Let's Go for a Spin

On behalf of the City of Oak Ridge and all the partners involved, I'd like to respond to Joe Tarr's Sept. 3 article, "Hard Ride," and W.M. Murphy's letter in the Sept. 17 issue. Public input is what this project has been about, and as such, we welcome Mr. Murphy's comments—but I'd like to clear up some misconceptions.

It's certainly true that the City of Oak Ridge awarded a contract to the land planning and landscape architecture firm Lose & Associates to do a preliminary plan for possible developments for Haw Ridge Park. (The other consultants in the contract, LDR International, Lockwood Greene Engineers, and my firm, The Write Stuff Advertising and Marketing, were brought on as subcontractors by Lose & Associates.) As the contract originally stated, that preliminary plan was to include public input and final recommendations for possible uses—but not any actual development. Initial coverage of the project by the Knoxville News-Sentinel included a photo of the consultants taking a June 23 tour of Haw Ridge, Clark Park, and the Oak Ridge Marina—but the photo's caption inaccurately identified them as developers, not as consultants, which gave rise to some misconceptions about the project that have proved hard to correct.

But that was only the prologue to the story. Very early on, the scope of the project was completely changed. As the press releases we've been faxing to Metro Pulse since early August explain in detail, the city is now trying to find out what its citizens want to do to improve Oak Ridge's economic future on the whole. Developing Haw Ridge became just one of many, many possible ways to do that—and Mr. Tarr's article gives the incorrect impression that Haw Ridge remained the focus of the project.

Mr. Tarr's article does refer correctly to some of the city's extensive efforts to find out what the citizens want, including a survey sent to more than 12,000 Oak Ridgers and a public meeting on Sept. 3. He even mentions that Oak Ridge is now taking a look at "the larger picture"—but he doesn't explain what that larger picture is, leaving people like Mr. Murphy to assume that "the city plans to force development of Haw Ridge on the citizens of this area."

In fact, nothing could be further from the truth. The "larger picture" is finding ways to bring people to live, work, and visit in Oak Ridge—and the vast majority of suggestions offered by citizens have nothing to do with Haw Ridge. Lose & Associates is now in the process of analyzing information gathered through more than 2,100 completed surveys, personal interviews obtained at the Oak Ridge Mall Aug. 31-Sept. 3, e-mailed comments from a special Web page accessible through the city's home page, meetings with various private and public city agencies, letters sent to Josh Collins and other city officials (including a letter from Mr. Murphy) and the Sept. 3 public meeting, which was attended by about 700 people.

Lose & Associates will present their final recommendations to City Council on Oct. 12. The public is invited to come to this special City Council meeting, which will be held in the Civic Center Gymnasium at 7:30 p.m. Check out the excellent coverage in The Oak Ridger (available online at www.oakridger.com for those who live in Knoxville) to find out what happens—and, as always, we'll keep Metro Pulse informed.

Suzanne Shelton
Owner & Chief Manager
The Write Stuff Advertising & Marketing