Site Selection Committee Meeting — August 4, 2026

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Video recording (YouTube)  —  Transcript  —  Meeting began approximately 4:00 p.m., City of Lebanon Administration Building

Attendance

Roll call recorded all ten members present (some arriving a few minutes late): Jeff Baines (chair), Regina Santana, Jody Vance, Tom Clemmons, Phil Morehead, Joey Carmack, Camille Burdine, Caleb Thorne, Dave Dixon, Randy Lane. Engineer Steve Jones attended in an ex-officio capacity. Minutes of the July 21 meeting were approved without changes noted on the record.

Chair's Opening Comments

Jeff Baines recapped the process for the audience: the committee was tasked by city council with identifying a minimum of three sites of at least 60 acres suitable for a new wastewater treatment plant. The list began at 15 staff-identified sites, grew to 22 as sites were added, was narrowed to 12, and then to a final four (2, 7, 13, 22) based on the mayor's willing-seller outreach. Baines was explicit that "willing" means only that a property owner agreed to talk with the city — not that any deal, appraisal, or letter of intent exists. He said seven property owners across the four sites indicated willingness to discuss a sale. He anticipated further work sessions at the city council level before any site is chosen.

Engineer's Odor Control Overview

At a committee member's request, Steve Jones gave a general overview before the rankings discussion: modern water reclamation facilities are designed from the outset with odor capture systems — anaerobic-process basins (headworks, sludge, digesters) are covered and vented through bio-scrubbers, while aerobic basins are industry-standard left uncovered (cited Metro Nashville's recent facilities, designed with Brown and Caldwell and Hazen, as not covering aerobic basins). He contrasted this with the existing 1950s-era plant's retrofitted odor control system.

Combined Committee Rankings

The chair presented the combined results of members' individual scoring (submitted by the July 29 deadline) on the revised, cost-free matrix:

Note: the transcript's auto-generated text is garbled at this point ("Site 22 is in lead 61, site 13, 60, the site seven, and site four at 46"), dropping Site 7's number entirely; "site four" also appears to be a mis-transcription of "site two." Site 7's score of 57 was confirmed by re-checking the video directly (16:28).

Public Comment, By Site

The chair took public comment site-by-site (22, then 13, then 7, then 2) rather than as one open period.

Site 22 — Maple Hill Road

• Ken Nelson Jr. (801 Horn Springs Road) — Urged the committee to keep the plant inside the city, argued county residents affected by the decision have no vote in city elections.
• Deborah & David Carver (165 Horn Drive, 56 acres bordering Site 22 along ~2,000 ft) — Described building a wedding/event venue ("Glass House") on their property over the past year, with bookings already taken into 2027. Raised concerns about blasting damage (property sits on solid rock), noise/odor, an unbuilt buffer taking years to mature, and loss of property value. Site 22 was described as roughly 100 yards from their venue.
• Engineer/staff presentation — An updated Site 22 layout was shown on screen: a phased build-out, with Phase 1 (10→20 MGD) in the lighter-gray area and Phase 2 (20→40 MGD) extending into the darker branch areas.
• Philip Donnell (914 Maple Hill Road) — Reported a third effluent-line leak on his property's easement since March. Site 22 was part of his family's farm, under a residential-development contract (site plan approved, valid three years per the mayor) held by Summit Development; if the sewer plant proposal unravels that contract, he said the land should revert to his aunt and uncle, not stay with Summit. Criticized Summit's principal, Wayne Miller (also president of the Farmington Woods HOA), for omitting the 150-acre parcel from a resident email about the process. Advocated for Site 13 (Rockwood) instead.
• John Thirsten (16 Melly Court, Plantation South) — Said the area was rezoned into the city on the promise of an upscale housing development, not a sewer plant; raised property-value concerns for Plantation South residents, who cannot vote in city elections.
• Derek Dodson (106 Chapman Drive) — Presented his own (privately compiled, not verified) cost matrix, excluding Site 2 as non-viable in his view. Asked the engineer for bridge and road-construction cost estimates relevant to other sites, for the record. Compared Site 22 to a Murfreesboro treatment plant buffered by hundreds of acres, arguing Site 22 is the only candidate where adjacent parcels (Donnell's ~164 acres, Eddie Callus's ~128 acres) could eventually become city-owned buffer/parkland.
• Unnamed speaker (Ponderosa Trail) — Opposed Site 22 as not the most cost-effective or closest-to-creek option; noted the impact on Plantation South and Farmington Woods homes; argued Site 13/Rockwood's flood-zone constraints limit its future usefulness despite being inside the city; described personal experience with rock blasting and raised concern for the Carvers' Glass House.
• Kim Prozeller (Horn Springs Road) — Raised Horn Springs Road's narrow, curved, shoulderless condition (citing two dump-truck rollovers and repeated mailbox damage near her home) — the chair clarified mid-comment that this access description applies to Site 7, not Site 22; she noted Maple Hill Road (Site 22's access) "ain't real great either."

