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| No Decision on Knoxville PEO Home Property For Now |
Suggestions on what to do with the PEO Home ground in Knoxville were coming from members of the community and the city's Economic Development Committee last night, and the decision was made: nothing will be done with the property -- at least for now.
Members of the committee met Monday night to discuss ideas the group had about how to develop the land of the former PEO Home. Members shared ideas that included turning the land into something the community could use, such as a retirement community, or even some kind of water park with slides and a pool for kids. Other members suggested creating a public safety building that would include a fire department, police station and a new city hall. The problem with most of the ideas is money, something Knoxville doesn't have a lot of. The fire department would need some kind of government funding or a grant to be able to purchase the grounds. A concerned neighbor of the park, Dana Johnson, attended the meeting. Johnson tells WGIL the community is already making use of the land.
"We've seen people with their dogs over there, lots of youth using that area to play football and soccer and just playing around on their own time," Johnson said. "We've seen teams -- organized younger kids -- (conduct) practices and games."
The committee decided to sit on the land for awhile and see what happens. Members will not be placing an ad for bids of development right now. but they say they're always open to suggestions about what to do with the property. The reasons cited for doing nothing at the time being were the economy and, and the lack of a great idea about what to do with the land.
Members of the Knoxville City Council have talked about taking the property off of the tax rolls and, leaving the city responsible for only the cost of maintaining the land. |
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| 11 11 08 by Newsroom |
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