Nashville man killed by police in Bellevue on June 27
BY HAMILTON MATT MASTERS
A 25-year-old man was shot and killed by Metro Nashville Police in Bellevue early on the morning of June 27.
According to MNPD, West Precinct officers responded to the Bellevue West Apartments at approximately 4:10 a.m. after a 27-year-old man was stabbed by his 25-year-old brother. On the 911 call, the 27-year-old man said his brother was having a “manic episode.”
Police identified the deceased man as 25-year-old Max Van Sickle, “who was armed with a large knife as he rushed down a West Nashville apartment complex stairwell toward officers.”
The unidentified stabbing victim was hospitalized with “non-life-threatening wounds.”
Police released body-worn camera footage of the incident as well as a recording of the
Percy Warner Golf Course reopens after two years, $2.5 million in renovations
BY TOM WOOD
What’s old is new again. At least, that’s the case for scenic Percy Warner Golf Course, which opened in 1937 and hadn’t seen many changes over decades until two years ago when the nine-hole course was shuttered for a complete $2.5 million makeover. Renovations were completed last October but the course didn’t reopen to the public until last Saturday, giving the new hybrid Bermuda greens time to fill in.
“Percy Warner has reached its potential,” head pro Kevin Forte said. “A lot of people who played here over the years always saw a lot of potential in this golf course. This renovation project just helped it get there.”
Only one hole changed as far as the layout and the routing, according to Forte. Routing is a term used in course design to refer to how the golf architect lays out holes from tee box and pin placements to where bunkers and hazards are placed to undulations of the green.
“We changed the sixth hole from a par 4 to a par 3 … as part of being in the neighborhood community,” Forte said. “There are some houses over there … getting hit by stray golf balls. So we wanted to try to eliminate that while we could.
911 call that can be viewed online on the MNPD’s YouTube page. The video also contains recorded statements from MNPD spokesperson Don Aaron.
The three officers involved in the shooting have been placed on “routine administrative assignment” while the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation investigates the shooting.
“But other than that, the routing and everything is the same. You won’t recognize much of the old golf course; it’s just the irrigation (system). The turf conditions have drastically improved with all-new greens — modern green complexes with undulations (and) bunkering.
“So it’s just a total package renovation. The golf course is just fabulous and even though the layout is still the same, everything about it is different.”
Former Percy Warner pro Jerry Shively, who hit the ceremonial tee shot for the grand reopening, says renovations were
Crime scene at Bellevue West Apartments
PHOTO: MNPD
Percy Warner Golf Course
“long overdue” and local golfers will be thrilled.
“I think they’ll really enjoy themselves,” Shively said. “The old course was good at one time, but it got overgrown and outdated. It didn’t have a watering system, and they came in there and really did a great job. A lot of people spent a lot of time, a lot of money and private money, and did a great job on renewing that course.
“I think the average player is really going to be happy with it when they see it.”
That assessment is shared by Shively’s nephew Tracy Wilkins, the assistant golf coach at Trevecca Nazarene University.
“They redid pretty much everything. It should be a good a good challenge for folks. Just the greens themselves would be such a good challenge,” said Wilkins, who shared the Percy Warner course record of 27 with Shively. Whit Turnbow, president of the Tennessee Golf Foundation, says golfers of all ages will benefit from the upgrades.
“Golf is a game that is asking for more social ways to play, and we saw a fantastic opportunity here with Percy Warner,” Turnbow said.
“The great partnership with Metro Parks, (then) Mayor Cooper’s office and Friends of Warner Park (was) just lots of people kind of coming together and realizing the need to get this thing back into shape and get the necessary improvements done to really make it shine.
“We operate all of the First Tee programs statewide and support all of our PGA professionals that are out growing the game and teaching the kids in the next generation, exposing them to what’s good about the game and creating golfers essentially.
“These facilities play into that effort every day for us at the foundation. … It’s just really been kind of cool to see how a project that’s been talked about and studied for so long come to fruition and open it to the community.”
Forte lauds course architect Bruce Hepner for keeping the course’s historic feel while bringing it into the 21st century.
“(Hepner) specializes in these 1930s-style renovations,” Forte said. “So it’s like modern technology, modern advancements in turf
Percy Warner Golf Course PHOTO: GOLF HOUSE TENNESSEE
and irrigation and in bunker construction — but styled in 1937-style architecture. It’s something different you don’t get anywhere else in town.”
And it remains a walking-preferred course with pull carts to rent.
“It encourages people to get out and exercise and walk a little bit, and you only need just a few clubs to play it,” Forte said.
“There’s a sense of excitement to see what’s going on here.
“As time wears on and those grasses begin to really take root, it’s going to be something that this community and Nashville certainly can be proud of and people can go and play.”
Independence Day celebrations scheduled throughout Middle Tennessee
A slew of Fourth of July celebrations are on tap for the holiday weekend. Read below to see which events are happening where Nashville’s Let Freedom Sing celebration begins with live music starting at 11 a.m. at Music City Walk of Fame Park.
The main show at Jack Daniel’s at First and Broadway begins at 4 p.m. with performances from a variety of entertainers
including Chris Young and Yola.
The Nashville Symphony will take the stage at Ascend Amphitheater at 9:15 p.m. with a fireworks and drone show to begin at 9:30 p.m.
Franklin on the Fourth will begin the city-wide celebration at 10 a.m. with food and arts and crafts vendors, antique cars, and music throughout the day in the Downtown
Franklin square. The Patriotic Pet Parade begins at 10:30 a.m. and the children’s parade will take place at 5 p.m.
The celebration will then expand to The Park at Harlinsdale Farm, which will open at 5 p.m. The fireworks show will begin at 9 p.m.
Brentwood’s Red, White and Boom celebration will take place from 7-10 p.m. with live music from The Downtown Band
and fireworks beginning at 9 p.m.
Spring Hill will host the third annual Run for Hunger 5K at Summit High School at 7 a.m. followed by the Color Foam Run at 8 a.m. and Bicycle/Stroller Parade at 9 a.m.
Percy Warner Golf Course
PHOTO: GOLF HOUSE TENNESSEE
Tennessee politicians respond to first presidential debate
Local Republicans, Democrats stick to their party support
BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO
The first presidential debate between President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump was held on June 27 by CNN in Atlanta — and analysts are recognizing Biden for his poor performance and Trump for his continued outright lies.
Tennessee’s U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty went on the offensive for Trump. Hagerty shared an opinion piece he wrote for the Wall Street Journal ahead of the debate with the headline “Trump Is Now the Candidate of Normalcy.” In tweets throughout the night, Hagerty parroted several of Trumps own lies about Biden on topics such as border control and China. Blackburn posted a video to X (formerly Twitter) declaring the debate a failure for Biden and a victory for Trump.
“It was a disastrous night for a weak, failed, dishonest Joe Biden,” she said in the post. “And an awesome night for an energetic, focused Donald J. Trump.”
Blackburn also shared an official statement that added Trump is “the person we need to save our country ... Tennesseans know we cannot afford another four years of Joe Biden.”
While Blackburn and others Republicans have pointed out lies from Biden, Trump also lied many times throughout the debate. Several debate fact checks point to more lies from Trump than from Biden. CNN counted over 30 lies from Trump and only nine false or misleading statements from Biden. An Associated Press fact check includes at least 11 from Trump and only five from Biden.
Tennessee House Majority Leader William Lamberth (R-Portland) shared Sen. Blackburn’s X post claiming Biden’s campaign “decided he had a ‘cold’ to cover” for his debate performance.
Adding his own thoughts, Lamberth himself shared his support for Trump and said, “It is embarrassing that Biden can’t even keep straight how many zeros go with which of his failing policies.”
Tennessee Senate Minority
Tennessee politicians respond
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3
Leader Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis) continued to raise her support for Biden after the debate last night.
“It is astonishing, but not surprising, just how much Trump is LYING during this debate. Say what you want about Biden, but his policies and legislation backs him up,” she wrote on X.
Rep. Caleb Hemmer (D-Nashville) shared, “Deeds and polices are what matters, not words. #DebateNight.”
Rep. Justin Jones (D-Nashville) and
Sen. Charlane Oliver (D-Nashville) both tweeted about “Black jobs” which quickly started trending on social media after Trump responded to a question about Black voters by saying that people coming across the border are “taking Black jobs.”
Nashville’s Metro politicians didn’t say a lot about the debate last night but a couple councilmembers weighed in.
Sean Parker (District 5) simply shared, “Oof this is bad,” and followed up with another post on X that said California Gov.
Gavin Newson and Trump were “surging on the betting market” along with a screenshot of bets on who will win the presidential election.
Councilmember Courtney Johnston (District 26) shared a post with her support for Trump declaring the debate victory his.
Johnston is also in the midst of a Republican primary run against U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles in the 5th Congressional District.
Ogles threw his support behind Trump during the debate and made claims that Democrats would now scramble to find a
replacement during the party’s convention. Ogles, along with Blackburn and Hagerty, have backed Trump fervently since he lost the 2020 election, despite the former president’s lies about voter fraud, the Jan. 6 insurrection and his recent felony convictions.
Marsha Blackburn’s unsuccessful campaign against judicial nominations
Tennessee’s senior U.S. senator has used her influential committee post to throw mud at jurists
BY ELI MOTYCKA
A lengthy nomination process, the patchy U.S. Senate calendar and the powerful gravity of campaign season mean that Karla Campbell may just barely make it across the finish line. Campbell, a Nashville attorney with elite credentials and expertise in employment and labor law, will likely be Biden’s fifth addition to the powerful U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, which takes federal cases from Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio and Michigan.
