The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 52

WIXIAMSON TO SUBSCRIBE: 94P-NFWS Got a news tip? Call 771-5411 or fax 771 -5409 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 3, 1997 the tarrels County fiTi w( HiU 1 tut irmrt ffinwmT'r-'1- 1 I i I K. i I ft HJ is MM ra i Widening of the interstate from four to eight lanes from Concord Road to Highway 96; Extension of the high occupancy vehicles (HOV) lanes along that seven-mile stretch; Widening the Hwy. 96 bridge from four to seven lanes, including double turn lanes to 65 North and a turn lane to 65 South. The HOV lanes are reserved for buses, motorcycles and two-axle vehicles with two or more occupants from 7 to 9 a.m. weekdays inbound and 4 to 6 p.m.

outbound. The additional seven miles of HOV lanes makes it part of the longest HOV section (13 miles) 1 Gridlock clears up in east Franklin, merchants upbeat Bv DAVID SAEZ Staff Writer FRANKLIN The chain of orange construction barrels still border the string of fast-food restaurants and gas stations on Highway 96 near the Interstate 65 interchange, but the lanes have been cleared for traffic The only work remaining from the 1-65 widening and interchange improvements is minor cleanup: installing guardrails, and sodding and seeding the barren medians and ramp areas. Several hours after local, state and federal officials dedicated the road project yesterday, employees at the interchange's Shell station were observing that business had picked up. "I think once people get used to the fact that the road is open and that it's not as congested, it will bring more business in," said Theresa Heideman, the lead cashier at Shell. Kristi Shearon, an assistant manager, said the daily customer count increased from about the last week to 2,000 this Labor Day weekend.

Travel lanes were opened on Friday. "It's picking up a little bit, but not a whole lot," Shearon said. "It was bad. It was hard for people to get in or out, and a lot of times they a -k I If SHELLEY MAYS STAFF Commissioner of Transportation Bruce Saltsman, along with other officials from Franklin, the Rogers Group and the state of Tennessee, cuts a ribbon during a dedication ceremony of a completion of the widening of 1-65 yesterday. post office a barrel from in Tennessee.

The HOV lanes begin at Harding Place. The Rogers Group Inc. of Nashville will receive a $500,000 incentive bonus because the work was completed three months early. Crews used about 172 million tons of material asphalt and stone since the the project began in May. "Everyone is pretty well satisfied with it as far as the quality of it," said Paul Edward, a TDOT project inspector.

"It was a test for a while, but (business owners) understood that in the long run it would benefit their business." qeeezes i 1, i 7 16 years of sweet memories Dear Katie, Today, as we bumbled sleepily around the early-morning kitchen, I was celebrating another morning 16 years ago, the day your life began and mine changed forever. Before dawn that day, beyond speech, your father arid I sped, brave and scared, down the streets to meet our future as parents. To meet you. We were awed, but prepared, we thought, after reading every book about babies we could find. We'd painted and curtained a little yellow nursery.

We'd giggled through Lamaze exercises, which I regretted as we pulled into the hospital parking lot. We'd interviewed the pediatrician. We'd seriously discussed shared tasks, proper schedules, cloth vs. paper diapers, the mistakes of others we would surely avoid. But I was not prepared for the sheer joy of meeting you that day, nor all the joy of the years since.

The mothers I knew turned out to be right: the memory of labor pains was gone within hours. But that first glimpse of you will never leave me. Your face, so completely new to the world, was instantly, agelessly familiar. I knew you. I'd known you all my life, even beyond it.

The wonderful recognition was so unexpected and powerful it made me cry. And your tiny, so- very-feminine version of your father's chin brought a laugh. That ability to make me laugh and move me to tears simultaneously is something you have never lost In the post office yesterday, a little girl of about five came clopping along in too-big, high-heeled sandals with showy plastic flowers on the toes. She was pleased with her shoes, with herself, in that easy, unconscious way children have, and she called up a flood of memories. You as a toddler, curls spilling from beneath a floppy hat with a cabbage rose over one eye, wailing at the black plush nose you had just nibbled off Felix the Cat As a baby, studying my red-painted fingernails and then exclaiming, "lollipop!" an association that amazed me.

At three, collecting dozens of locusts in Mason jars, to give, you explained seriously, "to the poor children who don't have their own locusts." At seven you were the scourge of the harried school librarian, bright beyond any expectations we had cherished. And at eight you weathered devastating illness with a calmness and quiet courage that broke my heart then and inspires me now. At every age I longed for the clock to stop for a while so I could savor these moments. Each year had its own special sweetness, its unique pleasures. Amazingly, as you grew older you grew even more interesting, as often my patient teacher as my student showing me the world in richer and more complex colors.

If I had thought being a mother was just about giving, I learned it's as much about what your children give you. Sometimes, disillusioned people see parenthood in terms of what they will miss, what they will not be able to do, what freedoms they will surrender. But here's a secret you have enlarged the boundaries of my life, making it fuller and more exciting than I could ever have imagined. Tonight on this momentous occasion, the official start of the race to adulthood, we will applaud as you blow out candles and open well-deserved presents. Among them is one you can use every day: my love and gratitude for all these years of wonder and joy.

Happy birthday, Mom. Laura Hill is a reporter for Williamson A.M. Her columns appear Monday and Wednesdays. You may reach her at 771-5414 or by e-mail at lhilltennessean.com. James Gore of Cumberland Guardrail removes the new Hwy 96 and 1-65 expansion yesterday.

didn't know if we were closed or not because the barrels were blocking the entrance area." Heideman worked at the station before the start of the construction, which, she said, made a visible impact. "The pumps were always full," she said. "I sure hope it will pick up." A Tennessee Department of Transportation official said yesterday cleanup should be finished Saturday, ending the $19.7 million project that began in May 1996. The project included: iVi Falrvlew mail carriers Inge Goodson and Cherty carrier. Handling mail becomes an increasingly tough task as populations increase.

