During a break while watching Saturday afternoon cartoons, Oakhaven resident Zyiriana Coleman, 8, frowned at the rain from inside her new home. Outside, she said, a great day would involve cartwheels, dancing and helping her mom clean the yard.

The industriousness runs in the family. Before having Zyiriana and her 13-year-old brother Dyiriun, Jessica Wester learned carpentry at 17, through the Job Corps youth training program. By the time she secured the mortgage for her first home, another 17 years later in November 2018, Wester had helped install FedEx Forum's fire sprinkler system and then worked in electricity, painting and plumbing, before taking a maintenance job at the University of Memphis.

"The fight that you put in to do it is worth it," she said of buying a home as a single, working-class mom, making around $12.50 an hour. For Wester, home ownership meant the ability to move her children from a hectic apartment complex to a quiet street of affordable houses, built by the non-profit Habitat for Humanity which extends zero-interest mortgages.

"You see your kids. They're smiling. My babies are so happy, you know. It's a difference," she said, of the first neighborhood where her children can safely ride their bikes.

But with a 24-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week trucking terminal set to occupy 60 acres in the field across the street from her backyard, Wester's prior safety concerns have been replaced with new worries.

Generating an estimated 1,500 truck trips per day, the site will be able to dock 200 trailers, park an additional 675 trailers and provide diesel fueling service, according to an October review of the company's proposal by the Office of Planning and Development and a study commissioned by Saia.

Fearing health impacts, Wester and her kids joined other homeowners in what has become a yearlong battle against the Louisiana-based Saia trucking company, represented locally by Cindy Reaves, whose firm is a construction partner on the site. Most recently, Saia applied for building permits, on June 24, valuing its planned construction at just under $15 million.

Reaves presented Saia's case at a City Council vote in February that saw residents' hopes to stop the facility crushed.

In a meeting run by Chairman Kemp Conrad, who recused himself from voting, the council overturned a prior decision of the Land Use Control Board, to reject Saia's proposal for the site.

Throughout the process, Saia has proposed some sound, traffic, lighting, emission and aesthetic mitigation measures. But given the gravity of related health concerns and the scale of activity, Wester and other residents, including a group of retirees, are not appeased.

"It's gonna damage our children. It's going to damage our elders and it's gonna make it complicated for our middle-aged people, because of the risk of trying to drive around all those trunks and transporting your kids," said Wester.

Like other residents, she's now considering avenues for recourse. And she still has a bevy of unanswered questions.

"It's a lot of places them folks could've went. Why specifically that place? Why didn't they fight for us," she said of the officials who sided with the company.

A $2.4 million purchase and a conflict of interest

Most of the council members who voted in favor of the project advocated for embracing the terminal on the promise of 50 jobs, before Saia might consider construction elsewhere. Two other Memphis locations were listed as potentially suitable sites in a slide of a study commissioned by Saia, shown at council. They were not detailed at the council vote. Reaves told The CA one of the locations had been sold. She did not provide information on the other location by deadline the following day. Saia also offered as a selling point that the company would not seek PILOT tax breaks.

While chairing the meeting, Conrad, who is also a broker with the national commercial real estate firm Cushman Wakefield, did not speak on the project — except to announce, after the public comment period ended, that he was recusing himself from the vote.

Ten days later, a Shelby County deed shows half of the property proposed for the terminal, valued at $1.20 million, was transferred to Saia from David Ingram, the owner of a DVD and video game distribution company, Ingram Entertainment, which two Cushman brokers based outside of Memphis list as a client on the firm's website. The other half of the property was previously purchased by Saia in September 2018 for $1.24 million, from Raines Lenders LP.

"I personally handled the sale," Conrad told a Commercial Appeal reporter June 26. "That's why I recused myself on the vote." Asked if his client was Ingram, Conrad said he did not remember the exact name of the legal entity he represented.

At City Council, Conrad's recusal came without explanation. And one of the residents, Larry Donald, followed up to find out why.

City Council attorney Allan Wade replied. "In the absence of a vote, Mr. Conrad has no legal obligation to you or to anyone else to disclose why he chose not to vote on the matter. It is my understanding that he chooses not to make that disclosure now or ever. I trust this letter will finally resolve your numerous inquiries," Wade wrote.