Nominated in late May — six months before November’s presidential contest and nine months before a new Congress could potentially boot Democrats out of power in the Senate — Campbell began the long, slow trudge to a federal judgeship with a June appearance in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee. In brief spurts, senators from
both parties question a nominee before a committee vote on whether to send them to the upper chamber for confirmation. It was here that Campbell, like many accomplished Tennesseans before her, drifted into Marsha Blackburn’s crosshairs.
“This one was particularly nasty,” Carl Tobias tells the Scene. Tobias is a law professor at the University of Richmond who studies the federal judicial process. “I felt for the nominees. It was all guilt by association. A lot of it is theater — some of it will be posted on YouTube.”
Tobias makes the point that, especially in an election year, these hearings become playgrounds for senators to take shots at the opposing party and the president. He expects the actual confirmations to pass easily with full support from Democrats.
Without the votes to block a nominee via the legislative process, Republican pugilists like Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Josh Hawley of Missouri and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina lead personal attacks with whatever material their offices dig up. At Campbell’s hearing, that material included her work in the early 2010s with Nashville nonprofit Workers’ Dignity/Dignidad Obrera and tweets from Odessa Kelly, a congressional candidate who received a campaign donation from Campbell.
Blackburn, who rose to power as an antiestablishment Tennessee state senator in the late ’90s and early 2000s, fits comfortably among this Senate clique. It’s a stark contrast with colleagues like Chuck Grassley, Iowa’s 90-year-old senior senator, who appears to possess neither the vitriol nor the energy to cross-examine a reasonably polite fellow American in bad faith.
In early 2022, Blackburn led attacks on Andre Mathis, a Black attorney from Memphis nominated to the 6th Circuit, for unpaid traffic tickets that had led to a
suspended license more than a decade earlier. In committee, Blackburn referred to the tickets as Mathis’ “rap sheet.”
“I simply forgot about it,” Mathis told senators, who pushed him to recount a timeline of citations, reminders, payment and the license reinstatement process. “I regret that I did those things. I can assure the committee that I’m a law-abiding citizen. I’ve never been arrested, I’ve never been charged with a crime. I sincerely regret my actions there.”
Democrats, led by committee chair Dick Durbin of Illinois, dull Blackburn’s sting by redirecting discussion to nominees’ extensive résumés and professional experience. They follow attacks with apologies, casting Republican colleagues’ behavior as petty and embarrassing. Crucially, Democrats have the votes to approve nominees to the bench. They sometimes even pick up Republican support, as was the case for Mathis, who won favor from Louisiana’s Sen. John Kennedy.
“The criminal record that they talked about, that he forgot to face some traffic tickets, when they contacted him about it through a warrant, he just said, ‘It’s true, I forgot to pay them,’ and he paid up, but I just didn’t think that was disqualifying,” Kennedy told reporters at the time.
Blackburn’s other major fuel source has been accusing the Biden administration of shutting her and her fellow Tennessee Republican, Sen. Bill Hagerty, out of the nomination process.
“There was a backroom deal to appoint Mr. Ritz to this vacancy from the very start,” Blackburn told colleagues during the April 17 committee hearing for Kevin Ritz, a U.S. attorney nominated to the 6th Circuit. “The most glaring example of the White House outright refusal to consult is the fact that they have not even bothered to ask what our objections to Mr. Ritz might be.”
A year earlier, Blackburn and Hagerty had returned blue slips supporting Ritz’s nomination to be U.S. attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, a post he currently holds. The Senate Judiciary Committee approved his nomination in May along party lines. Ritz’s confirmation awaits a full vote on the Senate floor.
Blackburn skewered Biden for ignoring the blue slip process — a century-old tradition in which presidents prize approval from judicial nominees’ homestate senators. Years ago, senators returned (or withheld) assessments of nominees via blue paper forms. Durbin responded that Hagerty and Blackburn had refused the opportunity extended by Biden to participate in nominee selection; he also pointed out that Republicans had scrapped blue slips for circuit court judges during the Trump administration.
Blackburn renewed the accusations directed at the Biden administration for, she said, cutting her office out of the search that produced Campbell.
“I want to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to my homestate senators,” Campbell said in her introductory remarks. Campbell grew up in Knoxville and currently works at Nashville firm Stranch, Jennings & Garvey. “Sen. Blackburn, Sen. Hagerty — my mom’s death came in the middle of interviews with your staff for this position, and the folks in your office treated me with incredible empathy, sending condolences and kind notes. I have carried these notes with me the past few months, and they remind me how lucky I am to be a Tennessean.”
Requests for comment sent to Blackburn’s office were not returned by press time. This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Scene.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
Vanderbilt’s Fraley qualifies for 2024 Olympics Grad student finishes third
Team Trials
BY JOHN GLENNON
Vanderbilt grad student Veronica Fraley qualified for the 2024 Olympics in Paris on Thursday, finishing third in the discus competition at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials at Hayward Field in Oregon.
It will be the first Olympics for Fraley, who has previously represented the U.S. at the World Championships (twice) and the 2023 Pan American Games.
The Raleigh, N.C., native topped the 60-meter mark on four of her six throws, recording her best effort in the third round with a throw of 62.54 meters.
Fraley, currently ranked 22nd in the world, earlier this month won the discus competition at the NCAA Outdoor Track and Field Championships. In that competition, Fraley’s winning throw was 63.66 meters, allowing her to finish ahead of Louisville’s Jayden Ulrich (63.05 meters) and Florida’s Alida van Daalen (62.44 meters).
It’s been quite a season for Fraley, who competed three years (2019-21) at Clemson and two at Vanderbilt.
She was named the SEC Field Athlete and Scholar Athlete of the Year, won the SEC shot put crown and was runner-up in the discus. Fraley concluded her NCAA career with four AllAmerica selections, two East Region titles, two SEC titles and an NCAA discus championship.
The 24-year-old Fraley holds Vanderbilt records in both the discus (63.66 meters) and outdoor shot put (18.29 meters).
This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.
Veronica Fraley PHOTO: VANDERBILT ATHLETICS
MNPS board reacts to TCAP scores, approves finalized budget
Metro
students show
testing
improvements across subject areas — though achievement gaps remain
BY KELSEY BEYELER
Board
The Metro Nashville Public Schools board of education finalized the budget for the next school year, passed new policies and reflected on standardized testing scores during its second June meeting. The district on Tuesday also shared a “State of Schools” video that reflects on MNPS accomplishments from the past year, from opening two new school buildings to securing a scholarship partnership with Vanderbilt University, Pearl-Cohn High School’s football team state championship win and more.
Director of Schools Adrienne Battle touted TCAP gains amid the release of related district-level data. MNPS students saw improvements ranging from 0.5 to 3.8
percent in every category and scored above statewide averages in all but the end-ofcourse biology and English II categories. Even so, the majority of MNPS students didn’t reach proficiency as defined by the state in each subject category, and significant achievement gaps among students of color, English learners and economically disadvantaged students remain.
In MNPS, 68.7 percent of third-grade and 62 percent of fourth-grade students did not meet state standards on the ELA portion of the TCAP. These results are particularly relevant because state law requires third- and fourth-graders who don’t score high enough in ELA on the state test receive learning interventions or face possible retention. Across
the state, 59 percent of third-graders and 54 percent of fourth-graders did not score high enough on the ELA portion of the TCAP to automatically advance to the next grade.
Members of parent advocacy organization Nashville PROPEL were at the school board meeting distributing copies of the group’s first white paper addressing “the literacy crisis in Nashville that is largely hidden from parents.” The guide features a parent poll regarding the state of communication surrounding student literacy in Nashville schools. It also lays out demands, from changing traditional report card models to better explaining students’ reading progress, to schools providing more data about reading and a public dashboard that shows detailed information about schooland system-level data
The school board passed the finalized budget for the 2024-25 school year without much discussion. The $1.25 billion budget is similar to what it looked like earlier in the process, however it now includes a 4 percent cost-of-living-adjustment for MNPS employees rather than the 3.5 percent figure that was represented in previous iterations. The budget also includes step increases for MNPS employees and the continuation of positions and services that were brought on using federal COVID relief funding that ends this year.
Goodlettsville Middle School teacher Graham Spencer tells the Scene that, while he’d still like to see more support for substitute teachers and smaller class sizes, he is overall content with how the budget turned out this year. Spencer is also “so thankful” that MNPS is able to sustain positions and programs that were previously funded with COVID relief money that has since run out, particularly because many districts across the country have had to make budget cuts or lay off educators because of the funding cliff. Spencer says that
even though he is thankful for the COLA increase, educators are still being priced out of Nashville and moving to other districts with competitive salary schedules and lower costs of living — though he acknowledges that Nashville gets a smaller share of state education funding than most districts.
The MNPS board also approved a memorandum of understanding with the Metropolitan Nashville Education Association. Spencer is a member of the union and was on the team that led negotiations around the MOU.
“I am very pleased with how our team was able to work [with] the MNPS team and get some victory for educators,” says Spencer. “I think we could have gotten more, but overall I’m very excited to see some of the changes we’ve got.”
