(SMYRNA, TN) Another viewpoint on the weir at the Sam Davis Home. On the surface it appears that there are three views on this issue: (1) preserve the dam, (2) allow another group to sell the $1.5-million in mitigation rights by taking-down the dam, and (3) to take out the weir because it is unsafe and not needed.
Pettus Read's Views
On Tuesday morning (5/25/2021) Sam Davis Memorial Association Board of Trustee Pettus Read was "live" on WGNS. He explained that the weir was constructed around 1939 for $750 to serve needs of that time. At that time, the Women of the Foundation wanted to create a "reflecting pool" and plant flowers along the banks. Read noted that it is no longer used and is in poor condition. Read indicated that the Memorial Association's sole interest is to remove the weir for safety reasons.
Pettus Read on WGNS . . .
Read indicated that it would cost $500,000 to $1,000,000. Non-profit corporation Cumberland River Compact has agreed to help with the removal of the weir. This is paid for by mitigation credits.
Read said, "The dam has been damaged, and we want to remove it before someone is hurt."
NOTE: When WGNS came on the air the first day of 1947, the station's goal has been to present all views on a subject. This approach allows the public to form its own opinion on issues that impact this community. WGNS continues that approach almost 75-years later.
Dr. C. Steven Murfphree's Views
Here is the unedited response from Sam Davis Memorial Association Executive Committee President C. Steven Murphree, PhD,
To Whom It May Concern:
The leaders of the Sam Davis Memorial Association (SDMA) were again disappointed by the bias that WGNS radio, and the Truman Show in particular, has continued to show concerning what is now a 6 year effort to remove a badly damaged, dangerous low head dam or weir in Stewart Creek that is adjacent to the Historic Sam Davis Home and Plantation. Incidentally, the weir currently has the root end of a huge tree from recent flooding sitting on top of it (Figure 1), and, readers are encouraged to Google “low head dam” to learn about these “drowning machines”. In July of 2020, the Executive Director of the Sam Davis Home witnessed a family of three kayakers barely escape injury when they tried to paddle through the weir’s large breach (Figure 2). Does the fact that no one has been killed or seriously injured at the weir mean that this will never happen in the future if it is allowed to remain?
The WGNS article clearly implies that the SDMA has been tempted by the mitigation credits generated by the weir’s removal that could convert to funds after a 7-year period that is standard practice (ask any commercial real estate agent). In reality, the SDMA began negotiating with the Cumberland River Compact in 2015 to initiate the process to remove the dam due to both safety and environmental concerns because it could be done at no cost to us. When we later learned that mitigation credits after a 7-year period could be divided equally among the SDMA, the Rutherford County School Board (RCSB) and the Cumberland River Compact (CRC), we welcomed that unexpected news. Mike Waller, Greg Tucker and Marty Luffman and, by association, Truman Jones, have also accused the CRC of underhanded dealings in these proceedings. However, they fail to acknowledge that the CRC won a Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award in 2019 for overseeing the removal of a series of other low head dams in middle Tennessee. The CRC Executive Director’s comment following attacks by Waller, Tucker and Luffman was “no good deed goes unpunished”. And, importantly, would the SDMA have gone through a 1.5 year petition for waiver process with the Tennessee Historical Commission to obtain 4 of our site’s 168 acres to sell to generate funds for our many maintenance needs, had we known that a “windfall” of $1.5 million dollars would be at our disposal?
SDMA leaders did not see the weir as holding historical or agricultural significance when we voted to begin the process of its removal. When Greg Tucker, who as the Rutherford County historian should be supporting, rather than attacking the SDMA, learned that the weir had been constructed in 1939-40, 12 years after the State of Tennessee purchased the site and 9 years after the SDMA was chartered, he devised a different plan to demonstrate its historical significance, since it could not be associated with the Davis family while they owned the site. That plan was to change the mind of the Tennessee State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO), Patrick McIntyre, who had already determined that the weir was of no historical significance, having given the United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) permission to remove the weir. It is our position that Tucker was successful in getting the SHPO to reverse his determination and to add that the weir somehow had agricultural significance because of a recent movement that has been called the “Confederate Reckoning”. In the SHPO’s letter there are references to the “myth of Sam Davis”, how the “historic site was perpetuating the Lost Cause interpretation” as well as his separate derogatory comment that all of the early SDMA officers had been women! It should not come as a surprise, then, that the National Parks Service’s National Registry of Historic Places committee that heard the USACE’s appeal of our SHPO’s determination chose to support his determination. I have written the text of a sign that has since been edited by the SHPO and that will be placed at the location of the weir following its removal (see Figure 3). The sign is a part of a mitigation process and will cost approximately $2000 – that is $2000 that will not be available in 7 years to the RCSB or the SDMA.
Importantly, one of A.F. Johns’ sons listened to the May 22 Truman Show and later told me that he was upset that inaccurate statements had been made about his father. Mr. Johns agrees with the SDMA that the weir is past its usefulness, that it is a safety risk, and that it should be removed.
Lastly, as I stated when I was a guest on the Truman Show in August of 2020, both the SDMA and the Cumberland River Compact deserve and expect a public apology from each of our accusers after this unnecessary and ill-advised challenge comes to its conclusion with the weir’s removal.