To the contrary, Donald is now organizing with ten of his neighbors to consider their legal options, unwilling to accept the council's vote as the final word on the terminal.

"They forgot about the citizens of Memphis that has been here for years, paying taxes and keeping the city going before these industries moved in here," he said.

"Trucking companies have their place in our lives," Donald acknowledged. "But you just can't encroach on a neighborhood without thinking about the repercussions to the people that's already there."

As for Donald's question regarding his recusal, Conrad said conflicts are inherent when the job of a city council member is part-time. "I don’t know what else you could do if you’re going to have people who are in industry that are serving in a part-time role. There are going to be conflicts of interest," he said.

Under Tennessee law, which does not forbid officials from voting if they have a conflict as long as they disclose it, Conrad said he sees a recusal as the high road. "I could have said, 'My firm is representing this piece of land. I'm disclosing that. However, it doesn't affect my decision and I'm going to vote on this.' That to me doesn't seem right at all," he said.

As for why he didn't disclose the specifics of his relationship to the land in question, Conrad said a recusal is synonymous with stating a conflicting financial interest and he therefore considers the specifics "immaterial."

"Getting into the nitty-gritty details — on a lot of deals there are confidentiality. I can't remember if there was on this one or not. But it doesn't change the fact that there was a financial interest. That's why I recused," Conrad said.

And when he recuses himself from a matter involving himself or his firm, Conrad says he does not have any outside conversations with city colleagues or agencies on the matter. "There's zero involvement," he said. "I'm not working in any way, shape or form or having any discussions on it."

Diesel exhaust, storage and sound

In proposing to construct the terminal on a site surrounded by residences, Saia offered noise reduction through the construction of a wall and earthen berm. Trucks would be required to enter on the non-residential, Raines Road boundary of the site and would be equipped with kill switches that turn off idling engines after five minutes. And drivers would not use their back-up beepers at the location, the company said.

But multiple residents — and their city councilwomen Patrice Robinson — said they already see trucks with other companies ignoring signs forbidding access to residential streets.

And their most serious concerns have not been addressed, says Rowena Wilson, a homeowner with school-age children who shares a property line with the planned trucking terminal.

Standing in an area behind her backyard where vegetation had already been cleared for the site, Wilson said of Saia's diesel fueling service, "I'm afraid that if they put the tanks under the ground, how do we know it's not affecting the water?"

"All the breathing the chemicals — they spoke that they have a kill switch. But look at all the trucks that's gonna be running for five minutes," she said, "or restarting their engines."

Timelapse - Google Earth Engine

The International Agency for Research on Cancer, part of the World Health Organization, classifies diesel exhaust as carcinogenic to humans. The Environmental Protection Agency and two other groups, affiliated with the Centers for Disease Control and National Institutes of Health, consider diesel a "likely" or "potential" carcinogen.

Diesel exhaust contributes to the creation of conditions linked to increased hospital admissions for respiratory illnesses like asthma in urban areas, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists. Diesel also creates particulate matter less than the width of a human hair, associated with irritation, illnesses and premature death, the scientists' group says.

At City Council, Cindy Reaves, Saia's local representative and construction partner, presented testimony from experts hired by the company. An environmental engineer retained by the company pointed to 2014 data he said illustrates that emissions projected for the planned terminal represent a small fraction of those being emitted by Saia across Shelby County and by other companies in the area. He pointed to the kill switch as a mitigating measure. But health implications for residents like Wilson, who would soon live as close to 100 feet from trailers — just over the distance in baseball from home plate to first base — were not discussed.

"We have a lot of elderly people in our neighborhood — been here for years — and they have COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), breathing machines," Wilson said. "We got children over here. They saying that this is a 24-7 operation. How's my children going to be able to concentrate: Doing their homework, going to sleep, having to get up early," she asked.

The company will forfeit a $25,000 bond if noise at the terminal exceeds 60 decibels, according to City Council's zoning resolution. Reaves said Saia will measure the sound, "definitely yearly if not every quarter." She added: "When they first start operating, it will be very closely monitored. They want to be a good neighbor."

