The Loudon County Solid Waste Disposal Commission will
look to resolve an issue at the January meeting after
members recently became aware of unauthorized hunting on
private property, a move that was granted by Loudon
County Mayor Rollen “Buddy” Bradshaw.
The property is adjacent to Matlock Bend Landfill and is
one of three parcels in a 100-acre tract that the solid
waste board purchased about five years ago, board member
Robert Harrison said.
Bradshaw said he made the decision to allow a Loudon
resident to hunt on the property in an effort to reduce
deer and vehicle collisions along Highway 72 from the
interstate exit heading toward Matlock Bend Landfill,
which he said has been a “big-time” issue in the past.
“That’s a dangerous stretch when you start right
there from the interstate all the way down really
into Paint Rock, in that area, really,” Bradshaw
said. “There’s a lot of deer right in there. That
particular stretch is a straightaway, so people will
tend to open it up a little bit right there and
makes it a little bit more dangerous.”
In a follow-up interview, Bradshaw said he did not
know the hunter on a personal level.
“I’ve known him for years,” Bradshaw said. “He’s an
acquaintance. I know who he is. As far as being a
close friend, not necessarily. He’s accused of being
a cronie. ... That’s just not true.”
According to Tennessee Highway Patrol Public
Information Officer Lt. Bill Miller, 6,235 deer and
vehicle collisions have occurred this year in the
state. Of that number, 117 collisions took place in
Loudon County, he said.
“So I think this is a good opportunity to, like I
said, maybe reduce a few numbers right in that area
because there is just a — I mean they’re all over
the place down there,” Bradshaw said.
The landfill property is not owned by the county and
is the responsibility of the Solid Waste Disposal
Commission through an agreement to maintain the
“assets associated with the landfill, and county
officials invariably get confused over this,”
Harrison said.
“So, I mean the issue is it’s not within the mayor’s
purview to grant that permission or privilege to an
individual to hunt on property that the Loudon
County Solid Waste Disposal Commission owns and is
responsible for,” Harrison said. “And there’s
several of us that are concerned about liability
issues arising from having hunting on the property.
And there’s several of us that believe that the
county has overreached by granting permission to
hunt on that property that the county doesn’t even
own or is responsible for managing.”
Solid Waste Disposal Commission Chairman Steve Field
said Bradshaw made Field aware of the issue about
two weeks ago. Further discussion was tabled for the
January meeting because “we have a lot of new board
members” and hunting season would be over by then,
he said.
Matthew Cameron, Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency
Region 4 information and education coordinator, said
hunting season runs Sept. 26-Jan. 10.
Harrison said his feelings on Bradshaw’s decision
“shouldn’t be construed as a personal thing.”
“The commission may decide to give Buddy Bradshaw
the power to manage the property,” Harrison said.
“The commission may decide to continue our policy
against any hunting on the property. But right now
everybody on the commission knows that the hunting
is going on, and I think it’s a wink and a nod to
the mayor.”
Only owners can grant permission to hunt on a
specific property, Cameron said.
Field said the solid waste board will “probably end
up working with TWRA going forward to enforce
whatever it is the board comes up with. And I’m
assuming — and this is an assumption on my part — is
that the board is probably going to reiterate their
position they had last time we discussed the issue
was to not allow hunting.”
This isn’t the first time the solid waste board has
had to deal with a private property dispute.
According to the solid waste board minutes from Dec.
11, 2012, the board agreed to allow officials with
consulting firm Brown and Caldwell to walk the
property and propose a signage plan to prevent
people from getting to the land.
Field said all-terrain vehicle traffic and hunting
traffic has been an issue in the past, of which the
board was made aware by former board member Ted
Sitzlar. He said the board considered leasing out
the property, but members were hesitant about such a
move because of liability concerns.
“So basically the board took the position that we
didn’t want to encourage any hunting and went to the
effort of trying to block some of the four-wheel
trails going in and also making sure we have a bunch
of ‘No Trespassing’ signs put up,” Field said.
Bradshaw said he planned to be present at the solid
waste board meeting in January.
“If they ask me to — as a group — ask me to rescind
that, I don’t have a bit of problem with it,”
Bradshaw said. “I don’t think the gentleman that’s
doing the hunting will either. To me it’s no harm or
no foul. It was just an opportunity that presented
itself, and I took advantage of it.”
The Loudon man has a track record of “playing by the
rules,” Bradshaw said in the follow-up interview.
“When you give somebody permission, that keeps the
poachers out, that keeps somebody from sneaking in,”
Bradshaw said.
Regardless of the solid waste board’s decision,
Field said he plans to remind board members that
deer and vehicle collisions remain a problem on
Highway 72.
“That is clearly an issue that I think the board
needs to consider when they’re making the decision
to not allow hunting is the fact that when you do
that and you create kind of a safe haven for the
deer, then you end up having a lot more vehicle-deer
encounters,” Field said. “I guarantee you that will
happen. That’s one of the points I want to make sure
the board considers as they’re making whatever
decision it is that they’re making.
“... I think part of what we need to do is whatever
decision the board makes, we need to make sure it
becomes more of an official policy, and that policy
gets distributed amongst folks,” he said.