Letter to the editor
No Town work needed on, along Evans Road
Sixty years ago when I was a child, our family bought the Evans Farm on Evans Road. Our historic home is over 100 years old. For decades I have run Tee Mar Stables, which was built in 1966.
It’s where we raised and showed American Saddlebred horses and ran Brangus cattle on what is now the Sheffield subdivision and the Williams property. I also raised American Quarter horses in the Williams’ historic Red barn on Virtue Road in the 70’s. And for the past 14 years have successfully ran a beginner horse riding school and boarding facility, bringing joy and purpose to multiple children and adults in the Farragut area. Farming and horses have been my life, my siblings, our children, our grandchildren and my mother’s life.
On July 17, my 98-year-old mother and I, my sister, Tandy Lacy, and husband, Richard, along with my nephew, Trey Pryse and his girlfriend, Sydney Viox, went to the Farragut Planning Commission to ask them to spare our farm. It’s my understanding that there is not enough right-of-way for the Town to build a greenway on our property.
I told them a greenway would put people right into my front door and up to the fence where my horses and my tenant’s horses are. I cannot have people feeding my horse carrots and sugar cubes and trying to pet them or having their dogs torment my and my tenant’s horses. It is dangerous and will interfere with my business and would be a huge liability.
My friends and neighbors have fought this greenway on Evans Road for years. The Town changed its plans to do the greenway on the north side of Evans Road and now want to force this greenway on the south side on our family land. None of the residents on Evans want the greenway and we do not want the road widened.
A greenway on Evans is utterly ridiculous. My mother and I sit on the porch most of the day and evenings, weather permitting. Her favorite thing is to count the cars and yell at the ones that are going too fast — and the foot traffic is nothing. Most of the people around here wanting to go to McFee Park get in their car and drive there. That’s what the parking lots are for. The residents here have told the Town this over and over.
To protect my business and our way of life, I am now faced with having to hire an attorney to protect us from the Town. I am frustrated, upset and sick to my stomach. All of us on Evans Road have heard over and over again that there is no plan and no design to build a greenway on Evans Road. We have found many documents from the Municipal Planning Commission and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen that show this is not true.
Money in various Town Capital Investment Plans over the years has been allocated and approved for an Evans Road greenway.
Money has been approved and spent for design services, and actual engineering plans have been contracted for in past years and actually produced by the Town’s hired engineering firm.
I am asking publicly for the Town to stop this. It requires eminent domain and it is not right.
Tegwyn Pryse, Farragut
