May 23, 2024

BY WILLIAM WILLIAMS

Nonprofit Blakeford Senior Life has announced it has completed a 3.5-year-long, $75 million community expansion and renovation on its Green Hills campus.

BY ELI MOTYCKA

At the beginning and the end of a merciful 23-minute State of Metro address last week, Mayor Freddie O’Connell talked about transportation in front of two big purple WeGo buses inside The Fairgrounds Nashville. A stage and rows of plastic chairs completed the main expo center’s transformation into O’Connell’s auditorium, where he spoke to a captive audience of local officials, city employees, prominent civic leaders, media and Metro hangers-on.

The 61st annual address was an obvious opportunity to pitch O’Connell’s top priority: passing a comprehensive overhaul to Nashville’s roads and bus system for $3.1 billion. He took a brief aside to praise the

steady hand of chief development officer Bob Mendes regarding the East Bank (the crowd broke out in spontaneous applause at the mere mention of Mendes), particularly affordable housing slated under a Mendesnegotiated deal with Fallon Development. Quick plugs for various programs available to low- and fixed-income residents, like a property tax freeze and free financial consulting, shored up the spiritual solidarity with struggling longtime Nashvillians that helped bring him into office.

He said nothing about city-state relations, a topline campaign issue last summer, preferring instead the bread-and-butter bullet points that even conservative

The campus now offers a dedicated memory care wing, new independent living apartments and a fitness and aquatics center featuring smart gym equipment. The expansion and renovation also included new dining options and a physical therapy wing. The address of Blakeford Green Hills is 11 Burton Hills Blvd.

Nashville-based Solomon Builders served as general contractor, with the expansion added approximately 175,000 square feet of building space to the existing 300,000 square feet.

The expansion and renovation began in late 2020 and provides space for 125 more residents than previously.

Relatedly, Blakeford has announced the launch of its Blakeford Foundation, which offers three funds for prospective benefactors to consider.

“As we wrap up this extensive project, we

are excited to celebrate this new chapter of Blakeford with our residents and team and share the new campus with

Mayor Freddie O’Connell delivers the State of Metro address.

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

Blakeford Senior Life residents gather

Blakeford residents

PHOTO: JENNIFER RAIN PHOTOGRAPHY

O’Connell pushes transit

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Nashvillians expect their government to deliver. Violent crime and homicides are down compared to this time last year, we have enough 911 operators to comply with national standards, the city is building public schools and a college scholarship pipeline and Nashville has recruits for both its fire and police departments (understaffed for the past few years). With a “yes” vote in November, we can do sidewalks and traffic signals, too, says the mayor.

All the facts came alongside O’Connell’s familiar effort to combine justified nostalgia with honest hope for the future. For at least 10 of the speech’s 23 minutes, O’Connell wove his own Nashville biography into the story of a growing city too often inured to the cultural casualties of an insatiable appetite for growth, wealth and development. O’Connell’s rhetorical signature — a crop of sentimental Old Nashville references pushing it to, or even past, the performative – came through more than once, from a childhood memory of a decommissioned wooden roller coaster at the Fairgrounds to an anecdote about his first job at The Great Escape hustling surplus inventory from the then-industrial Gulch to the Flea Market for $4.25 an hour. It’s an open secret that O’Connell still runs his own Twitter (now X) account over pleas from campaign (now administrative) staff, a sign that he likely took the reins writing today’s

big address, the first from his new pulpit.

A year ago, then-councilmember Freddie O’Connell watched outgoing mayor John Cooper declare victory over four years of social, economic and civic turbulence at an under-construction James Lawson High School during last year’s State of Metro address. O’Connell — the first sitting official to formally challenge Cooper back in spring 2022 – had been running an outsider’s campaign, targeting a mayor’s office he criticized as too quick to bend to tourists and the rich. Enough of the city agreed. O’Connell, a bespectacled wonk who represented downtown for eight years on the Metro Council, won the mayor’s seat in September, ushering in a new class of city leaders.

A Metro Council steered by chamber veterans like Vice Mayor Angie Henderson and At-Large Councilmembers Delishia Porterfield and Zulfat Suara — all former O’Connell colleagues — appears positioned to help the mayor’s office get the city back on the right track, whatever that means, after years of rampant growth. The mayor’s transit plan has been cleared by an audit — one of the few news bits from today’s speech — and will come to Henderson’s council for vetting and voting in the coming weeks.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Scene.

Blakeford completes

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

everyone,” Brian Barnes, CEO of Blakeford Senior Life, said in the release.

“We are proud to offer the highest quality of care across all levels, and the growth of our campus highlights our commitment to continuing to provide the best service to our residents, members and their families. The Blakeford Foundation provides us with the opportunity to serve those in our community and beyond who may need our services and fund the continued growth of our organization’s mission.”

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

District 34 Councilmember 34 Sandy Ewing

Blakeford leadership and local officials and representatives at the ribbon-cutting event

PHOTO: JENNIFER RAIN PHOTOGRAPHY

PHOTO: JENNIFER RAIN PHOTOGRAPHY

Metro Councilmembers at the State of Metro address

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

Mayor O’Connell PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

The pool at Blakeford PHOTO: JENNIFER RAIN PHOTOGRAPHY

(L to R): Blakeford board chair Joey Harwell, Blakeford CEO and President Brian Barnes, Blakeford Foundation board member John Lowry, District 34 Councilmember Sandy Ewing PHOTO: JENNIFER RAIN PHOTOGRAPHY

MNPS budget seeks to replace COVID-19 relief money

To address the fiscal cliff, the school district needs $77 million in ‘bridge funding’

BY KELSEY BEYELER

Across the nation, COVID-19 relief funding utilized by public schools for the past few years is fizzling out. Now the Metro Nashville Public Schools board is working to ensure that some key initiatives funded by that money will continue — even as the city is facing a flat revenue year. This week saw significant steps in the MNPS budget process as the board voted on a second version of the budget and completed a related hearing with the Metro Council.

Per the budget’s current form, which could change before the council votes on a finalized version in June, the school system would receive around a 3.5 percent increase from last year, adding $41.6 million for a total operating budget of around $1.2 billion. Metro Nashville Public Schools board budget chair Freda Player tells The News sister publication the Nashville Scene that this year is “more of a status quo budget.”

The proposed changes include step salary increases ($10.3 million) and a 3.5 percent cost of living adjustment ($22.7 million) for certificated staff, support staff and nutrition services staff. The COLA adjustment wasn’t included in the initial MNPS draft budget, but came after its inclusion in Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s budget proposal. Changes also include a 12.8 percent increase delegated to insurance ($16.4 million). Because of delayed health care due to COVID-19 and what Player calls “some catastrophic claims,” the district’s insurance premiums increased.

The mayor also proposed allocating $18 million in one-time funds funds for textbooks. Nearly $7 million would cover contractual inflationary costs.

To address the fiscal cliff from the end of COVID relief money — known as Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funding — the school district needs $77 million in “bridge funding,” which would come from the city and the school district’s reserve funds. Director of Schools Adrienne Battle noted during Thursday’s budget hearing that the amount includes “$66 million from the last budget cycle.” The district is requesting an additional $11 million from the city. While the district used much of the ESSER funds for one-time costs such as building repairs, it also used them to hire more school nurses and counselors and to develop a larger infrastructure to support social and emotional learning among students.

“We could be in a very different situation — a lot of our counterparts are, who are facing massive layoffs,” says Player. She says the extra funds will help bridge a longer process of incorporating these positions into the school system.

The school district is also asking the council to fund a pay study around school board members’ salaries, which haven’t been adjusted since 2003. During Thursday’s budget hearing, Player noted that MNPS school board members receive $14,560 per year, while other large school district board members in Tennessee make around $30,000. Additionally, says Player, MNPS school board members often have to pay for state-required professional development out of their own pockets due to limited associated funds.

Some state-level aspects of the budget process are still unknown. MNPS doesn’t typically find out how much money it will receive from the state’s funding formula until around June — at about the same time when the budget needs to be finalized. There may also be some additional one-time ESSER funds coming in from the state due to a disbursement error.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Scene.

IN-PLANT RUG CLEANING

• Pet Odor Specialist • Hypo-Allergenic

• Drop off at Plant or Pick-up Delivery

ON-LOCATION CLEANING

• Carpet • Upholstery

• Deep Steam Cleaning Method

Parkinson’s Mental Wellness for Patients, Families and Caregivers

Join us as we hear from our distinguished guest speaker, Dr. Kaltra Dhima, Assistant Professor of Clinical Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center within the Behavioral and Cognitive Neurology Division.

Dr. Carlene Johnson and Tori Vik from My LiveABILITY will present practical living strategies to overcome anxiety, depression and low motivation (apathy).