Board members changed several policies, most of which codify preexisting practices into MNPS code after recent changes in state law. One new policy requires schools to have a code of conduct for school visitors. State law qualifies threats of mass violence to schools as a zero-tolerance offense for students, but a new policy change allows threat assessment teams to determine whether such threats were “valid.” Another policy change ensures that support employees who are assaulted while working get paid while they recover. MNPS also codified into its policies a law that requires schools to determine the cause of a fire alarm, the legislation for which was inspired by the Covenant School shooting.
The MNPS board will meet only once next month, on July 23.
This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Scene.
Tennessee unemployment rate reaches record low in May STAFF
REPORTS
The unemployment rate in Tennessee continues to drop as May saw a new state record of 3 percent, a 0.1 percent improvement from April and the lowest figure since the Federal Government began tracking the statistic in 1976.
According to data released by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD), the state’s seasonally adjusted jobless rate dipped
below the previous record low of 3.1 percent which first occurred from April through June of 2023 and then again in April 2024.
Tennessee’s unemployment rate was a full percentage point lower than the country’s rate of 4 percent for May.
The state’s workforce grew by 3,300 nonfarm jobs during the month, with the professional, scientific, and technical services sector accounting for the largest
increase in new jobs.
According to the TDLWD’s release, Williamson County tied Sevier County for the state’s lowest unemployment rate in May at 2.1 percent, a 0.1 percent increase from April’s figure. The rate improves on Williamson County’s 2.4 percent figure from May 2023.
Davidson County was not far behind with an unemployment mark of 2.4
percent, which was the ninth-best mark in the state but 0.1 percent worse than its April number. Davidson’s figure was 2.6 percent in May 2023.
Bledsoe County had the month’s highest unemployment rate in the state at 4.4 percent.
Davidson County
of Education PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
Legislators, activists reflect on two years without Roe
Planned Parenthood political arm announces pivot to election advocacy
BY HANNAH HERNER
The group outside the Tennessee State Capitol was much smaller on Monday than it was two years ago when the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and set into action Tennessee’s abortion ban.
More than 100 had RSVP’d online as part of a national women’s march, which also took place in cities including Knoxville and Clarksville. A common theme amongst those gathered is that the Dobbs vs. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision ignited a streak of activism that wasn’t there before.
“I’ve never been political. I never had this on my bucket list of things I was going to do with my life,” said Teri Mai, a firsttime candidate for House District 92. “My child does not have the same rights that I had at her age.”
She told the Post her top two reasons for entering the race were gun violence and Tennessee’s nearly total abortion ban. At the Monday meeting, she encouraged people to register to vote.
Co-organizer Vikki H., who asked that the Post use only her last initial, said the overturning of Roe v. Wade two years ago ignited her activism. She registered to vote in 2024 for the first time after living in the state for five years.
“It’s one of those things where once time goes by, people get complacent, and we can’t be complacent in this,” she said. “I can no longer trust [legislators] to make those decisions for me because they’re making the wrong ones.”
Monday was the first protest 19-yearold Cyrah Miller attended. A University of Tennessee Knoxville student, she’s evaluating candidates on their stance on abortion when she votes this year.
“This is something that’s very personal to me,” she told the Post. “Being 19 and going to school and having to deal with this, I don’t know what I would do if I was kind of forced to have a baby at this age and give up things I’ve been working for.”
Earlier in the day, Tennessee Advocates for Planned Parenthood (the political arm of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi) announced it would pivot from lobbying and instead triple investment in smaller political races, including supporting candidates that support reproductive rights.
More than 10,000 women left Tennessee to get an abortion in 2023. The Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi has assisted 800 people with its patient navigator program, said Ashley
Coffield, CEO of the organization. She also announced its Knoxville location is set to reopen after it was destroyed by arson in 2021.
“We have learned that lobbying legislators on the abortion issue no longer works,” said Coffield in a Monday press conference. “Planned Parenthood has brought thousands of people into the Capitol over the years to have sincere and civil conversations and it has had no effect.”
Also on Monday, Rep. Aftyn Behn (D-Nashville) and abortion fund member and attorney Rachel Welty brought a lawsuit against the district attorneys general for Middle Tennessee districts, alleging that a state law passed earlier this year infringes upon the First Amendment right of free speech.
The Senate Democrat women also released a joint statement, signed by Minority Leader Sen. Raumesh Akbari, Democratic Caucus Chairwoman Sen. London Lamar, Vice Caucus Chair Sen. Charlane Oliver, Sen. Sara Kyle and Sen. Heidi Campbell.
“None of us ever thought we would live in an America where women have fewer rights than our mothers and grandmothers or that politicians would use the power of the government to decide when or if we grow our family,” the statement read, in part. “But these two years have underscored our purpose and our Democratic caucus is more determined than ever to restore this basic freedom to every woman in Tennessee. Women’s lives are at risk and we will not waver until our daughters have the same basic freedoms as our sons.”
In August of 2022, Tennessee’s nearly total abortion ban went into effect because of a trigger ban that was passed in 2019, laying in wait to go into effect when Roe v. Wade was overturned. The ban offers only an exception to save the life of the pregnant person, or in instances of molar or ectopic pregnancy. Medical professionals are at risk of losing their license and being convicted of a class-C felony, should they perform an abortion. Local physicians are part of a group suing the state to clarify the circumstances that qualify for an exception.
Exceptions for rape and incest failed this year at the state legislature and legislation to protect termination of pregnancy in the event of fatal fetal anomalies never came to fruition. This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.
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Nashville expanding funding opportunities for affordable housing Metro touts $75M public-private investment in same week as $5M federal HUD grant announcement
BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO
Metro is putting $20 million in American Rescue Plan funds toward a new initiative to preserve and develop affordable housing, Mayor Freddie O’Connell announced Friday morning.
The Nashville Catalyst Fund will provide capital to developers who create incomerestricted housing for at least 30 years. In addition to Metro’s initial funds, First Horizon has committed to a $50 million credit facility loan, and Vanderbilt University has contributed $5 million. The Catalyst Fund aims to raise $25 million more for a total investment of $100 million in affordable housing.
“First Horizon believes investing time and resources in the communities in which we operate leads to success for all,”
Carol Yochem, First Horizon Bank region president, said in a release. “We are proud to be the lead bank providing capital to the Catalyst fund.”
The goal of the fund is to jumpstart projects so developers do not need to wait on public subsidies or grants to develop affordable housing products. Metro said in the release the first $75 million can lead to
the preservation or creation of at least 3,000 units over the next 10 years.
Forsyth Street Asset Management will manage the fund and seek out other investors. The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, Pillars Development and Nelson Community Partners will also collaborate to manage the fund. An investment committee led by Jim Gingrich of the Community Foundation will be in charge of lending decisions for the fund.
“Nashville needs an all hands on deck approach to solving our affordable housing shortage,” Hal Cato, CEO of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, said in the release. “The Catalyst Fund represents a new level of collaboration between philanthropy, business, and government towards a future where everyone in Nashville can have a place that they call home.”
Other committee members include Hannah Davis, Metro Housing Division; Bert Mathews, The Mathews Company; Adriane Harris, HarCo; Ryan Fleming, Enterprise Community Loan Fund; and Tifinie Capehart, Parks–Compass.
At the Mayor’s roundtable Friday morning, Cato said that the investment committee is already reviewing about a dozen projects and hopes to have the first deal done by the end of August. Mayor O’Connell said in the meeting that this is another tool alongside the Barnes Fund, which is aimed mostly at new projects.
He added the Catalyst Fund hopes to “reduce the likelihood that people get displaced” by providing the capital needed for developers to preserve already existing affordable housing
Earlier this week, Metro also announced receipt of a $5 million federal Housing and Urban Development grant.
Metro applied for the Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing in 2023 and HUD announced the $85 million in 21 awards given out across the country on Wednesday. The Mayor said in Friday’s roundtable that Metro will share more about how those funds will be used in the coming weeks.
In the summary of Metro’s grant application provided by HUD, it mentions Nashville’s recent actions to boost the
housing supply, including the $20 million in ARPA funds that were set aside for the Catalyst Fund, the Connecting Housing to Infrastructure Program and the mixed-income payment in lieu of taxes PILOT funding.
The application summary also states that the funds could be used to establish an “Affordable Housing Finance Program to build permanent supportive housing and deeply affordable housing in highopportunity areas.” It also states that Metro will “launch a Housing Accelerator Program” to support emerging developers, community organizations and small businesses.
Recognizing barriers to housing in the application, Metro said that only 7 percent of land in Nashville allows for multifamily apartment construction and per-acre land values in 2022-2023 have risen to six times as high as sales in 2010-2013.
Mayor Freddie O’Connell at an announcement of the Promoting Affordable Housing Partnerships in Nashville study in Nov. 2023. PHOTO: MAYOR’S OFFICE
OPINION
TICKED OFF!
