Lakeside Resort has new owners and a new name.
“The Retreat at Center Hill Lake” will be operated as a retreat center by the Timothy Hill Ranch organization for the purpose of hosting individuals, families, churches and groups in an alcohol and tobacco free environment. It will not be used as a residential center for youth.
Luke Collins, Executive Director of the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency (UCHRA) turned over the keys of the facility Thursday morning to Thaddaeus Hill, Executive Director of Timothy Hill Ranch, an organization whose mission is “strengthening character by modeling Christ-centered values.”
The final sales agreement was signed on Wednesday.
(CLICK LINK BELOW TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THE HISTORY OF THE TIMOTHY HILL RANCH)
http://www.timothyhillranch.org/THCR/About_Us.html
“We are so excited about it. What a great community partner Timothy Hill is. They are Christian based and an organization full of love and full of super people,” Collins told WJLE.
“I just think it’s a great fit for us and for DeKalb County. Other people have been interested in this property but I just think it was God’s will that it worked out like it did. We have nothing against the other folks that wanted the property but we just could not have found a better fit than the folks here at Timothy Hill. I just admire them so much. I admire them for what they do and what they stand for. It’s just a beautiful organization. They are going to make a lot of investment. They already have. They have been trimming a lot of trees and they are going to put a beach in and do a lot of great things. It really has a great future,” Collins added.
Following the Thursday ceremony held at Lakeside, Hill told WJLE that the final development plans for the Retreat will have to be approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but “we have the impression they are very excited to have us as a partner. I think they know we’ll take our stewardship of this property very seriously.”
Under terms of the sale, Timothy Hill Ranch has put forward a $600,000 purchase, $50,000 deposit and $100,000 in services over 10 years ($10,000 per year). Those services are to include staff retreats, annual meetings, employee training and other events. UCHRA will pay off its USDA Rural Development loan debt of $1,285,550 relating to Lakeside Resort by applying the $600,000 from Timothy Hill and borrowing from the Bank of Putnam County $685,550.35 to be repaid in 4 years.
The organization, founded by Jerrell and Fern Hill, is named after their son Timothy Hill, a Columbia, TN native who died at age 13 but who already had a vision and business plan for helping others.
The first location was opened in 1980 in New York as a residential facility working with young people coming out of foster care. About 15 years later a retreat center was opened in the mountains of Massachusetts.
“As our board began exploring our next phase of expansion we said we really wanted to have the opportunity to do things in Tennessee where Timothy was born and dad was raised and felt this would be like coming home for us” Thaddaeus Hill told WJLE.
“At this location our intent is to continue to run this as a retreat center and host conferences and events for individuals, families, churches and groups who want to come and use this place,” Hill explained. “I’m sure there’s a lot of questions about our residential end of what we do. That will not exist on this site. At some point in the future we do have intent to work with some young people who have aged out of foster care. That is the population we’re looking at. The ones who have aged out of foster care that are 18 and above that may not have families to support them through their college years or finding their career paths. We’re not talking about criminals. We’re going to do our best to love on those folks and at some point use this facility as part of their training ground for some of their education and vocational training opportunities but we do not have a concrete date as to when that is going to happen. That will be some time in the future,” said Hill
“Our main focus for the immediate future is to get the facility up to our standards and get it running in a direction that we feel like is a blessing to the people who are using it,” he added.
“I think for the next two to three years we’re going to really focus on improving what is here before doing too much expansion. Expanding some of the trails in the woods to allow for hiking and passive recreation and at some point having horses on campus is definitely important to us. This is something we have on all of our locations is horses and an equestrian opportunity for young people and families to be able to participate in that. I absolutely expect that this will be something somewhere down the road that we will do. But again to me the real magic is the view, the lake, and the nature that’s around us and we want to make sure that we’re steering people toward that and have the opportunity to really go all throughout this 160 acres. We’re not going to let it lie dormant and not do anything with it. But we have to do it in cooperation with the Corps and what they will allow us to do but they have indicated to us that using the entire property for passive recreation is absolutely an allowable use and something they encourage,” Hill concluded.
Guest cottages and apartments are maintained on the property including thirteen cabins or houses, four condominiums, along with the lakeside lodge, featuring 26 units. The resort also has a dock and a swimming pool.