The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page B2

By HOLLY EDWARDS StaffWriter A Dickson County family filed a lawsuit yesterday alleging that toxic waste at the county landfill poisoned their well water and caused cancer and other illnesses in their family. Filed on behalf of 11 members of the Holt family, the suit seeks unspecified damages from two companies that dumped waste at the landfill, as well as from Dickson County and the city of Dickson. The suit accuses Saltire Industrial Inc. and the Ebbtide which operates a boat manufacturing plant in nearby White Bluff, of negligently disposing of toxic waste at the landfill. Also listed in the suit is Scovill the company that owned the former Scovill-Shrader Automotive manufacturing plant in Dickson, which buried drums of industrial waste at the landfill.

Scovill later changed its name to Saltire Industrial and is now owned by Alper Holdings U.S.A. according to the lawsuit. The suit also alleges that Dickson city and county officials knew that hazardous waste buried at the landfill was seeping into the ground water and failed to warn residents who live nearby. The Holts have lived on Eno Road about 500 feet from the landfill since 1973, according to the suit. In response to the filing, Eric Thornton, Dickson County attorney, said the county has done nothing wrong.

maintain the same position we always have, that we have performed our responsibilities in a lawful Thornton said. The city of attorney was not available yesterday. An attorney for Saltire and Alper Holdings U.S.A. Inc. and a general manager at Ebbtide Corp.

declined to comment. The defendants have 60 days to file a response to the suit. Members of the Holt family say they were sickened by toxic chemical trichloroethylene, or TCE. Barrels of TCE buried at the landfill have disintegrated, with the chemical seeping into groundwater. Sheila Holt-Orsted, 42, was diagnosed with breast cancer in April.

Her father, Harry Holt, 63, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in December 2002, and her mother, Beatrice Holt, 55, was diagnosed with cervical polyps in September 2002, according to the suit. Other ailments in the family include stomach polyps, gastrointestinal disorders, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, speech impediments and chronic skin rashes. While the family has been courted by nationally known law firms, the family settled on Stites and Harbison of Nashville. 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 2B Thursday, December 4, 2003 THE TENNESSEAN www.tennessean.com 3 MIDSTATE 2B www.BlueWaterBayOnline.com or call You may also visit our information center (exit 273 off I-40 TN Hwy 56), then south 11 miles on left. Exciting New Vacation Homes Homesites on Center Hill Lake Visit our model homes and reserve your lake view lot at Blue Water Bay today! Visit our model homes and reserve your lake view lot at Blue Water Bay today! Community concept and development by Greyhawk Development Nashville, TN Homes and Homesites offered by Center Hill Realty.

Community concept and development by Greyhawk Development Nashville, TN Homes and Homesites offered by Center Hill Realty. 615-370-4236 278 Franklin Road, Synergy Business Park, Suite 250, Brentwood, TN Eleanor Before I it time to start living your life to the fullest and stop worrying about your hair? We offer versatile solutions for many types of hair loss. oes your hair have a life of its own? does your hair even have a life? Eleanor HairClub client LASSES FREE ACTING CLASS With ALL MY veteran actor, Alan Dysert television-film-commercials 385-5181 for info ERFORMING a RTS DIRECTOR To advertise in the Performing Arts Directory, Call Sara Brown 664-2185 By IAN DEMSKY StaffWriter On Dec. 19, 1966, Phyllis Seibers, 8, and her cousin Deborah Ray, 9, were searching for abandoned dolls at the Shelbyville city dump. A 19-year-old man they met there, Joseph Edward McGee, bludgeoned the two young girls to death with a rock, a Bedford County jury later found.

Prosecutors argued that he sexually molested one of them. McGee, now 56, waived his right to a parole hearing Tuesday, a move that will probably keep him in prison until his mandatory release date in 2009, said Jack Elder, a spokesman for the state Board of Probation and Parole. McGee is serving out a 99-year sentence for first-degree murder at the Northeast Correctional Complex in Mountain City, Tenn. According to newspaper accounts, McGee also was considered the prime suspect in the July 1965 rape and beating death of 11- year-old Wanda June Anderson of Nashville, but he was never charged with that crime. death remained listed as an unsolved homicide on the Metro Police Web site yesterday.

quote the tall, slim youth as saying he stood the youngsters up against a tree and beat them on the head with a a yellowed Nashville Banner article from Feb. 14, 1967, said about the deaths. told police one of the girls threatened to him for making advances toward The bodies were found in a muddy drainage ditch that flowed through the dump. An autopsy found that Seibers had traces of foreign material in her lungs, showing that she was still when thrown in the ravine, a 1967 Tennessean article says. One of the parole board members, Bill Dalton, accepted waiver and then voted to deny the killer parole, Elder said.