RUNNING WATER
After many years and many “Do Nothing” Councilmen and Mayors I decided to start over trying to get a major problem resolved. I’ve had a constant flow of Running Water in a drainage ditch at the end of my property (backyard). So I wrote my new councilwoman Ms. B. Gadd and tried to explain my problem she responded and got some other people involved in Oct.2023 they all agreed this problem needed attention. I had not heard from anyone as the wheels of Government turn slowly so I waited until the end of May 2024 I wrote a letter to our new Mayor and got a prompt response. Finally a phone call from a woman at Metro Water Dept. and I got to explain all over again for what seemed like the “1,000 time” what my problem was. I gave her the Street names and addresses that I believed were involved or at least the direction I thought the Water flowed from. She said they could send someone with “Ground Detection Sound Equipment to check the area, and guess what within 2 days they found a BROKEN CITY WATER LINE/PIPE!!!! And fixed the running water problem. I had been trying to get METERO WATER to listen to me, they would come out and videotape the ditch line and give the info to an “Engineer and I would get the same old answer “Too much rain in a short period of time”. It made me so mad because I knew something else was wrong. But when someone checked the water they found Flouride but still didn’t go any further. That break in the Metro Line has been running since 2021 till June 2024, and I have been trying on & off to get someone to Listen to me! I wonder how much that will cost us taxpayers? But I am thankful for everyone involved for getting the issue resolved this far, and a special thanks to our councilwoman Ms. Gadd. Now the City just needs to DIG out the ditch line that runs under 2 other streets because they connect. There are areas”Blocking” the water flow. some of this buildup is from years
of neglect and the other problem is from “Builders” dumping their debris into to the ditch as well as “Homeowners” dumping yard waste into this ditch!
8-M A DAY
OMG, Eight thousand dollars a day! I am reasonably sure I am not the only person (who pays taxes) who read page 26 of the second half of the front section of the Sunday’s Tennessean. To others who read it, can you imagine spending 8 thousand dollars a day for 2 Top TN. economic officials for a four day trip to Australia? I thought ECONOMIC OFFICIALS were supposed to be watching out for the states economy not milking all they could out of it. This is exactly what Mr. McWhorter and Mr. Allen Borden did. I guess $26,490 for airfare is what the rate is but I think they could have flown business class and have stayed in more moderately priced hotels. Now here is the real kicker $2,700 for food. That is an average of $ 225.00 a meal. Then there is the fact that the $213.00 meal per diem was charged to the state while in first class flight and both of these big spenders (of tax payers money) then billed the state $200.00 each in per diem food rate reimbursement for meals already included in their first class air fare. I don’t know where McWhorter lives but $64.00 for a ride to the airport in a Uber also seems a little high.
That is it Mr. editor I quit, I have to go and puke just thinking how these two Super Majority Republicans, who, I was always under the impression were conservatives. I am going to stick my neck out and say they are government thieves. How many more of the tax payers representatives are milking us out of our tax dollars and hiding behind self imposed secrets?
Unbelievable
The comments in the Ticked Off column do not reflect the views of FW Publishing.
NOTICE OF ADVERTISEMENT FOR BIDS
City of Oak Hill
5548 Franklin Rd Suite 101 Nashville, TN 37220
Sealed bids for public works services to include mowing services, disposal of trees, brush and leaves as well as pickup/removal of brush trimmings, for the City of Oak Hill will be received by the City of Oak Hill at the City Office, Nashville, TN until 2:00 p.m., Thursday, July 11, 2024 and then at said time and location, publicly opened and read aloud.
The CONTRACT DOCUMENTS may be examined at the following location: Oak Hill Office
5548 Franklin Rd, Suite 101 Nashville, TN 37220
Copies of the CONTRACT DOCUMENTS may be obtained at the City Office, at the above address. The City of Oak Hill reserves the right to reject all bids and to waive all technicalities in bidding.
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J. Steven Collie, City Manager
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SPORTS
Former Predators GM Poile, defenseman Weber voted into Hockey Hall of Fame
Two helped Nashville transition from expansion years to playoff team
BY JOHN GLENNON
Two men responsible for building the Predators were voted into Hockey’s Hall of Fame on Tuesday.
Former Nashville general manager David Poile and former Preds defenseman Shea
Weber were each part of the Hall’s sevenmember class, including Colin Campbell, Natalie Darwitz, Krissy Wendell-Pohl, Pavel Datsyuk and Jeremy Roenick.
Poile, Weber and the rest of the 2024 class will be inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame on Nov. 11 in Toronto, a date preceded by the traditional slate of Induction Weekend activities beginning Nov. 8.
It will mark a reunion of sorts for Poile and Weber, as Poile drafted the big blueliner in 2003 and also traded him to Montreal for P.K. Subban in 2016.
“I always tell [Poile] that he made one bad trade in his career, but he’ll have to live with that one,” Weber said with a laugh on a conference call Tuesday. “But it’s an honor [to be inducted with Poile]. He did so much for the game and when I was in Nashville, he built our teams up and gave us a chance to win every year.”
Added Poile: “It’s awesome [to be inducted with Weber]. That trade he referred to, that was one of my toughest days I ever had. But Shea, definitely in my mind, was one of our greatest players and certainly, along with our [first] coach Barry Trotz and a few others … those are the guys that define Predators hockey, the Predators way and got us to be a competitive team coming out of that expansion situation.”
The 6-4, 230-pound Weber, a secondround selection, became an NHL force on
both sides of the rink during his tenure in Nashville, which lasted from 2005-06 through 2015-16. His punishing defensive style of play and his rocket of a slapshot helped him earn two first-team NHL AllStar honors and two second-team NHL All-Star honors here.
In his 11 seasons in Nashville, the 38-year-old Weber played 763 games, totaling 443 points (166 goals, 277 assists). He ranks third in franchise history in games played, fourth in goals, fifth in assists, fifth in points, first in power-play goals (80) and third in shots (2,052).
Weber served as the Preds’ captain for six years, and following his final Nashville season, won the NHL’s Mark Messier Leadership Award. He also captured two Olympic gold medals with the Canadian team, in 2010 and 2014.
A Sicamous, British Columbia, native, Weber played 16 NHL seasons and 1,038 games overall, compiling 589 points (224 goals, 365 assists), 1,576 blocked shots and 1,993 hits.
“I’m still at a loss for words,” Weber said of the Hall of Fame news. “I hate to echo everyone, but still in shock, disbelief, and the amount of people along the way, can’t thank them enough. Growing up, you [don’t] dream of playing in the NHL, let alone going into the Hall of Fame.”
Poile was named Nashville’s general
manager in 1997, after guiding the Washington Capitals to 14 playoff berths in 15 years as that team’s general manager. He led the Preds for 25 seasons, becoming the only person to serve as an NHL general manager for at least 3,000 games (3,075). Poile also became the first general manager to reach 1,500 wins, finishing with 1,533.
His teams made the playoffs in 29 of Poile’s 38 seasons before he passed the Nashville general manager torch to Trotz.
Poile had previously been voted into the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame.
Poile’s father, Bud Poile, was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1990 after a six-decade career of playing, coaching, and managing hockey.
“Many people have said it before me, you never got into hockey thinking that someday you’ll be in the Hall of Fame,” Poile said. “You just love it so much that this is like the icing on the cake. I’ve loved the game and every facet that I’ve ever been in it, and this is just a fantastic honor, recognition.
“My dad is in the Hockey Hall of Fame. I wish I could have a little conversation with him today. So, it’s all good … This is a great day for the Poile family.”
This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.
Lakers draft Vols’ Knecht with 17th overall pick
BY JOHN GLENNON
Tennessee guard Dalton Knecht is headed from Rocky Top to Hollywood.
Knecht, an All-American who helped the Vols reach the Elite Eight last season, was chosen by the Los Angeles Lakers with the 17th overall pick of the NBA Draft on Wednesday.
The 23-year-old Knecht will join one of the greatest players in NBA history, 39-yearold LeBron James, as well as nine-time allstar Anthony Davis, 31.
“I’m excited,” Knecht said in an ESPN interview. “It’s a dream come true, a once in a lifetime [moment]. It’s just a blessing. I’m at a loss for words and I’m ready to get to work.”
Knecht will be playing for the Lakers’ new coach, JJ Redick, whose shooting stroke as a college star at Duke was a thing of beauty — much like Knecht’s.
The Lakers will count on Knecht
to improve the team’s poor three-point shooting, which was the second-worst in the NBA last season at 29.9 percent. Los Angeles averaged just 8.8 three-point baskets per game last season, tied with New Orleans for worst in the league.
Knecht shot 45.8 percent from the field last season, including 40 percent from threepoint range, en route to averaging 21.7 points per game in his lone year with the Vols.
“We’d have never imagined a player as skilled and sorta’ perfect for our needs was there for us [at pick 17],” Lakers General Manager Rob Pelinka said, per the team’s `X’ account. “We had him as a Top 10 player unanimously on our scouting boards.”
The 6-5, 212-pound Knecht scored 35plus points six times in 2023-24, breaking Bernard King’s single-season program record
(five in 1975-76). In addition, he totaled 30-plus points eight times, matching Allan Houston (1989-90) for fourth-most by a Volunteer in a season.
The SEC player of the year, Knecht was also the runner-up for the Associated Press national player of the year.
“SEC Player of the Year, one of the toughest conferences,” Pelinka said. “He’s a 3-level scorer … He’s going to defend. He’s physical and athletic. We just think he fits so well with our pillar pieces.”
Knecht is the highest-drafted Volunteer since forward Marcus Haislip was chosen by Milwaukee with the No. 13 overall pick in the 2002 draft. He’s the 10th top-20 pick in Tennessee history, the first since forward Tobias Harris was selected 19th overall in 2011.
Knecht, who played two seasons at Northern Colorado before transferring to Tennessee, became the fourth first-round pick for the Vols in the last six years.
