Lebanon WWTP Site Selection — Public Record Archive | Return to main page
| Date & time | Change |
|---|---|
| Aug 20 | Corrected council-speaker attributions on meeting_notes_august18_council.html: the “Council Comments” section had each remark shifted by one speaker due to misreading the auto-generated transcript's name-tag pattern. Re-traced against the roll call (Carmack, Ashley, Burdine, Crowell, Brian, Morehead) and corrected all six attributions; also noted that the transcript renders Chris Crowell's name as “Cra.” |
| Aug 20 | Corrected the same “Cra”/Crowell mishearing on meeting_notes_july21_council.html's reconstructed roll-call vote for Ordinance 267445. |
| Aug 20 | Added meeting notes, transcript, and video for the August 18, 2026 City Council meeting — the largest single WWTP public-comment session in this archive (over 40 speakers, roughly 90 minutes). Nearly all speakers opposed at least one finalist site, citing property values, cited health/odor studies (a 2016 study of residents near a WWTP, a 2024 bioaerosol study, Davidson County's reported 1,000 ft setback), and requests to use existing industrial land instead. Two petitions were announced (534 signatures vs. Site 7, 610 vs. Site 13). Mayor Bell stated on the record that he does not believe Site 22 or the Site 13 “13A” apartment-parcel addition should have been added to the shortlist and will vote no on either in a council tie. Engineer Steve Jones said site environmental/geotechnical studies require right-of-entry not yet even on the council agenda, plus at least 90 more days once granted; council members said they have received no cost data or site ranking from the committee to date. |
| Aug 20 | Added a meetings.html Past Meetings entry for the August 18, 2026 City Council meeting, linking its meeting notes and transcript. |
| Aug 18 | Added meeting notes, transcript, and video for the August 4, 2026 City Council meeting, held the same evening as the committee meeting above. WWTP-relevant content: Mayor Bell referenced the afternoon committee meeting directly in his remarks; Terry Monahan repeated his MBBR-technology argument with a new emphasis on retrofitting the existing plant rather than buying a new site; a Ponderosa Trail speaker (who also testified at the afternoon committee meeting) reiterated strong support for Site 7, citing converging force mains, an existing tree buffer, and partial Urban Growth Boundary status; Resolution 26-2886 (routine WWTP electrical maintenance contract) approved. |
| Aug 18 | Added a meetings.html Past Meetings entry for the August 4, 2026 City Council meeting, linking its meeting notes and transcript. |
| Aug 18 | On the candidate sites table, reworded the pink color-legend label from “Not eliminated, county only” to “Not eliminated, not fully within city limits” — the prior wording read as more absolute than accurate for sites like Site 7, which is outside city limits but only partially outside the Urban Growth Boundary. |
| Aug 18 | On the candidate sites table, added a “Sort by status” link at the end of the color legend and made it the default sort (not-eliminated sites first, then undetermined, then eliminated, by site number within each group), replacing the prior default sort by Willing Seller. Column headers remain clickable to sort by site number, rank, or willing seller. |
| Aug 18 | Added the video recording link for the August 4 committee meeting to the main page and meeting notes. |
| Aug 18 | Added meeting notes and transcript for the August 4, 2026 Site Selection Committee meeting (transcript file renamed from its original city_council_transcript_August4_text.txt to match the committee-meeting naming convention). Combined rankings revealed: Site 22 — 61, Site 13 — 60, Site 7 — 57, Site 2 — 46 (Site 7's score was dropped by the auto-generated transcript; confirmed from the video directly). Extensive public comment covered all four sites, including road-infrastructure concerns on Horn Springs Road and Maple Hill Road, blasting/property-damage concerns near Site 22, an annexation/jurisdiction concern for Site 7 citing T.C.A. § 6-51-102, and public estimates that Site 2 could extend right-to-service rights (HB 2385/SB 2057) to ~2,700+ adjacent acres. The committee voted unanimously to recommend sites 22, 13, and 7 to the mayor and city council, removing Site 2 by floor amendment citing grading/buffer/access/infrastructure concerns. |