The decision will not be finalized until a majority of the seven members agree to deny parole. A final decision is expected within 30 days, Elder said. At the time of the slayings, McGee, a former Nashvillian who then lived near the girls, was on probation for a burglary case. At his trial, one of his former teachers testified that McGee was and had average She also said he had low emotional breaking was afraid. He thought people were chasing special- education teacher Franelle Wood testified, according to newspaper accounts.

Wood told the court that McGee was an illegitimate child with an alcoholic grandfather, with whom he lived because his mother disowned him at a young age. In calling Wood, the defense lawyers argued jail confession was the result of pressure from agents of what was then called the Tennessee Bureau of Criminal Identification. Man who killed girls in 1966 waives parole rights BEDFORD McGEE TENNESSEE By KELLI SAMANTHA HEWETT StaffWriter A state investigation has identified two interstate retaining walls needing special repairs and reinforcement: one in Lincoln County on the Alabama border, the other in Knox County. The review was started by state Department of Transportation officials after a retaining wall at the Jefferson Street on-ramp at Interstate 40 in Nashville collapsed. The cause of that September collapse was a gap between the wall and the bridge base, an apparent construction flaw dating back about 37 years.

State officials looked at nearly 500 similar retaining walls across the state, according to a news release issued yesterday. think drivers can feel confident the retaining walls are said Kim Keelor, TDOT spokeswoman. Knox wall is at the southbound I-640 ramp going to I- 40 East. on the west side of Knoxville. Improvements to the wall already were part of a construction project to be put out for bids this Friday.

The Lincoln County wall is along State Highway 50 over Pam- plins Branch. hope to have that work (in Lincoln County) finished by the end of this TDOT Structural Engineer Wayne Seger said in a news release. Lincoln highway superintendent said yesterday that he was not familiar with the wall or any problems relating to it. Two other East Tennessee bridge retaining walls, not owned by the state, were flagged for possible problems: bridge at Railroad Street at State Route 350 and Johnson bridge at Forge Road and Forge Creek. State inspections show the bridges are sound.

Keelor said local officials inspected the walls and reported to the state yesterday that no additional work is needed on either structure. Those locally owned walls will be reviewed again by TDOT in the next round of inspections, conducted every two years. Kelli Samantha Hewett covers growth issues. Contact her at 726-5938, or probe finds 2 interstate retaining walls needing repairs TENNESSEE Associated Press Another state National Guard unit has been mobilized, Adj. Gen.

Gus Hargett said yesterday. The 180 soldiers of the 1171st Transportation Company, based in Tiptonville and its detachment in Millington, have been mobilized. A spokesman said the group will go to Fort Campbell around Dec. 21. The move means that more than 1,750 Tennessee National Guard members are on active duty, and more than 4,400 have been deployed since September 2002.

180 more Guard troops to report for duty Dec. 21 DAVIDSON BILL STEBER STAFF Shoveling music Trumpet player Gary Armstrong, left, and French horn player Leslie Norton perform with the Nashville Symphony Brass Quintet at the groundbreaking ceremony yesterday for the new Schermerhorn Symphony Hall in downtown Nashville. WILLIAMSON By SUE McCLURE StaffWriter SPRING HILL An open house for Spring new fire station in the fastest growing part of the city in and around Campbell Station Parkway is set for 10 a.m. Saturday, City Administrator Ken York said yesterday. are already occupying the structure, but we wanted to give the public a chance to see he said.

The new brick fire hall at 4000 Campbell Station Parkway was built in six months at a cost of $718,447. It includes a first- responders station for emergency medical technicians. The new fire hall, like the one on Beechcroft Road, will be manned 24 hours a day and will serve the residents of more than a dozen subdivisions that have been built in northern Spring Hill in the past five years, York said. Fire Chief David Bell said the opening of the new station has greatly improved response time. on the fact that of the population density lives around here, having a fire station here has already reduced our response he said.

Bell said he was in the process of researching how best to utilize the six full-time firefighters, along with the two new firefighters whom the Board of Mayor and Aldermen recently approved hiring. Spring Hill to unveil new fire hall to public DICKSON suit says water poisoned from landfill WILSON 10th annual Festival of Lights is a drive-through Christmas show at the James E. Ward Agricultural Center, starting tonight and running through Dec. 28. Sue Vanatta, president and chief executive officer of the Lebanon Chamber of Commerce, said the show will have 1.5 million lights, more than last year, along with three additional scenes.

Cars enter through an archway at the Ward Ag Center and drive through the display. Vanatta said about 2,500 cars went through last festival. She hopes for more than 4,000 this year. Among the scenes are the of a lighted water fall, and Fiddlers Grove, a pioneer village set up year-round. Fiddlers Grove will have its 20 buildings lighted and decorated with the in the as part of the display.

Vanatta said 30-45 minutes is about the time it takes for cars to go through the festival. Cost is $5 per car. Hours are from 6-9 nightly. On each of the three Saturday and Sunday evenings of the festival, children can take cameras and be photographed with Santa Claus after driving through the scenes. ANDY HUMBLES Festival ofLights bigger and brighter Davidson.