BvAMYMARCHESE Staff Writer Residential growth in Williamson County is pushing its post offices to the limit. With the growing number of houses, apartments and condominiums under construction, proposed and projected, county postmasters don't see any end in sight but they're adjusting. In the not-tooKlistant future, Brentwood will have a new post office, Fairview will probably have a new post office, Cool Springs may get a post office, and Franklin may have to expand. Thompsons Station for now should be fine. At Franklin's Oak Meadow Drive post office, mail carriers deliver on 48 routes, up from 35 just four years ago.

In one year, the post office has had an increase of 1,545 deliv POPULARITY MAY FORCE ENERGY PARK TO EXPAND Maryland Farms and Cool Springs are known for first-class office space in Williamson County, but are not the only options. Energy Park I in Franklin was purchased out of bankruptcy. Now the popularity of Energy Park II has developers contemplating no. III. Growth fit 4 O-TYPE DESPERATELY NEEDED Blood supplies following a shortage.

Valley Blood put out an for O-positive Williamson of the American is holding and Friday. Jacobsen separate mall. Increased growth In Fairview has pushed the post office to add a mail Students outgrow new school Year-round classes may be on the way. Bv KATHRIN CHAVEZ Staff Writer FRANKLIN As the first person handling the shovel at a groundbreaking Tuesday for a Kklassroom addition to Hunters Bend Elementary, Melina McKaney, 6, was a fitting symbol. After all, she's one of the reasons the $1.02 million wing is being built.

Melina's family is moving to nearby Fieldstone Farms soon, and she is already beginning her first-grade year at her new school. So many new students have enrolled at Hunters Bend that the school needs the wing only two years after opening for classes in the rapidly growing Fieldstone Farms subdivision area. The echoed across Williamson County, prompted superintendent Terry Grier to tell a group of county and city officials last week that the county will need another high school, at least two more elementary schools and one more middle school by the turn of the century. School officials also are looking beyond more construction to answer the county's growing student population problems. "We're thinking about having school year-round," Hunters Bend principal Susie Turner said yesterday.

"We've got to look at space problems. Here we have three schools in less than five miles of each other. Sooner or later we are going to run out of space." Grier has been discussing the possibility of making the most of available school space by holding classes throughout the year. Under his plan, students would be divided into three groups and attend classes for nine weeks followed by three-week breaks. The three groups would be staggered to allow the schools to be used year round except for holidays.

Kaci Berendt, a Hunters Bend fifth-grader attending Tuesday's groundbreaking, at first turned up her nose at the idea of going to school all year. But she found the idea of nine weeks on and three weeks off intriguing. Please see SCHOOLS on 3W emu For The Record. Growth and Development 4,5 Community News Things to Do 7 DONT FORGET There's more Williamson news in the local, sports, living and business sections, plus other news from the world, nation and state. li "I'M i A it 4 L' Wt mi SHELLEY MAYS STAFF routes as soon as this fall.

And each time a route is added, it eats up more space in the building. Cool Springs may be the next location. "We've done some surveys and found people want one," Proctor said. "Cool Springs is re-. ally a no-man's land when it comes to a post office because it's halfway between Franklin and Brentwood.

"We've got about all we can handle here without expanding." At Brentwood's Brooks Chapel Road post office, the decision has already been made to build something new. "We've been needing a new building for four or five years now," postmaster Gary Bowlin said. "We're just out of space." Bids will soon go out for the project, which will cost less than $1 million, but will more than double the post office's operating space. The city has operated from its existing building since 1984. When the new post office is built, the old one will be used as a carrier center and a place to keep vehicles.

Sites in Maryland Farms and Koger Please see NEW RESIDENTS on 3W mmmmm: ml eries. In all, it delivers mail to some 23,000 residences and businesses. The 6-year-old post office already may be taxing its space. Although it gets some relief through an express station at the Williamson Square Kroger and from the Five Points office downtown, the bulk of what's delivered in Franklin goes through the main post office. "I don't know that we can handle a whole lot more growth with so many new developments on the horizon," said Franklin postmaster Bob Proctor.

"Everywhere you look there's building. It just amazes me. I don't know where it's going to stop it's unbelie-veable what's going on here." Proctor spouts projects off the top of his head and the additional deliveries each has or will create: Sullivan Farms, 700 deliveries at build-out, Wyndchase apartments, about 560 new deliveries, and the The Jefferson at Cool Springs apartments, 386 new deliveries, 474 more to come. The highly-automated post office, with machines that sort some 12rfXX) letters each hour, may need to add one or two more RESULTS OF FRANKLIN CLASSIC 10K Danny Tidwell rolled to victory ahead of almost 600 competitors in the Franklin Classic 10K race on Monday. Complete results of the 10K and more photos are Monday-Friday in The Tennessean Tennessean Publisher Craig Moon-General Manager and Editor Ted Power Advertising Manager Sara McKissick Write: Williamson A.M., 277 Mallory Station Road, Suite 116, Frankkn, Tennessee 37067 E-mail: willamtennessean.com For advertising information: 771-5430.

1 BLOOD remain low, summer-long The Tennessee Region has emergency request O-negative and blood. The County Chapter Red Cross Wood drives to-dc On 2W..