For years, Jeff Jenkins has operated his small wood selling business out of a small piece of land behind his mother's home in Crieve Hall, land that is owned by Nashville Electric Service.
However, a dispute over that land has forced him to shutter his business that is near and dear to the community around him.
Since the 1970's, NES has allowed homeowners off Regent Drive to use the empty piece of land which adjoins to a small substation.
Jeff Jenkins used the property to store wood for his business, Crieve Hall Wood Pile, for years Jeff paid taxes to the city of Nashville until someone recently complained and NES said he had to leave. As a result he's lost his primary source of income.
"This was my job, it was my business, it's what fed my family and paid the bills," the 58-year-old says.
In an effort to re-open his business, Jeff approached officials at NES who told him if he got approval from the city and from the TVA they would consider letting him operate with a lease.
Documents show Jeff got approval from Metro Government under a "grandfather" clause, documents also show TVA said Jeff was within his rights so long as he didn't block any access roads. But a lawyer from NES disagreed and recently called Jeff to tell him there would be no lease.
"Their lawyer called me up days ago to break the news to me at the end he laughed and said ‘Jeff if NES did give you a lease you couldn't afford it anyways,'" Jeff recalls.
NewsChannel 5 spoke to NES about this story but were never provided with a comment.
