BRISTOL, Tenn. – With a few shovelfuls of dirt at a local welcome center, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen kicked off a statewide program Tuesday that he said will help people honor loved ones and improve the first impression travelers get of his state.
Bredesen planted a handful of daylilies on the grounds of Bristol’s Interstate 81 Welcome Center to honor Eddie Newcomb, a former supervisor with the Tennessee Department of Transportation’s HELP road assistance program who died in May.
The lilies were the first in a series of plantings Bredesen and other state officials hope to make at rest stops throughout the state as part of the state Department of Transportation’s Tennessee Groves Program.
“This is one very nice way for people to benefit our state in a green way,” Bredesen said of the program, adding that he might use Tennessee Groves to plant a tree at a state welcome center to mark his son’s upcoming 30th birthday.
People who want to take part in the program can buy flowers and trees through the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council, a nonprofit group that works hand-in-hand with the state’s Department of Agriculture.
Prices range from $25 for a set of daylilies or tulips to $275 for shade trees, including sugar maples, red oaks and magnolias, according to a news statement about the program. The forestry council will plant the items and leave information about who or what they’re dedicated to in a special book at each rest stop.
Tennessee Groves also is funded by a $300,000 grant from the American Recovery and Revitalization Act, which Bredesen said will be used to prepare planting beds at the program’s four start-up locations: the I-81 Welcome Center in Bristol; the I-55 center in Memphis; the I-75 center in Chattanooga; and the I-65 center in Giles County.
The centers were chosen because they serve as special gateways to the state, said Susan Whitaker, commissioner for the state’s Department of Tourist Development.
“This is a first impression for a lot of people,” Whitaker said, adding that the Bristol Welcome Center sees about 200,000 visitors each year.
She said she hopes to expand the program so it reaches the state’s 10 other welcome centers, including one under construction off I-26 in Unicoi County.
TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely said Tennessee Groves will provide an alternative to the handmade memorials people often erect on the interstate to commemorate the loss of a loved one in a traffic fatality.
Highway officials claim those memorials distract drivers, can become inadvertent projectiles if they’re hit by a vehicle, and put the people who make them at risk because they often must dodge traffic to install and tend them.
gmclean@bristolnews.com | (276) 645-2518
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