Update: 12/31/08

Hello MJ and Happy New Year. As a parting note from what has proven to be a challenging, eventful but good 2008 I thought I would share with you a note that I’ve forwarded to the newspaper. I hope it will be published early next year. On behalf of all of us at City Hall, take care, and best wishes for a safe, prosperous and blessed 2009.


A letter to the Citizens of Mt. Juliet:

This morning (Wednesday, 31 December) Mr. Dennis Buchanan, the city’s Director of Parks and Recreation, and I met with a father and his teen age son. The reason for this meeting was on the Friday after Christmas the boy, and several of his accomplices had been caught by the Mt. Juliet Police Department after driving “donuts” on the football field at Mundy Park and destroyed it. (NOTE: A “donut” involves taking a vehicle and driving it over open, usually soft ground with the goal of seeing how much damage can be done). It was a very emotional meeting. The boy, while seemingly extremely sorry for his actions, probably wouldn’t have been quite so sorry had he not been caught. The father was even more sad. He had a far better understanding of how immature and worthless his son’s late night activities were, and a clear vision of what the long term consequences of his son’s behavior will look like. But possibly the saddest person in the room was Mr. Buchanan, who, side-by-side with his staff had worked day and night for months to provide our community with a first class athletic field. The blood was drained from his face and he was near speechless as he tried to tell this 16 year old what the true cost of his night of fun would be . . . about reseeding the field with Bermuda grass; about the thousands of gallons of water and fertilizer that will be needed; about the hours spent rerolling the field to make it level, and about how dangerous it would be to keep the rut riddled field open and explaining to others why it now could not be used.

Yes, it was a tense, emotion packed discussion, and midway into it what hit me was it was also so avoidable. What was proved? Could anyone now claim bragging rights to something of value? Were those responsible proud? The whole thing was so completely and utterly senseless. You see, even though the Police Department caught them, there was no value added here. This wasn’t one of those win-win issues. While it is true that, in time, the city may get some money back, but it certainly won’t cover the real cost of repair. And for a brief few minutes of “fun” spent destroying your property several teens will now have a rude, but totally preventable introduction to our juvenile justice system. Their parents and siblings will likely be heartbroken and financially impacted with repair, court costs and attorney fees. Our children won’t be able to use the Mundy football field for several months and your Parks and Rec Staff will spend their days working on this instead of doing more worthwhile projects. It was all so very senseless.

This letter was meant as an appeal to our youth . . . think about the consequences of your behavior; think about the risks you take with actions like this. This is the second incident recently in Mt. Juliet where a few teens deliberately and willfully damaged or destroyed government property. The ones who spray painted vulgarities on the pavilion floor at South Mt. Juliet Park (off Belinda Parkway) have been caught and will be joining these young men in court. We have a fantastic Police Department who are really good at what they do. Is it worth the risk?

This is also an appeal to parents . . . we need your help. Mr. Buchanan and his Parks and Recreation staff are striving to provide wholesome, fun activities for our children. Over the holidays they’ve held 3 on 3 basketball competition, dodge ball games, as well as pool and ping-pong tournaments. They’ve conducted a Christmas cookie decorating event and bingo game. Last month they hosted the city’s first teen band concert at Charlie Daniels Rec Center and on 3 January they will try our first ever Teen Dance. Mom and Dad, these events are for your children. Bring them to the park.

Finally, this is an appeal to all Mt. Juliet citizens, young and old. We need your help in watching our parks. If you see or hear of something that sounds amiss please let the Police Department know.

Thank you and best wishes for a safe, healthy and successful New Year.

Randy Robertson
City Manager