County mulls Allenbrook road woes
 
Consideration of paving three roads in Allenbrook subdivision was a topic of discussion at the Jan. 22 Loudon County Commission workshop in which Lenoir City Mayor Tony Aikens was present to try to settle a matter left unresolved for years.
 
Commissioners will vote on paving at the Feb. 4 meeting.
 
Flora Drive, Tristan Court and part of Lancaster Drive remain unfinished in Allenbrook after the developer went bankrupt years ago and left without completing the job. The roads remain private and have not been accepted by Lenoir City.
 
Aikens came before commissioners to ask the county to share the cost to finish the roads for an estimated $110,000, with a 50 percent split for the county and city since both governments shared planner Russ Newman at the time. The cost was determined by Lenoir City Road Superintendent JJ Cox and Eddie Simpson, city councilman and county road superintendent.
 
“I would ask that county commission consider this,” Aikens said. “Obviously, we’ve talked about this, not throwing anybody under the bus, but we know the issues that happened several years ago with a county employee at that time and Lenoir City, Loudon city participated in those costs for that employee on the planning commission department.”
 
In 2006, two plats were approved by Lenoir City’s planning commission contingent upon a letter of credit of $20,000 each. Barrett Hobbs, Allenbrook Homeowners Association board member, said that letter of credit was never obtained. Hobbs was present at the workshop.
 
“I’ll agree with Tony this is certainly a moral issue, but it’s not a county’s moral issue,” Van Shaver, county commissioner, said. “… This is in the city, it’s always been in the city, it’s a city street. Not even half, not a Harrison Road kind of thing, it’s not half is ours and half is theirs, this is all in the city.”
 
Shaver recalled a similar issue in 2014 when Warriors Chase subdivision residents asked for help. Amberly Meadows was also briefly discussed by commission.
 
“We said, ‘Sorry, we can’t help you. Pave your roads and we’ll take them into the county’,” Shaver said. “We did that, that’s exactly what we did. Out here in Tony’s situation, Allenbrook, you’ve got the same thing. Supposedly the process then was a bond or a letter credit by a developer, they would allow them to do so much developing before they had to put the topcoat on as long as they had this letter of credit or this bond in place.”
 
Bob Bowman, county attorney, informed commissioners at the time that the bonds and letters of credit had no legal binding, Shaver said, noting “they’re not worth anything.”
 
“At the time it was up on the developer’s responsibility to carry this letter of credit and bond and to keep it up to date,” Shaver said. “It wasn’t Russ Newman’s place to keep it up to date, it was the developer’s place to keep it up to date. Warriors Chase, the developer, belly-up, gone, couldn’t find him if you had to. Allenbrook, the developer gone, out of place, gone. I’m assuming you haven’t tried to pursue him because that’s who’s actually responsible.”
 
Shaver worried paving a city road in a subdivision would set a precedent, noting legally the county could not help with a road not on its list. He apologized for Allenbrook’s issue and pointed toward Aikens and Lenoir City Council being where residents should receive aid.
 
He said even if the issue fell on Newman, “it’s no more a county thing than it is a city thing.”
 
“I think what one of the biggest issues is the past needs to be corrected, the mistakes that were made,” Julia Hurley, county commissioner, said. “Russ Newman may not legally on paper and arguably in a court of law be able to be held responsible, but there is some responsibility to the taxpayers of the county and the city ... to keep track of their bonds to ensure the productivity and the growth, the proper growth, in the county and the city, and at the time Russ Newman dropped on the ball on that and we were financially responsible for him. They were financially responsible for him.”
 
Hurley considered the issue a moral obligation.
 
“Loudon County just like every county in 2005 to 2008 saw dollar signs coming out of the woodwork,” Hurley said. “All these developers were showing up flashing money around and everybody wanted part of it and that was just the economy at the time. Unfortunately, the elected officials at the time, that’s all they saw, too. That’s all Russ Newman saw, too. Now we know better, but some people fell through the cracks, some roads fell through the cracks, some things fell through the cracks.”
 
If the county moves forward with helping, Shaver said the county should repay Warriors Chase.
 
“If we do any of it, if we spend a dime on Allenbrook, we have to repay Warriors Chase their $40,000,” Shaver said. “That’s mine and Harold’s district and I’ll fight that one tooth and nail. If we’re going to pave city roads then we have to compensate county roads.”
 
Commissioner Kelly Littleton-Brewster asked Aikens if there were other similar issues in the city, but he could not provide a definitive answer.
 
Shaver said Aikens and city council should take care of city residents.
 
“But Van, they pay county taxes,” Aikens said.
 
“Well then, why don’t we pave all your roads? “ Shaver said. “What’s the jurisdictional issue here? They get the same services every other county resident, so we should just take over Lenoir City roads, Loudon city roads, Greenback roads, take them all under that argument.”

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2/11/19