Lebanon square survey complete

The deadline Friday came and went for residents to fill out an oline survey concerning a proposed safety project planned for the Lebanon Town Square.

After little initial opposition, the square plan came under fire recently from shop owners on the square who fear a loss of business due to fewer parking spaces and the downtime during the work itself.

The current plan from the Tennessee Department of Transportation calls for the center parking area to be eliminated and parking areas to be built in the four corners of the square.
The deadline Friday came and went for residents to fill out an oline survey concerning a proposed safety project planned for the Lebanon Town Square.
After little initial opposition, the square plan came under fire recently from shop owners on the square who fear a loss of business due to fewer parking spaces and the downtime during the work itself.
The current plan from the Tennessee Department of Transportation calls for the center parking area to be eliminated and parking areas to be built in the four corners of the square.
In response to the uproar, Lebanon Mayor Philip Craighead posted a survey on the city’s website and distributed hard copies of the same, asking citizens to respond to questions, such as whether they own a business on the square, whether they visit the square to shop or attend meetings and events, if they’ve seen the plan proposed by the TDOT, whether they think safety is an issue on the square and if they’ve had problems crossing the street.
Craighead said Friday Kim Parks with Historic Lebanon was working with his office on the surveys.
“Kim Parks is collecting them, and they’re categorizing them and everything,” he said. “I haven’t counted, I know we’ve had several hundred - probably about 700 to 800 of them. It was a good turnout.”
So, far the results are unknown.
“We’ve just been collecting them, and she’s getting help and getting ready to categorize them,” Craighead said. “We’re trying to get them all in.”
He said it took the efforts of several people to get the surveys distributed and collected.
“We had a lot of people out trying to help us get them out,” he said. “They were just all over town. We just put it out there and asked them on the website.”
He is optimistic the surveys will be in favor of the square project.
“Everywhere I go, I just get positive support for it,” Craighead said.