November 30, 2023

CHARTER TERRITORY

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HEADLINE HOMES

NOVEMBER 30, 2023 | VOLUME 35 | NUMBER 47

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Nashville Zoo, MNPD partnering for 2023 toy drive this weekend STAFF REPORTS

Members of the Choir Room Choir perform during the 2023 Christmas at the Capitol event on Nov. 27.

PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS

Gov. Lee, first lady celebrate ‘Christmas at the Capitol’

BY MATT MASTERS

Gov. Bill Lee and first lady Maria Lee celebrated Christmas at the Capitol on Monday evening with the lighting of the state’s Christmas tree.

The annual event featured live performances from the 129th Army Band and the Choir Room choir, and, of course, a visit from Santa Claus himself.

The Lees read Song of the Stars to children prior to the lighting of this year’s state Christmas tree, a 35-foot Norway spruce which was donated by Springfield U.S. Army veteran Dexie Goff.

“We hope that this season is a great blessing to you as we celebrate the birth of Christ, and the hope that that brings to the people of the world,” Gov. Lee said.

Representatives from Franklin-based non-profit My Friend’s House served as guests of honor, and some attendees brought donations of canned foods and baby diapers in support of Sevier County Food Ministries.

The event was not without its detractors as several people silently protested Lee’s planned push to expand schools, and several other protesters led a chant calling for the U.S. to

support a ceasefire in besieged Palestine.

The public can also tour the Tennessee Residence from Dec. 1-3 and 7-10 where the holiday décor theme “Heaven and Nature Sing” portrays the “larger-than-life magic experienced during the holiday season, the beauty of Tennessee’s natural landscapes, and the joy of the coming of Christ and the salvation of the world.”

The tours are self-guided and free to the public but require a reservation online at https://www.tn.gov/residence/christmas-atthe-tennessee-residence/ >> PAGE 2

The Nashville Zoo and the Metro Nashville Police Department’s Mounted Patrol Division will host their annual Christmas Basket Program this weekend.

The event will take place on Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 2-3, where guests can get free admission to the zoo for every new toy donation, with a limit of two tickets per family while supplies last.

MNPD officers will collect toys in the zoo’s parking lot from 9 a.m.-2:30 p.m., and guests can purchase a new toy and donate it to the drive on-site.

Children are also invited to drop off letters to Santa Claus for the officers to deliver them to the North Pole in time for Christmas.

The toy drive is part of the Metro Police Department’s annual Christmas Basket Program which collects toys and other items for local families during the holidays.

Police officers will deliver the donated toys to more than 300 homes on the morning of December 24.

Donated toys must be new, unwrapped and designed for children 12 and younger.

The complimentary zoo tickets may be used anytime during normal zoo hours through May 1, 2024, and guests must be present to receive complimentary zoo admission tickets.

Nashville Zoo and MNPD Toy Drive PHOTO COURTESY OF NASHVILLE ZOO

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2

THE NEWS

“Christmas at the Capitol” CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Gov. Bill Lee and First Lady Maria Lee read the book Song of the Stars to children during the 2023 Christmas at the Capitol event on Nov. 27. PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS

Members of the 129th Army Band perform at the 2023 Christmas at the Capitol event on Nov. 27.

PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS

Protesters opposing school vouchers demonstrated during the 2023 Christmas at the Capitol event on Nov. 27. PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS

The 2023 State of Tenn. Christmas tree stands lit in front of the Capitol on Nov. 27.

PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS

Protesters calling for the U.S. to support a ceasefire in besieged Palestine and others opposing school vouchers demonstrated during the 2023 Christmas at the Capitol event on Nov. 27. PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Studio Tenn to perform ‘It’s a Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Play’ at Turner Theater STAFF REPORTS

Studio Tenn announced on Tuesday that its production of It’s a Wonderful Life, A Live Radio Play will take place at the newly opened Turner Theater at The Factory at Franklin from Dec. 7-24.

The description reads: “Set on a snowy Christmas Eve inside WAKM, Franklin’s local radio station, an ensemble of five actors will bring to life the iconic town of Bedford Falls and its many characters. The story of idealistic George Bailey unfolds in a unique theatrical experience as he considers the course his life has taken up to this one fateful night.”

Studio Tenn’s creative director Patrick Cassidy will direct the production, while Caleb Shore will return to the role of George Bailey. Shore has spent the last two years in Los Angeles performing at Universal Studios Hollywood.

Mariah Parris will return as Mary Hatch.

Her stage credits include 9 to 5 and Ragtime (Nashville Rep) as well as Macbeth (Nashville Shakespeare Festival).

Gerold Oliver will portray George Bailey’s guardian angel Clarence among other characters throughout the

performance. A Nashville native, Oliver can be seen in Gingerbread Kid (Nashville Children’s Theater) and The Color Purple (Nashville Rep).

Nashville native Charlotte Myhre-Shealy will portray Violet Bick and Zuzu among other roles. Shealy’s stage credits include Smoke on the Mountain (Studio Tenn) and The Diary of Anne Frank (Nashville Children’s Theatre). She is the managing director of Springhouse Theatre Company in Smyrna.

Geoff Davin will serve as the announcer of the show in addition to portraying a collection of supporting characters.

A Bedford Falls-inspired cocktail will be available for purchase before and after each performance at The Skylight Bar in The Factory’s Grand Hall.

Individual tickets are now on sale.

For $100, families can take advantage of Studio Tenn’s Family 4-Pack ticket special by entering the promo code “FAMILY” at checkout. Student, military and educator discounts are also available. Visit studiotenn. org or call (615) 541-8200 for more details.

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4

THE NEWS

This year’s Nashville Nine centers on civil rights history

BY ELI MOTYCKA

The Juno Frankie Pierce House at 2702 Meharry Blvd.

Buildings central to the city’s historic struggle against racial discrimination make up this year’s Nashville Nine. Historic Nashville Inc.’s annual list of sites “in danger of being lost to demolition, neglect or development” focuses on the homes of key civil rights figures and businesses that helped provide critical services for the city’s Black residents during segregation.

Five of the buildings are in North Nashville, where the city’s tight home

PHOTO VIA HISTORIC NASHVILLE INC.

market has driven up land prices. Over the past few years, single-family homes in the city’s historically Black neighborhoods have frequently been replaced with larger homes, sometimes with two or more units. The list also includes the home of Frankie Henry on Maury Street in Napier, another historically Black enclave between the Cumberland River and Lafayette Street. Henry was a civil rights activist burned with a cigarette by a white woman during a downtown sit-in.

Historic Nashville Inc. goes on to list the small brick office of Fred Goldner, a Vanderbilt doctor with an integrated practice who participated in the downtown lunch counter sit-ins, as well as the AdamsKimball cemetery, a century-old Black cemetery on private land in Forest Hills with marked and unmarked burial sites. The list’s final spot is dedicated to two buildings from previous years — the former homes of civil rights attorney Z. Alexander Looby

and physician George Hubbard — that face uncertain futures.

“As we prepare to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlawed discrimination based on race, color, gender, national origin or religion, we’re using this occasion to reflect on Nashville’s willingness to preserve the history of the struggle that led to this victory,” reads a statement from the nonprofit preservation group released on Tuesday.

The statement goes on to name former Nashville Nine sites, like Fort Negley and the Elks Lodge on Jefferson Street, now considered preservation victories.

The group builds its list, which it has published each year since 2009, through public nominations, and is governed by a board that includes historian Dr. Learotha Williams Jr. and Nashville Scene contributor Betsy Phillips.

Last week, the Post reported that the historic Morris Memorial Building is under contract with a hotel developer after the city passed on the chance to purchase it. The Morris is the only building left in downtown Nashville originally associated with the Historic Black Business District and was built on land where Black people were once sold into slavery.

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

Court:

Legislature must redraw Senate map

BY STEPHEN ELLIOTT A three-judge state court panel last week ruled that Tennessee’s new state House map is constitutional while throwing out the state Senate map.

The panel ordered the Tennessee General Assembly to adopt a new Senate map

by Jan. 31. Specifically, the court agreed with the plaintiffs that the legislature ignored the Tennessee Constitution by not consecutively numbering Senate districts in Davidson County.

State law requires Senate districts in a single county to be numbered consecutively in order to stagger terms in counties with multiple senators. After the 2020 census, Tennessee lawmakers reconfigured the Senate map in a way that left Davidson County split between the 17th, 19th, 20th and 21st districts.

Senate Speaker Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge) said an “appeal is a very viable option,” according to the Associated Press.

Senate Democratic leaders Raumesh

Akbari and London Lamar called the ruling “a clear win for the Tennessee Constitution.”

Last year, the court panel came to a similar conclusion, but the Tennessee Supreme Court let the maps stand due to the looming 2022 elections.

Plaintiffs said they will continue to challenge the House map, which they argue splits more counties than is necessary. Other legal challenges of Tennessee’s new maps, including the congressional map that split Nashville into three districts, are ongoing.

According to the Tennessee Journal, redrawing the Senate map to include a consecutively numbered district in Davidson County could present additional challenges for the Republican-dominated legislature, including the possibility of creating a newly competitive seat comprised of voters in Murfreesboro and Nashville.

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

Tennessee General Assembly, 2022

PHOTO BY ERIC ENGLAND

5

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Gov. Lee appoints Erin Nations to Williamson County judge vacancy

BY MATT MASTERS

Williamson County Circuit Judge Deanna Johnson (L) administers the oath of office to Judge Erin Nations, who was joined by her family, in Franklin’s Historic Wiliamson County Courthouse on Nov. 20, 2023. PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS Erin Nations was sworn in as Williamson County’s newest judge last week, officially filling the vacancy created by now retired

Circuit Criminal Judge Michael Binkley.

Nations was appointed to fill the vacancy

by Gov. Bill Lee last week and will serve until a new judge is elected in the next general election in Aug. 2024.

Nations has already pulled a petition for the election and told The News that she intends to run for the office following the expiration of her appointment.

Nations was sworn into office by Judge Deanna Johnson in a 1 p.m. ceremony inside of Franklin’s Historic Williamson County Courthouse. The ceremony was attended by dozens of government and community leaders.

“I have been welcomed to circuit court with open arms, and they have each taken time out of their very busy schedules to help me, to bring me into circuit court and make this transition as painless as possible, and I know that they will do that for the good of the 21st Judicial District,” Nations said after taking the oath of office.

“I look forward to working tirelessly to earn the trust and faith that Gov. Lee has invested in me, and I also look forward over the coming months and years to gain your trust and to make you proud of me as part of

your circuit court bench.”

On Tuesday, Nations resigned as Williamson County Commissioner for District 6, and will soon leave Brentwoodbased law firm Beal, Nations and Crutcher, where she is partner, in compliance with state law in order to serve on the bench.

“I have the utmost confidence that the interests of the constituents of District 6 are in the most capable of hands with Commissoner Paul Webb, and I am certain that the replacement chosen by the Commission will be of the highest caliber,” Nations said in part in her resignation letter, calling her public service transition “bittersweet.”

