Weakley
County Municipal Electric System (WCMES) has won
its petition to condemn property along State
Route 22 to construct a new headquarters. The
property owned by Iva C. Adams, located between
Dresden and Martin, was condemned under the
eminent domain laws of the State of Tennessee,
during a lengthy Friday court hearing.
After hearing evidence and testimony
presented during a 2-½ hour-long hearing, Circuit Court
Judge Bill Acree rendered his decision. He stated the court
finds that the petitioner, WCMES, has the authority to take
possession of the property in question. However, Judge Acree
ruled that the price to be paid for the land is to be
determined by the court at a later date. This issue of price
may be resolved by a jury trial. In the meantime, the Adams
family has 30 days in which to appeal the judge’s decision
or negotiate a settlement.
WCMES filed the original petition under the
imminent domain statute, which allows public governmental
entities, such as electric companies, to seize land for
public use, on September 26, 2005. However, the petition was
later amended from condemning 66 acres, to a total of 29.339
acres for a price of $88,905.97, which was the estimated
land value of the property based on a market analysis.
As last week’s hearing got underway, Dresden
Attorney Max Speight representing WCMES, called WCMES
director Farron Collins to the stand to give testimony as to
why this particular piece of property was chosen as the site
for the public utility’s new headquarters.
Collins gave a brief history of the
establishment of WCMES in 1938, under the Municipal Electric
System Act of 1935. He explained that the members of the
WCMES board are selected by the Weakley County Commission
and represent the various communities of the county, as well
as having one board member from the county commission.
Collins stated that in 1958, WCMES
established its headquarters inside the current building
being used by the electrical utility, located at 501 Lindell
Street in Martin near the intersection of University Street.
He informed the court that over the years, the utility has
expanded and the facility is no longer sufficient to house
their equipment, which is currently being stored at
scattered locations. For instance, Collins noted that the
utility trucks purchased in 2003 are too big to fit inside
of the garage space at the Martin location and have to be
stored elsewhere.
According to Collins, the growing need for
more space and centralization of their assets to better
serve all of the citizens of Weakley County led the board to
the realization that “at some point” they needed to find
another site for WCMES. He recalled that the search actually
got underway around January or February of 2005. In order to
be as equally accessible to all parts of the county, Collins
researched the issue to discover what he described as the
“geographical center” as well as the “customer center” of
the county, which he determined to be along Highway 22
between Martin and Dresden. He stated that the geographic
and customer base centers were approximately five miles
apart, so he settled on a halfway point as the ideal
location for WCMES’ new headquarters. At this point, Collins
said that he came up with a list of 15 sites, which the
board whittled down to 11 locations, due to four of the
sites not having enough land to meet their requirement of a
minimum of 25 acres.
The WCMES board decided to employ Dresden
real estate agent Wendell Alexander to act as their agent in
approaching the owners of these properties to see if anyone
wanted to sell their land. He noted that Alexander kept the
identity of the board as the buyer confidential, in order to
prevent area landowners from asking more than the actual
property value if they knew a public utility wished to
purchase their land, as he says often happens in such cases.
When none of the property owners wished to sell, the board
decided that since whichever location they chose, they would
have to seek to condemn the property anyway, they selected
the most desirable location. This turned out to be the land
owned by the Adams family, located along Highway 22 between
Dresden and Martin near the intersection of Fuller Road.
Collins gave the court four main reasons for
selecting the Adams property as follows:
1. Location: It’s located in the
geographic and customer base center of the county, which
makes it more equally accessible to its customers, and makes
service calls faster, because it will require less response
time.
2. Road Access: It provides excellent
access to the property along Highway 22 for their customers
and the general public; while simultaneously providing
convenient and safe access to the property by way of a
county road (Fuller Road) for movement of utility vehicles
entering and exiting the property, as well as for the
delivery of long utility poles and other items.
3. Topography: The land ranges
from level to gently rolling terrain, which will require
less money to prepare the land for construction of the
office and garages needed to consolidate WCMES’ headquarters
at a single location.
4. Convenience of Service: The
property is ideally located near the county’s two TVA power
grids, so that in case of a major power outage of one
system, it will be easier to gain access to and repair the
grid; or in an extreme case, it will allow WCMES to patch
the rest of the county into the working system, so all
county customers will have electricity until the failing
grid can be restored.
As for the property value assigned by WCMES
of $88,905.97, this was determined by a market analysis made
by Alexander, based on the value of other property in the
area.
Attorney Jim Fisher, Jr. of Goodlettsville,
who represents the Adams family in the case, argued that the
Adams family has never expressed a desire to sell their
property, and that neither Alexander nor WCMES has ever
received a proposal from the family to sell their property.
Fisher also argued that the selection of the
Adams family property was “arbitrary and capricious.” Under
cross-examination by Fisher, Collins stated that this was
not the case. He commented that the condemnation process was
not done on the spur of the moment, but over a long period
of time and planning. He noted that WCMES had made the
motion to file for condemnation of the property during its
July 2005 meeting, and that the board wished to resolve the
issue concerning the procurement of the property out of
court if possible.
Next, Fisher called WCMES Chairman Bob Wray
of Gleason to the stand. Wray, who has served on the board
since 1970, and as board chairman since 1975, confirmed
Collins’ statement that the determination to initiate
condemnation proceedings began in July 2005.
David Adams of Chicago, Illinois, who has
power of attorney for his grandmother, Iva C. Adams, owner
of the property, was next to be called to the witness stand.
Mr. Adams stated that he first spoke with realtor Wendell
Alexander in March of 2005, when Alexander approached him
about selling a parcel of land to interested parties that he
represented. “I told him we weren’t interested in selling
the property, no matter what the price,” Adams said. He said
that the property has been in his family for five
generations and was very important to them. Adams explained
that his statement to Alexander that his family did not wish
to subdivide their land was apparently mistaken by the real
estate agent to mean that they would be interested in
selling the whole plot of land on that side of the road, but
not half of it.
Adams recounted the phone calls between himself and
Alexander, saying that it was only during the third phone
call that he learned that WCMES intended to file for
condemnation of the property.
(Read the rest of the story in this week's
print edition of the Dresden Enterprise!)
