Overlay Ordinance Passes Winfield
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Overlay Ordinance Passes Winfield
Wilson named representative to Coalition
By Shane Gilreath
Photo by Shane Gilreath
Ralph Trieschmann, proprietor of Timber Rock Lodge and Chair of the Industrial Development Board, stressed the urgency of acting against the landfill when he addressed the Winfield Mayor and Aldermen on Tuesday.
Following an impassioned meeting with citizens a month ago, the Winfield Mayor and Aldermen met again last week with similar issues still hanging over the board. In a room approximately half-filled with constituents – some dawning anti-landfill pins – pledging to stop the development of the proposed landfill, Mayor Jerry Dodson called July’s meeting to order. Despite anticipated public comment, the board meeting was two-fold: voting to officially join the much talked about Scott-McCreary Environmental Coalition (SMEC) and the second and final reading of an overlay zoning ordinance. In June, Vice Mayor Doug Wilson said the ordinance was “adding more strenuous requirements than the state has.” With the zoning overlay having passed the town’s planning committee on July 7, 2025, Ordinance 26-02 – unanimously approved by the Mayor and Aldermen – is set to take effect immediately in tightening Winfield’s existing zoning laws. Such an ordinance is applied over the top of an existing zone for the purpose of stricter regulations. These additional codes can introduce new, tighter requirements that apply alongside the underlying zoning regulation. Among other issues, overlay zones are commonly used to address specific issues of environmental protections.
Having not officially voted to join, item two on the agenda was a discussion of Winfield’s place in SMEC. A unanimous vote was made to enter the coalition, joining Scott and McCreary County governments, as well as Huntsville and Oneida. Unlike other governments, who have named two representatives and a multitude of advisors, Winfield elected to appoint one representative to SMEC. Wilson was chosen with Dodson serving as alternate.
Winfield Attorney Jade Peters explained to SCN that the coalition must take the Tennessee Open Meetings Act into consideration. Though Peters and others acknowledged that the coalition had not yet formally met or taken form, Winfield, Peters said, was acting in consideration of possible future meetings that could prove futile to openly strategize.
With votes behind them, the board opened the floor for comment, which drew a range of statements from concerned citizens, including McCreary County Attorney Darlene Price. Price, who hosts the public news magazine, Truth or Politics, was instrumental in fighting the Somerset, Kentucky, government on environmental toxins that were being dumped into Lake Cumberland, via leachate, the liquid that circulates among the waste found in landfills and contains various pollutants. Some 70,000 gallons, according to Price’s estimates.
“With a 700-acre landfill,” Price told attendees, “you’ll have billions of gallons over time.”
Holding the room in her hand in a sea of shocked faces, Price cautioned, too, against trusting organizers of the landfill to fund their own studies. “If TDEC allows Bearcat to pay for their own ecological studies, you get the study you pay for,” she said, advocating that TDEC could hold up the permit – which Dodson said was incomplete – to develop the proposed landfill and citing numerous contaminates that could end up in local waterways.
“Whatever’s in that landfill, that’s going to end up in the leachate,” Price warned. “What goes in Bear Creek doesn’t stay in Bear Creek.”
Such potential contaminates could directly impact the area where, just last week, State Senator Ken Yager (R-Kingston) and Rep. Kelly Keisling (R-Brydstown) announced that TDEC had awarded the Town of Oneida $392,000 for a Bear Creek Park Trail Development project. Break Creek additionally runs through the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.
“Once your water is poisoned, it’s too late,” Price said.
Below shows map of the Winfield Zones.