Nations is the daughter-in-law of former Williamson County Judge Al Nations, and she marked the occasion by wearing his judge’s robe during the ceremony.

She earned her bachelor’s degree at Middle Tennessee State University and her juris doctor at Nashville School of Law. She previously served as a law clerk in the Williamson County Circuit Court for now Tenn. Supreme Court Justice Jeffrey Bivins, now Court of Criminal Appeals Judge Timothy L. Easter, now Senior Judge R. E. Lee Davies and retired Judge Robbie Beal.

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6

THE NEWS

Graduation rates improve slightly statewide, decrease slightly in Davidson County

BY KELSEY BEYELER

Last week, the Tennessee Department of Education released 2022-23 graduation data for the state, including local school districts and individual schools. The data reveals that, at 90.6 percent, Tennessee has reached its highest recorded statewide graduation rate since 2012.

Davidson County’s graduation rate falls lower than the statewide average at 81.2 percent. This figure is slightly lower than Davidson County’s 2021-22 overall graduation rate of 81.6 percent. The number

varies, however, among different student groups. Foster students, homeless students and those who are English learners have the lowest graduation rates both locally and across the state. Students of color also graduate at a rate lower than their white peers. Statewide and local figures for various categories are listed below. Additional data can be found on the TDOE’s website.

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

Students arrive at James Lawson High School on the first day of school.

PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS

Five free and cheap family things to do in middle Tennessee

BY AMANDA HAGGARD

Methodist Church, and Belle Meade Links / Parmer Park, while joining the parade in between the final two stops.

BELL BUCKLE CHRISTMAS PET PARADE The first Saturday in December will also usher in the Christmas Pet Parade in Bell Buckle on Main Street. Pets will don their Christmas clothes and strut through downtown Bell Buckle. Santa will also be on deck offering free magical sleigh rides every Saturday in December around the quaint, tree-lined streets where the community has set up lights and festive decor around the small town. There’ll also be a s’mores pit, an area to write letters to Santa and all the regular old-timey charm of Bell Buckle.

MURFREESBORO CHRISTMAS PARADE

The 2021 Franklin Christmas Parade drew thousands of onlookers to Main Street.

There is no excuse not to hit up a Christmas parade this weekend ahead of the holiday. There are a dozen or so to choose from, but we chose five in our roundup this week, each with their own vibe and location.

Gather the family, some chairs if you want to sit in one place comfortably, get some hot chocolate and a cookie, and head down to any number of places to see the holidays on parade. You might even be able to make it to more than one, if time and tempers allow.

As part of our series on free and cheap things to do with the family, here is our weekly roundup of places to spend time

PHOTO BY ALEXANDER WILLIS

together over the next week: FRANKLIN CHRISTMAS PARADE

BELLE MEADE CHRISTMAS PARADE

This annual tradition winds through Historic Downtown Franklin. The Franklin Christmas Parade has been going on the first weekend of December for more than 30 years when it was first presented by the Kiwanis Club of Franklin. The parade ends heralding the arrival of Santa Claus to Franklin. The Downtown Franklin Rotary is now presenting the longtime transition, which is always held the day after the Christmas tree lighting downtown.

On Dec. 2, the City of Belle Meade will be hosting its first-ever Christmas Parade. The parade begins at 2 p.m. on Page Road and will proceed down Belle Meade Boulevard, ending at the Belle Meade Country Club. The Belle Meade, Hillwood, and West Meade communities will also be hosting their fourth annual Santa on Fire Engine event. Santa will make four stops at Carnavon West Meade Park, Brook Hollow Baptist Church, Belle Meade United

On Dec. 2 at 2 p.m. in downtown Murfreesboro, the city will host a Christmas Magic themed Christmas Parade. The floats, musical acts and Santa and his sleigh will travel down Main Street beginning at Middle Tennessee State University and end at the Historic Downtown Square.

CITY OF GOODLETTSVILLE CHRISTMAS PARADE The Annual Goodlettsville Christmas Parade is slated for 4 p.m. on Dec. 2 with a theme of Country Christmas. The parade route will begin at the Delmas Long Community Center (200 Memorial Drive) and continue up Memorial Drive, taking a right onto Main Street and ending at the Goodlettsville Plaza (Rivergate Parkway).

7

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Shelters push capacity as winter weather looms

BY ELI MOTYCKA

Room In The Inn’s day center

PHOTO COURTESY OF ROOM IN THE INN

“The worst is the wet cold,” Kim tells The News sister publication the Nashville Scene. The 65-year-old is toting three bags of clothes, books and blankets just outside Room In The Inn’s Drexel Street campus. “I remember when it got really cold on Sept.

30. It was just freezing. I don’t think I slept for 10 nights.”

Kim hasn’t had permanent housing since April. Originally from Clarksville, she had been living alone, renting near Ashland City, when a mental health crisis led to an extended hospital stay. That led to a stint at the Middle Tennessee Mental Health Institute, a state-run psychiatric hospital in Donelson. She’s spent most nights since April at the Nashville Rescue Mission, which is where she’s planning to sleep the night we speak. She would not have been captured by 2023’s point-in-time count collected on a single day in January, which tallied 2,129 people experiencing

homelessness in Nashville — an 11 percent increase from 2022.

Kim declined to give her last name because she has family and friends in the area. She’s now living on fixed retirement income, accrued from decades as a special education teacher. She’s saving for a car — the first step in her plan to get back into permanent housing. If she’s out of options, and the cold is too bitter, she’ll spend $75 on a motel room on Dickerson Pike.

As we speak, dozens of people pass by, navigating the well-traveled two blocks between Room In The Inn and the Nashville Rescue Mission. Small groups chat as they walk. Some greet Kim, and others sing.

“I never want to live alone again,” she says. “I want to live in community. I’ve met really great friends here. And I’ve always wanted to live in Nashville. Now I do.”

Many people who sleep outside talk about Room In The Inn as their preferred way to

find daily necessities, a warm meal and a bed at night. But its capacity is limited and often unpredictable, and recently, it’s focused mainly on housing men. From Nov. 1 to March 31, the nonprofit coordinates with participating faith congregations every night to get people off the street. Its daily bed total — the cumulative number of available spots across all congregations on a given night — still lags behind pre-COVID numbers.

“The times when we aren’t totally full, it’s because our totals fluctuate so much,” says Melanie Ober, the organization’s community development director. “On a Thursday night, there may be 100 beds, and then on Friday night, there’s 300 beds. People have to make their arrangements early, so we just try to be very transparent with our community about our counts so they know how to plan.”

Two blocks away, Christian shelter the Nashville Rescue Mission provides the bulk of the city’s bed space. Widely known simply as “The Mission,” the site can offer a stable, consistent stay for weeks or months at a time. It has earned a reputation for its disciplinary system, which can result in sudden bans or suspensions, and limited shower and bathroom space. An expansive new dedicated women’s campus is slated to open soon on Rosa Parks Boulevard.

Temperatures at or below freezing for three consecutive hours trigger Metro’s cold weather plan. Text alerts go out, buses offer free service from WeGo Central, and employees at Metro Social Services prepare to staff the city’s Extreme Cold Weather Overflow Shelter overnight. So far in 2023, this happened during a three-day cold spell starting Oct. 30, when the shelter took in 501 people over three days. Now operating for the second year in a former school on Brick Church Pike, the site opened a couple dozen times in 2022. Once or twice, when

the shelter was understaffed, the city tapped the Salvation Army to open an additional overflow shelter. The long-term plan is to contract out the city’s shelter capacity.

“I feel confident that we’ve got a nearterm solution,” Mayor Freddie O’Connell told reporters in mid-November. “I think the ideal scenario is to get to a [request for proposals] that is fulfilled by a provider that does this regularly.”

Will Compton, an outreach coordinator for local nonprofit Open Table, canvasses people who live outside as the weather gets cold.

“People settle in more in the winter, just because they want to be able to get under covers and just stay as warm as possible,” says Compton. “There is definitely heightened anxiety and a sort of desperation.”

Many people Compton encounters know their shelter options and choose to stay outside. “Rough sleeping,” as it’s known, is more dangerous, but some prefer a familiar environment where couples can stay together and pets and belongings can be close by.

Hand warmers, gloves, water, snacks and restaurant gift cards, which provide both food and access to indoor space, can all help, according to Compton.

“Even in theory, if we had enough beds to shelter every single person that’s currently experiencing homelessness in Nashville, people are just going to continue to flow into homelessness until we have more permanent housing,” says India Pungarcher, Open Table’s advocacy and outreach director.

“Homelessness is increasing, and we are still so far away from having the net gain in housing that’s accessible to our friends experiencing homelessness right now. We truly need thousands of units yesterday.”

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

Civic giant Richard Eskind dies at 93 STAFF REPORTS

Richard J. Eskind — a financial sector businessman and health care industry entrepreneur known for his philanthropic work — died Nov. 22.

He was 93.

A native Nashvillian, Eskind was married for 62 years to the late Jane Eskind. The latter was a power broker in the state’s Democratic Party and the first woman to win statewide election in Tennessee when she was elected to the Public Service Commission (now the Tennessee Public Utility Commission) in 1980, later serving as its chairman. She died in 2016..

Richard Eskind helped establish philanthropic organization The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee. CFMT began operations in 1991, led by Ellen Lehman, the Eskinds’ daughter who retired as the nonprofit’s president at the end of 2022.

Born in 1930, Richard Eskind graduated from West End High School and went on to earn his bachelor’s degree in economics in 1952 from Harvard University, according to a Crawford Funeral Home obituary.

He received his Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard in 1954, the same year he married Jane.

Eskind served two years in the U.S. military before joining the family’s wholesale appliance business, J. Eskind and Sons.

He later opened in 1959 a local branch of Baltimore-based Stein Bros. & Boyce. The firm later became A.G. Edwards & Sons, which eventually was acquired by Wachovia Securities, and later was purchased by Wells Fargo Advisors.

In addition, Eskind served as vice president and resident manager of the Nashville branch of investment firm A.G.

Edwards and Sons Inc. Eskind teamed with brother Dr. Irwin Eskind (who died in 2005), Dr. Herb Schulman and Baron Coleman to found Hospital Affiliates International Inc. in the 1960s. He went on to co-found health maintenance organization HealthAmerica Corp. with an investment team that included Phil Bredesen (who later served as Nashville mayor and Tennessee governor). In addition, Eskind partnered with others to launch ClinTrials Research Inc. The three health care companies were each eventually taken public.

Also, Eskind and various business partners founded bowling alley Strike ‘N Spare, pool retailer Swim and Sun and men’s clothing store The Oxford Shop.

