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Chattanooga: Greenway Farm barn to be rebuilt

By: Lori Yount
(Contact)

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Jeannette Baugh

The barn at Greenway Farm that burned to the ground in April will be rebuilt, hopefully in time for the next peak summer season of the city’s OutVenture program, Chattanooga officials said.

Residents living near the 180-acre park in Hixson raised concerns when they found the $220,000 the city received from its insurance policy for the destroyed barn was being used to complete the new Outdoor Chattanooga building at Coolidge Park.

“I was concerned that the insurance money would be used for other purposes, and the need for the replacement of the barn might be ignored,” said Jeanette Baugh, a 24-year area resident who walks her dogs at the farm every day.

Ciity officials said the issue was a matter of cash flow. Plans drawn up by architects and the bid on the Coolidge Park building were ready to go but work stalled because of the lack of $250,000. No professional plans had been drawn up for the Greenway Farm structure yet, and it would take months to award a bid on the project, said Larry Zehnder, administrator of Parks and Recreation.

“It’s not taking from one project to give to another,” he said. “Every dollar (of revenue) goes into the general fund and has to be reallocated.”

So, Mr. Zehnder said city officials decided to use the readily available insurance money to start the delayed Coolidge Park project, which is set to break ground in late summer, and request $250,000 to rebuild the farm’s storage structure in next fiscal year’s budget, which begins July 1. This shouldn’t delay rebuilding a structure to store the OutVenture program’s dozens of kayaks and paddling equipment, he said.

“Even if we had the money from the insurance, it’d take the same amount of time to be built,” Mr. Zehnder said of the storage building. “We’d want to put it on the fast track.”

Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield said the project would be given high priority in budget decisions, and he already has told Mr. Zehnder to hire an architect to draw up plans for the building.

“(Greenway Farm) is a wise investment, and we’ve been needing to replace that facility,” he said, adding city leaders were criticized for approving the purchase of the farm for $1 million years ago. “No one would have chosen to have the fire occur, but it gives it greater” urgency, he said.

It is not believed the fire was set intentionally, according to the fire department.

Meanwhile, the OutVenture program, which offers canoe and kayak trips to thousands of people each year, including underprivileged children in city programs and tourists, continues with donated equipment and makeshift storage space, director Marcus Hulsey said.

“Programwise, we’re struggling because of the time it takes to turn around (equipment),” he said. “We still have to go through the bureaucracy of purchasing orders.”

The program received $42,000 in insurance money to replace equipment, and the biggest problem remains storage, as the metal sheds the city provided don’t have proper ventilation and the Outdoor Chattanooga building cannot be used because it’s under construction, Mr. Hulsey said. Picking up equipment from various places adds an hour to each trip, he said.

But he said new storage space for canoes and a secure fence soon will be built at the OutVenture building’s parking lot on Greenway Farm to help store some boats until the barn is rebuilt, possibly during the winter.

Despite her initial concerns, Ms. Baugh said a meeting with Mr. Littlefield has left her optimistic about the structure being rebuilt in an attractive way and about the future of Greenway Farm as a whole.

“He has made this promise, and I hope he fulfills it,” she said.

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