The other three were forward Grant Williams, chosen by Boston with the 22nd overall pick in 2019; guard Keon Johnson, chosen by the L.A. Clippers with the No. 21 pick in 2021; and guard Jaden Springer, chosen with the No. 28 overall pick by Philadelphia in 2021.
This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.
David Poile PHOTO: NASHVILLE PREDATORS
Logano captures first NASCAR win of season at Nashville Superspeedway
Race at Lebanon facility featured nine leaders, 20 lead changes in overtime finish
BY JOHN GLENNON
Driver Joey Logano earned his first NASCAR Cup Series win of the season Sunday, taking first place in the NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon. It didn’t come easily.
Logano endured in a race that included a record five overtimes and 331 laps — 31 laps more than scheduled.
Overtime occurs when a race goes past its scheduled length, due to a caution flag coming out in the closing laps necessitating an overtime finish. The overtime finish consists of two laps and can be attempted as many times as needed.
Logano managed to cross the finish line with virtually no fuel left in the tank.
The 34-year-old Logano finished .068 seconds ahead of rookie Zane Smith. Tyler Reddick was third, followed by Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher. Logano secured his bid into the 2024 playoffs with the victory.
“I know into [Turn] Three, my fuel light came on, and it stumbled across the line. That was definitely all of it,” Logano said, per NASCAR’s website. “But so proud of this Shell-Pennzoil Mustang team. It’s been a stressful few weeks trying to get into the playoffs, and being able to win here is huge for our season. Felt great to get that. Boy, it feels good.”
It was an eventful race, one that included an 81-minute weather delay, nine race leaders and 20 lead changes.
Logan led for only nine laps, well behind other drivers such as Christopher Bell (131), Denny Hamlin (70), Ross Chastain (45), Michael McDowell (31), Ryan Blaney (26) and Reddick (16).
Hamlin and Chastain were in front of the field for 30 laps near the end. But following a restart, Chastain was knocked out of the competition when he was hit from behind by Larson. Hamilton was ultimately done in by a late pit stop for fuel.
Logano’s win marked just the second time this season he has finished in the top three. He had a second-place finish at Richmond Raceway in March.
But Logano became the 11th racer to qualify for the playoffs, leaving five spots remaining.
Larson leads NASCAR’s regular-season standings with 664 points, followed by Chase Elliott (644), Hamlin (621), Reddick (611) and Martin Truex Jr. (591). Larson tops the playoff picture standings as well, followed by Hamlin and Bell.
This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.
Joey Logano
PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
NASCAR Cup Series Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway
PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
Obituary: ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ record producer Joe Scaife dies at 68
Nashville GRAMMY-nominated, CMA Award-winning record producer, recording engineer, and music publishing executive Joe Scaife has died at the age of 68.
He was born in the Arkansas Delta to the late Sherytha Payne Scaife and the late Cecil Scaife. He was predeceased by his maternal grandparents, Mozelle and Charles Edward Payne, and his paternal grandparents, Elsie and Brooks Scaife, all of Arkansas.
Joe grew up around music all his life. His Dad was the first National Sales and Marketing Manager for Sun Records in Memphis during the era of Elvis, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison,
Jerry Lee Lewis, and Charlie Rich.
After living in Palm Beach, where his dad opened an all-girl radio station, WLIZ, for Sam Phillips, his family moved to Nashville, Tennessee, where Joe started first grade.
As a child, Joe often returned to the Arkansas Delta to spend his summers with his maternal grandparents, Mozell and Edward Payne. There, he was an all-star baseball player for many seasons and enjoyed the small-town life in the Delta, especially the many hours he spent fishing with his beloved Papa Payne. He never strayed from his Delta roots. He was kind, humble, patient, funny, and he loved a good party.
Joe’s journey continued at Belmont University In Nashville, Tennessee. While not in class, he honed his skills while gaining hands-on experience at the control board of his dad’s Hall of Fame Recording Studio. His dad was the visionary behind the Music Business Program at Belmont College, now the Mike Curb College of Entertainment and Music Business. As a young recording engineer, Joe was at the soundboard when Vince Gill arrived in Nashville and had the honor of recording Vince’s first demo record.
As a producer, engineer, and singer, Joe sold over 80 million records his music has been streamed over 2 billion times.
Joe received numerous awards, including CMA Awards, BMI Awards, ASCAP Awards, and was an ACM and Grammynominated producer.
Some of his greatest hits that he produced and contributed background vocals to were
“Achy Breaky Heart,” “Redneck Woman,” “Here for the Party,” and “80’s Ladies”. Joe sang on the Tonight Show, performed at the Washington Moment, and sang background on countless albums.
He worked with Alabama, Billy Ray Cyrus, The Van Zants, K.T. Oslin, Montgomery Gentry, Lionel Ritchie, Loretta Lynn, Shania Twain, Glen Campbell, Gretchen Wilson, Lou Rawls, Vince Gill, The Oak Ridge Boys, Toby Keith, Reba McEntire, Rhett Akins, Charlie Daniels, Trace Adkins and many others.
As a music publisher, he held a large catalog of songs, including the #1 song, “She Got the Best of Me” by Luke Combs.
With an uncanny ability to spot talent, Joe has been instrumental in launching many new artists to the pinnacle of success, a testament to his keen ear and unwavering dedication. It has been said he had the ‘best ears’ on Music Row, and they were insured by Lloyds of London.
Scaife had the distinct honor of contributing to both the historical recording of the last official Grand Ole Opry show at the Ryman Auditorium before the show moved to Opryland and the inaugural Grand Ole Opry shows the next night at the new Opry House at Opryland.
However, all of those awards and accolades did not define who Joe was as a person.
He was foremost a father. He often stated that his children, Tristan and Jaela, were “his biggest accomplishments.” He was a kind, honest man known by only a few for his quiet generosity. No one knows how many
friends, fellow musicians, record producers, and artists he has helped along the way.
To help students financially continue their education at Mike Curb College at Belmont University, Joe and his sister LaRawn Scaife Rhea established the Cecil Scaife Endowed Scholarship in honor of their dad.
As his good friend, Richard House, said, his family and friends looked at Joe as a ‘memory maker.’ Joe was always quick to fire up the grill for a poolside party at their home in Franklin, Tennessee, or to host fellow outdoorsmen at the family River House on the Buffalo River in Perry County.
His peaceful place was a weekend of fishing on his boat or hanging out in the woods. He enjoyed nothing more than being surrounded by his family and friends.
Those mourning this huge loss include his wife, Danielle Godwin Scaife, and their two children, his son, Joe Tristan Payne Scaife and Jaela Scaife Harris (Prather) of Franklin, TN, many other family members, and legions of friends.
A private burial was held Saturday morning, June 15, near his family farm in Perry County, overlooking the hills and the beautiful countryside. A celebration of Joe’s life will be held on Music Row at a later date.
The Cecil Scaife Endowed Scholarship at Belmont University was dear to Joe for those who wish to send a memorial in his name. P.O. Box 128079, Nashville, TN 37212.
Metro lawyers become familiar target in city controversies
BY ELI MOTYCKA
In the weeks following retired police Lt. Garet Davidson’s 61-page complaint detailing systemic misconduct within the Metro Nashville Police Department, the city’s Community Review Board (formerly the Community Oversight Board) has spent almost as much time discussing the conflicted Metro Law Department as it has amplifying allegations against city police. The competing interests of multiple Metro parties — the CRB, the mayor’s office and police — disqualify in-house lawyers, argue community members and some CRB commissioners, most notably chair Alisha Haddock. When Metro Legal is an actor in itself, as is the case here, attorneys forfeit the credibility necessary to evaluate a city matter. Since the complaint arrived in late May, the body has sought independent counsel from Nashville firm Brazil Clark. Haddock has drawn particular attention to Metro’s decision not to sue over a 2023 state law gutting police oversight bodies. The city leaned on home rule protections in multiple successful lawsuits in
the fall protecting the Metro Sports Authority, a NASCAR-related voting threshold and the Metro Council itself. After a June 12 press conference discussing the complaint, Community Review Board director Jill Fitcheard told the Scene that independent CRB counsel would in part assess whether Metro Legal had acted improperly. The prevailing legal opinion at the time (including from outside lawyers) was that the state law gutting the COB passed constitutional muster. Leading advocates for the CRB, like MTSU professor Sekou Franklin, have complicated this story, alleging that Metro Legal failed to do proper due diligence in exploring avenues for legal recourse.
City attorneys are currently helping draft a memorandum of understanding between the MNPD and the CRB to legally define the relationship between the bodies.
“The Department of Law is making sure i’s get dotted and t’s get crossed and that the MOU is a valid legal document,” Mayor Freddie O’Connell told the Scene last week.
“The Department of Law is not really there to be part of the discourse. They’re trying to make sure they keep Metro’s liability intact and that they keep our constitutional options intact.”
City attorneys, often called upon for legal opinions about various government positions or actions, play mediating roles in Metro controversies by the nature of their profession. Several city dustups over the past year, though, have invited direct criticism of the department at large. Aggrieved parties call foul when they see lawyers working with opponents. Lawyers’ opinions carry gravitas and authority, especially on volunteer boards and commissions.
Earlier this year, Metro legal director Wally Dietz personally took flak from Metro Human Resources Commission executive director Davie Tucker for his role adjudicating the nonpayment of grants promised by the Metro Arts Department. Late last summer, former Metro Arts Commissioner Will Cheek appeared to commission a legal memo from Dietz and
fellow city attorney Lora Fox supporting Cheek’s position as grantmaking drama built to a crescendo. Cheek resigned as a commissioner in March.