| Aug 18 | Updated the candidate sites table to reflect the August 4 committee vote: Site 2's row marked eliminated with the committee's stated reasoning and public-comment citations; coloring-date caption and Willing Seller footnote updated from “final four” to the three sites now recommended (22, 13, 7). |
| Aug 18 | Updated meetings.html: moved the August 4 committee meeting from Upcoming to Past Meetings with a link to its new notes and transcript; Upcoming section now notes no confirmed next meeting. |
| Jul 27 | Linked HB 2385 / SB 2057 (plus its bill status page) to the July 21 committee meeting entry on the main page and to the July 21 meeting notes, where it is cited (hedged as “likely a reference to”, since Jones did not state the bill number on the record) alongside the “state law effective July 1, 2026” passage. This bill amends T.C.A. § 7-82-710(a)(1) to grant a right-to-service to property with an existing gravity sewer line on or adjacent to it, underlying the acreage figures presented for each of the final four sites. |
| Jul 26 | Changed the default sort on the candidate sites table to “Willing Seller” (Yes rows first) instead of site number. Column headers remain clickable to re-sort. |
| Jul 24 — 11:40 am | Updated the candidate sites table Notes column for the final four (sites 2, 7, 13, 22) against the engineer's July 21 updated packet: Site 2 conveyance revised $500K→$1M and sinkhole/geotechnical gap and Mann Road access concerns added; Site 7 conveyance revised $28M (June 2 estimate)→$15.79M after repurposing existing effluent force mains; Site 13 flood plain impact clarified as minor/mitigable under the rearranged layout and $9.85M conveyance figure added; Site 22 gained a full engineering summary (Phase 1 environmental assessment, cemetery, wetlands, geotechnical, $24.9M conveyance) that had been entirely missing. |
| Jul 24 — 11:01 am | Added to the candidate sites table: Site 7 is partially inside Lebanon's Urban Growth Boundary, per the July 21 committee transcript (42:39–42:57), where the engineer identifies the boundary line on the map and confirms part of the site's tie-in area falls inside it and part does not. |
| Jul 22 — 8:35 pm | Added a meetings.html Past Meetings entry for the July 21, 2026 City Council meeting, linking its meeting notes and transcript. |
| Jul 22 — 8:30 am | Added meeting notes and transcript for the July 21, 2026 City Council meeting (link previously placeholder). WWTP-relevant content: Charles Smith's on-record public comment urging the city to keep the sewer plant siting decision within Lebanon rather than the county; extended council debate on Ordinance 267445 (Expo Center funding termination, failed 3–2–1) that referenced the Wilson County Commission's sewer-siting resolution; Ordinance 267442 (WWTP budget amendment) approved on second reading; Resolution 26-2883 (gasification facility settlement) and Resolution 26-2884 (WWTP centrifuge skid rental) approved. |
| Jul 22 — 8:08 am | On the candidate sites table, removed parcel 13C (Map 45 Parcel 58.00, ~16 acres) from Site 13's parcel list — its owner declined to discuss a sale per the mayor's July 21, 2026 report, and the engineer's rearranged Site 13 layout no longer uses it. Noted in the row's Notes column. |
| Jul 22 — 8:02 am | Updated the candidate sites table for the July 21, 2026 committee results: sites 1, 3, 5, 8, 10, 12, 14, and 16 marked Eliminated (the committee removed all sites except 2, 7, 13, and 22); added a sortable “Willing Seller” column from the mayor's July 21 report, with a footnote that Site 22's willingness was expressed by the purchase-contract holder rather than the owner of record; coloring-date caption updated to July 21. |
| Jul 22 — 7:58 am | On the candidate sites table, Site 22 (Maple Hill Road) status changed from “Undetermined” to “Not eliminated, within city limits.” |
| Jul 22 — 7:54 am | Added the site favicon to all pages; previously only the landing page declared it. |
| Jul 22 — 7:53 am | Added the July 21, 2026 City Council meeting video to the landing page video list. Meeting notes and transcript to be added. |
| Jul 22 — 7:51 am | Committee member name corrections across all meeting notes pages, per the official committee roster: Caleb Thorne (previously rendered “Dorn”/“Dorne”), Tom Clemmons (previously “Clemens”), Camille Burdine (previously “Burdon”/“Berdine”), and Joey Carmack (previously “Carmac”). Corrected on the May 27, June 2, June 15, June 29, and July 21 notes pages. Also on the May 27 attendance line: “Jeff Bangs” and “Bill Bines”, listed as separate attendees, were both transcription garbles of Jeff Baines and have been merged into a single correct entry. These were Whisper transcription spellings; the roster is now used as the authoritative reference. |
