this topic can be found at http://www.fultonbottoms.com