While the names — Dietz, Fox, fellow Metro attorney Nicki Eke — have recently become folk symbols of institutional stubbornness, the city’s lawyers serve under the mayor and have long reflected administrative will. Just days into his shortlived mayoral term, David Briley relied on scant legal grounds provided by Fox to set the date of the next mayoral election — a move that was struck down in court.
One councilmember, speaking to the Scene on the condition of anonymity, described the city’s relationship to its lawyers as discretionary: “We do generally take their input under advisement, and most of the time we do what they recommend. But we do also ignore them sometimes.”
This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Scene.
Joe Scaife PHOTO: SUBMITTED
Franklin OBGYN Laura Andreson running for District 63 state House seat
BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
State House District 63 Democratic candidate Dr. Laura Andreson
Franklin OBGYN Dr. Laura Andreson is challenging incumbent District 63 House Rep. Jake McCalmon for the seat in this fall’s election after being “motivated by the urgent
need to address and reform Tennessee’s stringent abortion law.”
The first-time political candidate is running as a Democrat for the seat, which covers eastern Williamson County, entering the race just before the deadline this spring.
Andreson’s campaign describes her platform as “built on the foundation of compassion, expertise, and a steadfast commitment to the health and well-being of Tennessee’s women.”
She’s become a familiar face on the hill where she has spoken alongside other medical professionals advocating for safeguarding reproductive health in Tennessee.
“My entire career up until two years ago, I had the luxury of being able to take care of my patients without a law being there that literally slaps a felony on me, and I want to get that back for the people that are coming behind me,” Andreson told The News.
“I want it to be safe for my children to have children and for their wives and children, I want to bring back the rights that I had for so long that I took for granted, and that’s a regret I have is that I didn’t get involved sooner.”
Andreson said that she’s concerned about the misunderstandings of science
and healthcare within the Republican supermajority statehouse, as well as the medical misinformation promoted by some Tennessee lawmakers.
“In the General Assembly, there is a lack of understanding of the science [of reproductive healthcare],” Andreson said. “I think that there’s a lot of influence there by special interest anti-abortion groups; there’s a lot of rhetoric they pass around that’s not true.”
Andreson said that she’s focused on gaining support from moderate Republican and independent voters who share in her concern over the growing legislative threats against women and reproductive rights.
“I do think there’s a group of moderate Republicans in the communities that are wanting to maybe learn more. Maybe they’ve realized that this really is a threat to their well-being, and that’s where I hope during the education and understanding that this is not a simple decision for anybody, physicians, patients, families,” Andreson said.
Other policy issues Andreson is focused on include supporting public schools and gun reform.
“I want to make sure that we can protect our public school system; I think it’s really important for communities,” Andreson said.
“If you lose that connection, I think that is very detrimental.”
“I really fear this voucher system, because I think it’s going to take a lot of kids and a lot of money away from our public schools, and then they’re just going to be not great.
Williamson County’s known for great schools, let’s keep them great.”
Andreson said she’s a “Hard no, on arming teachers,” adding that “gun reform [is] absolutely needed,” but said that she doesn’t want to take guns away from legal and responsible gun owners.
“I grew up in a rural area in North Dakota; we had the tell-tale gun rack in the pickup and, you know, it was just a way of life, and I get that that’s a way of life for a lot of people in Tennessee,” Andreson said.
“They enjoy hunting; I’m all for that, but I just don’t see the need for people to have military grade weapons in their homes.”
Specifically, she supports “behavioral health background checks,” firearm purchasing waiting periods, and increased accountability for gun owners who don’t secure firearms that are then stolen and used in crimes.
PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS
Global Mall redevelopment to see movement this month Councilmember Styles discusses community plan, rezoning
BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO
The Metro Council will hear the first reading of an ordinance rezoning of Metro’s Global Mall site during Tuesday’s meeting.
The legislation aims to change the zoning from a shopping center regional (SCR) to a specific plan (SP) based on the Global Mall master plan, which was announced in August 2023.
“I’m really excited that we are finally continuing with the plan that was started by the previous administration,”
councilmember Joy Styles, whose district 32 contains the Global Mall site, told the Post. “I’m grateful that this administration is finally moving on it.”
She said she does believe the site has taken a back seat to the East Bank development.
“The invisible city has taken a lot of people’s attention,” she said. “The reality is that’s kind of non-existent, and we really have to piecemeal that project, and the mall exists. There’s a greater opportunity to do
work at the Global Mall than the need to move forward with the East Bank. … This community has been waiting for this site to be vibrant again for over 10 years. So, this should definitely be a priority.”
If the zoning ordinance passes its first reading, the second scheduled reading would be as soon as August 6 to give time for notice of a public hearing. The third reading for the Metro Council ordinance would then be at the following meeting but the Metro hearing dates could change if the legislation is deferred for any reason. Before the legislation can officially be adopted by the council, the Metro Planning Commission will also need to approve it.
At a meeting on July 25, the planning commission will consider the change in zoning for the property as well as vote on whether to adopt the draft plan for consideration as an amendment to the greater Antioch–Priest Lake Community Plan.
The planning commission is still accepting community feedback until July 11 for the Global Mall’s draft master plan. Some of the recommended uses in the plan include a transit center, performing arts center, housing for artists, a hotel, daycare, education facilities and community greenspace.
The first piece to be developed will be the transit center, which Styles said is being designed now. The transit center in the plan has already received federal funding through WeGo Public Transit. In September, after the mall’s draft plan had rolled out just a month earlier, WeGo announced a $5 million Federal Transit Administration grant for a regional mobility center in Antioch that would be a part of the redevelopment of
the Global Mall. On WeGo’s website, those funds are part of a total of $17.5 million raised for the transit center, which will implement local and express services.
After that, Styles said she would want to focus on the artist housing and performing arts center. There will be a master developer for the site but the city will put out a request for proposals after the zoning and draft plan are adopted.
While Vanderbilt University Medical Center was once a major part of the plan for the mall area, they aren’t completely out of the picture now, Styles said.
“I would love to have Vanderbilt present; however, they don’t need the entirety of the site,” Styles said.
Initially, VUMC would have leased part of the center of the mall for medical offices but now the city plans to demolish that area, partially because of water damage. Metro chief development officer Bob Mendes told the Nashville Banner that VUMC decided not to go through with the initial plans in part because of negotiations about the roof. Styles told the Post that there’s still space for VUMC to have something more like a walk-in clinic or specialty office in the area.
“That still gives Vanderbilt a presence in the southeast that it does not have,” she said.
The Global Mall area for the SP zoning includes more than 57 acres of Metro-owned land. The goal of the master plan is to have three subdistricts: arts village, innovation village and opportunity village.
This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.
Local professionals named to 2024 Leadership Tennessee NEXT class
Williamson and Davidson County professionals are among the 32 people named to the ninth class of the Leadership Tennessee NEXT program.
The statewide leadership program “focuses on Tennessee’s existing and emerging leaders and spanning geographic and industry boundaries” with a “mission to foster non-partisan dialogue on issues of state importance.”
“The individuals selected for the year’s class are exceptionally intelligent and talented, chosen for their many strengths and unique contributions,” Leadership Tennessee President and CEO Alfred Degrafinreid II said in a news release.
“As a collective, the LT NEXT class is expected to be a powerful force, capable of collaborating in innovative ways. Their
diverse skill sets will be instrumental in driving progress and addressing the challenges that Tennessee is facing.”
Those Middle Tennessee participants include the following people.
• John Williams, Associate Vice Chancellor for Government Relations, Tennessee Board of Regents, Williamson County
• Denise Atwater, Director of Supported Employment, Park Center, Davidson County
• Taylre Beaty, State Broadband Director, Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development, Davidson County
• Destiny Brown, Senior Management Consultant, Customer Focused Government, State of Tennessee, Davidson County
• D’Llisha Davis, Educator/Entertainment, MNPS/Nashfeels, Wilson County
• David DelRio, Assistant Controller, Blatter Technologies, Marshall County
• Michael Deurlein, Deputy Executive Director of Policy and Research, Tennessee State Board of Education, Davidson County
• Katie Hazelwood, Program Officer, Scarlett Family Foundation, Davidson County
• Timothy Hughes, First Vice President, NAACP Nashville Branch, Davidson County
• Brynn Plummer, Vice President/ Director, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, AllianceBernstein, Davidson County
• Robert Wallace, Executive Officer –Resource Strategy, Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools, Davidson County
• Bryce Warden, Director of Education-to-Work Initiatives, State Collaborative On Reforming Education (SCORE), Davidson County
The former Global Mall and Hickory Hollow Mall PHOTO: MARTIN B. CHERRY
Local students named 2024 Bank of America Nashville Student Leaders
STAFF REPORTS
A trio of local students were named Bank of America Student Leaders last week.
Ravenwood’s Siona Bhattacharya, Franklin’s Rinaz Jamal, and Pope Prep’s Lillian Ivanov earned the honor. The rising seniors will have an eight-week paid summer internship “connecting students to employment, skills development and service.” They will also receive financial education coaching through Bank of America’s Better Money Habits curriculum and will spend time working with Special Olympics Tennessee.
“For the past 20 years, we have supported and provided career and leadership development opportunities for Nashville teens, and we continue our work to help develop the next generation of the skilled workforce essential to Middle Tennessee’s long-term economic growth,” Bank of America Nashville President Tyson Moore said in a release.
