The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • B1

CYANMAGYELBLK TennesseanBroadsheet Master TennesseanBroadsheet Master 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5 100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 5 TennesseanBroadsheet Master TennesseanBroadsheet Master 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 5 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 1B LOCALNEWS TUESDAY, JUNE 28, 2005 www.tennessean.com INSIDE Obituaries EACH WEEK Wednesday: Friday: Road construction update Saturday: Faith TO REACH OUR NEWSROOM Phone: 259-8095; fax: 259-8093 E-mail: Laurie E. Holloway, Deputy Managing Editor Phone: 726-5944 E-mail: tennessean.com Ricky Young, City Editor Phone: 259-8068 E-mail: By YVETTE CRAIG StaffWriter Residents along Interstate 440 may get more shut-eye now that the speed limit has been officially reduced from 65 to 55 for all vehicles. Dawn Kirk grabbed her camera yesterday to take snapshots of highway crews removing the old signs to make room for the new ones. The Hillsboro Pike area resident spearheaded a petition drive over a year ago after lying awake, listening to the hiss of traffic. Talks with lawmakers, the Nashville Area Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Tennessee Department of Transportation turned into action for concerns over noise and safety.

believe it was really Kirk said. had to see it for myself. I believe it now. This is Speed limits were increased in July 2000 after a study showed most vehicles were going 67 mph. Traffic patterns grew steadily and in 2004 Middle Tennessee was put on notice for not meeting air-pollution standards.

That resulted in a whole new level of air-pollution control measures, including speed reduction. TDOT reports show that traffic grew steadily at a year on I-440 from an average of about 79,000 to 102,000 vehicles a day except for the section between Interstate 65 and Hillsboro Pike. It grew a year there. Residents argued that the sprouting number of vehicles was eroding their quality of life, polluting the air and potentially lowering the value of their homes. move will bring the traffic speeds into line with the sections of the interstates that I- 440 connects with, said Fred Schwartz, director of Nashville Area MPO.

The I-440 corridor connects with Interstate 24, east of downtown, I-65, south of downtown, and Interstate 40 on the west side that are already posted at 55 mph. An average of 98,000 vehicles travel on I-440 each day. The interstate connector was completed in 1987. Under normal conditions, lowering the speed limit to 55 mph would add only 60 seconds to every five miles traveled on I-440, according to Ed Cole, chief of environment and planning at TDOT. Kirk said that she and others are impressed by the cooperation received from the state.

noise had gotten so bad that we were considering Kirk said. we have to. The lesson in all of this is that TDOT was willing to pay attention to the concerns of our neighborhood rather than turning a deaf ear and pretending not to Staff writer Yvette Craig can be reached at 726-5938 or New lower speed limit on I-440 excites residents Petition drive, discussions with local, state officials help spur effort By DIANE LONG StaffWriter With their fingers crossed for at least $541 million, Metro school board members are already mulling over their budget options for 2005-06. Schools Director Pedro first-draft proposal for that amount shows the district must spend $20.5 million more than the current $513 million budget to pay for required employee benefits. That leaves about $7 million in new money for program improvements.

Although draft includes his suggestions on what improvements the district most needs, the final decision must come from board members. And shaping up to be a tough decision as expensive options for more teachers, math specialists and guidance counselors fall by the wayside. seen success with our reading said school board member Marsha Warden. want to see success in our math with math specialists. We want to see success in our high schools where we can break the trend of our ninth-graders not moving in one year to 10th grade.

It appears to me we have misguided priorities. If we pay for these children and their education, we will pay in other People in the community also are keeping close tabs on the schools budget because any increase will probably require some sort of property or wheel tax hike. On the one hand, taxpayer Shirley Clary feels like last announcement of better test scores shows that school request for $570 million solve all problems. board did a better job and the teachers did their Clary said. filtered down.

The students responded and the job got done. That was all done without the need for a $570 million Still, like to see schools get more money not from a tax increase but by shifting the portion of property tax earmarked for schools. School board tries to pinpoint its Garcia spells out what he believes district needs most JOHN PARTIPILO STAFF Steve Wolterman takes down a 65 mph sign on Interstate 440 East as Robert Ladd, on ladder, and James Wolterman, far left, get ready to put up a new 55 mph sign. Heeding the concerns of residents along I-440, the state decided to lower the speed limit on the interstate connector. By ANITA WADHWANI StaffWriter Gov.

Phil Bredesen surprised TennCare protesters occupying his Capitol offices Sunday afternoon by dropping by with burgers and fries, but the 90-minute conversation that followed yielded no agreement or end to the round-the- clock protest over program cuts. Both sides described the meeting as cordial, with the governor taking a seat on the floor just outside his office suite to share a meal of Big Macs and Quarter Pounders with four TennCare enrollees who had remained over the weekend in the locked Capitol. Don DeVaul, who was one of them, said yesterday that the conversation focused on to find out about each other. What he faced. What we faced.

