This Tuesday night, July 20th the Sounds are having Old Timers Facility at Shelby Park night when the Sounds play Alburquerque (Greer Stadium, 7:05 start). If you purchase a ticket from the Old Timers Baseball Organization, a $12 ticket will cost you only $10 and all of those funds will be donated to the Old Timers Baseball Facility for help with flood relief.

Come see a great game at a great price and support baseball at Shelby Park. For more information, call Mickey Hiter at 615-226-7005

The bike ride and walk will start on the “hill” in Shelby Park (green star on map attached) next to the Cumberland River Bike/Ped bridge. The 2-mile walk will be lead by Anne Davis and the 6-mile bike ride will be lead by Mayor Dean. Participants are encouraged to walk or ride to the event and to the start location. All bike riders are encouraged to wear helmets. Vehicle parking is available at 2 locations: Shelby Bottoms-Forrest Green Trail Head (off of Forrest Green Drive) , and Wave Country in Two Rivers Park.

WHO: Karl Dean, Mayor of Metropolitan Government of Nashville

WHAT: Celebrate Greenways post Flood of 2010

WHEN: Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 8:00 AM

WHERE: Shelby Bottoms Park (next to Cumberland River Pedestrian Bridge the “Hill”).
See attached map for walking and biking route.

Please join us in celebrating the 4th in the hottest way possible – support your community and help us raise funds to improve Shelby Park. It’s OUR festival for OUR park!

P.S. Stop by and see us at the Friends of Shelby booth. Check out our cool t-shirts designed by Myles Maillie, check out our banner of the Shelby Master Plan, and consider joining us and supporting our efforts to protect and preserve our park. If you have already joined Friends of Shelby and did not receive your free bumper sticker, stop by and pick it up.

Here’s the line-up – it’s HOT!

12:00 noon – Welcome by Vice Mayor Diane Neighbors, greetings from DJs of WRVW The River and WUBT The Beat

12:15 – Singer Wendy Jans (solo), singer-songwriter with a soul-pop-jazz sound

1:10 – change bands

1:25 – Eileen Rose, with guitar and snare (3 performers), a little bit country/rock

2:20 – change bands

2:35 – Centennial Hiptet – straight ahead jazz

3:00 – 3:15 – Amateur Hot Chicken Contest winner announced – Ralph Schulz

3:15 – Centennial Hiptet resumes

3:50 – change bands

4:05 – Kevin Ball and The Busters – blues

5:00 – end

A first step toward implementing this part of the master plan has been achieved with minor changes on the west side of Lake Sevier. Last winter, Friends of Shelby Park and Metro Parks worked to create a new trail that connects Community Center Hill to the road segment on the west side of Lake Sevier. This offers, for the first time in many years, a direct and pedestrian-friendly connection from Lockeland Springs to the interior of the park. In May of this year, Metro Parks closed this same road segment to motor vehicles. The conversion from road to trail offers a lake-front opportunity for walking, cycling, and enjoying the lake without having to negotiate cars.

For motorists, there are convenient alternate routes to all destinations within and around the park. Directional signs have been installed at the park entrances on South 19th Street and Riverside Drive to inform drivers of the new traffic pattern. Fishing has always been, and will remain, an important activity on Lake Sevier.

The Shelby Park Master Plan is an ambitious, complex and long-term undertaking. While Metro and Friends of Shelby seek the funds to implement the plan, the nearly no-cost road conversion on Lake Sevier was a rare opportunity to see immediate results.

Click here to view a map of the road conversion.

Please note the volunteer time slots are only 2 hours long. When your slot is over, you can continue to enjoy the festival.

Below is more information from Kate Monaghan, Volunteer Coordinator:

The 2010 Music City Hot Chicken Festival is gearing up and we need you…

Nashville’s fourth annual 4th of July Hot Chicken festival is gearing up for another celebration of all that’s hot about Nashville. As always, volunteers are a critical ingredient.

The festival’s hours have been extended this year from Noon – 5:00 p.m. which means we’ll need extra volunteers. You, and anyone you can encourage to join us, will be especially appreciated this year.

There are many volunteer positions available and volunteers willing to do “whatever” are also greatly appreciated. If you’d like to join the volunteer corps this July 4th, e-mail kate@partneringservices.com and indicate which activity and time slot you’d like.

