Letter From Tom West, Joe Mansy, and Cindy Miller

To: Homeowners and Property Owners on Blue Springs Way or using Blue Springs Way to access property on Margaret Hollow Way, Little Cub Way, and Golden Pond Way:

Last winter a major slide occurred on the gravel portion of Blue Springs Way, making the road almost impassible, and certainly dangerous to continue to use. For safety reasons, it was necessary to initiate immediate repairs.

In contacting construction companies for estimates to repair the road, we were advised that unless we added three additional drainage tiles and improved the drainage ditches to keep rain water from running down the road and cutting large ruts, this problem would occur again in a short time, and that any money spent on gravel or grading alone would be completely wasted.

We contracted Campbell Brothers Construction to perform the repairs. Copies of the repair bills are attached. The grading, ditching, tiling and twenty-four loads of gravel cost $19,005.39. At that time, when repairs were urgently needed, we contacted many of you about your willingness to help in paying the costs sustained in keeping the road passable and safe.

Unfortunately, the response to date has been disappointing. We are sending this letter requesting your reconsideration. We’re sure everyone agrees we all have responsibility in sharing the cost of repairing and maintaining this road. Some of you own rental cabins, which generate use not only by guests, but by cleaning, repair, real estate, and lawn service vehicles, resulting in a road that has been not only inconvenient for your guests, but, at times, unsafe and at the very least hard on the cars of your guests. Access to your rental cabin is now much safer, and these repairs will probably result in less complaints and in more repeat rentals. Some guests don’t complain—they just don’t return. Some of you without cabins have had or will have heavy well-digging, electrical service, concrete, building supply, laborer, and other trucks on the road, and some of you simply enjoy visiting your undeveloped property. This road is used by all of us.

For those of you who have contributed, this letter will serve to keep you informed of the ongoing situation. We are asking $2000.00 per lots with cabins and $1000.00 per undeveloped lot.

Some have said they don’t want to pay for fixes like this, but would be willing to support the permanent fix of paving the road. Please note that the expense of grading, ditching, drainage-tiling, and graveling incurred this past winter would have been required before the road could be paved, and that the road is now ready to pave. The longer we wait to pave it, the more work will be needed to return it to this condition, due to use and weather.

If you wish to have us get estimates on paving the road, please indicate so in your reply to this letter. However, unless we get virtually a majority to support this, the cost would be excessive for only a few to support. The best solution to this road issue is to convince Sevier County to take responsibility for the road. We have tried several times in the past with no success. The County says that a lack of a fifty-foot right of way in the fenced in lane off the paved Willow Tree Road prevents them from considering our request. We have learned this isn’t an absolute requirement, as they have taken some roads with less than the fifty-foot limit. We’re willing to try again with a new approach. We’re preparing a petition for you to sign requesting the County to take over this road. We plan then to present this to the County Road Commissioner. We will also try to get many local residents to sign. Many of us are not residents of Tennessee and thus do not vote here, so perhaps more local signatures will help. All of us who use this road do, however, pay property taxes to Sevier County, and presently receive no services from the County. Please note that the Road Commissioner has previously mentioned that for the County to take over the road it would have to be brought up to its present condition, which was accomplished by the nearly $20,000.00 worth of work done over the winter. This will not happen soon, though, and will not happen at all without a lot of concerted work and pressure. It may well never happen.

Therefore, at present, and for the foreseeable future, the repair and maintenance of the road is the responsibility of all of us to share. Some of us, over the years, have invested time and money in repair and upkeep from which all have benefited, with recompense from very few property owners. It is time for everyone to pitch in.

If everyone would send $2000 for a cabin property or $1000 for an undeveloped lot to Cindy Miller, who initiated and paid the bulk of the repairs necessary to keep the road open after last winter’s landslide, we could easily pay this bill and have money left over to pay for future maintenance—for instance, the pavement on the steep hill on the portion of the road nearest Wears Valley Road is caving in and will need attention this year. If you cannot afford $2000.00, then contribute as much as you can.

We have started a web page, www.bluespringsway.org, concerning the road and our community. You can see photographs of the road there. The WordPress format is supports blogging, as well. We welcome the help of any of you who would like to get involved in the process of helping our small community cohere and pull together, via the web page or in any other way. Our phone numbers are below.

Please reply to this request as soon as possible, as we plan to issue a summary of the owners who are supporting the road and those who declined to contribute. If we don’t hear from you in thirty days, we will assume you decline. If you have contact information on any property owners we have missed or for whom we have incomplete information, please let us know.

Send payment to Cindy Miller, PO Box 5377, Sevierville TN 37864. If you require any accounting information that has not been included here, contact Cindy Miller.

Also, if you have any other suggestions, please let us know. You can contact us by email through admin @ bluespringsway.org

Yours truly,

Cindy Miller
Joe Mansy
Tom West