Asked if any plans are in place to measure site-specific air quality, Reaves did not answer the question. "I will be glad to take you over to Old Dominion and you can smell as much as you want. And you're not going to breathe in anything," she said, citing a truck depot 6 miles from the site that Saia considers comparable.

"This site will not cause the air quality to be worse, with the jet fuel that already flies over this site in the neighborhood," Reaves said. Regarding other contamination risks, she said, because the lot is concrete "it will not contaminate the soil. According to the EPA, the risk of contamination is related to diesel fuel underground storage.

Community vs. industry

Wester's children also have pollution on their mind. "I don't want them to do it," Zyiriana said, "cause we might get sick." Her brother Dyiriun said he thinks about the fumes. And he remains frustrated by the February Memphis City Council vote that allowed plans for the terminal to move forward, after the Land Use Control Board shot the project down in October 2018.

"They had said they would stop them from building it. And then in the end, it's like, 'Build it,'" Dyiriun recalled from the City Council meeting the family had attended together.

After picking her kids up from school and rushing to the meeting, Wester overcame her nerves and spoke out during public comment. When she got to the podium, wearing a bright blue University of Memphis sweatshirt, City Council Chairman Kemp Conrad granted Wester one minute for comment.

"Please take into consideration our babies," Wester said, holding her hands to her heart. "Please vote no."

She says she thought the residents would win, right up until the last vote was read and Conrad announced, "Item passes," with the bang of a gavel.

"I was looking at the community that they're talking about building in the middle of and I'm pretty sure all of us together, we probably pay...quite a bit of money to the city. We pay taxes," Wester said.

The residents' County Commissioner, Eddie Jones, also spoke from the floor on their behalf. "You've kind of entrapped this community and surrounded them with industrial," he said, expressing concern over mounting emissions in an area already including the airport and UPS, FedEx and Amazon distribution centers.

"Four council members up here is a part of this district," Jones said. "And I ask for you to stand in support of those who stood for you and not approve this development. Vote to reject this in the same way the Land Use Control Board did."

Multiple council members voiced their sympathy with the community and did vote against the project. But with Conrad recusing himself and one of the residents' representatives, Cheyenne Johnson, voting in Saia's favor, the company won in a 7-5 vote.

Wester's takeaway: "They ain't in it for us," she said. Politicians claim "how they want families to do this and that. And they want them to do for they selves," she said. "And here we are trying and it's like: Wow, you don't hear us. You don't hear us talking because we're not throwing the money."

'We have no place to go'

Cheyenne Johnson, the residents' representative who voted in Saia's favor and also serves as Chair of the Housing and Community Development Committee, says she has no other relationship with the project.

"I did what I thought was in the best interest of all the citizens," Johnson said of her vote, citing the 50 jobs promised, mitigation measures Saia planned and positive feedback she says she heard from residents near the Old Dominion terminal.

"It was a very, very difficult decision," she said, promising, "I will make it my business to check with Saia to make sure they are a good neighbor."

Proteon Paulk, a 73-year-old retiree who has lived in her house since 1993 said she takes issue with that recurring promise. "Good neighbors don't kill each other," she said of her fears of the diesel exhaust.

For Paulk, leaving is not an option. "Where am I gonna go? Where are all the other old people gonna go? I didn't buy my home to give it to a trucking company or to be put out of it," she said.

She doesn't think it's a coincidence the residents potentially facing such a dilemma are working-class and black. "They won’t take this garbage in Chickasaw Gardens; they won’t take it out in East Memphis, she said mentioning affluent communities. "They bring it to our neighborhood."

"I worked and bought this house," said Paulk who worked at Sears before retiring from a phone company in 1999. "I bought it so my son and I would have something of value. This would be a legacy to him. Many black people don’t have legacies.”

"It has broken our hearts because we have no place to go," she said.

Commercial Appeal reporter Joe Rondone contributed to this report.

Sarah Macaraeg is an award-winning journalist who writes investigations, features and the occasional Saturday news story for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at sarah.macaraeg@commercialappeal.com or 901-426-4357 and is on Twitter @seramak.