Protesters say site clearing called off temporarily

At least for the time being, a protest has succeeded in stopping the clearing of a former school property for a Seneca utilities complex. And the protesters, homeowners in the Adams subdivision, have been promised a meeting later today with Bob Faires, city utilities superintendent. Sandra Gray and others who have signed a petition campaign are encouraged that, at the least, they’ll be getting some information from city officials. “We didn’t know that this was even going to happen,” Gray told 96.3/WGOG NEWS. According to Gray, she and her neighbors had thought the city was planning to move its administrative offices to the former J-N Kellett Elementary School and did not realize only until lately that the plans included moving trucks, pipe, transformers and other equipment to the site. Adams subdivision resident Brenda Cromer, a nice of the late Ploma Adams, remembers the way her aunt developed the property as a planned community for homes, churches, and a school. According to Cromer, the construction of a utilities complex that would include open-air storage would not have been in keeping with Mrs. Adams’ wishes. In an interview Saturday, Mayor Dan Alexander admitted that city officials should have communicated their plans better to the neighborhood. But he also said that, as the current owners of the former school property, the city is within its legal right to adapt its use for another public purpose.