BY JANELL ROSS
About 150 people gathered Sunday in another show of protest against a post-prison facility organizers hope to plant near Long Hunter State Park and the Wilson, Davidson and Rutherford County lines.
Men of Valor, a nonprofit organization created in 2000, announced plans earlier this year to build what could ultimately become a 120-bed facility with a softball field, multi-purpose building, church-like structure and basketball court on a 53-acre tract off Couchville Pike.
The community near the site is heavily wooded with homes set on multi-acre lots surrounded by South-Fork style white board fences. But, signs of suburbia — a Chick-fil-A, a Target and a subdivision called Providence — are less than 10 miles away.
Most who attended Sunday’s gathering signed petitions calling for elected and appointed officials to block the project. The petition emphasizes the long history of the area as a residential community and safety concerns.
The petition also describes the area’s residents as people who, “do not deal with ex-convicts on a day to day basis … . We don’t wish to have such an element injected into our lives, homes or families.”
Ellen Davis has lived in the area for 20 years and uses Long Hunter’s trails regularly.