Share and Follow
JONESBOROUGH, Tenn. (WJHL) – On Thursday, The Washington County, County-owned Property Committee heard presentations for the five proposals for the Washington County Farm.
The public was invited to speak as well. Many residents who live near the farm stated their concerns with some of the proposals. Many also spoke in favor of some of the proposals.
Some of the concerns residents mentioned are the housing of homeless people, depreciation of the value of surrounding properties and the potential of rising crime rates in the area.
Three of the proposals include temporarily housing individuals.
Grace Manor would like the property to be used for educational and vocational uses for students. They would also like to have transitional housing for foster care and others needing temporary housing.
“We’ve noticed that there are a lot of teens that are coming out of foster care, for example they may have not been in a foster family,” Cheryl Trzcinski, President of Grace Manor, said. “So, they don’t have the skills and the know-how of ‘how do I go grocery shopping? How do I manage a budget? What does work really look like,’ that whole scheduling piece. If they had time to spend in transitional housing, get those basic skills down, they’re going to be so much more successful when they leave.”
Unity Housing would like the farm to be used for medical respite housing that would temporarily house people recovering from an acute illness.
No Matter What Street Ministries 2% plans on using the farm for a church and temporary housing for women who struggle with addiction. They would also house those women’s children.
Philip Brandt and Tess Lloyd would like the farm to be a low-impact nature park and camp.
Likewise, Matthew Paul would like to see a neighborhood park.
The county-owned property committee recommended that the presenters think about partnering up if their ideas align.
“We have been approached by Unity House [Housing] and they would like to open discussion about partnering together for programming on that property,” Trzcinski said. “We would love to have discussion with anybody who would be interested in utilizing that property.”
Trzcinski said that a place for students to get vocational and educational training is their main focus.
“As long as we can also have some of that transitional housing and Unity House [Housing] is looking for a respite medical care. All of the ingredients fit together. I’m excited about opportunities.”
Trzcinski said she is thankful for the public coming to the meeting.
“We find that a lot of concern stems from fear. We hope that we could allay some of that fear just by sharing factual information. And, you know, I’ve had people say, ‘well, what happens if this property doesn’t work out for you? You know, what if this property doesn’t work out?’
I can only imagine what God has planned for us it’ll be so much better. But we love this property. We want to be good stewards of this property. We’re willing to make the investment of time, and talent and resources.”
The county-owned property committee also requested that the presenters provide them with a budget and a timeline. They also motioned for the property to be appraised.
The proposals will be on the agenda for the April 4 county-owned property meeting.