Eskind’s civic and community service and board work included his serving as president

of Congregation Micah and The Temple Brotherhood, on the Fisk University board of trustees and executive committee, as director of the Nashville Symphony board, at the Jewish Community Center, at the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee, on the International Board of the Associated Harvard Alumni and on the Harvard Club and Harvard Business School Club of Nashville and Middle Tennessee.

Eskind was a recipient of the 2002 Human Relations Award presented by the National Conference of Community and Justice.

In addition to Ellen Lehman, Eskind is survived by son Billy Eskind (Jamie), both of Nashville, and multiple other relatives.

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

8

THE NEWS

OPINION

Navigating Nashville’s growth: Mayor O’Connell’s vision for a harmonious future

BY BILL FREEMAN

Mayor Freddie O’Connell at the Broadway Bridge ribbon-cutting ceremony PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS

Nashville is at a critical juncture with Mayor Freddie O’Connell at the helm, steering the city toward a future shaped by thoughtful policies and strategic vision. As our new mayor assembles his team, the city anticipates a shift in how key issues such as public transit, education, affordable housing and urban development will be addressed.

O’Connell’s clear campaign priorities reflect a commitment to progress without embracing anti-growth sentiments.

Amid the anticipation of increased investment and population influx, O’Connell’s rallying cry and popular campaign slogan “I want you to stay” resonates with many Nashvillians who have felt their priorities misaligned with the city’s governance. The anticipated update to the NashvilleNext general plan in 2024 signals an opportunity for the mayor, the Metro Council and the city’s residents to shape Nashville’s growth trajectory collectively.

While the prospect of limiting growth

is a concern for some, acknowledging the inherent challenges, O’Connell recognizes the importance of guiding Nashville’s expansion intelligently. A growing city is an economic powerhouse, but uncontrolled growth can lead to adverse consequences.

Striking a balance is paramount, ensuring that Nashville evolves without sacrificing its unique character.

The evolution of Nashville’s real estate market underscores the need for adaptive strategies, as noted in a recent op-ed from The Tennessean. Historic buildings, once governed by outdated codes, are now subject to reevaluation. And Nashville’s response to the housing need has been an emphasis on increasing density, particularly in the city center. But this approach has sparked debates at numerous neighborhood meetings, where residents express conceptual support for housing expansion but fear denser developments encroaching on singlefamily homes. This debate is not unique to

Nashville, as various and comparable cities grapple with similar challenges.

How will Mayor O’Connell address the affordable housing issue? How will Nashville find continued growth and development while preserving historical assets and maintaining the uniqueness of our city? The expected update of NashvilleNext could provide a timely platform for some crucial discussions involving this issue and the handful of others he considers priorities.

Mayor O’Connell’s proactive approach to governance has already become clear through the policy road maps presented by his transition committees. These committees include community leaders and even former mayoral candidates. Since being appointed, they have delved into the intricacies of three vital aspects: How Nashville Moves, How Nashville Works and How Nashville Grows.

How Nashville Moves addresses Nashville’s transit system. Ours was recently named the worst commuter city

by Forbes, proving why it’s a central piece of O’Connell’s agenda. A proposed transit referendum coinciding with next year’s presidential election is a strategic move and would garner maximum public engagement.

Learning from Nashville’s 2018 referendum failure, the mayor is placing an emphasis on transparency and community involvement — a wise and invaluable move for securing public support.

The How Nashville Works committee, focusing on foundational fixes, aligns with O’Connell’s commitment to address longstanding issues such as Metro’s customer service. As the Nashville Banner recently reported: “The committee’s recommendations are directly targeted at the systems most visible to Nashvillians: reporting a pothole on your street, streamlining payment services and creating a community safety plan. The idea is that larger projects like the East Bank and a transit referendum could be more doable by getting these things right and creating a system that can accomplish these things smoothly.”

The East Bank has emerged as a focal point for developmental aspirations. The committee’s recommendations for How Nashville Grows center on transparency, communication of infrastructure costs and prioritizing affordable housing over revenue maximization. Recognizing Metro’s historical challenge of executing plans, the committee advocates for a dedicated team to coordinate plan implementation — an idea that resonates with O’Connell’s commitment to dusting off shelved plans and ensuring their realization.

Nashville stands on the brink of positive transformation, guided by Mayor Freddie O’Connell’s vision and the comprehensive road maps outlined by his transition committees. The city’s future hinges on fostering growth without compromising its essence. As Nashvillians brace for discussions on density, development and preservation, the commitment to transparency, trustbuilding and strategic implementation laid out by Mayor O’Connell and his committees provides a hopeful blueprint for a thriving and harmonious Nashville.

Bill Freeman Bill Freeman is the owner of FW Publishing, the publishing company that produces the Nashville Scene, Nfocus, the Nashville Post and The News.

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9

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

OPINION TICKED OFF!

MALLS Didn’t the people who built the Tanger Mall know that the area or location they built their new mall in was a higher crime area, although every section of Nashville is becoming high crime Pickens? What has happened to the concept of PAYING for goods you would like to have and if you can’t afford them you do without NOT STEAL? One answer to crime in this country is the LACK of PUNISHMENT! Put them in JAIL for a MIN. of a YEAR!!! Also while I’m on the ANTIOCH area of Nashville everyone in the Nashville DMV should be FIRED for moving the “Site for Drivers Licenses” to Antioch and that little move was to help boost up sales at the old mall before it went belly up! I give this Mall 5 Yrs. before it starts losing merchants. For some reason, the people who get to make these decisions must still be employed.

BILLION dollars that our students deserve, which TN taxpayers helped create, and the Federal Government wants to rebate to help fund needed education progress on our underperforming state.

This federal money is especially needed by the vast amount of parents that can’t afford expensive private schools and is our money to use and should not be rejected!

We are shooting ourselves in the foot by restricting those kids that need help in the increasing difficult job market that require skills only gained from being formally educated.

The reasons the hard right-wing state legislators state we will donate our alloted federal education funds to other states all sound like political FOX news style propaganda talking points (selling fear) if we were to take and use our Federal money for our kids imho

ARE OUR KIDS THE FUTURE? I am ticked off that our state legislators are even considering passing on one

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

FOOD BOARDS The perfect holiday gift idea

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NOTICE TO BELLE MEADE RESIDENTS PUBLIC HEARING LEGAL NOTICE A public hearing meeting will be held during the regular Board of Commissioners meeting on Wednesday, December 13, 2023 at 4:00 p.m. at Belle Meade City Hall, 4705 Harding Road, Nashville, for consideration of the following proposed Ordinance, with caption as follows: CONSIDERATION OF ORDINANCE 2023-10, “AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE BELLE MEADE ZONING CODE TO REPEAL THE POWER OF THE BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS TO GRANT SPECIAL EXCEPTIONS AND CLARIFY THE JURISDICTION OF THE BOARD TO GRANT VARIANCES AND CONDITIONAL USE PERMITS AND TO APPROVE NON-CONFORMING USES AND STRUCTURES” ON SECOND AND FINAL READING. Public comments will be accepted at this public hearing. Parties wishing to speak on these issues shall be present at the meeting or submit comments to the Office of the City Recorder, 4705 Harding Rd, Nashville TN or via email to Rterry@citybellemeade.org on or before the public hearing date and time. Copies of the Ordinance are available for inspection at City Hall during normal business hours, Mon-Fri, 8am to 4pm, or online at www.citybellemeade.org.

Three generations of Freemans duck hunting in Arkansas. Representive Bob Freeman, his son Will Freeman, and his father Bill Freeman. Photo taken on November 26, 2023, in Etowah, Arkansas.

Jennifer Moody City Manager City of Belle Meade

10

THE NEWS

Charter Territory: State Overreach Is Shaping the Education Landscape

BY KELSEY BEYELER

Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School

PHOTO BY ERIC ENGLAND

Walk into just about any school in Nashville and you’ll see classrooms and hallways filled with shuffling students and energetic teachers. Inspirational messages and art projects will line the walls. Some students will be happy to be there, others won’t. School staff will be there to manage the day.

Some of these schools are traditional public schools, some are public charter schools, and some are private. Regardless, each is tasked with the huge responsibility of educating young Nashvillians, and each has its own ecosystem of relationships, needs and history. There is a wide range of school options in Nashville, from public neighborhood and magnet schools to charter schools and private institutions. On its surface, “school choice” describes the simple act of enrolling in the best possible school for a specific student — though financial or logistical barriers prevent many families from accessing all of them.

Ansley Erickson is an associate professor of history and education policy at Columbia University’s Teachers College. Her book Making the Unequal Metropolis examines how desegregation-era policies shaped inequities in Nashville’s school system — a topic she also dove into with a 2015 cover story for the Scene.

“In lots of places, school choice has opened up avenues for further segregation,” Erickson tells the Scene.

She explains that the concept of school choice is fraught with a history of white

parents resisting desegregation by avoiding certain public schools or exiting the public system altogether. Erickson notes that it also became a mechanism for Black families to take agency in their children’s education and seek better options when the public system was failing them. She points out that school choice isn’t a one-sided phenomenon, and schools can exercise choice in which students they accept.

“It’s always been a little bit of a misnomer, because it sounds like the choice is all on the parents’ side,” she says. “But usually, there’s selectivity happening in other places too.”

Local and state leaders on both sides of the aisle have facilitated a proliferation of school choice. Recently, the matter has been aggressively pushed by Gov. Bill Lee and state Republicans, who have fostered distrust in the public school system while also creating mechanisms for more charter schools to open in more districts, and for public dollars to go to private schools.

Tennessee’s new education commissioner, Lizzette Gonzalez Reynolds, will likely help with the governor’s goals in that regard. (The Tennessee Department of Education would not fulfill the Scene’s request to interview Reynolds for this story.)

The issue of school choice has added to the already crippling tension between the state and Nashville, and it’s affecting students and their families — whom everyone involved purports to act in the best interest of. Below, we dive into the issue of school choice: the basics, the politics and the impact.

THE BASICS Nashville students have more school options than ever. A parent’s decision to enroll or not enroll can rely on myriad factors, from an institution’s academic rigor to its atmosphere. The state just released a controversial new grading system that rates schools on an A-to-F scale. Proponents say it will provide straightforward information about how schools are performing; critics worry it will cast an oversimplified metric onto schools that could motivate students and teachers to search for other options.

Many will tell you that visiting a school is the best way to determine whether it’s the best fit. Test scores are just one indicator of a school’s performance, but in fact, they often correlate with socioeconomic factors: Economically disadvantaged students often underperform due to a lack of access to basic needs such as food and consistent housing. Do schools deserve to be faulted or stigmatized for factors outside of their control?

Tait Danhausen, who is the head of middle schools for Nashville’s LEAD charter network, has his own framework for considering schools. “I don’t think it matters if your school is really successful or not successful,” says Danhausen. Instead, he says, he bases his perception on three questions: Are students loved? Are they safe? Are schools being honest about their students’ academic performance?

Within the public school umbrella,

families can attend their zoned neighborhood schools (the default option) or apply to other open-enrollment schools across the district via a lottery process.

