Big Bang

Big Bang
When a little, old, housewife opposes the bulldozing tactics of billionaire land developers who schmooze, stroke, socialize, kick back and relax with our local politicians, can she win the battle to preserve the quality of life once known by her and her family here in Franklin Tennessee? It probably took you 15 seconds to figure it out.
Before the construction on the property directly behind our home began, the city planners came out and assessed the building plans. I was told that the nineteen 20 foot tall Leland Cypress trees my husband and I planted a decade ago in the old county easement that lay between my home and my neighbor’s home would be preserved and moved (As you know, they are really into preserving trees here in Franklin. Ha!) My husband and I had planted these trees back when we were still in Williamson County before we were illegally annexed into the City of Franklin without notification. Of course, it was later determined that the trees were too large and it would be too costly to move them. They’ve now been bulldozed.

We had also installed a $400 steel culvert across the drainage ditch so that we could have access to our back yard. The construction company has now made full use of it, laying a rough gravel road across it where they bring the trucks and heavy equipment into the building site behind our home but they’ve made no outlet from the road so now we have no access to our backyard my husband cannot get to his trailer.

The builder’s/church’s mediator/spokesman, Richard Johnson, tells us they will replace our trees with new trees replanted wherever we chose. A kind offer. I'll believe it when it happens.

My 75 year-old husband will probably not see them grow tall enough to block the view of the gigantic lighted parking lot they'll be building directly behind our home.

Although the construction site property contains roughly 20 acres with two separate homes on the property, one which sits directly on Franklin Road with it’s own entrance directly off the main highway, they initially chose to place the workers outhouse at the entrance to our driveway on Country Road. Coincidence? Humm… Maybe. They were, however, kind enough to move it at our request. (Thank you, gentlemen.)

When Franklin City planners originally came out to access the building site, it was explained to them that the valley behind our home created a natural amphitheatre. Every word spoken by person standing in the meadow 100 yards away can be clearly heard from our back porch.

City planner, Jamie Groce, showed us the building plans last year telling us the city had required the builder to create large berms at the building site’s property line that backs up to our property.
This would have eased the amphitheatre effect and the intrusive noise I'm now awakened by every morning with the clanking of heavy earthmovers.Then came the blasting. Last week the seismographic company hired by the builders who monitor the level of vibration created by the blasting tell us that, as of last week the readings fell within the
guidelines (no more earth movement than 2 inches per second.) But they were alarmed at the
dangerously high level of air percussion. Well, duh. It's an amphitheatre! Of course the sound waves bombarding my home, nearly rattling the windows out of the frames is outrageous. So where are the berms that would deflect these percussive airwaves?The builders have blasted away what was once a beautiful forested hillside where the birds nested for the past 25 years. Where are they taking the rock and dirt? Why haven't they used it to build berms at the northern border of their property so the sound waves don't blow my home away?
My husband is a musician/producer. Yesterday when the explosion took place,
his sound engineer, Kurt, was standing at our kitchen sink eating lunch and looking out the window watching the construction company pave paradise when, whammo, came the explosion. It
blew open the kitchen door next to where he was standing.

Kurt is a professional sound engineer of 30 years. He is always aware of sounding tones.
Neither he, my husband nor I heard the 5 horn blasts required to sound before the detonation of the dynamite. Only a giant explosion that nearly cracked the window and a thick cloud of dust the size of a football stadium.

Large rocks were thrown hundreds of yards through the air pounding onto our steeply
pitched roof and rolling heavily down into the roofs gutters.
Rocks were thrown into our yard, onto on lower deck, onto our upper deck, narrowly missing a rear window. Our upper deck stands about 30 feet from the ground. Large rocks rocketed
over the top of our home, hurled over 400 yards knocking branches off trees in their path, crashing
into my neighbors yard across the street. One rock tore though her new roof leaving a hole through which you could see the sky. The rock smashed her chandelier to bits leaving exploded glass and light bulbs strewn across her den.My neighbor’s daughter was visiting there at the time. My neighbor’s daughter drove an old pick up truck for the past fifteen years. She recently bought a really nice new car she was very proud of and it was parked which was parked in front of my neighbors house a big rock dented its roof. My widowed neighbor, Joy Brooks is 70 years old and is a cancer survivor. Who is going to fix the damage for her? What if she had been struck by a large rock hurled from 300 yards away? This rock wasn't dropped from heaven. This is not a natural event. This is negligence on the part of overly enthusiastic "cowboys with dynamite."
The blasting is expected to continue for many more months. The dust already covers our cars, penetrates our house, clogs the filters in the heat and air system and it has given my husband a sinus infection.
Some months back, the developers offered to buy our home. It makes one wonder if
this rock bombing was an accident. Was the dynamite accidentally discharged?
No warning horns. The construction people said, "The rocks hit our vehicles too!” Was this statement intended to console us? They are paid a salary. We are receiving no compensation whatsoever for our loss of refuge and the damage to our quality of life and decrease in the value of our home. Most of their trucks have the construction company logo painted on the side. All they need do is make an insurance claim for damages whereas, should we sustain any damages, we would have to hire a lawyer and file a lawsuit in order to be compensated for damages. How fair is that?

Getting rid of Tom Miller wasn’t enough. We are going to have to clean house if we want
A city hall that looks after the interests of its long time residents rather than the big money,
capitalist, sharks.
And, by the way, I doubt Jesus is delighted by the construction of another
million dollar mega-church that has stripped away the beautiful meadow, trees, and wildlife
lovingly created by his father’s hand.
God help us.~ Kittra