Date: Wednesday, June 5, 2024

Time: 10:00 AM - 2:00 PM

Location: Franklin First United Methodist Church Register: www.petersonforparkinsons.org

MNPS PHOTO: ERIC ENGLAND

Tennessee Ascension locations using paper systems following ransomware attack

Hospital company

releases state-specific

data noting locations remain open, but experiencing delays

BY HANNAH HERNER

Last week, Ascension officials released state-specific information on the fallout of its recent ransomware attack for the 11 states in which it has locations. In Tennessee, all of the hospitals and physician offices are open, according to the release, though they are using manual and paper-based systems.

The update came six days after the company began experiencing interruptions due to a ransomware attack on May 8.

According to the release, patients can still attend appointments at area hospitals and clinics, and can walk in for treatment in emergency rooms and urgent care sites. Elective surgeries are also still ongoing — as are imaging, testing and treatment services. Patients will experience delays, however.

“Due to the transition to manual systems for patient documentation, patients may encounter longer than usual wait times and some delays,” Ascension wrote in the release. “To help with delays, patients should bring

notes on symptoms and a list of current medications, including prescription numbers or bottles.”

Previously, Ascension announced it was diverting some emergency room services to other hospitals — a process that is still ongoing — though local spokespeople declined to say if Nashville emergency rooms were affected. Ascension’s patient portal and electronic health records system are also down. The company said it has no timeline for restoring its operations.

The Ascension ransomware attack is part of a national trend of cybersecurity attacks on health care systems, with the illegal activity undertaken in an effort to steal patient data. Nashville-based Change Healthcare was recently the victim of a largescale ransomware attack.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

Nashville homicides down dramatically from a year ago Mayor cites local initiatives, but national crime trends suggest causes are less clear

BY STEVEN HALE, 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.

Homicides in Nashville have dropped by more than 25 percent compared to this time last year, following a national trend that shows violent crime rates falling after record surges during the COVID-19 pandemic. In his annual State of Metro Address on Tuesday, Mayor Freddie O’Connell touted the significant drop in homicides along with robberies, aggravated assaults and gun thefts

from vehicles. He pointed to the numbers as evidence of the success of recent efforts by his administration and the Metro Nashville Police Department.

“We’ve revised our overall approach to public safety, adding community-based safety programs and refining traditional policing programs, and it’s working,” O’Connell said.

It’s unclear, though, what communitybased safety programs added by the administration are actively working on the ground right now.

In October last year, the mayor’s office was awarded a nearly $2 million grant from the Department of Justice to develop a “Community Violence Intervention and Prevention Initiative,” which will be overseen by the Metro Public Health Department. Matthew Peters, the department’s spokesperson, tells the Nashville Banner that four hires have been made for the program in the past month — a case manager and three “credible messengers” envisioned to be people “with lived experiences in overcoming violence.” The new staffers are still in the onboarding process, Peters says.

O’Connell spokesperson Alex Apple says the mayor is also considering hiring

a “community safety liaison” who would either work in the mayor’s office or Metro Public Health. He says this role would likely focus on gun violence, which the O’Connell administration is seeking to approach as a public health problem.

As for “refining traditional policing programs,” the MNPD created a Crime Control Strategies Bureau in 2022. The new office analyzes “crime trends across Davidson County and [developing] strategies addressing crime and preventing future crimes.” Among the strategies overseen by that office was a pilot program for license plate readers, which will soon be installed all across the city, despite ongoing community pushback.

But Nashville is just one of many cities across the country that saw an alarming rise in killings in 2020 and are now seeing that tide recede.

From 2019 to 2020, the U.S. homicide rate rose by 30 percent, the largest singleyear increase in modern American history. In Nashville from 1963 through 2019, there were only four years in which police recorded more than 100 homicides, the most recent of which was 2017. But starting with the pandemic year of 2020 — which saw a record-setting 114 homicides — the city

surpassed that threshold three years in a row.

But MNPD data shows that killings have been slowing in Nashville since the midpoint of last year. As of May 1, 2024 there had been 29 homicides in the city compared to 39 by that point last year, accounting for the 25.6 percent drop O’Connell cited in his speech. (As of this writing, MNPD has recorded 32 homicides so far this year, compared to 44 in 2023, which slightly increases the year-to-date drop.) Through this week, homicide rates so far this year have fallen by nearly 20 percent nationally, as well, according to a collection of data from the criminal justice consulting firm AH Datalytics.

For Andrew Krinks, a Nashville-based community organizer focused on a wide range of social justice issues, including policing, that’s reason for skepticism that such changes can be attributed to local law enforcement efforts.

“If there’s a claim being made that Nashville police, for instance, have done an exceptional job over the course of three or four months, then I would want to go deeper on that,” he tells the Banner. “For one thing, I’m seeing that the homicide rate is declining everywhere. It wouldn’t be the

Ascension Saint Thomas Rutherford Westlawn in Murfreesboro.

PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

case that suddenly all police departments got on the same page and cracked the code on how to lower homicides.”

Krinks says the oft-assumed correlation between policing and crime rates is a false one. He cited the work of the late David Bayley, a prominent policing scholar who famously wrote that the “best kept secret in modern life” is that “the police do not prevent crime.”

AH Datalytics co-founder and crime analyst Jeff Asher told NPR earlier this year that the question of why crime rates go down is a difficult one to answer, noting that “criminologists still aren’t sure why violent crime went down in the ’90s.” He suggested not only that there are likely many factors, but also that local explanations for a national trend are unpersuasive.

“The national explanations — the big explanations — are going to be a lot more compelling than ‘our department did patrols on every other Thursday, and that’s why we think it declines,’” he told All Things Considered host Ari Shapiro.

Asked about the potential impact of MNPD’s Crime Control Strategies Bureau, Theeda Murphy — who was at the forefront of local activism related to police shootings and civilian oversight of the police — was incredulous.

“Something I’ve never heard of before has supposedly made all these big changes and that’s the primary driver of change?” she says. “I don’t know.”

In the interview with Asher on NPR, Shapiro noted that violent crime is also down in cities where local police departments are understaffed, further complicating the picture. Still, law enforcement officials have long argued they could do more to prevent and solve crimes with more people on the force.

Last year, Metro Police Chief John Drake said that the MNPD was short 170 officers. And in his speech Tuesday, the mayor said Nashville is “on pace — for the first time in years — to have the police department fully staffed by the end of this year.” Fully staffing the MNPD was a campaign promise made by O’Connell, along with most other 2023 mayoral candidates.

The mayor also announced that “there have been 127 new hires at our Department of Emergency Communications in the last 15 months, and the DEC is now in compliance with national call answering standards for emergency and non-emergency calls for the first time in department history.”

Another critical data point regarding crime and policing is the clearance rate — that is, the percentage of cases in which police arrest an alleged perpetrator. For homicides, national clearance rates have hovered around 50 percent, with lower rates for violent crime as a whole meaning that the majority of violent crimes go unsolved. In Nashville, of the 29 homicides recorded through April, there are 12 — more than 40 percent — for which no one has yet been arrested.

RFK Jr. brings presidential campaign to Nashville Independent candidate spoke no policy in brief time on stage

BY HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

Independent United States presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. visited Nashville’s Ryman Auditorium on Wednesday for a “Night of Country and Comedy,” where he praised the power of laughter but talked no policy in his approximately 10 minutes of stage time.

Minutes before showtime, a spokesperson for Kennedy told reporters that the long-shot candidate would not attend the event due to a “weather/family emergency” in Florida.

That story quickly changed when a performer informed the crowd that Kennedy would only be late due to a family emergency. The show started more than half an hour after its advertised start time, and Kennedy was seen entering the building around 10:30 p.m. He finally took the stage just before 11 p.m.

Kennedy spent two minutes of his remarks telling a rambling joke, reducing his visit to little more than earning a quick buck (tickets ranged from $24 to $1,000) from the crowd of already supportive fans.

Some of those fans paid top dollar for

the “ultimate souvenir” — a photo with Kennedy and his vice-presidential running mate, tech industry lawyer Nicole Shanahan, at an afterparty.

The only hint of policy came from several pre-recorded campaign ads that were played to open the show and as the audience returned from intermission, during which dozens of attendees left the venue before Kennedy even arrived on site.

Kennedy has positioned himself as a candidate of the people, who, if elected, will see that “everything in this country will change.” He claims to be in stark contrast from his opponents who are steeped in the manicured two-party system.

He is a critic of corporate power and government bureaucracy, with his website stating that one of his “top priorities will be to dissolve the corrupt merger of state and corporate power,” while making a point to appear across the corporate media landscape from CNN to MSNBC to Fox News.

He has also toured the podcast circuit, participating in everything from longform

“The fact that he was willing to go up against big pharma, to me, was huge,” Kirkpatrick said. “And then of course during the ‘plandemic,’ I loved that he said, ‘no, what they’re putting in people’s bodies, we don’t know the long-term effects.’”

The term “plandemic” is an example of Kennedy and his followers’ skepticism of vaccines, one of his key concerns, which often evolves into the embracing of conspiracy theories as facts.