Transportation isn’t provided to non-zoned schools, however, and Nashville’s lacking public transit system could do better to augment that.

Among the district’s enrollment options are a plethora of programs and focuses.

Within Nashville’s high schools are the Academies of Nashville — 35 different “academies” within 12 of the city’s largest neighborhood high schools — which teach students skills surrounding specific career tracks. Magnet schools are public schools that offer specific programs in fields such as STEM or the arts. Magnets were initially created to help desegregate the school system by attracting more families to different schools, and they’re still being used for that purpose in Nashville.

The district’s academic magnet schools, such as Martin Luther King Jr. Magnet High School and Hume-Fogg Academic High School, are among the state’s bestperforming public schools, but their student bodies’ demographics do not reflect the district’s immense diversity. White students account for the majority of these schools’ enrollment, even though they don’t make up the bulk of the district. The Metro Nashville Public Schools board is considering ways to diversify academic magnet schools by eliminating a preference for students who come from specific middle schools.

“Parents shouldn’t have to try to figure out high school when their child is in fifth grade,” MNPS parent Amy Powell tells the Scene via email. “Not putting them on a specific pathway allows them to explore the best options for where they are in eighth grade. … MNPS has so many wonderful options! Let our families explore them at the right time and have equal opportunities to pursue them.”

For children to attend a charter school, families must first fill out an application.

Charter schools receive public funds and must comply with state and federal requirements, but they have their own boards and operate independently of the district with more autonomy. Critics complain that charters divert funding from traditional public schools and “cherry-pick” their students. Legally they’re not allowed to turn students away, but according to The Washington Post’s Valerie Strauss, charters sometimes use other mechanisms like targeted recruiting or discouragement of students to try to curate student bodies.

MNPS schools have been accused of engaging in these practices. “There are MNPS schools that push kids >> PAGE 11

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

out,” Gini Pupo-Walker, former MNPS board member and executive director of the Education Trust in Tennessee, recently told the Scene. “It’s not just charters that do it.”

But as with all schools, charters are not a monolith — conversations about any schools within a certain classification usually require more nuanced, ground-level considerations. Some of them perform well and offer the innovative models they were brought in to create. Others don’t. Since charters started appearing in Nashville, six of them have been closed down. Dwayne Tucker is the CEO of charter network LEAD Public Schools and admits that both charters and traditional public schools are guilty of picking “the metric that fits us at that time” to demonstrate certain points.

All these factors make the school choice conversation more complicated than simply “public or private?” But even that seemingly binary choice is less straightforward than it used to be. The state’s Education Savings Account program — commonly referred to as school vouchers — provides qualifying students roughly $8,000 a year to put toward private school education. Families who meet a certain income threshold can apply. The money can be put toward private education, but it’s not necessarily enough to cover tuition, as private school tuition often exceeds that figure.

THE POLITICS Education policy — from the local school board level to legislation passed by the Tennessee General Assembly — affects the school choice conversation in ways that parents don’t always track. It takes a lot of time and energy to keep up with constantly changing policies, and changes aren’t always communicated effectively. Some issues, however, garner a lot of attention and spark loud, emotional discourse among community members.

Consider the state’s controversial Education Savings Account legislation.

It barely passed in 2019 and was quickly litigated in Davidson and Shelby counties for targeting those two districts. It’s a common trend we’re seeing in Nashville, particularly over the past year: the state attempting to impose its agenda on Metro. Nashville has successfully used the Tennessee Constitution’s Home Rule Amendment, which preempts the state from targeting specific counties, to stop state overreach. Multiple judges agreed that the ESA legislation violated the Home Rule Amendment by singling out Nashville and Memphis, but after three years of legal battles, the ESA program was ultimately declared legal.

Just months later, the TDOE was distributing ESAs, even though it wasn’t allowed to work on the program while it

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was being litigated. Since it began in 2022, the program has more than quadrupled its statewide enrollment and has already been expanded to include students from the Hamilton County School District.

Chalkbeat Tennessee reported in August that the state had to settle for a contract with a young company with no experience in statewide voucher distribution to run the program.

Critics have many concerns regarding ESAs. Apart from the fact that the state effectively forced them onto school districts, they’re another mechanism to divert funds from public schools. Vouchers also allow tax dollars to subsidize education in religious institutions, which the Supreme Court ruled valid in Carson v. Makin. Private schools don’t have to follow federal requirements, such as providing students with disabilities an individualized education plan. “In the name of choice, parents and children with disabilities are really asked to give up a big chunk of their rights,” says Erickson.

Unlike public schools, private schools can turn students away outright. In Florida, one private school that accepted more than $1.6 million in tax dollars via vouchers has openly stated that it will refuse admission to LGBTQ students.

Even still, Senate Education Committee Chair Jon Lundberg (R-Bristol), who cosponsored a bill to expand ESAs earlier this

11

year, tells the Scene he wouldn’t be surprised by further expansion. If ESAs follow the same path as charter schools, they will initially be reserved for certain students and then made more widely available.

Mary Batiwalla, who used to work for the TDOE, including as the department’s executive director of accountability, tells the Scene she thinks the aforementioned A-to-F accountability system is driven by a desire to “to expand policy around school privatization.”

“A lot of times [ESA advocates] don’t like to use the term ‘privatization,’” she says.

“They like to use the term ‘school choice.’”

Alongside the possibility of ESA expansion, you can bet on more charter schools opening across the state, and contention around who gets to decide that. Traditionally, that’s the role of school boards. Public school boards are composed of elected officials who — among other tasks like setting the budget and hiring superintendents — decide whether charters can operate in districts.

We’ve seen several instances in which school boards don’t approve charters that other politicians want, and that can get messy. See the Great Hearts debate of 2012, when the MNPS board — citing diversity concerns — denied the charter school four times despite a state order to approve it and support from then-Mayor Karl >> PAGE 12

12

THE NEWS

Charter Territory CONTINUED FROM PAGE 11

LEAD Neely’s Bend

PHOTO BY ERIC ENGLAND

Dean. That decision cost MNPS more than $3 million in funding withheld by the state and further stoked the flames of the charter school debate.

We’re starting to see charters pop up in suburban counties. Among those leading that charge is the controversial American Classical Education. ACE is a charter operator affiliated with Michigan’s conservative Hillsdale College. In 2021, Gov. Lee announced a partnership with Hillsdale to establish a statewide presence of charters.

The announcement raised eyebrows, as charters have traditionally been relegated to urban school districts, and concerns about ACE’s conservative 1776 curriculum quickly arose. Opposition grew stronger when Hillsdale President Larry Arnn was recorded insulting public school teachers. (Lee, who was with Arnn when he made the statement, provided no pushback then or thereafter.)

ACE applied to open in three suburban districts — all three applications were denied by local school boards.

A major difference between the Great Hearts controversy and the ACE story?

The Tennessee Public Charter School Commission. A nine-member appellate body appointed by Gov. Lee, the charter commission began hearing appeals of charters that were denied by school boards in 2021. Its members get the final say over the locally elected officials representing the school district and are tasked with authorizing the schools they approve — meaning the commission serves as its own school district.

All three ACE charters applied to the commission after being rejected, but withdrew their applications in 2022 before a final decision was made. They came back with fresh applications this year in Rutherford, Maury and Madison counties.

The Rutherford County Schools board approved its ACE application. The other two applications went back to the charter commission, which approved the school for the Jackson-Madison County School District but not for the Maury County Public Schools district.

After three years, the charter commission has agreed to authorize nine charter schools in Nashville alone. The current makeup of the MNPS board isn’t particularly friendly to charters, and openly bemoans the charter commission. District 6 representative Cheryl Mayes went as far as to call them “those yahoos” during a September board meeting.

Among the school board’s major concerns with charters: funding. MNPS has to foot the bill when charters set up in Nashville — around $212 million was allocated to charters in this year’s budget. Lawmakers passed a new education funding formula in 2022 to replace its 30-year-old predecessor.

It’s not friendly to Nashville, and the state’s push to consider forgoing federal education funds could also decrease district funding.

State money is attached to students in the formula, and it goes where they go. Public schools can’t easily cut their operational costs when students — and the funding attached to them — leave.

“We’re getting to a place where our perpupil cost is like a housing bubble,” says current MNPS board chair Rachael Anne Elrod. “It continues to go up because we’re having to fill in the holes for all those fixed costs, but again, the charter schools get that increased per-pupil [funding] every year.”

In August, Tennessee hired Bren Elliott as the new state turnaround superintendent.

Elliott is responsible for overseeing the Achievement School District, which was created as a mechanism for the state to take over the lowest-performing schools by giving them to charter operators to turn around.

Those efforts have been largely unsuccessful.

(The Scene attempted to interview Elliott to discuss the future of the ASD, but the TDOE would not fulfill that request.) Ask local education stakeholders what’s going on with the ASD, and no one is entirely sure.

LEAD Brick Church is the only ASD school left in Nashville, and its CEO Dwayne Tucker says that, from his understanding, the state might “look more to taking out clusters of schools.”

As state leaders push school choice and force schools to compete for students and

funding, the battle for local control rages on.

Elrod anticipates continued efforts toward a state takeover of the MNPS board.

“Because charters don’t affect the majority of those legislators, they’re not interested in hearing how it affects us either,” says Elrod.

“In some cases, the cruelty is the point.”

“I would say, like most things where we 1have enjoyed local control and have local authorizing bodies, we want to retain that as much as possible,” Mayor Freddie O’Connell recently told the Scene.

Can a local school system create an environment that provides a rich array of choice for families while also creating an environment for neighborhood public schools to thrive?

“I think we could imagine a system that gives parents a lot of choice and also really pays attention to equity,” says Erickson.

“Very few school choice systems, if any, have actually achieved that. And so if it’s the goal, then you’d have to build a system with that goal in mind.”

THE IMPACT Amid the political battles, students and families are caught in the crossfire.

Earlier this year, MNPS sounded the alarm when LEAD Neely’s Bend applied to exit the ASD because it had improved enough to move off of the priority list — that is, the list of schools that perform in the bottom 5 percent in the state. LEAD didn’t fill out an application to go through MNPS — it didn’t have to. ASD charter operators can circumvent school boards entirely and apply directly to the charter commission.

The application was accepted, and in January LEAD Neely’s Bend became a chartercommission-run school rather than an ASD school. The major difference for students is that it moved from being a zoned to a choice-only option, so families now have to apply to send their kids there. With no other zoned middle schools in that area, MNPS had to change the configuration of nearby schools so that middle school students in the Hunters Lane cluster would have a guaranteed seat.

Moniqueca — who asked the Scene not to use her last name — is the parent of two students in LEAD Neely’s Bend. She has kids in elementary through high school who have attended several different kinds of schools. She wasn’t fully aware of the changes as they were happening at LEAD Neely’s Bend, and when an MNPS enrollment center employee told her it was no longer the zoned school, and to attend it would mean leaving the MNPS district, she didn’t believe it. It wasn’t until a LEAD employee started explaining the situation later that it clicked for Moniqueca. She says she received an email from the district telling her that her child’s zoned school was now Madison Middle, even though it traditionally had been Neely’s Bend.

