By B. KEITH WILLIAMS

Lebanon’s Public Square is the center of our beautiful city which is full of beautiful people. Our Public Square is one of the town’s greatest assets—yet it also happens to be one of the least attractive and most dangerous parts of our city!

I am a trial lawyer. My job requires me to visit squares all over the State and throughout the Southeast. I can honestly say I have been to 100 percent of the town squares in Middle Tennessee and 75 percent of town squares in West and East Tennessee. Our Square has fallen behind the times. We need to capitalize on our biggest asset, as other cities have.

I have been practicing law “on” or “just off” the Square for almost 20 years. I am a partner at Lannom & Williams Trial Attorneys. Frank Lannom and I own our building on the corner of South Cumberland and the Public Square. We see what happens on the Square day in and day out. It is dangerous to park in front of our building. Yeah, straight from a Trial Lawyer!  

The city streets on Lebanon’s Public Square are unreasonably dangerous! If you try to park in front of our building, please do so at your own risk. While you are backing out, be mindful that the good folks approaching the Square from South Cumberland are looking left for oncoming traffic, while you are backing out into the roadway to their right. And please don’t try to walk across the street in front of our office. 

These dangers are not only in front of our business—all the parking immediately to the right of the incoming streets to the Square share these dangerous hazards. You have been forewarned – you may very well become a statistic. With TDOT’s new proposed design of the Square, traffic will be routed differently and get rid of these dangers to pedestrians.

This investment sponsored by the State of Tennessee for the roadways, and from donations for landscape and lighting, will bring business and tax base to the City of Lebanon.

Besides all of the benefits of improving the unsightliness of the Square, General Hatton deserves more. The merchants deserve to have money-spending crowds on the Square the same way Franklin, Gallatin and even Springfield business owners enjoy. The property owners on the Square deserve for the value of their investment to increase. Entrepreneurs of Wilson County deserve to have a venue to open new businesses that compete with Mt. Juliet and other surrounding cities. The City of Lebanon and the State of Tennessee deserve to be safe from lawsuits for their negligent maintenance of roadways. And most of all, we, the tax-paying citizens (and our children) of this wonderful City of Lebanon, deserve to be safe.

Editor’s Note: B. Keith Williams is a partner in Lannom & Williams, PLLC, at 137 Public Square, Lebanon.