| Jul 22 — 7:42 am | Added meeting notes and Whisper transcript for the July 21, 2026 Site Selection Committee meeting. Key content: mayor's willing-seller report narrowed the field to four sites (2, 7, 13, 22) — with the Site 22 “yes” coming from the contract holder, not the owner of record; committee voted 5–1–1 to remove the cost criterion from the scoring matrix; engineer presented updated packets including right-to-service acreage under the new July 1 state law and conveyance estimates ranging from ~$1M (Site 2) to ~$24.9M (Site 22); member score sheets due July 29, rankings to be revealed August 4. Public comment included Maple Hill Road owner Eddie Callus's on-record opposition and a report of 17-foot dirt-to-dirt sections on Mann Road. Updated meetings.html (July 21 and July 7 moved to past; August 4 added) and the landing page video list. |
| Jul 19 | Corrected day-of-week for July 21, 2026 committee meeting on meetings.html: “Monday” changed to “Tuesday” (July 21, 2026 is a Tuesday). |
| Jul 8 | Added meeting notes and transcript for the July 7, 2026 City Council meeting. WWTP-relevant content: Ordinance 267434 (WWTP budget amendment, second reading) approved unanimously on consent agenda; Ordinance 267442 (new WWTP budget amendment by Regina Santana) approved on first reading. Public comment by Derek Dodson referenced site selection as “the hairball” and distributed a two-page document to council members. Citizens raised the Wilson County Commission resolution and city-county cost-sharing data. Ordinance 267445 (termination of $100,000/year Expo Center donation) deferred to next meeting in the broader context of city-county tensions around the WWTP siting debate. |
| Jul 2 — 1 pm | Added meeting notes and transcript for the June 16, 2026 City Council meeting. WWTP-relevant content includes: Derek Dodson’s written statement distributed to council (content not stated on the record); Philip Donnell’s on-record disclosure that the effluent line runs through the Donnell property (Site 8, adjacent to Site 22) to the Cumberland River; Mayor Bell’s remarks responding to the Wilson County Commission resolution; a councilor’s statement that the city does not intend to forcibly acquire unwilling sellers’ property; and approval on first reading of Ordinance 267434 (WWTP budget amendment). |
| Jul 2 — 12 pm | Added Site 22 (Maple Hill Road) — Independent Analysis. Documents a discrepancy between engineer Steve Jones’s June 29 conveyance estimate of 25,000–30,000 feet and an independent measurement using the Tennessee Property Viewer (tnmap.tn.gov) finding the nearest force main — which runs through adjacent Site 8 on Maple Hill Road — is approximately 4,135 feet from the Site 22 parcel boundary (~8,300 ft for both pipe runs). Includes GIS map images and verbatim transcript citations from June 2 and June 29 meetings. |
| Jul 1 — 10 am | Added meeting notes and YouTube/Whisper transcripts for all four site selection committee meetings: May 27, June 2, June 15, and June 29. Transcripts for May 27, June 2, and June 15 were sourced from YouTube’s auto-generated transcript feature; June 29 was transcribed using OpenAI Whisper. Added “Meeting notes” and “Transcript” links to each video entry on the landing page. June 29 notes include a new analysis section documenting two statements by engineer Steve Jones implying that Conventional Activated Sludge (CAS) is the city’s preferred treatment technology and that a technology ranking analysis exists that has not been disclosed to the committee or public. |
| Jun 29 — 7 pm | Added committee average scores to the candidate sites table as a sortable “Rank” column, using scores announced by the Site Selection Committee at the June 29, 2026 meeting. Site header sorts ascending by site number; Rank header sorts descending by score. Footnote cites June 29, 2026 as source date. |
| Jun 24 — 12 pm | Added Does the City of Lebanon Have an Interest in How Their Tax Dollars are Being Proposed to be Spent? (Terry Monahan, Pending submission) to the landing page — independent citizen analysis arguing the fiscal case for biofilm reactor upgrade of the existing plant over a remote CAS site, citing the engineer’s own $1–$20M connection cost range, Wilson County land values, and CAS O&M cost premium. |