“The exceptional teens selected for this year’s Student Leaders program will not only gain practical work and life experience but they will also give back to their community while working for Special Olympics Tennessee.”
Double Dogs sports bar to close on city’s west side
STAFF REPORTS
Dog-friendly burger and beer business
Double Dogs will close its Sylvan Heights location on July 1, Nashville Business Journal reports.
The sports bar is located at 4017 Charlotte Ave. in West Nashville.
Citing a social media post, NBJ reports the Hillsboro Village Double Dogs will remain open (read here).
The Bowling Green-based parent company opened the Sylvan Heights location in summer 2016, and the Hillsboro Village location on 21st Avenue South began operations in 2015.
Double Dogs operates from a building on a site Nashville-based H.G. Hill Realty Co. developed (and that includes a residential component).
This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.
Later this summer, the students will also travel to Washington, D.C. for a week-long national leadership summit to learn how nonprofits, governments and businesses collaborate to meet local needs.
Learn more about the 2024 Nashville Bank of America Student Leaders:
• Siona Bhattacharya attends Ravenwood High School, excelling in academics and leadership roles. She founded a nonprofit to assist underrepresented students needing school supplies and spearheaded a food drive that raised more than 25,000 pounds of food as president of Interact Club. Siona was selected as a student board member for AWAKE Nashville, where she organized a mental health awareness event. She was chosen as a House Representative out of more than 500 students in the Volunteer Girls State Program and a National Qualifier in speech and debate.
• Rinaz Jamal attends Franklin High School where she has earned a perfect GPA, ACT, and PSAT scores. In 2021, she founded a nonprofit to
promote access to quality education in underserved communities, impacting hundreds of students worldwide. She is also an accomplished speaker and serves as president of the speech and debate team and Model UN and has won awards for her oratory skills.
• Lillian Ivanov of Hermitage attends Pope John Paul II Preparatory School, where she is active in two varsity sports.
$50,000
She is also in the top 5 percent of her class and has earned national awards for her essay writing and Spanish proficiency. Additionally, she volunteers hundreds of hours of her time helping her neighbors in need and performs life-saving rescues as a lead lifeguard at Opryland.
winning lottery ticket sold in Bellevue
STAFF REPORTS
A lucky Powerball player purchased a $50,000 winning lottery ticket in Bellevue on June 29.
The Powerball Double Play ticket was sold at the Bellevue Shell on Old Harding Pike, but the identity of the winner has not been made public.
BUSINESS BRIEFS
The Tennessee Education Lottery Corporation reports raising more than $7 billion in funding for education programs since January 2004. Players have won more than $20.2 billion in prizes, and lottery retailers have earned more than $1.9 billion in commissions in that time.
Plaza Mariachi files for bankruptcy
BY CONNOR DARYANI, NASHVILLE BANNER
This story is a partnership between the Nashville Banner and The News. The Nashville Banner is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization focused on civic news. Visit nashvillebanner.com for more information.
On the eve of foreclosure, Plaza Mariachi filed for bankruptcy.
As of Monday morning, David Anthony, the trustee for the sale, confirmed to the Nashville Banner that the foreclosure was set to go forward as scheduled on Tuesday at 11 a.m. The only things that could have delayed those proceedings were if current owner Mark Jankbaksh somehow found a way to pay off the venue’s debt or bankruptcy. Anthony confirmed to the Banner that the bankruptcy filing will prevent the scheduled foreclosure, and he will instead be announcing a 60-day continuance of the sale. But he clarified that the announcement is an administrative safeguard for the unlikely scenario that the bankruptcy is quickly dismissed. In other words, foreclosure is unlikely any time soon.
So far, Plaza Mariachi has filed only the
bare minimum paperwork needed to kickstart bankruptcy proceedings, so a full list of debts and other information is not yet available.
Janbakhsh first bought the building, formerly a Kroger, for $1.9 million in 2013, and transformed the Nolensville Pike location into a beloved institution and center for Latino culture and commerce.
Despite the success of cultural hub, Janbakhsh has run into myriad legal problems over the past few years.
Janbakhsh was the majority owner and CEO of the Tennessee car dealership chain Auto Masters. He and Steven Piper, the CFO, allegedly defrauded banks for millions of dollars, some of which went toward the development of Plaza Mariachi. Janbakhsh was indicted on 18 counts of fraud in 2022 and was set to go on trial in June. That date was recently postponed, and has not been rescheduled.
Janbakhsh took out $11 million in loans from First Financial Bank throughout the development of Plaza Mariachi. Those loans had an original maturity date of Jan. 28, 2023. In early June, First Financial Bank set forth foreclosure proceedings.
The
in time for publication.
Banner reached out to Janbakhsh through his bankruptcy lawyer but did not receive comment
Plaza Mariachi PHOTO: DANIEL MEIGS
Honey Blueberry Popsicles
BY EDIBLE NASHVILLE
It’s hot. Let’s eat popsicles. We love this 4-ingredient recipe that doesn’t require an ice cream machine. Use local berries which
are abundant now. Any kind of berries-blackberries, raspberries, strawberries or blueberries will work.
INGREDIENTS
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
1 cup honey
2 cups plain Greek yogurt
1. In a small saucepan, mix together blueberries, lemon zest, and ½ cup honey. Simmer gently for 10 minutes, or until blueberries have softened. Chill.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together yogurt and remaining ½ cup honey.
3. Lightly swirl chilled blueberr y mixture with yogurt to create a marbled look. Spoon mixture into ten 3-ounce popsicle molds and freeze until solid.
Follow Edible Nashville on instagram @ediblenashtn and their website ediblenashville.com.
To subscribe to the magazine that comes out 6x/year, go to ediblenashville.com.
ACROSS
1 “For ___” (greeting card section)
4 Oust
8 Wins over
14 Word said with feigned innocence
15 Move at a snail’s pace
16 How some café is served
17 *Vodka + coffee liqueur + Irish cream + heavy cream
19 Skimpy
20 Feeder filler
21 Producer of the milk for Roquefor t cheese
23 Light brown
24 Some LG products
26 *Light r um + dark rum + orange juice + passion fruit syrup
29 Sharing word
30 One of the “Gilligan’s Island” castaways
31 ___ Miss
32 Onetime host with the segment “Jaywalking”
33 Teacher in a temple
36 *With 38-Across, rum + brandy + pineapple juice + orange juice + orgeat syrup + fire
38 See 36-Across
40 Jimmy of “NYPD Blue”
41 Pitch
42 Str ucture that’s subject to hydrostatic pressure
43 Actor Josh who was once married to Fergie
45 Upscale hotel chain
46 With 56-Across, what each of the starred clues is?
62 Nail polish brand
63 Sher lock Holmes or Hercule Poirot
64 Hard knocks?
65 Catch in the act DOWN
1 “Let me think about that …”
2 Debtor’s note
3 In the thick of things, so to speak
4 Olympic g ymnast with five moves named for her
5 “I’ll take care of that!”
6 Anxiety condition, in brief
7 Currency debut of 2002
8 Photo galler y on one’s phone
9 Apricot or peach
10 In the manner of
11 Believer in the principle of “I and I,” for the physical and spiritual selves
49 “I can’t think with all this racket!”
50 Losing tic-tac-toe line
51 Braves, on a scoreboard
52 The Acropolis, now
53 Horrify
56 See 46-Across
60 Ruthless r uler
61 Green-eyed monster
12 Italy’s fashion capital
13 Broadway composer Jule ___
18 Explorers and others, in brief
22 Droll
24 “Ungula” is Latin for this word, hence “ungulate”
25 Lessens, as pain
26 Chill
27 Taken as a whole
28 Market-focused channel
30 Magazine with cover exclamations like “Bigger Biceps!”
32 Beamed
34 A birdie flies in this
35 Absurd
37 Noon, in France
38 Turn off course
39 Leave out
41 Do a slow burn
44 At the back of the boat
45 Avignon affirmatives
46 Ways to go
47 Kick out
48 Small group of trees
49 Places to dock
52 Invitation request
54 Satyajit Ray’s “The ___ Trilogy”
55 Developer’s purchase
57 ___ trance
58 Org. that enforces the Toxic Substances Control Act
59 Component of a cer tain cage
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Walk a Mile: Sylvan Heights
BY J.R. LIND
Once a month, former Nashville Scene reporter and resident historian J.R. Lind picked an area in the city to examine while accompanied by a photographer. With his column Walk a Mile, he walked a one-mile stretch of that area, exploring the neighborhood’s history and character, its developments, its current homes and businesses, and what makes it a unique part of Nashville.
The Route: From Sylvan Supply east on Charlotte. Right on 38th Avenue then right on Dakota. Right on 40th and then left into Hill Center Sylvan Heights, then back to the start.
Editor’s Note: This story originally ran in The News sister publication the Nashville Scene on April 21, 2022.
They used to make baby gates here.
On Charlotte Avenue, the Madison Mill factory — flush against the old Nashville, Chattanooga and St. Louis Railway line, just east of 42nd Avenue — churned out various wood and steel products starting in 1959. (By then, the NC&StL had been absorbed by the Louisville and Nashville.) In the last several years of its manufacturing life — it sold to a developer in 2015; by then, the L&N had been absorbed by CSX — it primarily made baby gates.
There are no baby gates to be had at what is now called Sylvan Supply. There’s beer and bespoke ramen and punk rock sushi. But no baby gates.
