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Wednesday, June 3, 2009

40 Jealous Whores / Around Town / Politics / The Economy May Town's Not-So-Solid Promises to Tennessee State

Posted by Pete Kotz on Wed, Jun 3, 2009 at 11:49 AM

click to enlarge What's the delay on the Tennessee State donation?
  • What's the delay on the Tennessee State donation?
From our Bells Bend correspondent Brenda Butka: TSU has been the targeted recipient of May Town largess--250 acres, a $400,000 donation toward an endowed chair, and $49,000 for students earning credit in a geography class to call alumni and read a script touting the miracles that May Town will bring. Only not quite: documents detailing the agreements clearly state that the donations of land and money are contingent on May Town's success. That is, TSU hasn't actually gotten anything yet. May Town speculators have vigorously stated on numerous occasions over the last month that, of course, the donations are free and clear, no strings attached. Naturally, the legal process is complicated, talks are underway, but promises have--HAVE--been made. Naturally. I asked a couple of lawyer friends how complicated this is. They both laughed. It involves about thirty minutes and something called a "quit claim deed." Add in time to walk to the fax machine--maybe an hour, tops, to get the evidence to Pith, or the Tennessean, or Dr. Johnson at TSU. The other promise made to Nashville (after the one about only one bridge and the one about absolutely no--NO--May Town traffic along Old Hickory Boulevard, that charming country lane leading north to Highway 12) is jobs. We can see how well that's panned out so far. At least one of the several publicity machines working for Giarratana is Massachusetts-based Saint Consulting, which, according to their web site, "specializes in winning zoning and land-use battles". And the Maytown design team consists of companies based in Dallas, Washington, DC, Columbus Ohio, and Memphis, plus one from Williamson County (maybe they'd move up here), and a single local firm. Maybe the promises aren't entirely empty--TSU might be able to collect at least part of the $49,000 contract for the alumni phone calls. That adds up to considerably less than 1% of the $6 million in development costs May Town has racked up so far. I suppose this could also count as a job opportunity brought by the development, if we didn't feel so queasy about students being paid to do PR for classroom credit. A lot of people in Scottsboro would like for TSU to get its property and start farming--it's already too late for lettuce or tomatoes, but we could be working together on plans for a fall crop. Organics take a lot of field prep. Which can't be done by a firm based in Columbus, Ohio.

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It is a trick among the dishonest to offer sacrifices that are not needed, or not possible, to avoid making those that are required. -Ivan Goncharov, novelist (1812-1891)

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Posted by piginapoke on June 3, 2009 at 12:28 PM

I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on TV, but I was once told by a real lawyer that a "quit claim deed" transfers any ownership rights you may have in property to someone but doesn't in any way certify that you actually have any ownership rights.
IOW, I assume could give you a quit claim deed for all the property I own in Bells Bend but it wouldn't be worth the paper it's written on since I don't own any property in Bells Bend.
Time now for a real lawyer to straighten this out.

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Posted by Emmett Flatus on June 3, 2009 at 12:30 PM

Reminds me of a scene from Gone With The Wind:
"You vote with us, and you'll get forty acres and a MULE!!!"
"FORTY acres and a MULE????"
"Yes, boy, FORTY acres and a mule!"
Why is anyone surprised to find out this is a lie?

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Posted by carpetbagrrrrrrr on June 3, 2009 at 1:18 PM

watch out for this saint consulting- in a quick google i found out that they go around door to door and lie about who they are working for. in one instance they had to take one of their employees names off their website for a time period. Very shifty group -

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Posted by William on June 3, 2009 at 1:48 PM

I think these thing are pretty legit, Emmett. You hear about them all the time on simple real estate deals. And if you're giving someone a parcel of land with no strings attached, that's a pretty simple real estate deal.
But you have to admire the PR scam May Town is running. They found a desperate university willing to do PR under the auspices of research. At least it was a good scam while it lasted.

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Posted by Pete Kotz on June 3, 2009 at 2:11 PM

I know it is done all the time, PK. All I'm saying is that the person promising to convey said property doesn't actually warrant that they do own the property.
IOW, I could quit claim the Brooklyn Bridge to you. You just couldn't actually take possession since I don't really own it.

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Posted by Emmet Flatus on June 3, 2009 at 3:31 PM

http://www.tscg.biz/leadership.html
They have several Nashville connections but this guy's photo looks like someone drew on it: Robert J. Flavell,Vice Chairman

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Posted by sueyyyy on June 3, 2009 at 3:54 PM

William good point about the hired PR guns Saint Communications are no Saints!
i just did a google search on my own, and they have been caught a few times lying about their door to door campaigning, and playing sneaky tricks!

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Posted by Nancy on June 3, 2009 at 8:18 PM

I guess wasn't sneak trying to slip through a rezoning at the state legislature of 20,000 acres, effectively taking that property's zoning control away from the city.

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Posted by Richard Lawson on June 4, 2009 at 10:43 AM

Sorry for double post. Computer moving slow and screwed up some typing.
I guess it wasn't sneaky trying to slip through a rezoning at the state legislature of 20,000 acres, effectively taking that property's zoning control away from the city.

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Posted by Richard Lawson on June 4, 2009 at 10:45 AM
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