Kirkpatrick, who will soon turn 65, said that she’s just recently become politically active, while Redmon cast her first vote for former President Barack Obama when she was 18 years old in 2007.

“Since then, there hasn’t been anyone else who has woken me up or inspired me,” Redmon said, adding that she thinks this political moment is “the beginning of a massive change.”

“Regardless of whether he wins the presidency or not, his voice is being heard by so many people now.”

Kennedy’s campaign teased a “big announcement” prior to the event, which was later revealed by Shanahan to be the funding of an additional $8 million of her own money to the campaign.

Comedians who opened for the presidential hopeful included Russell Brand, who has been under fire since he was accused of rape and other sexual assaults in 2023, allegations which he denies, as well as Jim Breuer, Rob Schneider and Mike Binder, among others.

Kennedy has been called a “spoiler candidate” by his critics, with some citing Kennedy’s own argument against former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader during the 2000 election.

interviews to fringe new media shows and comedy podcasts, but both Kennedy and Shanahan refused to speak to Nashville journalists.

Kennedy ignored questions from The News of why he was unwilling to speak to local media as he left the venue.

Kennedy’s trip to Music City also included no interaction with the non-ticketholding public, meaning that potential voters who weren’t already fans of the long-shot candidate had no opportunity to hear from or question him.

More than 1,500 people made up the diverse crowd of supporters, some of whom traveled from across the country to support Kennedy.

Sara Redmon, of Raleigh, N.D., and Denise Kirkpatrick, of Portland, were among a group of supporters who attended the event.

“I believe in RFK Jr.’s heart and his message and that he is the beacon of real hope for this country and beyond,” Redmon said, with Kirkpatrick calling Kennedy a “truth-teller.”

Kennedy called incumbent President Joe Biden “the Real Spoiler,” who he argued is the “much worse threat to democracy” compared to former President Donald Trump. Trump has called Kennedy the “most Radical Left Candidate in the race, by far.” Notably, more than a dozen members of the Kennedy family dynasty have endorsed Biden.

Despite Kennedy’s efforts and growing support, he’s not currently on the ballot in Tennessee. According to his campaign, Kennedy is on the ballot in Utah, Michigan, California, Delaware, Oklahoma, Hawaii and Texas and has collected enough signatures for ballot access in New Hampshire, Nevada, North Carolina, Idaho, Nebraska, Iowa, Ohio and New Jersey.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. speaks at his May 15, 2024, ‘Night of Country and Comedy’ campaign event at the Ryman Auditorium. PHOTO: HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS

Metro HR concludes councilmember, commission director intimidated city employees

BY CONNOR DARYANI AND STEPHEN ELLIOTT, 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.

Metro Human Resources investigators determined in a fact-finding report completed in April and obtained by the Nashville Banner that both District 32 Metro Councilmember Joy Styles and Metro Human Relations Commission executive director Davie Tucker behaved improperly toward two Metro Arts employees.

The report stems from a Feb. 26 meeting of the Metro Council Public Facilities, Arts and Culture Committee meeting chaired by Styles and called to discuss ongoing issues at the Metro Arts Commission. According to the report, Styles spoke with the two Metro Arts employees after the meeting, and the duo filed a formal complaint with Metro HR the following day.

Styles’ behavior after the meeting was “inappropriate,” Metro HR investigators determined.

“Touching, leaning in, isolating the person from others, while discussing sensitive topics like supervisor complaints or financial matters would all lead to more feelings of intimidation, especially coming from an elected official who has inherently more power,” the report notes.

As for Tucker, the report primarily focuses on his public statements the following week,

do something she’s not allowed to do.’” Styles explains her reasoning when reached by the Banner.

“She got on a microphone, and she contradicted Director Singh,” says Styles. “So, the next time … which was when I was planning on ending, she attempted to do that again. And because it was just an attempt at being disruptive, I ended the meeting.”

Styles asked for phone numbers from multiple staffers, one of whom “reluctantly” complied, with the other suggesting the councilmember email her instead. Sydnie Davis, one of the Metro Arts employees, alleged that Styles “was running” or “galloping” after her as she left, though fact finders found “no evidence to support this description.”

Styles calls the HR report a “pack of lies.” As issues with Metro Arts escalated over the past year, Styles emerged as an outspoken voice on the council, specifically against Metro Legal’s and Metro Finance’s handling of the situation. She said this is an instance of people in power “weaponizing” Metro Arts staff.

Crumbo, the white commissioners — don’t care about you. They are using the staff to get to us, and to defund us again for the second year.”

“I’m not going to lie, [Tucker’s comments] scared me bad,” Davis (the Metro Arts employee) told investigators. “It made me want to quit on the spot. … It felt like a threat. … I’m allowing myself to be weaponized only because I don’t want to solely and blindly follow someone [Tucker] that I’ve only met once?

“I have a child who’s one day going to read about these things and to know that I’m being accused of attaching myself to white supremacy,” Davis continued. “I have dealt with the actual hand of white supremacists. I have dealt with that my entire life.”

Davis went on to say that she agreed with MHRC’s determination about inequity at Metro Arts.

when he said Metro Legal “has weaponized” Metro Arts staffers and called for the withdrawal of the complaints.

“These statements could intimidate and coerce the complainants into silence,” the report notes. “This conduct is inappropriate, and employees are protected from this behavior under the Workplace Conduct Policy.”

At the Feb. 26 meeting, a Metro Arts finance official questioned Metro Arts executive director Daniel Singh’s statement that the department could use salary savings to cover consulting costs. (The finance official later revised the statement.) The fact finders determined that the staffer “did not attack or disparage Director Singh, nor did she complain about Director Singh during her statement.”

Yet in the conversation that followed the meeting, Styles explained that she had not permitted the employee to continue speaking during the public portion of the meeting so that she would not “attack your boss publicly,” Styles told investigators.

During the conversation, Styles touched the staffer, though the two have differing views on how significant the physical contact was. Three witnesses claimed Styles grabbed the employee “aggressively,” while Styles told investigators she “absolutely did not place fingers on her. … I put my hand on her to calm her, because she was rapidly speaking and exclaiming that ‘she had to work with integrity’ and that ‘Daniel [Singh] told her to

“A lot of what is being portrayed in this is that somehow, in asking questions, we’re out of our lane. And that is not the case,” Styles tells the Banner. “And I would rather stand up for fighting for constituents than covering up for anyone in Metro government who was standing by and being complicit by saying nothing or participating in slandering anyone’s name. And that’s either if they’re doing it themselves or sending other people to do their dirty work.”

The two complainants, both Black women, took particular offense to statements by Tucker, Styles and others that white Metro leaders were using them to attack Singh.

“Metro Legal has weaponized employees at Metro Arts,” Tucker said at a March 4 public meeting.

When investigators asked about the statement, Tucker said he had only circumstantial evidence and said it was “very, very interesting and concerning that charges like these would come up, in this way, a couple of days before our report comes out.”

Tucker also quoted author Matthew Desmond’s statement that “complexity is the refuge of the powerful.”

Investigators asked Tucker whether a department head who “can speak uninterrupted in front of news cameras” or two Black women who have been employed by Metro for a few months have more power. He responded, “It depends.”

“The staff became legal fodder for what’s about to happen,” Lydia Yusef, director of the Elmahaba Center, said at a Metro Arts Commission meeting on April 25. “These white people — [Metro legal director Wally] Dietz, [Metro finance director Kevin]

“That to believe in one [funding equity], and to also believe in the other [allegations posed in this report] does not mean that I don’t want equitable funding or that I’m attaching myself to racism,” she said, according to investigators. “Two things can be true at the same time. I think [Tucker] had a decent motive when he started this, but it almost feels like it’s become personal and the idea to speak out against him is to speak out about equity.”

Reached by the Banner, Davis declined to comment other than to say that her “name has been disparaged for a lot of things that have absolutely nothing to do with me.”

Tucker, through an attorney, told investigators he believed the complaints were retaliatory because the commission he leads was set to present results of its own investigation into Metro Arts the next week.

The HR report “will be maintained confidentially to the extent possible and will not be disseminated externally by Metro HR except as required by law.” A public records request for the report had not been fulfilled as of press time.

Investigators recommended that both Styles and Tucker abide by Metro’s Workplace Conduct Policy. Both complainants were not seeking specific punishment but rather to be vindicated and allowed to do their jobs.

“I’m sitting in this position going through an HR investigation as I’m not even a Metro employee, and to see that they took so many lies as truth,” Styles tells the Banner. “It definitely to me says we need to do something with our HR department as well. Perhaps new leadership is needed.”

District 32 Councilmember Joy Styles at the Southeast Community Center PHOTO: NASHVILLE BANNER/MARTIN B. CHERRY

Tell Us About it!

Are you in the know about what’s going on down the street or on the corner?