She says that when she called LEAD about this, she was told to disregard the letter.

LEAD also asked Moniqueca to write a letter of support to help Neely’s Bend exit the priority list. She didn’t realize it would also be part of an application to separate the school from MNPS. She says if she had realized that, she wouldn’t have written it.

“Admittedly, a challenge was explaining how within the same conversation you’re celebrating coming off the list, and then essentially you don’t have a home,” LEAD’s director of engagement and family enrollment Corey Burton tells the Scene.

Burton says they made sure families knew that LEAD would still be operating the school. A January Facebook post from LEAD Neely’s Bend does indicate that the school is now a charter commission school.

Moniqueca describes the situation as “confusing,” “frustrating” and “convoluted.”

She says she felt “a lot of underhandedness,” and a lack of proper communication from both sides.

This kind of complication is a symptom of multiple education authorities operating within the same county. Students can switch school districts without even knowing it, which can create lags in student record transfers or confusion regarding who to turn to when problems arise.

“If a situation happens at a charter school — and it often does — [parents will] come to us,” says Elrod. “We will have to say, ‘Please talk to your board.’”

In 2012, the Scene named a charter school teacher and a traditional public school teacher as our Nashvillians of the Year. In his writeup, then-Scene reporter Steven Hale made a point that still stands: Regardless of whether they’re working in a traditional public school or a charter school, good teachers are the key to a good education — and we need more of them.

Tucker thinks the “extreme politicization of education,” including conversations around school safety and which books students can access, is presenting challenges for those considering the teaching profession.

“If you’re thinking about entering the education field as a career … it’s a different set of attention being focused for, in some cases, just political points — for both parties,” says Tucker. “At some point it begins to take a toll [on] people who want to enter education to have a career.”

“I really just want better communication and the understanding that parents need to have information to be able to make these decisions,” says parent Moniqueca. “We’re making uninformed choices, and it’s very frustrating. … I feel like there just should be a lot of support from the top down, and more focus on the students and more focus on the families.

That needs to be the priority.”

Regardless of who is operating the school, or what kind of school it is, every student deserves a quality education.

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

13

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

SPORTS

MTSU fires Stockstill after Several local athletes among Mr. Football finalists 18 seasons STAFF REPORTS

BY JOHN GLENNON

Rick Stockstill

PHOTO BY DAVID RUSSELL

Middle Tennessee State fired football coach Rick Stockstill on Monday after 18 seasons at the school.

Stockstill, 65, had the fourth-longest tenure of any current college football coach, trailing only Iowa’s Kirk Ferentz, Oklahoma State’s Mike Gundy and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham.

Stockstill guided the Blue Raiders to a 113-111 mark during his stay, which began when he was hired in 2006 after serving as a tight ends coach and recruiting coordinator at the University of South Carolina.

MTSU posted a 4-8 overall record in 2023, which included a 3-5 mark in Conference USA. The Blue Raiders earned bowl berths in 2021 and 2022 — winning the Bahamas Bowl and Hawaii Bowl, respectively — but posted losing records in three of the last five seasons.

MTSU had not finished with a winning

conference record since 2018, a downward turn after recording five winning conference records in the school’s first six years in Conference USA. “This is one of the most difficult days in my tenure, but one I feel is necessary in our aspiration to compete and win championships,” MTSU athletic director Chris Massaro said in a release. “I appreciate everything Rick, his wife Sara and their family have done the last 18 years for MTSU Athletics, our football program and, more importantly, our student-athletes.

“Because of his leadership, our studentathletes have performed at a high level in the classroom, have dedicated time and energy to supporting our community and have given us countless hours of dedication to being successful on the football field.

I want to thank Coach Stockstill for his professionalism, character and dedication, and wish him well in his future endeavors.”

The school said a national search for a new head coach would commence immediately.

Stockstill was three times named Sun Belt coach of the year at MTSU and was named Conference USA coach of the year in 2018.

He led the Blue Raiders to 10 bowl games, posting a 4-6 mark in those contests.

MTSU’s best year under Stockstill was 2009, when the Blue Raiders defeated Memphis and Maryland during the regular season, then beat Southern Miss 42-32 in the New Orleans Bowl to finish 10-3.

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

Nolensville’s Stegall, Independence’s Halterman advance to XC nationals

BY LOGAN BUTTS A pair of Williamson County runners clinched national championship spots over the weekend with their performance in the South Regional at McAlpine Park in Charlotte, N.C. Nolensville junior Claire Stegall, fresh off winning her second-consecutive Class AAA state title earlier this month, placed 4th with a time of 16:51. Independence senior Jaynie Halterman, who finished runner-up to Stegall in the high-profile state championship showdown, place 10th with a time of 17:10.

The duo became the first Williamson County runners to qualify for nationals in

15 years since Independence legend Kathy Kroeger made it in four consecutive years from 2005-08.

In all, three runners from Tennessee qualified, matching the record for most girls the state has ever sent to nationals in one year. Webb’s Abby Faith Cheeseman, who recently tied Kroeger’s record with her fourth straight DII-A state title, qualified as the runner-up with a time of 16:50.

The Foot Locker Cross Country National Championships will take place on Dec. 9 in San Diego with the start time set for 9:15 a.m. pacific time.

FRA’s Ty Clark III

PHOTO BY JASON GOODE

The finalists for the Tennessee Tennessee Titans Mr. Football Awards were announced on Tuesday, and several local athletes were included among the nominees for the six Division I classifications, the three Division II sections, and the all-class Kicker of the Year honor.

The three finalists for each award will be invited to attend the awards luncheon at Nissan Stadium on Dec. 5, where the winner of each award will be announced.

A committee of statewide sports writers will select winners based on performance in the 2023 regular season. Academics and character were also taken into consideration.

High school head coaches and members of the media nominated the finalists.

2023 TENNESSEE TITANS MR. FOOTBALL FINALISTS Williamson County and Nashville-area athletes are in bold.

DIVISION I, CLASS 1A Ben Franklin, Cornersville High School Cameron Schlicht, Dresden High School Dawson White, Moore County High School DIVISION I, CLASS 2A Isaiah Groves, East Robertson High School Darien Meza, Mt. Pleasant High School Stone Wallace, Riverside High School DIVISION I, CLASS 3A Radarious Jackson, Sheffield High School Skylan Smith, Covington High School Brandon Winton, Jr., Alcoa High School

DIVISION I, CLASS 4A Gabe Borders, Macon County High School Zeion-LaFrederick Simpson, Pearl Cohn High School KeShawn S. Tarleton, Pearl Cohn High School DIVISION I, CLASS 5A Eric Hazzard, Page High School Kelvin Perkins, Southwind High School Dominic Reed, Centennial High School DIVISION I, CLASS 6A Boo Carter, Bradley Central High School Braden Graham, Riverdale High School Daune Morris, Oakland High School DIVISION II, CLASS A Jay’Len Mosley, Jackson Christian School Brian Shields, First Assembly Christian School Tyson Wolcott, Friendship Christian School DIVISION II, CLASS AA Markeis Barrett, Webb School of Knoxville Ty Clark, Franklin Road Academy Crews Law, Christ Presbyterian Academy DIVISION II, CLASS AAA Kaleb Beasley, Lipscomb Academy Carson Gentle, McCallie School Amari Jefferson, Baylor School KICKER OF THE YEAR Grant Chadwick, Tullahoma High School Daniel Echeverria, Mt. Juliet High School Owen Taylor, Knoxville Halls High School

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15

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Nashville heads for another transit referendum

BY ELI MOTYCKA

Mayor Freddie O’Connell heard from his three transition committees — tasked with reports on transit, housing and city operations — just before Thanksgiving. After an hour of conversational presentations from committee heads, one audience question hit the mark.

The same question has dogged Nashville’s transit-focused mayor since the campaign trail: “When will the next transit referendum be on the ballot?”

Vanderbilt University Medical Center trauma surgeon Dr. Alex Jahangir, O’Connell’s pick to lead the eight-person committee on transit and transportation, was clear without being pushy.

“You need to present this to all Nashvillians in a high-turnout election,” Jahangir said.

“And the most high-turnout elections are presidential elections. The committee would probably recommend November 2024, but I guess that’s a political decision.”

“We hope to have a couple of key hires in the very near future to respond to the recommendations of the [committee] report,” responded O’Connell. “We’ll start there, probably do the analysis they recommend, and make a decision very soon.”

Move quickly to make an “early determination” about a referendum, advises the committee. Get a plan, build a coalition and communicate its goals with eyes on November.

By this spring, Nashville would be almost halfway through the $8.9 billion in light

rail and bus rapid transit improvements proposed by former Mayor Megan Barry in the city’s last transit referendum, “Let’s Move Nashville.” Instead, the proposal failed in a drubbing that New York-based think tank TransitCenter attributed to organized opposition from the Koch brothers network, a hastily planned product that lacked community buy-in, and Barry’s abrupt resignation in March 2018, two months before the referendum vote. The whole debacle was turned into a case study by TransitCenter, cutely titled, “Derailed: How Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan Crashed at the Polls — and What Other Cities Can Learn From It.” While the former mayor’s affair with her bodyguard, Metro police Sgt. Rob Forrest, may linger among gossips as her personal legacy, the overwhelming failure of Let’s Move casts a longer policy shadow over the city — a city that continues to suffer from anemic local and regional transportation options and increasing traffic congestion.

A mayor can tweak the edges of the city’s existing transit infrastructure with budget items and capital improvements. Overhauling the entire system with major service upgrades, new offers like light rail or regionally connected routes throughout the county would take much more money. A petition endorsed by 10 percent of registered voters in Davidson County could send any bond issuance approved by the Metro Council to

a referendum. Any dedicated transit funding coming from state tax streams triggers a direct referendum. Overhauling Nashville transit likely hits on one or both of those scenarios.

First as a Metro Transportation Authority board member and then over eight years on the Metro Council, O’Connell built a reputation as a transit advocate. He often recalls the same anecdote — that getting rid of his car enabled him to save enough money for a downpayment on a home in Salemtown, a personal finance hack currently unimaginable for the average Nashvillian.

Now as mayor, O’Connell has the blessing and burden of putting together the large-scale solutions he’s gestured toward for years.

During their six-week runoff, candidates O’Connell and Alice Rolli pledged to “pursue” a transit referendum, proof that the political calculus has determined the city is ready to move past 2018. The endorsement from fiscally conservative Rolli is a testament to the obvious need that Nashville must do something very big and very expensive to rework its transportation system. O’Connell emphasized that any plan must proceed deliberately and include community buy-in — his attempts to avoid repeating 2018.

