In a
special called meeting Monday prior
to a regular workshop, Loudon County
Commission voted to repair Granada
Drive in the Silver Oak subdivision
if the homeowners association agreed
to pay up to $10,000 for materials.
Loudon County Road Superintendent
Eddie Simpson presented
commissioners with a letter from the
subdivision HOA asking for the
county to repair the road from
1368-1495 Granada Drive. Two soft
spots needed to be fixed. Granada
Drive is now on the county’s road
list.
“It was built 15 years ago and,
like I said in there, when I
came on board six years ago it
hadn’t been accepted, and when I
looked at the road I could tell
it was substandard because of
the two problems in with it was
very problematic,” Simpson said
after the vote. “And you could
look at the road, too, it didn’t
look like it had been topcoated.
So, what I told (the HOA) was
that they’re going to have to do
core samples, so they went
through development.
“I showed them where to do the
core drills and they checked six
places in the development and
those six places came back — or
five of those six came back —
that it did have topcoat on it
and the subbase coat was all
good. Everything was there that
should have been there,” he
added.
Simpson said somebody “dropped
the ball” years ago to not adopt
the road earlier.
“Several years ago the county
really should have had this
brought before them for adoption
into the county roads list at
that time, but for some reason
(it) never did get to in front
of this body,” Steve Harrelson,
commission chairman, said. “The
core samples that were taken do
show that it did meet county
specs, and so therefore we would
have accepted them if it was
brought before us. The other
issue is the problem area on the
back ... but the homeowners are
actually going to pay for the
materials to fix that.”
Commissioner Van Shaver was the
lone dissenting vote.
“My concern is once we adopt it,
and the agreement with the HOA’s
a fine thing,” Shaver said. “We
had a very good deal with
Warriors Chase, if ya’ll
remember they had kind of the
same issue. They paved it and
then we took their streets in.
... What I’m getting at if we
vote tonight to take the
streets, whatever you find under
that pavement when you get there
is us.”
Commissioner Kelly
Littleton-Brewster said she
counted 62 homes in the
subdivision, and noted
commission had a responsibility
to help them.
“I think we need to understand,
too, that there are 62 houses
back there and those people have
paid their property tax,” she
said.
In a follow-up interview,
Simpson said repairs began
Tuesday and would take five or
six working days to complete.
“It’s a good cooperative
agreement, I think, between your
department and the homeowners
there to take care of that one
issue,” Harrelson said. “We’re
not accepting substandard roads.
I mean, they’re meeting county
specs like any other roads in
our system.”