Anyone ever call you nosy? Have good writing skills?

Metro Council to adopt most recent floodplain data FEMA flood insurance study adds information for previously under-collected areas

BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO

The Metro Council is in the process of adopting the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s revised Flood Insurance Study for the Nashville Metro area.

Last week, the council passed on first reading an ordinance to adopt the revised Flood Insurance Rate Map (FIRM). The Metro Planning Commission previously approved the FIRM and, with the council’s Planning and Zoning Committee and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to review it before the bill’s second council reading.

Sonia Allman, manager of strategic communications for Metro Water Services, told The News sister publication the Nashville Post about 4,000 properties are affected by the new FIRM data. Those property owners should be receiving letters later this month with written notice that they will be included for the first time in the 100-year floodplain (or floodway). However, the data itself is not brand new.

“For the past two years, anyone that was wanting to develop or that looked at our parcel viewer [website], this was the information that they were seeing,” Allman said. “What’s been available online for the past two years, it was a different color. We actually showed that it was pending.”

The map online (at FEMA’s map service center and Metro’s parcel viewer) will still show the pending locations at this time because the new study will not be effective until June, assuming it’s adopted by council. However, Allman said Metro always uses the most recent map, even if it’s pending when looking at development.

available the data.”

It’s important for property owners to review the data for their home and surrounding areas to know if flooding is a possibility nearby, Allman said. Metro participates in the National Flood Insurance Program, meaning all residents are eligible for FEMA-backed flood insurance. Additionally, Metro is recognized by FEMA’s Community Rating System, which recognizes floodplain management activities that exceeds minimum NFIP standards. Because of Metro’s ranking in that program, all flood insurance policyholders can get a 10 percent discount.

“I think it’s important for people to know when you’re looking at property or buying a house to know what that risk is,” Allman said. “You don’t have to be in a floodplain to flood. We’ve had so many people say ‘Yeah, but I looked at the map and my neighbor’s in a floodplain but I’m not.’ [But] floodwaters don’t necessarily follow those exact boundaries or lines. So, knowing that you’re near a floodplain is really useful information.”

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

LOGAN BUTTS ASSOCIATE EDITOR

HAMILTON MATTHEW MASTERS NEWS REPORTER AND PHOTOJOURNALIST

NICOLLE S. PRAINO STAFF REPORTER

LISA BOLD PRODUCTION MANAGER

CHELON HASTY SALES OPERATIONS MANAGER

Looking for a few neighbors who want to write about interesting things happening in your neighborhood. Specific neighborhoods of interest are Brentwood, Franklin, Spring Hill, Nolensville, Bellevue, West Meade, Green Hills.

Yes, you need to have some writing chops; extra credit if you’ve contributed to a newspaper at some point! Interested?

Email neighbornews@theNEWStn.com and let us know what neighborhood you are interested in and include a few writing samples. Be a neighborhood news ambassador for

“It would be very poor planning and management on our end to say, ‘We know that the new maps show that this area is in a floodway — it’s not official yet — so, we’re gonna go ahead and let someone build there,’” Allman said. “We always use the best available data, even before it has become ‘quote’ official. That’s why we put that information out there to give people that information before it’s even effective.”

FEMA works with infrastructure consultant AECOM and several agencies including the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and Metro Water Services to gather the data for the flood insurance study.

“This has been going on for several years to gather the data, but they’re really getting more detailed information and more importantly data on previously unstudied areas — areas that they just had not studied that far up at the creek or up the small branch,” Allman said. “That’s what these 18 maps are really focusing on.”

There is sometimes confusion about the updated data, she said and reiterated Metro is not the one making the decision about a property but rather likened the new maps to a diagnosis for what is already happening on a property.

“We are not putting anyone in a floodplain,” Allman said. “We are making

ELIZABETH JONES CORPORATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR

TODD PATTON CFO

MIKE SMITH PRESIDENT AND CEO

BILL FREEMAN OWNER

OPINION

TICKED OFF!

TRASH RECEPTACLES AT RADNOR

Radnor is such a wonderful park but trash has become a problem. Especially the poo bags that dog owners leave laying all over the side of the walking path. It seems by simply providing a place for people to put their trash would address this problem. Please install trash bins!

REGARDING FLORIDA VISITOR

Just a few choice words for you sir, go back to Florida as fast as you can, do not stop until you cross the Florida state line. Granted, we do not have the best highways in the country, but we also have winter, freezing temperatures, snow, ice and chemicals that are put on the road to aid driving conditions for both residents and visitors. As far as museums of dead musicians, these musicians are the ones that created our city, Music City. How

disrespectful of you to bash them in any way. Yes, there are high priced parking lots downtown, but there are also signs, digital towers and places for you to pay. I don’t know, nor do I care, where you stayed while here, but the $150-$200 rate for the hotel if actually cheaper than Florida. Your expectancy was for a Ritz while staying at Motel 6. My advice for you is to get back home as soon as possible and go to Micky Mouse World, Universal Studios, Busch Gardens and Sea World. Check out how much that costs your cheap, complaining ass. Just sayin’ Welcome to Nashville, now go home.

The comments in the Ticked Off column do not reflect the views of FW Publishing.

Send your comments to tickedoff@thenewstn.com

The City of Belle Meade, Tennessee, hereby provides certain financial information for the Fiscal Year 2025 budget in accordance with the requirements of Tennessee Code Annotated Title 6, Chapter 56, Section 206. There will be a public hearing concerning the budget at City Hall, on June 10, 2024, at 4:00 p.m. All citizens are welcome to participate. The budget and all supporting data are a public record and are available for public inspection by anyone at the office of the Finance Director.

Nashville SC’s Gary Smith out following offensive struggles

BY JOHN GLENNON

Nashville SC on May 16 fired Gary Smith, the only coach in the organization’s five-year Major League Soccer history.

Assistant coach Steve Guppy is out as well, the team has announced.

Former player and current Nashville SC player development coach Rumba Munthali will take over as interim coach while the club continues its search for the next head coach. Smith leaves after compiling a 49-36-52

mark in MLS regular-season games since 2020, Nashville’s first year in the league. He guided the Boys in Gold to four playoff berths in their first four years, becoming just the third franchise in MLS history to do so.

The news comes one day after Nashville downed Toronto FC 2-0 at Geodis Park, scoring twice within the game’s final nine minutes. The Boys in Gold (3-4-5) were in 10th place in the 15-team Eastern Conference as of the firing, one spot back of qualifying for the playoffs.

One of Nashville’s high-water marks under Smith came last August, when the coach led the team to the final of the Leagues Cup. The Boys in Gold lost that closely contested game to Inter Miami CF in penalty kicks, following a 1-1 draw in regulation at Geodis Park.

But it’s been largely downhill since then for Nashville.

The team has won just five of its 22 regular-season contests following the Leagues

Cup Final, posting a 5-7-10 record — not including two playoff losses — during that stretch.

“There’s pressure every week,” Smith said earlier this season. “If you’re on a professional level and you’re working in MLS as it is right now, then whoever you are, you should expect to be under pressure. We have a very vocal and supportive group of fans that come every week, and that comes with a reality, that you’re trying to get a result.”

Injuries have played a significant role in Nashville’s struggles this season, as defender Walker Zimmerman, defender Shaq Moore, defender Lukas MacNaughton, midfielder Tyler Boyd, midfielder Randall Leal and forward Hany Mukhtar have all missed stretches of time.

But Nashville’s long-standing offensive issues couldn’t be entirely attributed to sidelined players.

The team totaled 16 goals in its first 12 games, ranking ahead of only seven squads

in the 29-member league. In 2023, Nashville mustered just 36 goals in 34 games, the fourth-lowest total in MLS.

Even with last year’s signing of designated player Sam Surridge, and the addition via trade of Boyd, the Boys in Gold all too often looked stale and stagnant in the offensive end.

In the 1-0 loss to Charlotte, for instance, Nashville posted just three shots on goal and recorded a paltry 0.3 expected goals.

Things looked much the same for most of Wednesday’s win, as Nashville failed to hold the upper hand against a severely depleted Toronto squad.

Two late goals salvaged an unsatisfactory performance in front of a small crowd at Geodis, but the scores weren’t enough to save Smith’s job.

Nashville will seek to climb the conference ladder in the season’s remaining 22 games. This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

Brentwood Academy sophomore Blades Brown impresses in PGA Tour debut

16-year-old finished 10-under-par at last week’s Myrtle Beach Classic

BY CHIP CIRILLO

Brentwood Academy sophomore Blades Brown didn’t look like a 16-year-old kid when he made his PGA Tour debut at the Myrtle Beach Classic earlier this month. He looked like he belonged.

Brown shot a 10-under-par 274 over four rounds, finishing in a tie for 26th place.

“Just to be, like, inside the ropes with those guys made me feel a way I’ve never felt before,” Brown said. “The shot on the first hole on Thursday for the first round, that was a feeling I’ve never felt before. It was a mixture between nervousness, excitement and every other feeling known to man.”