| Jun 19 — 5 pm | Added The Necessity Defense: What Tennessee’s 2024 Eminent Domain Amendment Means for Rural Landowners (in work / for review) to the landing page — examines the 2024 amendment to T.C.A. § 29-17-107 (Ch. 748) that appears to remove the statutory necessity defense for landowners facing condemnation for sewer and utility projects, its implications for Lebanon’s site selection outcome, and the case for a legislative remedy. |
| Jun 19 — 5 pm | Added Criterion Injection: When Informal Judgment Overrides a Formal Process (in work / for review) to the landing page — examines the structural risk that informal deliberation following a formal scoring process may introduce undisclosed evaluative criteria, producing an outcome that cannot be audited or contested from the public record. |
| Jun 17 — 12 pm | Added Treatment Technology and Cost: A Review of the CAS Cost Baseline to the landing page — examines whether the published CAS cost advantage reflects Lebanon’s regulatory requirements, using the city’s NPDES permit and peer-reviewed literature. Renamed “Scoring matrix” section to “Additional submissions to the public record.” |
| Jun 17 — 8 am | Added Appendix A (endorsing residents) to the Supplemental Analysis (now “Appendices”) list on the landing page with a note that the listing is part of the city’s formal record and is not published here. |
| Jun 16 — 9 pm | Renamed “Road widths” section to “Field observations and measurements” on the landing page to reflect the broader scope of the section. |
| Jun 16 — 9 pm | Added Eagle near Nest — 1409 Breyerton Way (Site 1) (PDF, June 16, 2026) under Field Observations and Measurements on the landing page — photographs documenting an eagle observed near its nest within the lot boundaries of 1409 Breyerton Way, a Site 1 candidate parcel, with a map identifying the location. |
| Jun 16 — 8 pm | Renamed “Meeting videos” section to “Site selection committee meeting videos” on the landing page; added new “City Council meeting videos” section with a link to the June 16, 2026 City Council meeting (YouTube). |
| Jun 16 — 8 pm | Added link to the June 15, 2026 Site Selection Committee meeting video (YouTube) under Meeting Videos on the landing page. |
| Jun 16 — 10 am | Corrected Open Letter to the Committee status — the Jun 15 entry below stating it had been filed was inaccurate; it has not yet been filed and is marked “draft for public review” again. Added “Filed — June 15, 2026” status to the Scoring Matrix Categories PDF, which was filed alongside Rev C on June 15. |
| Jun 15 — 11 am | Removed “draft for public review” status from Rev C Public Record Statement and Open Letter to the Committee — both documents now marked “Filed — June 15, 2026.” |
| Jun 12 — 4 pm | Added formal requests page — a single-page index of all 35 discrete requests for disclosure and committee action contained in Rev C, organized by appendix (opening remarks and Appendices C through I). Linked from the landing page nav and “What you’ll find here” section. |
| Jun 12 — 4 pm | Added public records requests page with 7 filings submitted to the City of Lebanon via the NextRequest portal (Appendices C, D, E, F, G, H, and I). Each entry includes a description and a link to the PDF. Linked from the landing page nav. |
| Jun 12 — 4 pm | Added City of Lebanon public records portal (NextRequest) link under Additional Information and Resources on the landing page. |
| Jun 12 — 4 pm | Added link to Rochelle, McCulloch & Aulds, PLLC under Additional Information and Resources on the landing page. |
| Jun 12 — 4 pm | Revised highlighting on the candidate sites page: removed yellow highlight from outside-city sites; added soft green highlight to Sites 13, 13A, 14, 15, 16, and 17 (city-located alternatives the petitioners are requesting the committee prioritize). Updated introductory text and source note. |
| Jun 12 — 3 pm | Updated signature block of the Open Letter to the Committee — “of the affected corridor” → “of the affected rural areas” to reflect the expanded scope beyond Sites 1–7. |
| Jun 12 — 3 pm | Expanded scope of the Rev C Public Record Statement from Sites 1–7 to all candidate sites outside the city limits of Lebanon — 10 targeted edits across the cover page, opening paragraph, closing request, and Appendices B, C, D, G, and H. Added attribution to Anthony Murphy for first raising the shortlisting safeguards concern in the public record (June 2 committee meeting). |
| Jun 12 — 2 pm | Expanded the “What this is” section on the landing page to reflect opposition to any candidate site outside the city limits of Lebanon, not only Sites 1–7; notes that formal submissions filed to date were focused on Sites 1–7. |