Pressure to get a referendum on the ballot

by Nov. 7 could run afoul of both those goals.

“Their recommendation of November 2024 is a tight turnaround,” says Alex Apple, O’Connell’s deputy communications director.

“That doesn’t make it unfeasible. A transit referendum is in the cards, but the mayor doesn’t know when or what, or what needs a dedicated funding stream versus what can be included in the budget or what can be done legislatively. He’s not under the misconception that this can be done with the wave of a pen.”

O’Connell’s first moves have been meetings with the Greater Nashville Regional Council (a planning coalition of local governments in Middle Tennessee) and a trip to Orlando, Fla., for a public transit conference. Planners agree that Nashville’s transit picture has to include neighboring population centers across the region, something that can connect satellites like Mt. Juliet, Murfreesboro, Clarksville, Franklin and Columbia.

“My vision for five to 10 years would involve some form of multimodal connectivity for the entire region, including a mix of light rail, other incentives to reduce vehicles and increase higher occupancy travel, and combination of interstate and regional connector roadway improvements,” Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder tells the Scene. He says Columbia sends 10,000 daily commuters to Williamson and Davidson counties. “These discussions have been ongoing for years, and I look forward to continuing this conversation and watching this plan become a reality.”

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

BUSINESS BRIEFS

NYC women’s retailer opens in Green Hills STAFF REPORTS New York-based women’s high-end fashion retailer Kirna Zabête is now open in the Green Hills the building last home to Shindigs and Celebrations.

According to a release, this is Kirna Zabête’s seventh location, with sister businesses in Miami’s Design District; NYC’s Madison Avenue and SoHo (opened in 1999 and the brand’s first store); Bryn Mawr, Penn.; East Hampton, N.Y.; and Palm Beach, Fla. Kirna Zabête (pronounced “keer-nah zahbett”) was founded in 1999 by Beth Buccini, who previously worked as an assistant fashion editor at Mirabella Magazine and as a fashion editor at New York.

Buccini has led Kirna Zabête in collaborations with Target, Nine West, Gilt and Birkenstock. She designs a Kirna Zabête line of clothes and accessories as well, selling exclusively in her stores and via an e-commerce site.

Buccini’s husband, Rob, is a real estate

AT&T Tennessee president to step down

BY WILLIAM WILLIAMS

developer whose The Buccini/Pollin Group owns the Virgin Hotel in Midtown Nashville.

The Green Hills Kirna Zabête operates at 2001 Warfield Drive from 4,200 square feet of space. The architect was Nashvillebased Daniels + Chandler, and the interior design was handled by Steven Gambrel of SR Gambrel, who has collaborated with Buccini at the other Kirna Zabête locations. The release notes the store features Venetian plaster, Italian marble and bright red metal chandeliers.

Sarah Gardner is serving as the retail business’ manager and oversees seven employees.

Shindigs and Celebrations, a retail business focused on parties and events, relocated to 4004 Hillsboro Pike nearby.

Nashville-based Elliott Kyle brokered the lease deal, terms of which were not disclosed. Kyle, Rob Lowe and McClain Towery paid $4.8 million for the building in March 2022.

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

Joelle Phillips

PHOTO PROVIDED

AT&T Tennessee announced Monday that president Joelle Phillips will leave the company, effective Dec. 1, after a 22-year run.

According to a release, a replacement has not been named.

Phillips joined AT&T Tennessee in 2001 as a regulatory attorney and has led the company’s Tennessee efforts as president for the past 10 years, making her the longest-

serving executive to serve in that role.

Phillips has lobbied for changes to Tennessee’s laws that govern technology services and providers, and once chaired the Drive to 55 Alliance (then-Gov. Bill Haslam’s initiative to increase the percentage of Tennesseans with a post-secondary credential to at least 55 percent). She also spearheaded the rehabbing of downtown’s AT&T network equipment building that was damaged by the Christmas Day 2020 bombing.

“I’ve invested the majority of my professional career with AT&T,” Phillips said in the release. “And during my time with the company, our team has accomplished a lot. With the completion of the new Second Avenue building and several modernizing changes in state law, I’ve been able to finish several projects that I was especially invested in, and it feels like a good time in my career to pursue new opportunities and challenges.”

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

16

THE NEWS

Turkey Soup

EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ

NO. 1095

ACROSS

BY EDIBLE NASHVILLE

1 1982 sci-fi film with

Perfect for Thanksgiving leftovers, this simple comforting soup is made from stock from the leftover turkey meat and bones.

Vegetables, such as spinach, kale or other greens make a great addition to this soup.

a 2010 sequel 5 Basketball

great Erving, to fans 8 Lingo 14 Materialize 16 Six Nations people 17 Half of a

1990s-2000s rock duo with six Grammys 18 Hit hard 19 One sharing school

drop-off duties, maybe 21 Director Jean-___

Godard 22 Church fixture 25 Nickname for singer

Justin, with “the” PUZZLE BY AIMEE LUCIDO

26 Purposes 27 Unsmiling in

demeanor 28 Return payments?

30 WeChat chats, in

INGREDIENTS

brief 31 Online news

Turkey carcass and bones 2 carrots, chopped into large pieces 1 onion, quartered 4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed Black peppercorns 3 tablespoons butter 3 tablespoons flour 1 cup dry small pasta, such as oriechetti, penne, fusilli or macaroni 1-2 cups shredded leftover turkey fresh parsley

aggregator founded in 2004 32 Leader prominent in

the 1956 Suez Crisis 36 Poetic form featuring

lexical repetition rather than rhyme

1. Place turkey bones, skin and meat attached to bone in a stockpot. Cover with water (about 16 cups). Add carrot, onion, garlic and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to a simmer and cook 3-5 hours or until stock is reduced and golden. Strain stock, discarding bones and vegetables. Return stock to stockpot or a large saucepan and place over medium heat. (You should have about 10-12 cups stock.)

62 “___ queen!”

63 It’s a must

DOWN 1 Channel for vintage

film buffs 2 Caviar 3 “WHOA!” 4 Stereotypical game

show prize

29 Badly hurt

informally

33 Hearty draft pick

49 Sugar serving

34 First name in

51 Genial boatswain in

“wabbit” hunting 35 Duane ___

(drugstore chain) 37 Fastens with string 38 Flowering plant that

lent its name to a lane on “Desperate Housewives”

5 Boring person

39 Fiddling (with)

6 Vegetable with a

43 Something “spilled”

and I” 41 German 53-Across 42 Number one focus?

44 Gave prompt

attention?

45 Some summer

cookouts, informally 48 Splinter group 49 Petrol measure 50 “___ rock!”

surveillance 53 Nana 55 Display of skill one

might request from 17-Across and 8- and 28-Down … depicted literally four times in this puzzle 59 Scandal, to a career,

say 60 John Wayne and Ian

Fleming

purple top 7 Ballpark fare served

with raspberries?

8 Member of Led

47 Targets of squats,

31 Fender blemish

38 Carve (away)

51 Extended form of

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his name to a therapeutic system

40 Short time off work

40 Setting for “The King

2. Melt butter in a small saucepan. Add flour and whisk until thickened and smooth, cook about 3 minutes. Whisk flour mixture (called a roux) into stock.

Bring to a boil, add dry oriechette and cook 30 minutes or until thickened and pasta is tender. Add leftover turkey meat, fresh parsley, salt and pepper to taste.

61 Doctor who lent

“Peter Pan” 52 Not just mine 54 Stereotypical word in

a heart tattoo 56 Mine yield 57 Letters in the corner

of a phone screen 58 Drug that’s “dropped”

by a gossip 44 Lemonlike fruit 45 “I mean it!,” quaintly 46 Carried along

Zeppelin 9 Vet school subj.

10 Dreamy sleep stage

ANSWER TO PUZZLE

11 Dwarfs’

representative in the Fellowship of the Ring 12 Ancient Greek theater 13 Deal breakers,

informally?

15 Read-a-___ 20 Many M.I.T. grads:

Abbr.

22 Olds, Keats or Shelley 23 Star-crossed

Montague 24 Dress (up) 26 Helper: Abbr.

28 One of the Fab Four

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18

THE NEWS

Franklin man acquitted in 2021 self-defense shooting that killed fellow Franklin man

Guillermo Leon Magana was unarmed and had not attacked Brenton Johnson when he was shot and killed outside of his home

BY MATT MASTERS

Brenton Tyrez Johnson

PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS

Warning: This story contains descriptions of graphic violence.

Franklin resident Brenton Tyrez Johnson was acquitted of all charges on Friday in the 2021 shooting death of fellow Franklin resident Guillermo Leon Magana.

The now 28-year-old Johnson was charged with voluntary manslaughter, the employment of a firearm during the commission of a dangerous felony and aggravated assault after he shot 57-year-old Magana in a Franklin neighborhood when a confrontation suddenly broke out between the men.

The four-day trial was presided over by Judge Deana C. Hood and began on Tuesday with jury selection and opening statements from Assistant District Attorney Carlin Hess and lead defense attorney Richard McGee. Johnson was also represented by two additional attorneys, McGee’s son, Kevin McGee, and Lisa Naylor.

In previous reporting, Magana was identified by police simply as Guillermo Leon, with Leon being the last name of his children.

The state argued that Johnson “carried a gun because he wanted to use a gun” and the defense argued that Johnson used his legallycarried semi-automatic pistol in self-defense, something that the jury of nine women and three men ultimately agreed with on Friday.

The trial rested largely on graphic and

dramatic police body-worn camera footage, as well as testimony of one of the only witnesses to the Oct. 5 shooting -- Magana’s then 14-year-old son.

That body camera footage showed the response of multiple officers to what was initially incorrectly dispatched as a “responder in trouble” call to a Reveille Court cul-de-sac.

Franklin Police found Magana laying on his back in a large, growing pool of blood at the front driver’s side wheel of Johnson’s red Dodge Charger, which was parked on the cul-de-sac’s curb.

Magana had an obvious gunshot wound to his face, a 10 mm shell casing laid near his body on the rain-soaked pavement, and a black semi-automatic pistol had been placed nearby in the grass by Johnson.

“He scared the hell out of me,” an emotional Johnson could be heard saying in a 911 call that he placed after firing the fatal shot. “I was in fear for my life...He ran up on me...”

Johnson was recorded on one of the body camera videos lying face down and shirtless, having torn off his sweatshirt in an emotional reaction, a few feet from Magana’s body, his arms outstretched in front of him in surrender.

Some of Magana’s family were recorded wailing over his body, others screaming at

Johnson, asking him why he’d shot Magana in what police called a “chaotic” scene.

The shooting occurred just after 5 p.m. on a Tuesday after Magana and his son returned from laying mulch as part of a landscaping job that his son would often help with after school.

Magana’s now 16-year-old son, who we are not identifying, took the stand on Tuesday and detailed witnessing his father exiting his pickup truck to confront Johnson and Johnson’s younger brother who he felt were mocking him.