AutoZone, is an auto glass shop and a mechanic, with their chewed-up asphalt parking lots and concertina-wire fences. On the north side, next to Rosie’s, is L&L Market. It began life in 1929 as the Se-Ling Hosiery Mill, then became a Genesco factory and eventually a restaurant supply. Now, like seemingly every one of the numerous former hosiery mills that dot the city, it’s a mixeduse space, with pasta shops, yoga studios and Trumpist brewery Bold Patriot.
38th Avenue meets Charlotte just west of a sign for the former Wishy Washy — whether it’s the Wishy Washy where Dolly Parton met her husband Carl Dean on her first day in Nashville in 1964 remains a mystery — and then climbs hard into the sky.
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Madison Mill used to be next to, among other things, a car wash. In 2010, H.G. Hill Realty paid $950,000 for the small tract at 40th and Charlotte where the aforementioned car wash stood. H.G. Hill paid a 300 percent premium for it. On its face, it’s bizarre: One of the city’s premier real estate companies paid three times the value for a car wash on what was (and in many ways, still is) Nashville’s most utilitarian and unheralded thoroughfare? But that little tract was just the final piece of a puzzle. The Hill family bought its first plot on the block in 1926. The car wash gave the company a huge contiguous parcel.
Now it’s Hill Center Sylvan Heights, with Double Dogs and Farm Burger and Chaatable. Charlotte’s glow-up in the past decade or so has come in pockets. Yes, an old factory is now a shiny steel mixed-use project, and the former car wash and its neighbors are a Hill family outpost, but across Charlotte there’s still some kind of light industrial work getting started on this April morning, crisp and clear after overnight rainstorms.
There’s still an AutoZone at 39th Avenue, and Rosie’s Market is across the street with a cavalcade of color on its cinder-block exterior.
And so it goes in fits and starts. On the south side of Charlotte, next to the
This is Cat Town Hill, all 690 feet of it. At one time, 37th Avenue marked the boundary between the City of Nashville and unincorporated Davidson County, so a completely plausible theory is that Cat Town Hill got its name because there were houses of ill repute hidden in its wilds, just outside the jurisdiction of the city constabulary.
Unfortunately (or fortunately), the truth of the name is far less scandalous. Cat Town Hill is the most prominent topographical feature of Cat Town, which was bound by 33rd Avenue, Charlotte and the rail line. It got its name because someone who lived there … well, they liked cats. Certainly Sylvan Heights is a far more marketable name, but there’s no denying the charm of Cat Town Hill.
There’s a smattering of newer homes on the lower reaches of Cat Town Hill. Some have shades of contemporary architecture, but many just seem to have been built to match the older stock across the train tracks in Sylvan Park. There are plenty of original stock homes remaining though, built in the 1930s as what we would now call “workforce housing” for the factories and mills that were situated west of the city. Those laborers sent their children to Park Avenue School, which is still at the corner of Park and 38th, where it has been since 1915. It’s quiet this morning — MNPS students are on Easter break.
Sylvan Heights PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
Water rushes in rivulets down the sides of 38th Avenue, confined to small channels in the pavement worn by years and years of drainage. The rush of water echoes from storm sewers too, long-ago buried creeks still doing their work of carrying away the rain to the Cumberland. There are two distinct ages of sidewalk along 38th. Generally, the older (and wider) ones are on the east side of the street, laid down decades ago to safely deliver children to the school, minimizing the number of times they’d need to cross a street that slopes like a ski ramp and propels even careful drivers at treacherous speeds. In front of the newer homes are numerous narrow sidewalks-to-nowhere doing the bare minimum to comply with Metro’s oft-scoffed sidewalk ordinance.
One of the older new homes — if that makes sense — is at the corner of 38th and Dakota. It was built in 2007, long enough ago that the exposed sheet-metal siding that’s so popular among gentrifying developers is now completely rusted. According to property records, a permit pulled in 2006 called for the existing house to be moved to 57th and Louisiana in The Nations. The permit expired before that undertaking could take place. There are tall-and-skinnies at 57th and Louisiana now.
Two houses down from there on Dakota, a sign promises “New Construction” on the lot a developer recently purchased for $420,000 from owners who paid $155,000 nine years ago. The year before that, this two-bedroom house could be rented for $850 per month.
Above Dakota is the summit of Cat Town Hill and a sprawling hilltop apartment complex, separated from the single-family homes by tall trees and dense undergrowth (and a fence). Back in 1956, WSM started work on a 1,379-foot television tower around here to replace the 578-foot tower at 14th Avenue South and Compton, near Belmont University. On Feb. 4, 1957, for
reasons that are still unclear, the unfinished tower collapsed, killing four construction workers and hospitalizing a fifth for shock. One 300-foot section skidded down the hill, stopping just short of crashing into a home. Another piece fell through a house on Lookout Drive to the south. The only casualty in the neighborhood was a dog. Viewers who happened to be watching the station the afternoon the tower fell could hear screaming and someone yelling, “Oh my God, send help — the tower has just fallen down, help quick.”
Ultimately, WSM (now WSMV) built its tower on Knob Hill, west of White Bridge Road, because at the time it was a relatively secluded area, and a second collapse would have been relatively risk-free.
After the hill crests, Dakota — on this end, still largely hosting older homes — slopes gently down to a lot that serves as Montgomery Bell Academy’s auxiliary athletic fields. On 40th Avenue, a feral cat — his ear marked to show he’s been neutered — stalks the alleys, presumably intrigued by the birds chirping at the feast of worms and plant matter left about by the storm and rain.
Once 40th passes Nevada Avenue, the momentum of redevelopment from Charlotte takes over from the stubbornness of the deeper neighborhood. The sidewalks narrow, and the homes tighten and crowd the street. (In large part because of the topography, the lots on Cat Town Hill were drawn relatively large; because of the economics of who intended buyers were, the original houses are relatively small, resulting in massive yards.) Signs warn dog owners to not let their pooches poop or pee on the grass.
There’s a remarkable number of what may be communal swings. They look like porch swings, but they aren’t — in a technical sense — porch swings, because they aren’t on porches, because, by and large, the new-
builds don’t have porches. Each little block that’s been filled with cut-and-paste homes seems to have its own clutch of these swings, a trend that continues even as 40th forks and becomes the back entrance to the Hill Center, where a truly astounding number of the swings sit in a grassy patch near the Station 40 apartments.
The swings are as quiet and empty as the railroad tracks and the surrounding developments at this hour. The bars and restaurants will surely be noisy later, filled with happy-hour devotees and long-weekend lovers. It used to be loud all day. They used to make baby gates here.
Station 40 Apartments
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
A bike lane in Sylvan Heights
PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
Sylvan Heights PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
Sylvan Heights PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND
Five free and cheap family things to do in Middle Tennessee
BY AMANDA HAGGARD
The days may be getting shorter at this point, but that doesn’t mean you won’t need a few things to fill all those hot daytime hours we still have left. This time, because of the insane heat, we’ve offered mostly
check out the Discovery Center, where you can hang out inside a while and then go out at 3 p.m. to watch them feed the turtles. If you don’t mind the heat, and paying for a family night out, Cheekwood has your
FAMILY JAM SESSION
The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is hosting a Family Jam Session the first Saturday of each month from 9:3010:15 a.m. The session is designed for folks with kids younger than 5 years old, but all are welcome. The event is focused on child development through moving, singing and listening, and it promotes language acquisition and the development of cognitive, social and motor skills. Museum educators from CMHOF and Mr. Steve, the Music Man, will lead the Family Jam Session.
ITTY BITTY STORYTIME AT LINEBAUGH
This “Itty Bitty Storytime” is a specially designed storytime for children under 2 years old at the Linebaugh Public Library in Murfreesboro. Storytime happens at 10:30 a.m. and lasts a half an hour and includes stories, fingerplays, lap bounces, tickles, scarves and songs.
program brings a variety of animals to teach kids about animals at the zoo. Find the full schedule online to see which neighborhood library the animal friends will be at on any given week.
TURTLE TALKS AT THE DISCOVERY CENTER
Every Wednesday and Thursday at the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro, the whole family can come to see and hear about turtles. At 3 p.m., staff comes out to feed the turtles. The event is free for members of the center and included with admission for others.
THURSDAY NIGHT OUT
Every weekend through October Cheekwood is hosting Thursday Night Out. Each night will feature a new musical guest as well as regionally-sourced food and spirits, lawn games, wellness classes and more. Tickets are $10 for members and $22 for non-members, and you must register ahead of time. Children under 2 are free.
One
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SATURDAY, AUGUST 17
10AM-2PM THE FACTORY AT FRANKLIN’S LIBERTY HALL
General Admission Enjoy a day of shopping the many boutiques at Fashion for a Fraction!
Admission • Early entry to beat the crowd • Complimentary mimosa
ABLE | Any Old Iron | BANDED | Brittany Fuson | CT Grace, A Boutique | e.Allen | Edelweiss Boutique | Elle Gray | Ever Alice | Fab’rik Franklin | Finnleys | Flash & Trash & a Little Bit of Sass | Franklin Road Apparel | The French Shoppe | Hollie Ray | Mountain High Outfitters | Patch | Pauli’s Place Boutique | Rad Rags Boutique | Society Boutique | SVM Boutique | Style with a Twist Boutique | VESEO | The Willing Crab | Wilder Boutique