Then he hit the fairway, setting the tone for his first four days in a pro tournament.

Brown went 1-over-par 72 the first day, 4-under 67 during the second round, 5-under 66 on Saturday, before finishing with a 2-under 69 during Sunday’s final round at Dunes Golf and Beach Club in South Carolina.

Competing against the pros was an invaluable experience for the BA golfer.

“Just their course management and stuff like that,” Brown said when asked what impressed him most. “The way that that they think about golf is what, I guess, makes me astonished. I’ve noticed that the higher up you get in golf, the less skill difference there is and more mental difference there is.”

Brown said in junior golf the guy who shoots 5-under-par all three days is going

to win, but at the pro level all the golfers are good.

“It’s just a matter of who can handle the pressure and stuff outside of golf,” Brown said. “Tiger Woods is one of the most mentally tough guys that has ever been able to play golf and his results showed.”

One of the big keys to playing well at the Dunes Golf and Beach Club was keeping the ball in the fairway because the grass in the rough was so high. That’s typical of most PGA Tour courses.

“The first day, I think I missed, like, eight fairways,” Brown said. “But then the last day I hit all the fairways. I was 14 for 14.”

Brown’s best shot of the tournament came on the 552-yard, par-5 fourth hole named Temptation during the second round on Friday.

After hitting his second shot into the water, Brown saved par by chipping in from 15 yards off the green.

“And at that point, I was, like, ‘Oh, man, here we go,’ ” Brown said. “So, I would say the chip-in on No. 4 for par was probably the most crucial point of the week.”

Brown earned a spot in the new PGA Tour event on a sponsor exemption after a strong showing at the U.S. Amateur in August.

He broke Bobby Jones’ record when he became the youngest co-medalist in U.S. Amateur history when he tied for first during stroke play.

The record had stood since 1920 when Jones was 18, two years older than Brown.

The BA golfer fired an 8-under 64 at Colorado Golf Club that day, tying a course record.

“To have your name in the same sentence as Bobby Jones is mind-boggling,” Brown said of the first golfer to win the Grand Slam in a single year in 1930. “But when I was over that putt at hole 18, I actually didn’t know that was a record. I was told by the press … and I was like, ‘No way,’ ”

The big galleries at Myrtle Beach surprised Brown.

“I’ve never had that many people follow my group before,” Brown said. “I’ve never signed that many autographs. I signed a forehead. When was the last time you signed a forehead?”

Brown’s dad, Parke, has been battling a rare form of leukemia and in 2022 doctors told him he had one year to live, but his prognosis has improved.

“Actually, he beat it. He’s good now,” Brown said. “He’s been in remission for six months to a year now. Oh my gosh, it’s a huge weight off our shoulders.”

Brown has already won three Division II-AA state titles at BA as an eighth-grader, freshman and sophomore.

“There are three days that matter in high school golf and that is regional and the state tournament, and I’m happy to be able to

convert those days,” Brown said. Brown’s mom, Rhonda — a former top pick in the WNBA Expansion Draft who made the first 3-pointer in league history and ex-BA girls basketball coach who led the program to five state titles — gave her son some calming advice before his debut.

“She kind of gave me a mental pep talk,” Brown said. “She said the golf that I play whenever I’m practicing with my friends is no different than the golf that I’m playing at the PGA Tour. That was kind of the mindset that I had.”

Blades’ first name is his mom’s maiden name. She started at point guard at Vanderbilt for four years from 1992-95.

The best part of her son’s golf game is putting.

“In order to be a really great putter you have to believe that you’re the best to ever do it, and so that’s the mindset that I have,” Brown said.

He tries to practice every day, but still keep the game fun.

The five golfers Brown tied for 26th place each won $29,800, but he didn’t earn any money since he competed as an amateur.

Brown, 176th in the World Amateur Golf rankings, is keeping a blank slate for future goals.

“All my goals now are to be determined,” Brown said. “I need to revisit that.”

Gary Smith PHOTO: NSC

SPORTS

Former Predators great Rinne to be inducted into TN Sports Hall of Fame

BY JOHN GLENNON

Pekka Rinne only travels to the United States about four times a year these days, but good things often happen when he does.

The former Predators goaltender, in town

this week for Nashville’s annual scouting meetings, learned Wednesday he will be inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame in July, along with 11 other sports

standouts with ties to the state.

“Well, thanks for the heads up. I had no clue,” Rinne said with a smile upon learning the news from TSHF executive director Brad Willis. “Every time I come to city, it’s something special. That’s pretty unreal. Thanks very much. What an honor.”

The distinction is the latest for Rinne, who played in 683 games over 15 seasons for the Preds, producing a record of 369-213-75, along with a .917 save percentage and 2.43 goals against average. He guided Nashville to its only Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2017 and won the NHL’s Vezina Trophy as the league’s best netminder in 2018.

Rinne, who retired in 2021, became the first Predators player to have his jersey number (No. 35) retired in 2022. A year later, the Predators unveiled a bronze statue — roughly 12 feet tall and weighing nearly 900 pounds — of Rinne outside Bridgestone Arena.

“It’s getting a little bit overwhelming, with the jersey in the rafters and a statue outside the rink, and now the Sports Hall of Fame in Tennessee,” Rinne said. “That’s pretty unreal … You guys are going to have to work hard to surprise me next time I come to the city, but I’m so privileged to be standing here receiving this kind of honor.”

Rinne is Nashville’s franchise leader in nearly every goaltending category, including games played, wins, goals-against average, total time on ice (39,413:29), shutouts (60) and saves (17,627). He ranks 19th in NHL history in shutouts and tied for 19th in victories.

He now spends most of his time in his native Finland, serving as the Predators’ European development coach and scout.

“Pekka Rinne is a first-ballot Hall of Famer in every sense of the word,” Willis said in a release. “The statue that stands outside of Bridgestone Arena is a great testament to what he meant to the Predators organization and the entire city of Nashville.”

Rinne joins the following as 2024 TSHF inductees: Titans running back Chris Johnson; Olympic gold medal figure skater Scott Hamilton; University of Tennessee and MLB baseball star Chris Burke; Millington business owner and philanthropist, the late W.S. “Babe” Howard; East Tennessee State golf coach Fred Warren; Nashville-area tennis pro Thay Butchee; the late Charlie Bayless, longtime basketball coach at Happy Valley High; Tennessee tennis star Paul Annacone; Tennessee State track star Jean Patton Latimer; Memphis champion racquetball player and coach Larry Liles; and Austin Peay basketball coach Dave Loos.

The honorees will be celebrated July 20 at the organization’s annual banquet, presented by the Titans. Tickets are available now at http://TSHF2024.givesmart.com.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

Local schools find major success in lacrosse state championships

BY LOGAN BUTTS

The lacrosse state championships took place over the weekend, and five of the seven state titles went to local schools.

The Tennessee Scholastic Lacrosse Association (TSLA) championships games took place at Nolensville High School, starting with the Division I-A championship game between Hillsboro and Page on Friday.

Page (11-6) came away with a 14-6 victory for the program’s first-ever state title following back-to-back losses in the semifinals in the previous two seasons.

In the semifinals, Page defeated Signal Mountain — the team they lost the 2023 final to — 13-7, while Hillsboro (8-5) took down Soddy Daisy 11-5.

In the Division II-A title game on

Friday, Knoxville Webb (15-2) defeated the defending champions CPA 14-5.

In the semifinals, CPA (13-4) won 12-10 over Evangelical Christian, and Knoxville Webb shut out USN 11-0.

Saturday saw the Division I-AA championship between a pair of Williamson County schools. Brentwood succeeded in its quest to win back-to-back state titles despite a rocky regular season. The Bruins (9-9) beat host Nolensville 6-4.

The semifinals were also both all-WillCo matchups as Nolensville (16-3) defeated Ravenwood 10-9 and Brentwood knocked off Franklin 9-8.

Finally, in the Division II-AA championship, Memphis University School

defeated McCallie 12-6 in the only final across all seven divisions without a local school.

In the semifinals, McCallie took out MBA, the last Nashville-area team standing, 10-6.

The Tennessee Girls Lacrosse Association (TGLA) held all three of its championship matches on Saturday at Ensworth. Five of the six teams participating were from Middle Tennessee.

In the Division II title game, Harpeth Hall (2-1) continued its impressive run with a 14-7 win over Ensworth (20-3). It was the third consecutive state title for the Honeybears, who have not lost to an instate opponent in two seasons. Ensworth’s only in-state losses this season came against Harpeth Hall.

In the semifinals, Ensworth beat Briarcrest 21-8 and Harpeth Hall won 21-4 over Baylor.

The Division I-A title game saw Page become the only school with boys and girls state champions this seasons as the Patriots 11-10 in overtime over Seymour. Page (17-2) dominated Soddy Daisy in the semifinals 17-1.