Here are this year’s volunteer positions and shifts:

Event set-up (10:00 – NOON)
Event clean-up (5:00 – 6:30)
T-shirt & souvenir sales (Noon -1:45, 1:45 – 3:30 & 3:30 – 5:00)
Beer Garden sales, serving and ID check (Noon -1:45, 1:45 – 3:30 & 3:30 – 5:00)
Non-alcoholic beverage sales (Noon -1:45, 1:45 – 3:30 & 3:30 – 5:00)
Children’s activities, including inflatables and face painting (Noon -1:45, 1:45 – 3:30 & 3:30 – 5:00)
Hot Chicken samples (11:00-1:00)
Entertainment area (Noon -1:45, 1:45 – 3:30 & 3:30 – 5:00)
Trash Patrol (Noon -1:45, 1:45 – 3:30 & 3:30 – 5:00)
Volunteer tent (10:00-Noon, Noon-1:45 & 1:45-3:30)
Watermelon giveaway (11:00-1:00 & 1:00-3:00)
Parking direction (Noon -1:45, 1:45 – 3:30 & 3:30 – 5:00)

About the Music City Hot Chicken Festival:

As always, the Music City Hot Chicken Festival is a free event featuring hot chicken and other local culinary delights, professional & amateur cooking competitions, face painting and inflatables for the kids, the Yazoo Brewery Beer Garden for the grownups, and home-grown Nashville music. The festival is held on Sunday, July 4th in East Nashville’s own East Park at 700 Woodland Street.

The first 500 festival attendees are treated to free hot chicken samples. After the free bird is gone, there’s more hot chicken available for purchase and lots of other food specialties both hot and cold.

It’s a fabulous, unique-to-Nashville event that has become a 4th of July tradition for many Nashvillians. Join us!

Kate Monaghan, Volunteer Coordinator

It’s time again for the 8th Annual Catfish Rodeo and Water Festival . I am reaching out to all you wonderful volunteers to determine your availability and interest to help us out again. We are really excited to have this event again, especially at Shelby Park after the flood!

We have tested the waters and we are a go! Governor Phil Bredesen also declared June “Tennessee Great Outdoors Month.” To review a copy of the declaration go to:
http://www.tnwfconservation.org/images/pdf/tngreatoutdoorsmonthjune.pdf

We have volunteer needs from 5:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. in two hour shifts. Tasks include registration, helping kids bait their hooks, scavenger hunt, assist with games, face painting, and more. Please invite friends and coworkers to come out to this exciting event. Last year we had over 500 young fisherman and another 200 enjoying the water festival. Stay the whole day or just a portion so you too can enjoy this FREE FAMILY festival!

Laura Alex
Watersheds Program Director Cumberland River Compact lauraa@cumberlandrivercompact.org
615-469-5962 work

As most of you know, the Jess Neely fields at Shelby Park were hit hard during the recent flooding. Most everything is a complete loss. We are very grateful, however, that, through the generosity of Metro Parks, we have been able to keep the season moving by playing at other facilities. Another huge thanks to Metro Parks for all their hard work in helping to get the Jess Neely facilities back open. There is still much work to be done, but we are finally at a point where we can request aid from our wonderful neighbors. We are requesting anyone who can help to come to the park (the ball fields closest to the Bottoms entrance – by the train trestle) from 9am until 3pm on Saturday, May 29th.

A link to the event (with full details) is below.

5/29/10 Jess Neely Flood Cleanup

“This was another great day of working together at Shelby Park and Bottoms. I appreciate all the kind and willing volunteers. Also, thanks to Subway for providing food and to Jack Patel for the delivery. What a wonderful city…great leadership…great citizens.”

*****************************
Friends of Shelby is partnering with Metro Parks to host a flood cleanup day at the Shelby Bottoms Greenway.

If you are interested in helping, please meet at the Nature Center at 8:30 a.m.

More details on this event are available on our Facebook Group Event Page.

“The Shelby Park damage is being included in the damage assessment being provided to FEMA and whatever insurance recovery funds that will be available.

We are getting 10 volunteers from AmeriCorps who are going to be given the assignment to start clean up on the greenway, but that is going to be difficult as the ground may still be saturated.

Volunteers to help (with any cleanup days organized and approved by Metro Parks) would be greatly appreciated, and like with the initial volunteers, we would prefer them to be registered with Hands on Nashville.

We are going to be using equipment, today (Thursday, May 13th), to scrape the mud and silt off the greenway, and could use assistance at the bridges that are still there in moving and piling trash and debri (cleanup date to be confirmed and provided later).

If the volunteeers go to the ball fields (to assist with the cleanup day being organized by the Old Timers Baseball Organization on Saturday, May 15th at 10:00 a.m. — see post below), we request that the wood products be separated from the other trash you collect. Our staff will pick up everything.”