Henry County officials expressed extreme disappointment Tuesday with a decision by the University of Tennessee choosing Hardeman County as the location for the planned West Tennessee 4-H and Conference Center.
At an afternoon press conference in Paris, local officials announced Tim Cross, the dean for UT’s Extension service, had informed them Tuesday that Hardeman County’s site had been picked from among the three finalists, which also included Henry and Carroll counties.
Henry County had offered up the former Camp Hazlewood Girl Scout camp site near Kentucky Lake as the possible location for the center, which was expected to cost about $37.5 million.
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Instead, officials at UT, including Cross, Ben West, head of 4-H for West Tennessee, and Larry Arrington, chancellor of the UT Institute for Agriculture, chose what’s known as the Lone Oaks Farm site in Hardeman County.
“Needless to say, we are extremely disappointed,” said Carl Holder, Paris city manager who was chairman of the local committee tasked with presenting the county as the best option. “For the better part of a year, we have taken every possible step to try and obtain this combination Camp and Conference Center…”
Greer said he was proud of the way the community had come together to support Henry County’s bid even though it proved unsuccessful.
“I couldn’t be any prouder of our community than what I am,” Greer said. “We have a special, unique place. We care about one another. And, you could tell during the process, with our people, it became more about having a place for our children (involved in 4-H) than anything else.”
In an email sent by West to Holder Tuesday, West indicated one big factor in choosing Hardeman County was because “this site has extensive development already complete, including all site preparation, infrastructure, landscaping, recreational facilities, meeting facilities, etc. It can be operational very quickly.”
West’s email also indicated the total estimated project cost if done at the Hardeman County site is less than the original capital budget request for the project.
The recommendation is tentative and the UT Board of Trustees still has to put its stamp of approval on the choice.
But Holder indicated there is probably only about a 2 percent chance that UT would shift off of Hardeman County as its choice at this point in this game, and he called it “game over.”
“This is a psychological blow to us as a community,” Holder said. “At this point, we’ll lick our wounds for a day or two, and then start working on Plan B.”
That plan is to still use the Camp Hazlewood property for a major project — probably developing it into a family-oriented youth camp.
“Hazlewood is too valuable an asset to our citizens, particularly our youth, not to maximize its value, and also recap the potential economic value as a natural attraction,” Holder said.
Greer pointed out that when the county had a consulting firm work on ideas for tourism development seven years ago, one of the top items on that firm’s list of recommendations was to develop a nature center for the county.
“We’ve learned during this process exactly what we do have,” Greer said. “And we haven’t lost the vision to have a nature center there and explore all our opportunities.”
The property, which was owned by the Girl Scouts for several decades, now belongs to the state. It’s a 332-acre site with almost 4,000 feet of waterfront on Kentucky Lake.
The new center in Hardeman County would replace the old Buford Ellington 4-H Center in Milan that closed more than three years ago.
Holder said UT officials had indicated throughout the selection process that it wanted to keep politics out of the equation.
“I don’t want to be naive, but I believe with the integrity the UT people have and the secrecy they maintained during the process, I believe they did that partially to keep the politics out of it,” he said.
“Believe me, if it had been open to politics, we would have played every political card we had. If that had been the game, we would have done it.”
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