By Lauralee Callegari, The News Observer
Copperhill, Tenn. – Despite attempts to stop them by making them move, protesters at Copperhill Industries on Nov. 11 were able to finish their previously agreed upon protest.
Copperhill Industries was the site of the Veterans Day Rally race, which had faced widespread opposition throughout the area, but this protest was focused on the spreading of biosolids on the superfund site.
Rob Strangia, one of the protest organizers, reached out to rally organizer Stuart Wood to get permission to protest from 9-11 a.m. Wood gave the go-ahead and told Strangia that the area near the old fire engine at the entrance to Copperhill Industries would be roped off for protester use.
The protesters arrived around 9:15 a.m. and were met with their protest area being marked with shiny new “No Trespassing” signs, Strangia said. Fearing legal trouble, the protesters moved to an area across Tennessee 68 from the superfund site, near the rail yard.
Within the half hour, an off-duty Polk County deputy, paid to work security for the race, approached them and told them the “railroad company” did not want them on their property.
Strangia told the officer that the land was Tennessee Overhill’s property. Twenty minutes or so afterward, the deputy confirmed that the protesters were on Tennessee Overhill property and left.
About 20 minutes later, the deputy returned to tell them that Tennessee Overhill did not want them there, and they would have to relocate.
Adrian Lambert, director of Tennessee Overhill, confirmed she said the protesters would have to move and cited liability reasons.
When Strangia pointed out that the protesters were on a stretch of state land called a right of way, the off-duty deputy told them that they could not protest on a right of way, even though they followed guidelines.
Strangia showed the deputy a letter from Wood giving the protesters permission to be on Copperhill Industries property, despite the “No Trespassing” signs, so the off-duty deputy allowed them to move across the highway to the previously defined area.
The 20-or-so protesters only had roughly a half hour before the end of their scheduled time, so they made their way back to the Copperhill Industries property that was roped off and continued to speak out against the spread of biosolids on the superfund site.
When asked in an email if he knew of who initiated the order for the protestors to leave, Copperhill Industries owner Buddy Haynes wrote, “I know nothing about the protesters being asked to relocate because they were not on my property.”