Site 13 — Rockwood / Hartman Drive

• Terry Monahan (511 Barton Shore Court) — Reiterated his prior argument that newer treatment technology (moving-bed biofilm reactor, MBBR) needs as little as 5 acres versus the 60-acre threshold used to screen sites, at a 13–15% cost premium over conventional treatment; argued that premium could be offset by Site 13's smaller footprint and proximity to existing infrastructure versus Site 22's larger acreage and off-site costs.
• Derek Johnson — Shared his own (unverified) piping-and-land cost estimates: ~$25M for Site 13, ~$32M for Site 22, ~$21.6M for Site 7 (which he called the cheapest but opposed on other grounds). Noted 409 Carver Lane — part of the Site 13 assembly — carries a $13.48M note held by Wilson Bank & Trust and had gone unmaintained until bush-hogging began the day before this meeting.
• Unnamed speaker (continuing from Site 22 comment) — Also opposed Site 13: cited a gas line running through the property, an in-progress flood zone, unknown subsurface conditions from a prior recycling-facility use, and proximity to Farmington Woods homes.
• Jeff Barnes (320 Madrid) — Said his property (adjacent to Site 13, "the six-pack of tanks") would likely be acquired and his 40-year, recently remodeled home demolished; asked the committee to recognize that Site 13, often treated as the "easy" choice, also directly displaces a family.
• Abigail Moss (716 Farmington Drive, Farmington Woods) — Voiced concern about both Site 22 and Site 13 given the amount of residential property nearby; asked the committee to weigh long-term community effects.

Site 7 — Horn Springs area / Oriole Drive

• Teresa Dudley Hatcher — Her family's century farm on Coles Ferry Pike (previously removed from consideration) borders Site 7's rear parcel; a planned home site for one daughter would face the proposed plant directly. Reiterated Horn Springs Road's inadequacy.
• Mike Maynard (2259 Horn Springs Road) — A 5-year resident with a construction background; described a recent grading project that destroyed roughly 500 ft of Horn Springs Road pavement in about two months of topsoil hauling, as evidence the road cannot handle years of construction and concrete-truck traffic.
• Unnamed speaker (Mockingbird Lane, Horn Springs Road, 40-year resident) — Described the road as unsafe for four decades; noted his property backs to Palmer's Branch/Barton's Creek, which drains to the Cumberland River.
• Michael Hershey (2598 Horn Springs Road) — Raised a jurisdictional/annexation concern: Site 7's access would create a narrow, isolated strip of city territory surrounded by county land, complicating which agency (Lebanon PD/Fire vs. Wilson County Sheriff/Emergency Services) responds to calls there. Cited a state annexation statute (transcribed on the record as "TCA 65102," likely T.C.A. § 6-51-102) requiring a service plan comparable to existing city service levels for newly annexed area. Also argued the site's rural agricultural zoning is inconsistent with an industrial use, paralleling a similar zoning argument raised for Site 22/Maple Hill Road.
• Mark Cobalt (1695 Horn Springs Road) — A 9-year county resident who said he moved out for rural quality of life; framed the sewer plant search as the city "shoving" a self-created capacity problem onto the county.
• Procedural exchange — A commenter asked whether the committee is recommending two, three, or four sites, and whether the four "willing" property owners had signed any letter of intent. Chair Baines answered: the committee is fact-finding and recommending only, per its charge to recommend a minimum of three sites; "willing" means phone/in-person conversations only — no letters of intent, appraisals, or commitments exist yet. He directed public-records requests to the formal Tennessee Public Records Act process.

Site 2 — Mann Road

• Joshua Dan (Berea Church Road) — Opposed Site 2, favored Rockwood to keep the plant in city limits; questioned funding for a facility sized 4–8× the current plant's 5 MGD capacity (20–40 MGD proposed).
• Unnamed speaker (Horn Springs Road, speaking partly on behalf of a recently deceased Mann Road resident who had attended prior meetings) — Cited inadequate buffers in a nearby David Weekley Homes development as a preview of Site 2's likely buffer outcome; argued smaller-footprint modern technology (citing Chicago's large plant on a comparatively small acreage) could reduce land needs at any site.
• Jessie (Balentrace, Mann Road area) — Argued the cost of displaced/departing residents would exceed the ~$1M grant-timeline savings cited elsewhere in the process.
• Christy Chastain (4464 Coles Ferry Pike) — Opposed Site 2 despite its lower ranking; noted the absence of three-phase power and gas service, narrow roads (Berea Church/Mann Road) needing widening, and that the site is not near the urban growth boundary. Raised that roughly 2,700+ acres of adjacent property could gain a right to request sewer service under the new state law if Site 2 were selected, a cost she said may not be reflected in the committee's figures. Urged the committee to eliminate Site 2 and support Site 13 as the only candidate in an already-industrial area.
• Unnamed speaker — Reinforced the ~2,700-acre right-to-service figure, asking Steve Jones to explain the new state law again; compared buffer availability across the four sites (Murfreesboro's plant well-buffered; Site 13 and Site 2 not; Site 7 partially buffered by the Dudley family farm).
• Final commenter — Raised transparency concerns: process documents are not posted proactively on the city website and require a formal Tennessee Public Records Act request; urged the committee and the three city council members in attendance to weigh alternative treatment technologies raised by the public, and cautioned against rushing a decision to meet a grant deadline.

Committee Deliberation & Vote

Following public comment, Jeff Baines reiterated that the committee's role is to recommend, not select, and that cost and alternative-technology questions raised by the public were outside the committee's charge (identifying viable sites) and would need to be addressed by city council. A committee member moved to recommend all four sites to city council for additional study, with the committee remaining available if needed. During discussion, another member cited Site 2-specific concerns — grading extending to the property lines with no buffer, access challenges, off-site improvement costs, and separation from existing city infrastructure — and moved to amend the motion to remove Site 2. The amendment was accepted (seconded by Camille Burdine, who had seconded the original motion). The amended motion — to recommend Sites 22, 13, and 7 to the mayor and city council for further consideration — passed unanimously on a voice vote.