Jackson resident Katherine Tate rejoiced when she learned the Jackson City Council approved her request for a public access gate on Brecon Drive.
“Hallelujah!” said Tate, a semi-retired educator who is pursuing a Ph.D. “We’ve got to go to work on a fundraiser.”
Tate applied on behalf of the Hillview subdivision for permission from the city to install a public access gate just past Spann Elementary School.
A gate would help deter crime, she said.
Tate said she pulled a gun and stopped armed robbers at a neighbor’s house on Brecon Drive about two months ago. She recalls a drive-by shooting that occurred there a year ago.
Hillview subdivision is part of the Sheffield Area Homeowners’ Association, which has discussed public access gates for the neighborhood but has never applied for them..
Tate, who admits she is not a member of the association, hopes getting the go-ahead for the single gate will encourage the association to apply for additional gates.
Steven and Constance Jones, neighbors who have a landscape business, helped with costs related to the application, she said. “They’re good neighbors,” she said.
The single gate, which would be installed just past Hillview Drive, will cost about $10,000 to erect, she said, explaining that the design the city reviewed and approved includes handsome brick supports.
Tate hopes to enlist neighbors to assist with raising funds to pay for the gate and maintenance contract. She admitted fundraising could “fall flat” but she’s going to see what happens.
The city of Jackson’s gating ordinance requires that a public access gate have battery back-up in case the power goes out and that it include a path beside it so pedestrians and bicyclists can bypass the gate. A neighborhood or homeowners’ organization must pay all of the expenses related to public access gates.
Tate said she’s walked throughout the neighborhood, studied locations for addditional gates and spoken with many residents about gates. She’s only encountered one resident against gating.
Tate said she once lived in a gated neighborhood in Madison but downsized and moved to her current home about 12 years ago. “I love this neighborhood,” she said.
Tate said her mother inspired her to take action.
“My mother was a mover and shaker,” she said. “That’s why I am doing this for my community.”
Tate said she and a friend meet each Wednesday to pray for the city of Jackson and its leaders. “We pray for Mayor Lumumba and the city engineer,” she said.
Ashley Ogden, president of the Sheffield Area Homeowners’ Association, said as many as seven gates would be needed to secure the neighborhood and there are currently no plans to seek permission from the city to install them.
Ogden said installing security cameras in the neighborhood would be useful to deter crime but like gates, that, too, would be dependent upon funds being raised. “Until we raise the money we won’t do anything,” he said.
Technology has improved greatly in recent years so that security cameras can provide clear views of car tags, he said, and that would be useful in catching anyone suspected of wrongdoing.
The Brecon Drive gating request was the last to be approved under the city’s former gating ordinance.
Aaron Banks of Ward 6, president of the city council, was surprised by the lack of response about the Brecon gate during the public hearing that was part of the council’s meeting on April 13.
“Let me say, ‘This is history making,’” he said, noting it was the first time he could remember that no resident showed up to express an opinion about gates.
Council member Kenny Stokes of Ward 3 asked during the hearing if the Jackson Fire Department had reviewed the site plans for the gate to make sure the design would allow ample space for a fire truck to pass.
Jordan Rae Hillman, director of planning and development for the city of Jackson, said the fire department had reviewed and approved the plans.
“We do perform a final inspection to confirm what was planned has been built,” she noted.