Finally, in the Division I-AA championship matchup, Ravenwood (20-5) earned back-to-back state champion status with a 13-3 win over Franklin in another allWilliamson County battle.

The Raptors took out Brentwood 13-7 in a Battle of the Woods semifinal, while Franklin dispatched Collierville 18-2.

Pekka Rinne PHOTO: FINNISH U20 NATIONAL TEAM

BGA’s Phelps, Mabury, Brentwood’s Kinder, LA’s Callis earn gold in state decathlon, pentathlon

BY LOGAN BUTTS

The state decathlon and pentathlon championship meets took place last week, and several competitions were won by local athletes.

Battle Ground Academy swept the Division II-A titles, which took place at Franklin Road Academy, with junior Miller Mabury winning in the decathlon competition and senior Laurel Phelps taking the pentathlon crown. Mabury totaled 6499 points and Phelps set a new school record with 3031 points.

FRA senior Griffin Frankfather (5536),

the defending state champion, came in second in the decathlon. FRA junior Charlotte Gunnels (2718) finished as the runner-up for the pentathlon meet.

In the Division II-AA competition, which was hosted by Brentwood Academy, Lipscomb Academy junior Cassie Callis earned first place with a total score of 3613 in the pentathlon.

Local schools rounded out the top five with the following athletes: BA senior Olivia Hughes (3444), CPA sophomore Halli Olivo (3420), Harpeth Hall senior Sarah Reynolds

(3177), and Father Ryan sophomore Caroline Perri (2975).

In the decathlon, LA junior Warner Papillion (6745) finished second and MBA senior Jack Perry (6464) took third.

The Division I competition took place at MTSU’s Hayes Stadium in Murfreesboro.

Brentwood junior Canon Kinder improved upon his second-place finish last season with a championship in the Class AAA decathlon. He finished with 6836 points.

Ravenwood senior John Bass took the runner-up spot with 6673 points, while

BUSINESS BRIEFS

Pearl-Cohn junior Josh Sims (5061) was the runner-up in the Class AA contest.

In the Class AAA pentathlon, Brentwood earned two podium spots as sophomore Daisy Oatsvall (3253) came in second and senior Abby Miller (3190) finished third. MLK senior Amya Joy, the defending state champion in Class AA, placed second with 3016 points. East Nashville junior Aziaah Shute (2702) finished second in Class A for the second consecutive season.

Local operations of high-profile national bakery set for layoffs

BY WILLIAM WILLIAMS

The Nashville operations of what is billed as the nation’s largest independent bakery will lay off 229 workers as it winds down operations.

According to a document filed with the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Hearthside Food Solutions will undertake a permanent closure on July 15.

The employees are not are not represented by a collective bargaining agreement and the

layoffs are permanent.

Located at 715 Massman Drive near Nashville International Airport, Hearthside Food Solutions acquired Nashville-based Standard Functional Food Group in late 2017. With that transaction, Standard Candy Company (the then-parent of Standard Functional Food Group) retained ownership of its Goo Goo Clusters operations, with the more than 120-year-old candy made in Nashville and sold at the Goo

Goo Shop retail store in SoBro. Hearthside is based in Downers Grove, Ill. and has undertaken contract food manufacturing for brands such as Frito Lay and General Mills via its more than 25 food-making facilities. At one time, the company was financially backed, in part, by New York-based global investment bank Goldman Sachs. Hearthside is known for its production of bars, cookies, crackers, granola and snack components.

Hearthside was one of multiple companies identified in a 2023 New York Times article related to alleged child labor law infractions.

Hearthside Food Solutions officials could not be reached for comment.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

Work could start by year’s end on mixed-use building to sit near Hillsboro Pike

BY WILLIAM WILLIAMS

Images have been created and a groundbreaking is tentatively being considered for late this year related to a mixed-use building planned for a Green

Hills site located near Hillsboro Pike and Calvary United Methodist Church.

As the Post reported in September 2023, a partnership involving Nashville

development company Material Ventures and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Stiles Corp. paid $7.25 million for the property, with an address of 2121 Crestmoor Road.

The partnership is planning a structure to stand six floors at its tallest point. The future building will offer a collective 98 residential units on floors two through five and 9,500 square feet of ground-floor retail and residential space.

Smith Gee Studio is handling design work, with Barge Civil Associates undertaking land-planning and civil engineering duties. Both are locally based.

“We’ve taken a simple approach with a very concerted effort to get the fundamentals just right — an elevated streetscape that encourages sidewalk activation and attracts great retail tenants, a building orientation and scale that resonates as distinctly boutique, and high-quality architecture that will stand the test of time,” Tim Johnson,

Material Ventures founder and owner, told tells The News sister publication the Nashville Post Monday, adding the team is “contemplating a construction start by end of the year.”

Johnson and Stiles landed a preliminary specific plan rezoning in August 2023 and will need final SP approval.

Unrelatedly, Stiles is partnering with Nashville developer Ray Hensler to develop a Rolling Mill Hill site downtown with mixeduse Peabody Union.

A two-story modernist office building sits on the property. Longtime Nashvillians might recognize the structure as having accommodated a Comdata office in the 1980s. The building offers an office for Weichert Realtors – The Andrews Group. The property sits within Metro Councilmember Jeff Prepit’s District 25.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

2121 Crestmoor Road PHOTO: MATERIAL VENTURES, STILES, SMITH GEE

Developer aims to preserve forest, historic land for luxury community

Josh Randolph and partners create private neighborhood Arrington Woods

BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO

A new home development in Williamson County is going vertical with site work being completed soon, but you may not actually see the construction as you pass the future community on Nolensville Road.

“You’re gonna see lot one up on Nolensville and then probably every other house you won’t even see unless you drive down their driveway,” Joshua Randolph, member of developer Arrington Wilder GP, told The News. “I mean each house is really tucked into the woods and intentionally hidden.”

Arrington Woods is a 90-acre development that will be built within the forested area rather than clearing the trees.

“I think homeowners are wanting that not only just aesthetically – because it’s cool to live among the trees – but also being sustainable, responsible human beings that want to live in a place that is good for our environment,” Randolph said. “Tree preservation is such a massive part of that.”

Arrington Wilder GP purchased the land for $4.1 million in November 2022 as four separate parcels and the final plot is pending approval as infrastructure is completed. It is located in Williamson County’s unincorporated Arrington off of Nolensville Road about 15 miles from downtown Franklin, five miles from Arrington Elementary and about one-and-a-half miles from St. Michael Academy.

There are only 11 lots in the future gated community; all are more than five acres with the largest being 8.66. Marabeth Poole from the LCT Team at Parks is the real estate agent for the community.

“A lot of the folks that have started to kind of garner interest in Arrington

Woods have been people from those nearby neighborhoods that are looking for a little bit more elbow room, but already love the area,” Randolph said. “They already understand Arrington and Nolensville and Franklin, so they want to stay down there.”

The developer is allowing homeowners to work with their own selected builders for their individual homes. The company will have a design review committee that works with homeowners to develop the kind of transitional modern architecture style of homes it envisions. Homes will likely range from $5 million and lots are currently for sale just under $1 million.

Arrington Wilder GP is also planning to donate about 14 acres of land to the Battle of Franklin Trust to protect historic Civil War entrenchments on the property. BOFT chief executive officer Eric Jacobson said the earthen fort was built in early 1863 and has been on the radar of preservation groups for a long time, but the land has always been privately owned.

“More than anything, our goal is just to help save it, so that nothing can ever happen to it,” Jacobson said. “We will probably have periodic tours maybe every quarter, a couple, three times a year, where we will take people to the site and we will guide them. But, that also allows us to protect it. It allows us to ensure its integrity.”

Even though Arrington Woods is a private community, meaning the preserved land will be as well, it is important to BOFT to tell the story of the fort, which is why they will host these guided tours.

Jacobson explained that this area, known as Triune, was one of three forts that were

jumping-off points for federal troops who headed South to Columbia from Franklin, Shelbyville from Triune and, eventually, Chattanooga from Murfreesboro.

“So, as they’re moving in one direction there is this – it is like a biblical exodus of enslaved people, and they are flooding out of the rural areas of Williamson County [and] Bedford County, and where they’re going is North and they’re being processed through places like Triune,” Jacobson said.

He went on to say that many of the men would go on to become part of the Army for what was called the United States Colored Troops.

“Places like Triune in 1863 were like a beacon of hope because for the enslaved it meant there was an opportunity to get away from this system,” Jacobson said. “And that’s where the breakdown begins and the old

Local hotelier pays $2.35M for Bellevue-area

BY WILLIAM WILLIAMS

A local hotel owner and developer — known, in part, for having sold Antioch’s Global Mall at the Crossings for $24 million — has paid about $2.35 million for a Bellevue-area property located near Interstate 40.

