Senator John Stevens made the announcement about the payoff of the Carroll County 1,000 Acre Recreational Lake at the Feb. 11 Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Legislative meeting.
He announced it at the close of his speech and that TWRA would be managing it.
He said he was surprised that no one had mentioned it. I don’t know that many people except insiders knew about the payoff, let alone about renaming it Lake Halford..
Now Feb. 11 is pretty early in the session that he knew about it already because the legislature doesn’t get started until later in January and just adjourned a couple or three weeks ago.
We appreciate what Rep. Curtis Halford has done for his half of Carroll County. I wrote to that end a few weeks ago in my column.
Apparently, neither one of these legislators that introduced the legislation to rename the lake studied its history and knew little about it.. House member William Lamberth represents District 44 (part of Sumner County and resides in Portland.) He was born Dec. 5, 1977 and was barely six years old when Dale Kelley introduced this legislation in 1984.
Senator Jack Johnson (District 23) who represents Williamson County and lives in Brentwood, carried the bill in the Senate. He probably knows very little about the history of the lake either.
But John Stevens knows full well who masterminded the lake and saw it through to the very end.
Did he not try to negotiate with these two legislators so as to keep the same name or name it Lake Kelley or did he just let it SLIDE on through.
What was wrong with the present name? Carroll County 1,000 Acre Recreational Lake? That name tells a lot – what county its in, how large it is and that it supports the recreation of fishing, boating and swimming.
If you don’t think the lake is used, just go on a weekend and see how crowded it is. As far as that goes, go after 4 or 5 some afternoon when people get off from work and even during the day in the summer. It’s not like its sitting there like a dried up pond. It’s very much used. It brings a lot of people into the county.
Furthermore, take a drive down the roads around the lake and you’ll see the million dollar houses springing up. I know of one personally that sold for over a million just recently.
Things seem to be booming out there.
And oh the property taxes it will bring in.
Senator Stevens, what will it take for you to introduce legislation next January to correct this grievous error and either return the lake to its original name or honor a man deserving of the honor?
