By Brooke Stevenson
brooke@seymourherald.com
Sevier County has been looking at possible locations for a new Convenience Center for about a year now and a Seymour couple fear it might be built right next to their home.
County officials are currently looking at several sites throughout the area to put the new center, which will contain up to three trash receptacles, but one site of particular interest is on Wye. Drive, right next to Harvey and Carolyn Lott’s property line.
Three weeks ago the Lotts noticed a surveyor on the vacant property next to their house and they were told he was surveying for a potential new public waste facility site.
“It has been something that we’re looking at, but there have been no final decisions or anything like that as far as what we’re doing (with a new site),” said Sevier County Communication Coordinator Perrin Anderson. “But we are trying to get a new Convenience Center somewhere, especially in the Seymour area and it is really hard to find a good spot.”
The property that was being surveyed for the site butts right up to the Lott’s property line on 220 Wye Drive, and is 100 feet away from their kitchen door.
“Even if we can’t see it, we will be able to smell it,” said Harvey Lott. “What will there be to keep the smell or the rodents away?
“(Our property) is what we were banking on for our kids, having a little nest egg.”
The Lotts are afraid of what will happen to their property values if the center is built, as well as what it will do to their quality of life.
“We live on our front porch in the summer,” said Carolyn Lott. “We won’t be able to do that with garbage 100 feet away.”
While nothing has been officially finalized, the location on Wye Drive. is a definite possibility for the new site.
“We’re still looking and that is a potential site; it is something that everybody needs but nobody wants in their backyard, but we all need it,” Anderson said.  
The topic of the center will be further discussed at the next Government Operations meeting in January.
The next Government Operations Meeting will be at 5 p.m. Jan. 4 at the Sevier County Court House.

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