| Jun 11 — 3 pm | Added BNR technology context to Appendix F Section 2 of the Rev C Public Record Statement — notes that Lebanon’s 1962 plant was BOD-only, that a new facility will require nutrient removal, and that compact BNR technologies (MBR, MBBR, aerobic granular sludge) achieve compliance in smaller footprints than conventional BNR-CAS. |
| Jun 11 — 3 pm | Added narrative summary paragraphs for Appendices E through I to the leading section of the Rev C Public Record Statement — force main reclassification, technology/acreage threshold, shortlisting safeguards, Columbia Gulf pipeline asymmetry, and biosolids disposal. Updated title heading and closing paragraph to include Appendix I. |
| Jun 11 — 3 pm | Added treatment technology cost comparison to Appendix F of the Rev C Public Record Statement — documents that MBBR and SBR cost the same or less than conventional activated sludge at 20 MGD, and that MBR is 6–18% lower in capital cost than CAS when nutrient removal is required, strengthening the technology-threshold asymmetry argument. |
| Jun 9 — 10 pm | Added property IDs and parcel map image for site 13A to the candidate sites table. |
| Jun 9 — 3 pm | Added property IDs and parcel map links for site 18 (Trice Road) to the candidate sites table. |
| Jun 9 — 2 pm | Added Rockwood floodway/MBR cost example to Appendix F and technology-threshold asymmetry critique to Appendix G of the Rev C Public Record Statement. |
| Jun 9 — Noon | Added NPDES Permit No. TN0028754 citations to Appendix E of the Rev C Public Record Statement — strengthens the F1/F2 reclassification argument with the permit’s “treated municipal wastewater” authorization, Old Hickory Reservoir receiving water designation, biomonitoring framework, and permit issue date relative to facility planning. |
| Jun 8 — 9 pm | Added three-phase power cost analysis to Appendix G of the Rev C Public Record Statement — documents the unquantified electrical infrastructure gap in the Existing Infrastructure scoring and adds a formal disclosure request. |
| Jun 8 — 7 pm | Added Appendix I (Biosolids Disposal: Traffic Impact and Infrastructure Disclosure Gap) and Exhibit D-1 (Mann Road field measurements with Section 3A Road Width) to the Rev C Public Record Statement. |
| Jun 8 — 5 pm | Added endorsement forms for Rev C and Rev A. Linked from each document on the landing page. |
| Jun 8 — 4 pm | Added endorsement form for the Open Letter. Linked from the Open Letter section on the landing page. |
| Jun 8 — 3 pm | Added Open Letter to the Committee (draft for public review) to the landing page. |
| Jun 8 — 1 pm | Added upcoming meetings page. Linked from main page nav. |
| Jun 7 — 8 pm | Added links to the May 27 and June 2 site selection committee meeting videos (YouTube) under Additional Information and Resources |
| Jun 7 — 1 pm | Added Mann Road Street Widths document: engineer’s June 2 transcript quote alongside four field-measured widths (17–18 ft) at locations along Mann Road |
| Jun 7 — 8 am | Enriched site notes for sites 1–9, 12, 13, and 15 from the May 27 meeting transcript — added flood plain percentages, structure presence, force main details, and flagged measurement discrepancies for sites 7, 9, and 15 between the May 27 and June 2 transcripts |
| Jun 7 — 7 am | Added Scoring Matrix Categories — June 2, 2026: five screening categories, procedural gap observations, notes for Rev C update (based on the June 2 meeting) |
| Jun 6 — 5 pm | Moved change history to this page; landing page now shows most recent change only |
| Jun 6 — 4 pm | Added site-specific notes from May 27 attendee meeting notes for sites 2–4, 6, 8, 9, 13–15 |
| Jun 6 — 2 pm | Added property details for site 19 |
| Jun 6 — 1 pm | Added engineering commentary for sites 14–15; added property details for sites 16 and 17; added search engine crawlability (index page, sitemap) |
| Jun 6 — Noon | Added sites 13A and 16–19 from June 2 committee meeting; added engineering commentary for sites 1–13 from June 2 transcript |
| Jun 6 — 11 am | Added tnmap.tn.gov parcel map links for all 15 original sites |
| Jun 4 — Noon | Added property IDs and source reference files to sites table; minor data corrections |
| Jun 4 — 11 am | Added candidate sites table (sites.html); added analytics |
| Jun 4 — 6 am | Added contact form; noted ~200 endorsers on Rev A |
| Jun 3 — 4 pm | Published initial archive: Rev C draft, Rev A filed statement |