Johnson’s brother fled the scene of the shooting, later lying to police about not being at the scene before changing his story.

Johnson’s brother was deemed to be a “not credible” witness and was not called to testify in the trial.

Johnson and Magana didn’t know each other, but had an interaction moments before the confrontation when Magana asked the Johnson brothers to move their cars from the middle of the cul-de-sac so that Magana could back in his pickup truck and trailer.

The pair moved their vehicles without issue.

Magana’s son said that his dad got “frustrated” when he accidentally struck his daughter’s friend’s Hummer SUV with his pickup truck.

The collision initially appeared to have caused some damage, but in reality was a simple fix with no permanent damage to either vehicle.

Magana was characterized by his family members as “stern,” but they admitted that he could sometimes be a “hot head” who “was known to have a temper.”

At first Magana got frustrated with his son for not noticing that the vehicles were about to collide, then he noticed Johnson and his brother, who Magana thought were laughing at his misfortune.

“He saw the people at the car laughing and pointing at him and he got even more frustrated,” Magana’s son testified.

Johnson told police they were just surprised by the collision.

Magana got out of the truck while his son stayed in the truck’s cab, it’s doors closed and windows rolled up as it was raining. Magana snaked some 88 feet across the cul-de-sac, his arms stretched out as he repeated, “What’s up? What’s up?!” at a pace that his son described as “a little slower than speed walking.”

Magana’s son couldn’t hear much of what was said between his father and Johnson, but testified that he saw Johnson reach with his right hand behind his back and pull the pistol from his waistband.

Johnson held the pistol down at his side before raising the gun with one hand, quickly firing one shot which knocked Magana to the ground, killing him nearly instantly.

The single bullet entered the front of Magana’s left cheek, traveled down and came to a rest in his neck, causing what the medical examiner’s report called “significant brain injury” with “no exit wound.”

The autopsy also showed no traces of alcohol or illegal drugs in Magana’s system.

One of Magana’s daughters testified that she, her sister and a friend — the friend Hummer had been struck by the truck — had been in their living room and heard the gunshot but didn’t know what the “bang” was, and didn’t even realize that there had been any vehicle collision.

Magana’s son walked from the cul-de-sac and into the home, crying and saying, “He shot my dad,” prompting his sisters to rush outside where they found Magana dead and Johnson and his brother standing feet away.

“It was clear that he was no longer with us,” one of Magana’s daughters testified.

Some of the body camera shows an FPD officer administering CPR to Magana’s lifeless body, his shirt open to his chest and stomach as they attempt to bring him back to life.

The pooling blood grew under his body and under Johnson’s car on the wet pavement. Johnson was placed in handcuffs, his gun secured by police.

Johnson never threatened Magana’s family with the gun, but they were concerned in part because he was both armed and “frantic” and acting “defensive” prior to police arriving at the scene.

As was Johnson’s legal right, he did not testify in the trial, but his previous statements were part of evidence in audio recording from a 911 call and video recordings from both the body cameras and from inside of an FPD interview room in the hours after the shooting.

Johnson’s legally-carried Glock 21 pistol was originally chambered in 45 caliber as manufactured, but Johnson, who grew up shooting guns, had completed a simple conversion of the pistol to a 10mm barrel.

The gun, it’s magazine with 15 unspent rounds and the one spent shell casing were all submitted as evidence. That gun will now be returned to Johnson.

Some of that video showed Johnson at the police station in the hours after the shooting where he spoke to himself through tears, his face in his hands, later telling a detective that he felt that he was forced to shoot Magana.

“I took a man’s life, man, I never wanted

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

to do that,” Johnson said.

He also expressed remorse for the killing, especially for having shot Magana in front of his son.

“I wish I would have just turned around and walked to my granny’s yard,” Johnson told the detective.

“As soon as he got out I should have just got in my car and drove off.”

But Johnson didn’t flee when he felt threatened, instead, according to his statements to police, he warned Magana to stop advancing on him, telling him that he was armed with the pistol.

“I told him to just stay over there, and he just kept coming,” Johnson told the detective. “I pulled my weapon and he kept coming forward even with my weapon drawn.”

Johnson said that he was “nervous” and was concerned that Magana could be armed or may take his own gun from him as he got within feet of Johnson.

“He could easily have taken it away from me, so I fired, I didn’t have no choice,” Johnson told the detective, adding that he was “hysterical” immediately after the shooting.

“After I pulled the trigger, I just screamed, ‘F-ck!’ ... I didn’t want to do it.”

“I did not hear Mr. Johnson say one time, ‘Stay back, I have a gun,’” Magana’s son testified, adding that he couldn’t hear much of the verbal exchange between the men from where he sat inside of the truck.

Magana’s son told investigators in 2021 that he wasn’t sure if his father even realized that Johnson had pulled the gun.

He also testified that his father stopped advancing towards Johnson, stopping some five feet in front of him before he was shot, something he didn’t tell investigators until a couple of weeks before the trial began, which raised concerns from the defense.

One statement, which was not disputed by the defense, was testimony by Magana’s son that Johnson said, “I’ll show you what’s up,” just before shooting him.

The defense argued that Magana “provoked the exchange,” and the court ruled that hands and feet could cause serious bodily injury or death.

The prosecution and defense agreed that Johnson would have been within his rights to push Magana back or punch him to stop him from advancing.

Magana was unarmed and never touched or even explicitly verbally threatened Johnson, who told police that Magana’s body language “wasn’t right.”

Tennessee law doesn’t require that someone be physically assaulted in order to legally defend themselves with a firearm, nor is there a duty to retreat when defending oneself.

“I didn’t know what he was going to do...I’m not going to scrap with this dude...

It’s what I’ve trained for, it’s why I got my license,” Johnson told the detective, adding that he wasn’t going to give Magana the chance to hurt him.

“It’s no small thing to take another man’s

life for absolutely no reason,” Hess told the jury during closing arguments. “A bullet through the left cheek with his young son watching, does that sound reasonable?”

One of Magana’s daughter’s said that while her dad worked as a laborer, he had more of a “dad bod,” different from the defense’s description of the 195-pound, 5-foot-6 Magana as a “big, strong” and “hardened” guy.

The defense referred to Johnson, who weighed approximately 300 pounds and stands at 6-foot, as a “big, giant ball of flab” who couldn’t easily run away from danger.

Soot deposits and powder tattooing were present on Magana’s body, leading a forensic pathologist who completed the autopsy to report that there was “about a foot” between Magana and the muzzle of the gun at the time of the shooting, but she couldn’t offer any more specific details on the distance.

Both the state and the defense subpoenaed their own self-defense experts, who came to two different conclusions on whether Johnson was justified in the shooting.

“Those two experts disagreed, that’s reasonable doubt,” defense attorney Naylor told the jury during closing arguments.

While the two self-defense experts came to different conclusions, they consider each other friends and have been colleagues for decades, having once served together on the Metro Nashville Police Department’s SWAT team.

Both Magana and Johnson’s families were overwhelmed by the verdict, which shocked some in the courtroom. Johnson’s family audibly cried with each utterance of “not guilty” from the jury.

Some members of Magana’s family wept quietly before bursting into tears and loud sobs in the halls of the courthouse as they left the courtroom.

Johnson’s lawyers and family embraced him in the largely empty courtroom, tears rolling down his cheeks, as one of his family members repeatedly exclaimed, “Thank you, God. Thank you, God!” “This is such an unfortunate tragedy,” lead defense attorney Richard McGee told The News following the trial. “Two families have been impacted and will be impacted for the rest of their lives.”

McGee said that while self-defense cases are common, having a self-defense case where the charge is manslaughter is less common.

Johnson was indicted in Feb. 2022 on the charge of second-degree murder, but ADA Hess told The News that the charge was amended prior to the trial because he did not believe that it was the appropriate charge based on the evidence.

“I respect the jury’s decision, that’s a tough, tough job,” Hess told The News.

“But I am shocked given the facts and circumstances of this case and the proof that came out at trial — I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t surprised.”

The criminal case against Johnson is now over and the statute of limitations for any civil action has passed.

“The bottom line is the system worked,”

19

Williamson County ADA Carlin Hess shows the jury how Magana held out his arms while repeating ‘What’s up?’ during opening arguments of the 2023 trial of Brenton Johnson. PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS

Guillermo Leon Magana PHOTO COURTESY OF THE WILLIAMSON COUNTY DAS OFFICE/LEON FAMILY

McGee said.

“We had a very good prosecutor who presented a really strong case. We had experienced defense attornies who presented their case to the best of their ability. We had a judge who couldn’t have been fairer; she let us try our case. We had 12 citizens step up and were willing to do their duty as citizens, and they obviously took it as seriously as could be, and this is the outcome.”

Hess said while he’s disappointed in the outcome, he’s also concerned about how the case may impact the greater issue of gun violence in Williamson County and beyond.

Franklin Police Detective Chad Pace shows the jury the spent shell casing recovered from the Oct. 5, 2021 shooting scene that killed Guillermo Leon Magana. PHOTO BY MATT MASTERS “I’m just concerned about the message, on the facts and circumstances of this case, the message that this type of verdict sends to the community on responsible gun ownership and use,” Hess said.

“In this day and age of this gun violence epidemic that spares no community, ours included, I’m just worried about the messaging.”

20

THE NEWS

Headline Homes: October 2023

BY AMANDA HAGGARD

with native flagstone, which surrounds the home and creates the patios and surrounds the pool. The property also includes a fivecar garage and guest cottage.

Waterswood Drive

PHOTO BY ERIC ENGLAND

It’s a rare month when only one Williamson County home makes this list, but this month Nashville picked up 90 percent of the highest dollar home purchases.

The top sale this month goes to folks who didn’t have much of a choice in the sale: Nashville businessman Doctor Robert Crants and his wife, Shirley, filed for bankruptcy and were forced to sell their large Chickering Road home.

Below are October’s top 10 home sales in Nashville and the surrounding counties, ranked by sale price.

1. Chickering Road, Nashville 37215 Buyer: Issam S. Faza Sale price: $7 million Sellers: Robert Crants Jr. and Shirley J. Crants Sellers’ agents: Melanie Shadow Baker, Zeitlin Sotheby’s International Realty and Candie Worsham, Nashville Area Homes Buyer’s agent: Melanie Shadow Baker, Zeitlin Sotheby’s International Realty As reported by our sister publication the Nashville Scene, this home was sold due to the bankruptcy of Nashville businessman Doctor Robert Crants and his wife, Shirley.

The bankruptcy filings reveal that Crants, who built Nashville-based private prison operator Corrections Corporation of America, now known as CoreCivic, was in deep financial trouble. The Crants’ former 11,000-square-foot mansion sits on a 5.37acre gated estate in Belle Meade right near Warner Parks. The home was built custom in 1994 with 12-foot ceilings in many areas and a 26-foot ceiling in the entry. The main level features a walnut library and full wing for the owner’s suite. The home also includes six fireplaces, four additional bedrooms, a theater room, billiards room, guest house, pool and spa and an outdoor kitchen.

