Gloria Bailey, director of national cemetery, shares
her enthusiasm for Fayetteville and the setting of her new workplace with readers of the Northwest Arkansas Times.
Robin Mero wrote in today's Northwest Arkansas Times: Growing up on her grand parents' farm, she learned to appreciate the rural lifestyle and said she enjoys hearing the cows on Thursdays (sale days) at the sale barn, which is adjacent to the national cemetery in Fayetteville.
She said her grandfather grew tobacco, corn, wheat - you name it - and raised livestock in South Carolina. She recalled picking fresh fruit and vegetables.
"Being in the country is my way of living," she said. "I feel like I've come home."
Welcome to the Town Branch neighborhood, Gloria!
Unfortunately, something you couldn't have known when you took the job is that a developer has made an offer to buy the sale -barn property contingent on a plan being approved to build a 500-bed student-apartment complex next to the National Cemetery. This project with 3- or 4-story buildings would eliminate the rural setting of the cemetery and the view to the east and northeast and prevent early morning sunlight from reaching the cemetery. The Fayetteville planning commission soon is expected to hear a request to rezone the land for apartments rather than the existing light industrial.
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4 comments:
The cemetery does not lye in a rural area. It is bordered by subdivisions and an industrial area.
The setting seems rural, despite the tall buildings cropping up in all directions, and that is appropriate for a cemetery created in a rural area in 1867 to provide for civil-war veterans.
To jam student apartments next to it would be disrespectful and inappropriate.
There were farms immediately to the west as late as World War II. The sale barn was built in 1937 and probably was just outside the city limits or very near the edge. The subdivisions in the Town Branch neighborhood were built later.
The Hill Place student apartment/Aspen Ridge condo property was a dairy farm until about 1937 and only a few farm houses were in that area until close to 1950.
The "rural" setting is what brings a lot of people to Fayetteville. We didn't come here and settle to have it become urban. And the delicate environment here means that it should NEVER become a true urban area.
That neighborhood includes lots of opportunity for employment, most of the lots hold their own water because they have rich, black prairie soil and serve as natural raingardens that protect downstream land from flooding, and the density was exactly right when it was first built out in the 50s. It provides affordable housing for members of the city's workforce and is generally shady and pleasant.
In other words, it is the sort of place that conforms not only to stormwater regulations but also to the highest values expressed by many city planners. Grassy swales instead of piped stormwater, no curb and gutter on most streets and many other things are found there that experts on future planning urge our city to go back to for many reasons.
Aub, you fail to point out that growing up in rural settings makes for better adjusted, less stressed human beings. No kid should have to grow up in an apartment. Sadly, that is all the can be provided for many. And that has to do with education, training and wage rates.
There is a mentality that would keep a high percentage of people working at low wages and living in crowded conditions. A dorm or tiny room in a boarding house is perfect for students. Good students don't need anything but a clean, safe place to sleep and study. The ones who expect the expensive amenities are the ones who don't attend college to learn.
The best students seldom require a parking place in a college!
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