The Friends of Two Rivers Mansion and the Metro Historic Commission selected Encore Interpretive Design to manage the master planning process for the Two Rivers Mansion, 1802 House and 14-acre property. This is an exciting time for this historic crown jewel of Donelson. The community is invited to a kick-off of the process on Wednesday, February 24th at 5:30pm at Two Rivers Mansion. Come learn how you can be part of this process and what deliverables to expect.
The American Legion Post 88 has been working hard on a plan to beautify and enhance the War Memorial triangle site that has been there since 1970. Thanks to an architect team at Lose & Associates for helping put the vision to paper. We’ve now presented it to TDOT and are awaiting their assessment and approval, which I hope to receive so plantings could be done this Spring.
As a graduate of Leadership Donelson-Hermitage, I can attest at the experience of being involved with the organization to be very fulfilling and a worthy investment. As an alumnus, I have the opportunity to Chair the Government & Media Day for the prospective classes and I truly enjoy it. The annual recruitment event, LeadUP, is coming Monday, March 7. See flyer for details and to RSVP to come out to learn more about how this great organization can open up doors and create lifelong friends.
It’s nice to sit down and write this next newsletter reflecting on an incredibly busy couple of weeks that have been both productive and enjoyable. I began a new job at BMI as an Associate Director of Licensing Customer Relations and am thankful for continued professional growth and opportunity to serve BMI’s songwriters, composers and publishers. We had our third Metro Council meeting on Tuesday, November 3rd and it was also the National League of Cities conference that same week. I’m looking forward to the Holiday Season approaching and hope everyone will have an opportunity to enjoy quality time with family and friends.
The National League of Cities held their annual Congress of Cities conference in Nashville during the first week of November and it was a great way to showcase our city’s success, thriving businesses, music and much more. Attendees were Mayors and Council Members from all across the United States and was a great opportunity to share ideas and best practices. I had the opportunity to bring Joey to the NLC Board of Director’s dinner where Emmylou Harris gave a wonderful performance after the dinner. Joey got to meet her as well. I love this picture of Joey with Emmylou taken backstage before the dinner and performance.
In the spirit of giving and thankfulness, I’m proud to say that my first two pieces of legislation that I’ve signed were actually giving money to Metro from the Friends of Two Rivers Mansion. One was giving money to Metro Parks to match a grant from the TN State Historic Commission for a master planning process of the Two Rivers Mansion, 1802 House and surrounding 14-acres. The other was also to Metro Parks to fund docent salaries for our upcoming Holiday Tours. Please be sure to keep tabs with the Mansion on our Facebook page and website regarding the schedule for upcoming tours. It’s an incredibly fascinating journey through some fundamental history of Donelson and the mansion will be decorated beautifully for Christmas.
On Friday, November 6, I signed legislation to officially submit our grant application to TDOT for the Opry Mills Greenway Connector. Thanks goes to Metro Parks Greenway Director Shain Dennison for her tireless efforts on behalf of our Greenway system. This will be well-used extension that highlights that our Greenway system are being used not just for recreation, but also as a mode of transit.
Congratulations goes to Mike Jameson, former District 6 Council Member, for being named Metro Council Office Director and Legal Counsel. Mike is a great choice by Vice Mayor Briley and has already hit the ground running. Mayor Barry continues building her team with excellent public servants and I look forward to working with each of them. I also continue to meet with other Metro department heads, staff and community leaders as I look towards accomplishing my goals while serving on Council.
I was very happy to welcome Scout Troop 11 to our Council meeting on October 20th. Troop 11 is in CM Burkley Allen’s District 18, but D15 neighbors Noah Croy and his dad Nathan, also a leader with Troop 11, were there as well.
I will pick back up in January with the next newsletter. I hope each of you and your families have a wonderful Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanza and a very Happy New Year. I’ve been working very hard since the election to build a solid foundation for my time in office serving our community. It is a great honor and I have high hopes and strong faith in a bright future for Donelson.