2. Page Road, Nashville 37205 Buyer: Pamela Darby Bollinger Sale price: $6,465,000 Sellers: Harry Hill and Emily D. McAlister Sellers’ agent: Fiona Parish King, Fridrich & Clark Realty Buyer’s agent: Beth Molteni, Fridrich & Clark Realty

This three-acre estate is adjacent to Warner Parks — it was first built in 1950

by Albert and Mary Jane Werthan of Werthan Industries. The four-bedroom, four-bathroom, 5,700-square-foot abode in Belle Meade has only had one other owner than the Werthans, the sellers Harry Hill and Emily D. McAlister, who sold it to Pamela Darby Bollinger.

3. Belle Meade Boulevard, Nashville 37205 Buyer: Karyn M. Frist, trustee of the 701 Belle Meade Trust Sale price: $6 million Sellers: John V. Abbott and Nancy S. Abbott Sellers’ agents: Betty Finucane and Camille Crawford, Fridrich & Clark Realty Buyer’s agent: Steve Fridrich, Fridrich & Clark Realty Director of Healthcare Realty Trust Incorporated John V. Abbott and wife, Nancy, sold this home in Belle Meade to a trust managed by Karyn Frist, ex-wife of former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist. The former couple sold their marital home one year ago for an eye-popping $18 million. The 6,600-square-foot classic home was originally designed in 1929 by Edwin Keeble and was renovated in 2014 by architect Catherine Sloan, Hudson Walker Builders and Vintage Millworks. The renovation worked with the home’s natural features, which include hardwood flooring throughout, arched doorways, floor-toceiling windows, zinc countertops and a large marble island.

4. Tyne Boulevard, Nashville 37220 Buyer: 1031 Tyne Property Trust Sale price: $5.5 million Seller: 1031 Tyne Trust Seller’s agents: Mary Beth Thomas and John G. Brittle, Jr., PARKS Buyer’s agent: Devin Roper, Compass RE From one trust to another, this home boasts “old world elegance” on two acres on Tyne Boulevard. The inside of this 7,000-square-foot house was designed by Branan White and it has four bedrooms and five-and-a-half bathrooms.

5. Second Avenue South, Nashville 37201 Buyers: A. John Lucas and George M. Taylor, III, trustees of the Thomas A. Acheson Revocable Trust Sale price: $5,350,000 Sellers: Mason and Curt Revelette Sellers’ agent: Candace Revelette, PARKS Buyers’ agents: Michelle Maldonado and Nichole Holmes, Compass RE Local restaurateurs Mason and Curt Revelette sold their private space at the Four Seasons. (The local couple also bought a retail space in the building last year.) The living quarters includes three bedrooms, three-and-a-half bathrooms and an oversized kitchen and living room as well as a walk-in laundry room and hardwood flooring throughout.

6. Bancroft Place, Nashville 37215 Buyer: Mary Maitland Deland Sale price: $4,825,000 Seller: Stc Investment Group LLC Seller’s agents: Laura Stroud and Lisa Fernandez-Wilson, French King Fine Properties Buyer’s agent: Betsy Peebles, Pilkerton Realtors In Green Hills, this home is a behemoth at 12,293 square feet. It’s located in the Bancroft gated community with six bedrooms and six-and-a-half bathrooms. The home includes marble heated flooring, an imperial staircase, wood-burning fireplaces and an elevator servicing all levels of the home. Outside there’s a pool and spa on two-and-a-half acres.

7. Clonmel Road, Nashville 37220 Buyer: Kevin D. Montgomery, trustee for 5001 Clonmel Trust Sale price: $4,750,000 Seller: Diversified Trust Company for the Kathryn Cheek Bumgardner Estate Seller’s agent: Steve Fridrich, Fridrich & Clark Realty Buyer’s agents: Mary Beth Thomas and John G. Brittle, Jr., PARKS Overlooking Radnor Lake and downtown Nashville, this house on Clonmel Road is a private property on one of the highest sites in Davidson County. The home is one level

8. Grand Oaks Drive, Brentwood 37027 Buyer: R&K Family Trust Sale price: $4,481,524 Seller: Hidden Valley Homes Seller’s agent: Lauren Pennington, The Designated Agency, Inc. Buyer’s agent: Sue Ray, PARKS Hidden Valley Homes built this new 6,500-square-foot home in Brentwood. It features 11-foot ceilings on the main floor, a large kitchen island and prep pantry, wet bar as well as a four-car garage and oversized covered back porch overlooking a pool and hot tub.

9. Waterswood Drive, Nashville 37220 Buyers: Jennifer and Erik Herrmann Sale price: $4,297,000 Seller: 918 Waterswood LLC Seller’s agent: Steve G. Fridrich, Fridrich & Clark Realty Buyers’ agent: Julie Riven Dretler, Fridrich & Clark Realty This home on a dead-end street in Oak Hill was purchased with an 85 percent ownership interest from Erik Hermann and a 15 percent interest from his wife, Jennifer. It’s a smart home with Thermador appliances in the kitchen and a wood burning fireplace. Outside there’s a screened porch, which features an outdoor kitchen, pizza oven, grill, fridge and outdoor fireplace overlooking the pool and spa. Inside, the mail level suite opens to the pool and includes dual walk-in closets and a marble bathroom with dual shower heads and soaking tub along with separate vanities.

The guest en suite is also on the main level as well as a pantry with ice and wine bar, laundry room and a four-car garage.

10. Battery Lane, Nashville 37220 Buyer: The 835 Battery Lane Trust Sale price: $4 million Seller: 2K Development LLC Seller’s agent: Kristie Gogo, Compass RE Buyer’s agent: Richard B. French, French King Fine Properties This new build on Battery Lane is near the Tennessee Governor’s Mansion in Oak Hill. In more than 7,000 square feet, it has six bedrooms, six bathrooms, two half bathrooms and a three-car garage. The custom features include a chef ’s kitchen, custom cabinetry, marble counters, white oak ceilings throughout, an en suite in each bedroom and a primary suite with a massive bathroom and closet.

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

21

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

Travellers Rest Historic House Museum awarded capital maintenance and improvement grant STAFF REPORTS

COURT AUCTION

SATURDAY DEC. 9TH • 10:30 AM 1512 HADLEY AVE., OLD HICKORY, TN 37138

1800 SQ. FT. RANCH HOME FULL BASEMENT / DETACHED 2 CAR GARAGE. TOOLS, HUSQVARNA TILLER, RADIAL ARM SAW. 07 BUICK Lucerne (60,069 miles), GLASSWARE, FURNITURE

Travellers Rest Historic House Museum Last week, Travellers Rest Historic House Museum became a recipient of a $25,000 grant for capital maintenance and improvement from the State of Tennessee as administered through the Tennessee State Museum. The grant award will be used for the stabilization and repair of the brick wall between the 1801 and 1821 sections of the historic home.

The Tennessee General Assembly made available $5 million in funding from the 2023-2024 Appropriations Act “for the sole purpose of providing grants to museums with a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization or affiliated with a governmental entity for capital maintenance and improvements.”

In total, the Tennessee State Museum received 170 applications, totaling $12.5M in funding requests for the $5M appropriation. The Museum made full or partial awards to 108 museums across the state, representing 58 counties.

“The Tennessee State Museum serves the State of Tennessee through history, art, and culture,” Ashley Howell, Tennessee State Museum Executive Director, said. “There is incredible work being done throughout the state by our strong network of Tennessee museums and historic homes. This grant is an extension of how we can further support their efforts and the preservation of local and state history. We thank the Tennessee General Assembly for their support for Tennessee Museums.”

PHOTO BY DAVID WALSH

“We are incredibly grateful to the Tennessee State Museum for this grant in support of the preservation of the historic home at Travellers Rest,” Travellers Rest Executive Director Katie O’Bryan said.

“These critical funds will help to ensure that the oldest house open to the public in Nashville continues to remain an educational treasure, inviting visitors of all ages to delve into the rich history of Middle Tennessee.”

The Capital Improvement and Maintenance grant had a minimum request amount of $5,000 and a maximum request amount of $100,000. All projects must be completed by June 30, 2024.

It is the second major grant Travellers Rest has received this year, following a $500,000 grant from the State of Tennessee for repair and reservation in June.

Built in 1799, Travellers Rest was originally home to John Overton, the namesake of Overton High School and a Tennessee Supreme Court Judge.

Travellers Rest Historic House Museum is owned by The National Society of The Colonial Dames of America in the State of Tennessee and is part of the nationwide Great American Treasures Program. The site is operated by a non-profit community Board of Directors, Travellers Rest Historic House Museum, Inc.

From Nashville take I-40 East to The Hermitage exit #221A, continue on Old Hickory Blvd. for 6 miles to right on Hadley Ave.

Real Estate Selling First: This ranch, brick home has hardwood floors, foyer, living room w/ fireplace, breakfast room, formal dining room w/ China closet, kitchen w/ appliances, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, linen closet, laundry room w/ sink, and full basement with stair lift. All on .34 of an acre corner lot with a 2-car detached garage, concrete driveway & sidewalks, and covered concrete patio. Minutes from Old Hickory Lake, convenient to shopping and restaurants. With some updating, this property will make a great home or investment. Furniture/Collectables/Glassware: smoking stand, drop leaf tables and 6 chairs, China hutch, corner cabinet, Tempus Fugit grandfather clock, wall clock, dresser w/mirror, chest of drawers, vintage bedroom set, Singer pedal sewing machine, cedar chest, cut glass serving pieces, figurines, Four Crown South Hampton China, Noritake Ivory China Amenity, Onieda flatware, Prestige silverplate flatware, soup tureen, bookshelf, iron kettle and pots. Tools: Husqvarna tiller, grinder, Craftsman Radial Arm Saw, hand saws, ladders, hand tools, jump box, bolts, screws, vise, 2 push mowers, misc. other tools and home improvement items. Misc: Janone MyLock 234D Serger, Singer Stylist Serger, Easy Home heater, pictures, Lamps, linens, pots & pans, chest freezer, refrigerator, 100’s of Baseball and Football cards, vintage Hooked on Math and Phonics, Kitchen Aide mixer, patio set, framed prints, metal storage cabinets, and household items.

TERMS: Real Estate: CASH - PROPERTY IS BEING SOLD AS-IS, WHERE-IS WITH NO CONTIGENCIES. 15% Non-Refundable Earnest Money due day of sale with balance due at closing. Deed and Insured Title Furnished

by Court. Personal Property: Payment due day of sale - Cash, Visa, MasterCard, Discover accepted. Government-issued identification (driver’s license, state-issued photo ID, or passport) Required for Bidding Number.

Pam and Bobby Colson Auctioneer LIC #20 | $25.00 Will Be Given Away www.colsonauctions.com

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