The Homewood Star Volume 4 | Issue 10 | January 2015
neighborly news & entertainment for Homewood
A look ahead
On a warm winter night, spotted salamanders will travel out of Homewood Forest Preserve to mate in vernal pools along South Lakeshore Drive.
Find updates on a new phase of the Shades Creek Greenway and other city projects in our 2015 Year in Preview.
See page A8
Running for Bell Center kids
Great migration Festival celebrates annual salamander migration near Homewood High School By MADOL INE MARK H AM The dance begins sometime after Christmas each year. Jet-black creatures with bright orange and yellow spots emerge from the H omewood F orest P reserve behind the high school and scurry to a vernal pool nearby. Once they arrive, they jump into the water and perform their mating dance flipping o er and surfac ing for air. V iewed from the side, they always appear to smile. “ It’s like magic,” Jim B rown tells people.
H e would know. The S amford University history professor has been watching them for 3 0 years. The spotted salamanders mate in water but live most of the year underground in the preserve’s hillside. Their skin must stay moist, so they choose a warm, rainy night after it’s been cold to migrate. “ W e think about birds migrating north or south, but there are also a lot of migrations on a smaller scale,” said K ristin B akkegard, a biology professor at S amford. “ It is about the only time you will see the salamander.
Once you get to know them, they are very charismatic animals.” A decade ago, B rown told members of the F riends of S hades Creek about the migration, and in the years since, the event has developed a following. B rown and F riends president Michelle B lackwood go out on nights when the conditions are right and watch for salamanders to emerge. W hen they see them, they start calling a list of 25 people. S ometimes it’s midnight, sometimes it’s 3 a.m. B ut
See SALAMANDERS | page A18
Students are teaming up on Patriot Partners relay teams to raise funds. Read more about their efforts inside.
See page B1
INSIDE Sponsors ...................A2 City .............................A4 Business ....................A6 Community ...............A12 School House ...........B2 Sports .......................B7 Calendar ................. B14 Opinion .................... B15
P re-S ort S tandard U.S . P ostage P AID Memphis, TN P ermit # 8 3 0
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Midday bus service could be cut By SY DNEY CROMWEL L W hen his lease is up, W ard Dudley will leave his Asten Circle home and relocate to H oover. H e said he has loved living in H omewood, but with the end of full B irmingham-Jefferson County Transit Authority (B JCTA) bus services approaching, Dudley and his guide dog will soon be unable to travel at will. Dudley said he rides the B JCTA paratransit buses at least two or three times a week to run errands and go to the doctor’s office. n an. 3 1 , however, the transit authority will reduce operations for H omewood’s Routes 3 9 and 4 2 to peak hours only. F or those two routes, the MAX buses will soon stop running between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m . W hile Route 1 4 will remain unaffected, the estimated 28 2 daily riders of 3 9 and 4 2 will only be able to catch the bus between approximately 6: 1 5 to 1 0 a.m. and 3 to 7 : 20 p.m. B JCTA
See BUSES | page A19
A BJCTA bus on Homewood Route 39 travels Lakeshore Parkway in the middle of the day. If proposed cuts to the service are approved, this route will no longer run between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Photo by Sydney Cromwell.