Residents against water lines in west Madison Co.

About 65 people gathered in the fellowship hall of Ararat Baptist Church near Huntersville Tuesday evening.

For most of the meeting, the people heard from Madison County leaders about why they’re discussing working with Jackson Energy Authority about extending its water and wastewater services into the western part of Madison County.

Mayor A.J. Massey, County Commission Chair Mike Taylor, Commissioners of the district Gary Tippett and Aaron Ellison and a handful of other commissioners and county officials were on hand to discuss the idea along with JEA CEO Monte Cooper and JEA’s water services chief, Rowland Fisher.

The people heard from the officials.

They heard reassurances from Massey that no one is trying to take their land or drop the price of their property or annex them into the City of Jackson.

Taylor discussed how he thought this would be a positive thing to bring developers to the western edge of the county facing Blue Oval City and the growth it’s projected to bring to neighboring Haywood County and all of West Tennessee.

They heard from Cooper and Fisher about what lines would be installed, where, how large and how that works if they’re not installing them in Jackson city limits. Cooper compared it to other areas of the county and the town of Medina in Gibson County that has JEA water and wastewater services but aren’t in Jackson.

The people were then given the opportunity to answer questions.

Some were afraid there was still a loophole that would allow Jackson to annex any area it wanted to even though the state legislature passed a law in 2012 that outlawed annexation without a request from the property owner.

County Attorney Jay Bush was on hand to answer any legal questions. Highway Superintendent Bart Walls and Fire Chief Eric Turner were both on hand to answer questions related to their expertise within the County.

Resident John Verell asked a number of questions about zoning, development, keeping developers with intentions that no one already in the area wants and how the issue came before the Commission with little notice to the public when the Commission was originally set to vote on it at its August meeting on Aug. 12.

A few more of the questions centered on the County being willing to pledge $12 million – which is half of what JEA estimates would be the cost to put the pipes down Highway 70 to the intersection with Providence Road – to a private project when the County’s never done that before that anyone could speak to in the meeting when asked.

“I felt like this would be a good thing for the County that won’t happen for probably seven or eight or even 10 years down the road,” Taylor said. “We keep talking about Madison County growing.

“Well if it’s going to grow, it’s growing westward. And the area around Exit 68 is a prime location for that growth to happen, and right now all we have there is a truck stop and a porn store.”

Massey reiterated that the installation of water lines in the area, making a possible development within the realm of reality, should do nothing but improve resale value for the land in the area.

But another local resident had an answer to that point.

“If you look around, most of the land in this area and most everyone here … we’re living on our family farms. A lot of us, the homes we’re living in, we’re passed down to us from our grandfathers and grandmothers. We have no intention of selling because we don’t want to be anywhere else, and we don’t want to see this area change.”

At the end of the night, Commissioner Aaron Ellison stood up and asked the crowd if they wanted the lines or not then asked for a show of hands for and against.

One hand went up in favor of the line installation. Nearly every other hand in the room went up against.

After the meeting, Tippett was asked what the next step is after seeing such an overwhelming vote against the project.

“I’ll be honest. I don’t know,” Tippett said. “We were supposed to vote last month, and the issue got tabled so we could have this meeting and this conversation.

“I don’t know if the conversation is over, but I can say as of right now, I have no plans to take the matter off the table and pick it up again in the Commission. That’s not to say I won’t do it. I just have no plans to do it right now.”

Brandon Shields, brandon@jacksonpost.news