Gleaning Facebook: Bill Schroeder on the Burwell Creek Wetland

My Facebook friend, Bill Schroeder, responds to our walk through downtown Rome yesterday: 

Vicki Davis Schroeder, William Cantrell Schroeder, Barrett and I went on a little hike yesterday evening thanks to Joe Cook with the Coosa River Basin Initiative here in Rome. We've already been in there (you probably have seen the photos here on Face Book), but having Joe give us the low down on the entire nature of the area was something we couldn't turn down. And besides that, Joe's good people. Fun to be around.

We parked in the gravel parking area just north of the parking lot for Shane's on Riverside Pkwy at Turner McCall, and walked with a group of people under the bridge to the other side of Riverside Parkway, and were suddenly transported into an emerald dreamland.

If you haven't been there to see this, you owe it to yourself to go down and experience it. Right there in Downtown Rome, an absolute treasure. Vegetation you wouldn't expect to see in a downtown area. Tall majestic trees shading the area. Lush ground cover. Deer tracks, the Keeeeeer Keeeeeeer of hawks, a beaver dam, all there in Downtown Rome. An absolute treat for the senses. Not the kind of wildlife you would expect to find in the downtown area of a town as large as Rome, let me tell you! I know for a fact there's foxes and at least a dozen deer that frequent the area, because I can walk out the back door of my office (which is adjacent to the area) and see them on just about any given day. A dozen deer calmly strolling through the woods. In downtown Rome. Can you imagine anything as cool as this?

And it's ripe for the picking! Perfect place for a strip mall!!! Why there's an old dump site there tricking toxins from the soil!!! At least that's the story people want you to believe. In all actuality the old dump poses no problem at all. Nature has done what nature does. She's reclaimed what was once hers. Now someone wants to take it away from her and put up a strip mall...

Like Rome needs another strip mall.

I don't get it. The Ledbetter name has always been synonymous here in Rome with building. Roads, shopping centers, malls, you name it. Movers and shakers. Makes them a lot of money, surely, but not much of a legacy if you ask me. People build stuff in every town in America.

"They Built Stuff".

How about a new legacy for the proud Ledbetter family name?

Why not do something your grandchildrens' grandchildren will be able to point at and say proudly, "yeah, we're those Ledbetters".

How about, "They Gave Back To The Community".

Donate that entire strip to be a park / greenspace / nature preserve for eternity. Certainly you have friends who are more than willing to overcompensate you for being so benevolent!? Hell, I'd insist they do!!! And what a tourist draw for Rome! The name Ledbetter would be on the tongues of people from all over America and the world! And parts of Mississippi and Alabama!

New York has Central Park. Know what it was before it was the Park? An absolute blight. Worse than Burwell Creek is now. Far worse. Several dumps, numerous run down neighborhoods, you name it. Now look at what they did with that blight. It's Central freaking Park, man.

Think about it...

"Ledbetter Park."

They shoot movies in Rome, you know. Your park could be featured in many of the scenes. Rather than have Harrison Ford drive past buildings declaring this place to be a toilet, what about a love scene in a lush park setting?

The community has supported your aims, wishes and desires for all these years. Even named an interchange for the family.

How about give something back? Building the shopping center will be a black eye on the good name of Ledbetter. But a park would put your name way up there beyond reach!

Want to put your name on something that will knock "putting your name on something" out of the park? Do this. There's plenty of places elsewhere to put a shopping center. Like on the other side of the railroad tracks where you were going to put the retention pond to make up for the used up wetlands. It's already flat, no environmental impact, and you could have it done in 4 years.

So how about it? Don't just be another family that builds stuff and is forgotten a few generations later. Folks dow that in every town in America. Put your name on something with will be here for ever. Be that kind of family. Extraordinary. The proud Ledbetter name demands this honor and distinction!

Put your name on Rome's Central freaking Park! Imagine, they'd probably move the first Friday concerts there, and you could sit back, close your eyes, and drink it all in. "yeah, I did this." What heady stuff.

Just do it. The entire community, I swear to God will give you a standing ovation. Heck, I'll organize a parade down Broad Street for your entire family.