We talk about demands. He just really wanted to know our stories, how it was that we came on DeVaul and other protesters are asking for an immediate halt to plans to cut as many as 323,000 from TennCare, which provides health-care insurance for the poor, elderly, disabled and uninsured. The protesters, organized by the Nashville Peace and Justice Center, also are asking for a public meeting with the governor to discuss alternatives to save money and spare cuts to the $8.7 billion program. Yesterday, press secretary Lydia Lenker said there were no plans for such a public meeting. The governor has met with protesters twice since they began occupying his offices last Monday, including a meeting last Tuesday.

The governor told the group then that any chance of averting some of the cuts lay not with him but with a federal court hearing that will begin tomorrow. But DeVaul said yesterday that without any of their demands met by the governor, the protesters were there to stay. Yesterday, the group was joined for the afternoon by about 10 members of the Memphis chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a national civil rights organization, who brought pillows and blankets for the protesters. The chapter president, the Rev. Dwight Montgomery, said his group was contacting other pastors across the state, and national civil rights groups such as the NAACP and Rainbow Push to get involved in the fight to save TennCare.

DeVaul said the visit had engendered some goodwill among protesters who got to enjoy their first hot meal in days. Rules set by state troopers limit the protesters to five in the office at any one time, and a lock- down over the weekend in which protesters could leave but would not be let back in the building. But, DeVaul said, was kind of funny bringing the fries and burgers and such a big health-care expert. I know what he was trying to do. Kill us with kindness, Anita Wadhwani can be reached at 2598821 or As TennCare protest stretches on, governor shares Big Macs was kind of funny bringing the fries and burgers and such a big health-care expert.

I know what he was trying to do. Kill us with kindness, TennCare protester Don DeVaul, speaking of Bredesen BREDESEN By CHRISTIAN BOTTORFF StaffWriter The Metro schools system lost a faithful volunteer as well as two young students this past weekend in a fiery plane crash in Pennsylvania. Diane Lee, 50, along with her daughters, ages 11 and 13, died Sunday in the plane accident after the single-engine airplane that was piloted by husband, Andrew Patrick Lee, 48, crashed into a mobile home. Andrew Lee survived and is in critical condition at the Lehigh Valley Burn Center near Allentown, Pa. Those who knew Diane Lee, a public school system volunteer and a former fundraiser at Smithson-Craighead Academy, recognized her for her passion for public education.

She was known for sometimes taking her two young daughters Amy Lee, a sixth- grader at Moore Middle School and Allison Lee, an eighth- grader at Meigs Magnet Middle School to help volunteer with at-risk school kids at the academy. Smithson-Craighead Academy is the first charter school, serving about 150 children who are severely behind in their academics. think she was very concerned, like all of us, about the sad plight of at-risk said Sister Sandra Smithson, who founded the charter school where Lee worked for two years. was concerned about children coming from dysfunctional backgrounds, violent environments and a culture of Smithson said. she was teaching her children how to reach out and help these Most recently in the Metro public schools system, Diane Lee had begun representing the Hillsboro High School cluster on the parent advisory council.

She also had served on the Parent Teacher Associations at both Moore and Percy Priest Elementary School, where she was a past president. The Lee family has been known to neighbors as a family Plane crash victim was avid Metro schools supporter She was part parent advisory council Please see CRASH, 3B By NELLANN METTEE StaffWriter FRANKLIN Franklin, a community long caught in the struggles between growth and preservation, may have found a way to bridge those competing interests. The solution, they say, could be a Transfer of Development Rights program that would provide incentives for developers to preserve green space by allowing them more density in other developments. Simply defined, it allows the market to set a value for development rights, roughly similar to a property sale of mineral rights. City leaders have identified two parcels where they would like to make a prototype of the concept.

a way, leaders say, to let the private sector take over where government has been working for the past two years now: preserving valued open space before development takes it in. one of the tools that I believe we need to implement for land conservation because the city keep buying every piece of land that is inappropriately targeted for said Franklin Alderman Dan Klatt, who also is chairman of a city committee aimed at finding innovative ways to conserve land. In the past year or so, city aldermen have pursued three parcels of land they feared could face development. Most notably, Franklin spent $8 million last summer for a 200-acre Harlinsdale Farm, a historic horse farm that sits in one of the most beloved gateways. Now, as development threatens an adjacent piece of the gateway, leaders say time to try something new.

Once the TDR program is enacted, expected to be the first of its kind in the state though the General Assembly passed legislation to enable cities and counties to start the program years ago. is the landmark example of it right said Sam Edwards, executive director of the Greater Nashville Regional Coun- Franklin may become prototype in growth Transfer ofDevelopment Rights considered rarity noise had gotten so bad that we were considering moving. Now, we have to. The lesson in all ofthis is that TDOT was willing to pay attention to the concerns ofour neighborhood rather than turning a deafear and pretending not to Dawn Kirk, who spearheaded petition drive KLATT Please see DEVELOPMENT, 3B GARCIA WARDEN If you go Metro school board members will finalize the 2005-06 budget tomorrow night if the Metro Council agrees tonight on a final city budget. If that happens, the school board meeting is set for 5 p.m.

in the central office at 2601 Bransford Ave. Inside in, out in Schools Director Pedro proposal. On Page 3B Please see SCHOOLS, 3B.