According to a Davidson County Register of Deeds document, Rajesh Aggarwal now owns the 3.66-acre property. With a placeholder address of 0 Old Hickory Blvd., the raw land sits at the T-intersection of that street and Tolbert Road.

The seller was an LLC that paid $725,000 for the property in 1998, Metro records

note. The LLC includes Raman Dayal, who was part of a group that developed an East Bank site with an 11-story La Quinta Inn & Suites building at 315 Interstate Dr. Aggarwal’s purchase comes as he plans a 12-story hotel building to supplement his Best Western Plus Music Row property located near The Gulch. The future structure would be positioned to the immediate east of the existing five-floor hotel building, which sits at 1407 Division St. on a site bordered by both Music Row and Midtown.

In 2022, Aggarwal (who seemingly also works as a professor at Middle Tennessee State

South starts to just collapse. And that’s a story that we will tell.

“They were refugees in our country, and we have not done a good job telling that incredibly powerful human story of people’s simple desire to just be free. That’s what’s happening right there. They’re pouring out of the Chapel Hill area, south of there, and they’re just flooding north because they knew guys in blue uniforms meant freedom.

“Within the enslaved communities, communication was almost instantaneous. I mean, it’s not quite like today, but everybody knew what was happening. The white power base was totally losing control. I think that’s just an incredibly moving story that can only be told at a place like Triune. Nothing better than to be at the place where stuff like that happened.”

site

University) sold the aforementioned Global Mall at the Crossings and a separate nearby property (with a collective approximately 70 acres) to Metro for a combined $44 million. The city recently announced it will demolish a segment of the mall.

Aggarwal once owned Gulch property — located within the 1200 block of McGavock Street and overlooking the city’s inner-interstate loop — that is now being developed by Mill Creek Residential with 29-story apartment and retail building Modera McGavock (read here).

The Old Hickory Boulevard property

Aggarwal now owns is located near a site for which a mixed-use project had been planned and that recently sold for $7,745,000. As the Post reported earlier this month, Charlottebased Crescent Communities plans on developing the roughly 27.8 acres of raw land with about 175 townhomes. Crescent developed a nearby site with apartment complex Novel Harpeth Heights. This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

Arrington Woods PHOTO: JOSH RANDOLPH

Metro argues against state law cutting council in half

BY NICOLLE S. PRAINO

Parties involved in a Metro lawsuit seeking to block a 2023 state law that would cap Metro Council seats at 20 were back in court on Monday.

Metro Legal Department argued in front of a three-judge panel that the law cannot be implemented after the judges’ April 2023 injunction that ruled the act could compromise the August general election.

Associate Metro Legal Director Allison Bussell argued that because the injunction ruling dealt with section 1(b), which implemented the section 1(a) mandate to reduce council size, the mandate itself can no longer take effect.

“Absent 1(b) the act crumbles underneath itself,” Bussell said. “In the end, because subsection 1(b) is the only mechanism for mandating a reduction to Metro’s council size and that provision is now moot, by the

state’s admission, the act no longer mandates that reduction.”

The state argued, however, while it doesn’t deny that 1(b) and 1(a) are connected they are not “inextricably interwoven,” according to Assistant Attorney General Timothy Simonds. He argued if the court struck down 1(b), it could also strike the language “as further provided in this section” that appears in 1(a).

Simonds cited a previous case that explained a court’s duty to save constitutionally acceptable enactments when a court is presented with different arguments of interpretation stating the court must choose the one that preserves the act rather than the one that destroys it.

“Ours harmonizes these and allows the enforcement of the remaining provisions of the statute that promote the legislative intent,” Simonds said.

Bussell argued the court cannot uphold the constitutionality of the act consistent with the legislative intent because that intent is dictated by the plain language that Metro argues against.

“Subsection 1(a) cannot create a standalone cap on council size but also contain language that is rendered ineffective by 1(b)’s removal from the statute,” Bussell said. “If those provisions are interdependent then severability is necessarily inappropriate.”

Simonds did not provide the court with an example of a previous ruling that removed phrases, and not clauses in their entirety, from an act. But he maintained that it was up to the court’s discretion.

“We have argued and defended lots of cases involving constitutional challenges and I can say this is the first that we have seen the state not lead with the argument that

the plain language controls,” Bussell said. “There’s a reason for that because the plain language is damning to their position.”

Metro Legal added that the law was unconstitutional under the Home Rule amendment, which does not allow bills that target a local government. While the state has said this can apply to all metropolitan governments (the only two others are Lynchburg-Moore County and HartsvilleTrousdale County), in practice Metro argued it applies only to Nashville-Davidson County since the others do not have governments larger than the 20-member cap.

The three-judge panel made up of Chancellor Patricia Moskal, Chancellor Jerri Bryant and Judge Joseph Howell did not give a timeframe on when it would return a ruling.

This story was first published by our sister publication Nashville Post.

Franklin Theatre’s ‘Variety on Main’ shows variety shows can still thrive

BY RON WYNN

Variety shows were once a staple on network television, but in today’s broadcast environment where so many things are targeted towards specific demographics, there’s little room for diverse presentation. But Monica Ramey and Mandy Barnett, two dynamic vocalists with terrific credentials as performers, reject the notion that there’s no contemporary audience for a show featuring multiple performers across the entertainment spectrum.

“Variety on Main” is their bold idea. They’ve been co-producing and co-hosting a monthly show at The Franklin Theatre since the start of the year. Ramey is one of Music City’s finest jazz and American songbook stylists, while Barnett has had great success as a country vocalist.

“Mandy and I were talking with The Franklin Theatre about various ideas for shows we’d like to produce,” Ramey said during an interview. “Mandy suggested a variety show for us to produce and host

together. We all immediately embraced the variety show concept and was confident that this was the right venue for it.”

“The idea for the show came from my years of performing in variety shows, including at the Grand Ole Opry,” Barnett added. “I’ve always loved the camaraderie and satisfaction that comes from putting together a show filled with diverse and topnotch entertainment. This is the first time either of us have produced a variety show, and we wanted to bring together all the experiences and lessons we’ve learned over the years to create something special for the audience. So, the idea is really just about sharing the joy of entertainment in all its forms with as many people as possible.”

After six months of pre-production, “Variety on Main” began. Shows are presented every third Monday of the month at 7:30 p.m. A prime example of the show’s eclectic focus is the lineup for the May 20 edition. The guest roster includes LynnMarie

& E3, Charlie McCoy, The Kody Norris Show, Victoria Shaw and Alicia Witt.

“Our goals, both short and long term, are centered around providing a great experience for our audience,” Barnett continues. “In the short term, our aim is to deliver a fantastic Monday evening filled with top-quality entertainment. We want every show to leave our audience wanting more and looking forward to the next one. Long term, we hope to see “Variety On Main” continue to grow and flourish. It’s incredibly rewarding to see repeat customers and have people asking about the show, and we aspire to keep that momentum going, building a loyal following and expanding our reach over time.”

“Our audiences have been wonderfully supportive and each show, the numbers grow bigger and bigger,” Ramey said in answer to a question about initial audience reaction.

“I’ve been stopped a few times in downtown Franklin by local fans who are just in awe of what we’re doing. They really love it, and I’m so proud of how happy folks are when they greet us after the show. It’s a wonderful feeling. The sky’s the limit with this show!”

Pat Coil serves as the show’s musical director, heading the house band the Mainstays, while The Franklin Theatre crew handles the lighting and stage work. But the co-hosts add that the major key to the show’s success is always its guests.

“Deciding on the guests for Variety On Main is a bit like putting together a puzzle,” Barnett said. “Since the show embraces multiple genres, we try to select acts that are diverse yet complementary to one another. It’s essential to have a mix of talents that offer something unique, ensuring that each act stands out while also blending seamlessly

with the overall flow of the show.” Ramey and Barnett encouraged any potential acts to visit the artist submission form at varietyonmain.com.

“Our team is working with us to reviews all of the submissions and the show is curated with everyone in mind,” Ramey said.

With talent booked and a commitment from The Franklin Theatre through the remainder of the year, Ramey and Barnett are upbeat about the show’s future.

“We definitely envision bigger things for Variety on Main,” Ramey said. “We get so excited after each show because we know we have added the right ingredients; up-andcoming and seasoned talent from all walks of life, a world-class house band, a beautiful and historical venue that is accessible to fans and artists alike, a production crew that is as excited as we are about the show, and lastly, two producers who have the experience, intuition and talent to understand how to put on a great show.”

“It is a lot of hard work, and we understand the value and variety of the talent is what makes this so special. We’re also openminded and understand that a lot can come from this show and it can develop and grow into many things if we produce it properly. We’re hopeful and optimistic, for sure.”

“Time will tell where this journey takes us, but our priority is on creating an exceptional experience at The Franklin Theatre with each and every show,” Barnett concludes.

Tickets for “Variety on Main” can be purchased at The Franklin Theater box office prior to the start of each show or online at franklintheatre.com/tickets.

Mandy Barnett

Monica Ramey

Strawberry Buttermilk Cake

BY EDIBLE NASHVILLE

This simple vanilla cake made with buttermilk (you can use yogurt too) lets Tennessee’s plentiful local strawberries shine.

INGREDIENTS

9 tablespoons butter

3/4 cups white sugar

1/2 cup turbinado or raw sugar

3 eggs

2 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/4 cups buttermilk (or yogurt)

2-3 cups whole strawberries, hulled

1. Preheat oven to 400F.

ACROSS

1 Groups of plants

7 Mental ___

11 Escape vessel

14 Bottom floor of a 46-Across, perhaps

15 Farmland measure

16 “We ___ arrant knaves, all”: Hamlet

17 Banded gemstones

18 Cr y after a poke

20 Cave dweller of Greek myth

22 Over

23 Cool, ’90s-style

24 Old Testament queendom

26 Just

29 Had a meal

31 Valuable property

33 Takes a toll on

turbinado sugar. Bake 30-40 minutes or until pick inserted into center comes out clean. Cool, then remove the springform ring. Sprinkle with powdered sugar. 10 SERVING(S)

2. Beat butter and sugars together until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, beat well. At low speed, add baking soda, powder, salt and flour, alternating with buttermilk, until just blended.

3. Spoon batter into greased and floured 9-inch cake or springform pan. Top with strawberries and sprinkle with extra

34 Prospector’s locale of the late 1800s

37 Some Google search results

39 Styled after

40 Put on

41 Journey such as the one where 20-Across appears

43 Pro wrestler ___ Luger

44 Copy

45 Chess “castle”

46 Spot to par k

48 Enter a busy freeway

50 Navy vessel letters

52 Dreyer’s, on the East Coast

53 Bash for laughs

55 “Pronto!”

58 Face-to-face, as an exam

73 Feature of 20-Across … and, when sounded out, a feature of today’s puzzle (clues and all!) DOWN

1 Try to fly

2 Noted brand from Denmar k

3 Watermelon-shaped

4 Corrects, as keystrokes

5 Beth preceder

6 Skater Cohen

7 Hur t badly

8 They may take the stand

9 Flotsam and jetsam

10 Egg producer

11 Potluck staple

12 Stackable snack

13 Profound

35 Land separated at the 38th parallel

36 Trouble

38 Relay race par t

42 “Psst, hey!”

47 Swap out

49 Quest for some athletes

51 Egg ___

54 Play, as a ukulele

56 Food products wholesaler

57 Follow, as a lead

58 Doesn’t have enough

59 Go on and on

61 OK place to be naked, once

62 Orchestra par t

63 Sneaky maneuver

64 “Auld Lang ___”

66 Lead regulator, for short

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.

60 20-Across, by another name

65 Took the long way home, say

67 How Jenga blocks are placed, hopefully

68 Coda, e.g.

69 Unadulterated

70 Wrap for a monarch?

71 D.C.’s B and A: Abbr.

72 “Well put!”

19 Keep ___ on (watch closely)

21 H, to Homer

25 Course that’s a breeze

Oft-contracted address

Eschew the pews, say

Performed some weekend tasks

Mastodon features

Mournful poem

Online subscriptions: Today’s puzzle and more than 9,000 past puzzles, nytimes.com/ crosswords ($39.95 a year). Read about and comment on each puzzle: nytimes.com/wordplay.

Crosswords for young solvers: nytimes.com/ studentcrosswords. ANSWER TO PUZZLE

PUZZLE BY JOSEPH GANGI

SERVICE & MAINTENANCE

WOODMONT BAPTIST CHURCH

Turner Construction TopGolf Charity Event

PHOTOS: TURNER CONSTRUCTION COMPANY

Turner Construction Company hosted its third annual Turner Foundation Charity TopGolf Tournament on May 7, gathering local trade businesses to raise funds for nonprofit organizations in the Nashville area. The Turner Foundation will donate proceeds to support economic and youth development, health and wellness, higher education, and workforce development initiatives. More than 45 local construction industry businesses participated in the event, with Maxim Crane Works earning the top score in the hitting bays.

The Mitchell Mechanical, LLC, team: Sam Vinson III, Elliot Taliaferro, Vince Bucci, Aaron Bristol, Sam Collins

The Jollay Masonry Team: Adam Roberts and Austin Hughes

Paul Lawson, Turner Construction Company, with the Jarrett Builders team: Justin Luther, Mike Wood, Amy Wood, Mikey Hendley, Brayden Litchfield, Michael Wood Christiane Buggs, President & CEO of PENCIL, speaks to the event attendees.

The Marek Brothers Systems LLC team: Brendan Burke-Phillips, Timothy Howell, Alec Sgro; Turner Construction Company, Kimberly Rodriguez, Bill Alaniz

The Rockwood Recycling Team: Hunter Newton, Charles Hartsell, Robert Cravens, Nicole Mitchell, Lincoln Young, Charlie Young

Heath Yoakam, Valley Interior Systems; Brenden Arcara, Valley Interior Systems; Paul Lawson, Turner Construction Company; Zach Rudolph, Valley Interior Systems; Will Haynes, Turner Construction Company.

A TopGolf tournament participant lines up his swing.

Paul Lawson, Turner Construction Company, with the Charter Construction team: Turner Talley, Josh Schneider, Taylor Binkley, Courtney Urbat, Adam Forgy, Chris Todd, Steele Clifton, Hank Arnold, and Chad Johnson.

Representatives from Turner Construction Company. Front Row (L to R): Beth Duffield, Jennifer Thompson, Michaela Coston, Amy Pedigo, Kate DePaepe, Kate Green, Sarah Lowery, Bethany Legg, Jamie Posey. Back Row (L to R): Hunter Whitten, Joslyn Wright, Tyler Francis, Chandler Smith, Herbert Brown, David Dohse, David Dasal, Paul Lawson, Corey Blackburn, Will Haynes, Mike Dooley, Mike Gallagher

Five free and cheap family things to do in Middle Tennessee

BY AMANDA HAGGARD

Hear me out when I say there are two was a hard punch to your heart.) If your

cuteness about cicada eyes. You can learn about migratory birds at Warner Park or pet some cute goats at East Nashville Brew Works. And if animals aren’t your bag, there’s a classical dance storytime at the library on the east side of town.

As part of our series on free cheap things to do with the family, here is our weekly roundup of places to spend time together over the next week:

CICADA CELEBRATION

On May 24 from 1-3 p.m. at Warner Park, folks of all ages are invited to come celebrate the cicadas. This afternoon event is perfect for that first day off of school. Two park leaders will educate folks on these insects, and there will be a chance to create some cicada art and discover cicada recipes. It’s a once in a 13 or 15 year opportunity, folks.

JR. NATURALIST CICADA CELEBRATION

If you didn’t get enough of our friendly flying friends in the sky, there’s another Cicada Celebration at the Shelby Bottoms

EXPLORE WITH A NATURALIST: CELEBRATING WORLD MIGRATORY BIRD DAY

If birds are more your bag than bugs, you can head to Warner Park Nature Center on May 25 to celebrate World Migratory Bird Day in its Explore with a Naturalist program from 10 a.m. to noon. This iteration will focus on discovery, observation and connecting with nature with a special look into migratory birds.

REJOICE BALLET STORY TIME

At the East Nashville branch of the Nashville Public Library, Rejoice School of Ballet is hosting a 30-minute story time on May 25 at 10:30 a.m. with a teaching artist from the school. The featured book for the story time is A Story for Small Bear, and the reading will be followed by a movement to classical music for children aged 3-5.

GOAT CUDDLING AT ENBW

On the last Tuesday of each month through September, East Nashville Beer Works is hosting a herd of baby goats in the

Cicadas in Nashville PHOTO: ANGELINA CASTILLO

6

(615) 298-1500

Rent/Lease

CemeteRy Lots

THE GREEN HILLS APARTMENTS

is no longer just for retired teachers. All seniors 62 and older may apply with no fee. Efficiencies start at $500 which includes utilities.

One bedroom & studio apartments available starting at $625 per month. Must be 62 and older and live independently.

One bedroom apartments available starting at $650 per month. be 62 and older and live independently.

615-297-7536

greenhillsapts@comcast.net

it

in the Classifieds!

2BR’s, 1BA apt for rent in Green Hills on Brightwood Ave. Close to all schools and shopping. Safe and quiet neighborhood. $1850/mo. No utilities included. (615) 292-5620

CaRe GiveR

I am super personal assistantHousehold / pet management, driver, security, business / legal consulting, problem solver. $50 / hr. Stellar References. (615) 292-7615

two Cemetery Lots for sale at Woodlawn Cemetery near Chapel. Lots in area sell for $8,000. Will reduce each for $6,400 and will pay the transfer fee, $465. Please call Jody (615) 707-3254