Metro Christmas Tree Lighting Nov. 30

Mayor Bill Purcell and WSMV-TV's Holly Thompson will host a Christmas tree lighting ceremony on the city's new public square on Thursday, November 30, at 5 p.m. This event is free and open to the public, and Krispy Kreme will be providing donuts and coffee. Woo hoo!

West Gnashvegas Swap Spot

If you are looking for bargains, you might want to check out the West Gnashvegas Swap Spot on the Web. A local blogger going by the name Jeffraham Prestonian has been listing items (mainly electronics) on this site for about five years. As he puts it, it's a chance for you to "trade your dust-collecting, usable junk for mine." Jeffraham is interested in trading for the following items:

"CASH [who isn't?], Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, PC parts and whatnot, Consumer electronics, Certain books, DVDs, CDs, Music gear, Stuff that aides in maintaining a Chinese 150cc scooter [wow], SD/MMC cards, SmartMedia cards and Old bicycles." His advice: "Be bold -- be stupid. Ya never know. :)"

"I will always put what I think is a fair market cash price, minimum, for the items, to help you judge what you'd be willing to swap for them."

Take a look. Who knows, maybe you'll find a bargain on something you need. Or something you didn't know you had to have. :)

Interfaith Thanksgiving service tonight

West End United Methodist Church (2200 West End Avenue) will host the 2006 Interfaith Thanksgiving Service tonight (Tuesday, November 21) at 7 p.m. The service will be held in the church sanctuary.

This service has been held annually since 1959. West End area churches and synagogues take turns serving as host sites. The public is invited to attend. The church will host a short reception following the service in its McWherter Hall.

Free Frist Center admission tomorrow

The Frist Center for the Visual Arts (919 Broadway) will offer free admission for all visitors on Wednesday, November 22, courtesy of First Tennessee Bank. Admission to the center will also be free on November 29, December 20 and December 27 (all Wednesdays).

The Frist Center is open from 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Wednesday. Here are its hours for the remainder of the week:

• Thursday and Friday, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.
• Saturday, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.
• Sunday, 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
  

Casual attire is welcome for visitors. Admission is free during the dates listed above, but normal admission is $8.50 for adults.

Crime report

Neighbor Doug Eckert gathered the following information on recent crime activity in Sylvan Park in preparation for last week's membership meeting. The neighbhorhood has a "very good" month in terms of criminal activity and "significantly less crime" than normal overall. Doug did note two unusual patterns in the neighborhood and provided additional explanation:

• Residents have reported two aggravated assaults in the past few weeks. This is a "stunner," according to Doug, because "this is a serious crime that we rarely ever see." It appears to be in both instances, though, that the charges were unproven ones made by one person against another. According to Doug, "One instance was a couple of residents who had too much to drink, and one claimed the other assaulted him with a baseball bat. The other was a domestic dispute where the claim of aggravated assault was unproven."
  

• Sylvan Park has had "more residential burglaries than we had thefts of items from cars (auto burglaries). While I’ve never seen this before in all the years I’ve been monitoring Sylvan Park crime, it was largely because we only had two auto burglaries. We had five residential burglaries, but three of those were sheds or garages that were broken into around 54th Avenue. Another was where the report was something was stolen but the reporting resident wasn’t sure when. Another was jewelry where a window was left open."
  

As always, please report any non-emergency criminal activity you witness or discover to (615) 862-8600.

Residential oil and grease recycling

Metro Public Works and Metro Water Services (news release) will now accept residential fats, oils and greases for proper disposal at the Omohundro Convenience Center (directions to 1019 Omohundro Place) each Tuesday through Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. Here are instructions for transporting and disposing of these items:

"Collect the fats, oils and grease waste in a sturdy, sealed container in order to prevent leaks during transport to the Convenience Center for recycling. Open the lid on the recycling bin, pour the cooking oil or grease into the bin and dispose of the container in the dumpster."

Fats, oils, and grease can clog sewer lines and even cause back-ups in nearby homes' sewer lines. They can also result in overflows that pollute the environment with raw sewage (yuck). Please do your part to recycle these materials. If you have questions or need more information, please call Sonia Harvat at (615) 862-4494.

Volunteer Tailgate Party

For those of you who cheer for the Vols, First Tennessee will host a tailgate party prior to tomorrow's Tennessee-Vanderbilt football game at its new bank location (3011 West End Avenue).

The event begins at 9:30 a.m. It will feature free food and drinks and a live broadcast of the Kickoff Call-In Show on WLAC-AM. The UT marching band and cheerleading squad will also perform.

Go Dores!! (I just had to throw that in somewhere.)

TWRA's Polly Rooker visits SPNA

Polly Rooker, Watchable Wildlife and Waterfowl Biologist for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, attended Monday night’s SPNA membership meeting to discuss urban wildlife. Following are some highlights of the information Polly shared:

• Remember that the wildlife was here before we humans were. They’ve only adapted as best they can to our arrival.
• Coyotes are present in the city, but they are not typically violent to humans. They primarily eat rodents, insects and snakes, but they are opportunistic: They will eat cats and small dogs on occasion if they encounter them.
• Coyotes are primarily nocturnal, so it is wise to keep your cats and small dogs indoors overnight. You are unlikely to encounter coyotes during daylight hours.
• Coyotes are highly resilient to methods to exterminate or remove them from an area. They are here to stay. Even Manhattan has a sizable coyote population!
• Do not leave food for your pets outside or in accessible garages and utility sheds. This will attract wildlife. If you must feed your pets outside, take the bowl back inside with you when they finish eating. Do not leave food out for wildlife under any circumstances.
• Raccoons are increasingly common in the city. A large population of rabid raccoons are gradually migrating closer to Middle Tennessee over time, and this will present problems when they get here.
• Inoculate your pets against rabies before they are exposed. There is little that can be done to spare a pet or another animal that has been infected.
• Skunks, which have been frequently spotted in the neighborhood recently, are immune to rabies, but they can carry and spread the disease. They do not exhibit rabies symptoms.
• If you see skunks or raccoons out during the day looking sick or disoriented, they likely have distemper.
• If you do trap raccoons or skunks, please euthanize them. Do not release them in rural areas because this can spread disease.
• Metro Animal Control (615-862-7928) will come get animals if you report a problem. You can also take trapped animals to them. Private animal control companies are another option, but they do charge for their services (as much as $75 per animal, according to one report.
  

The TWRA Web site includes resources on some of the critters you may spot in your backyard, in case you want to do a little research on the front end. (If anyone spots a bobcat, I would really like to be warned. Thanks.)

Many thanks to Rob Stack for the photo.

Mamamade Open House Saturday

Neighborhood arts and crafts Web site Mamamade, a group of several "Susie Homemakers" who have "banded together to being you an extravanganza of original goods and services and gifts" will hold a holiday Open House this Saturday, November 18, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at 5101 Dakota Avenue.

The hosts invite you to bring friends, eat goodies and browse unique items including memory DVD services, digital scrapbook services, photo holiday cards and birth announcements, handmade soap and bath products, natural baby products, lots of amazing knit items for mom and baby, bilingual baby tees, custom monogrammed paintings and pillows, personalized embroidered gifts, funky and functional kids table and chair sets, kids lap pads and chalk activity mats, linoleum block printing and hand-sewn items.

Thanks to participant Beth Howard for passing word along about this event. Please send an email if you have news to share!

Membership meeting Monday night

Reminder: SPNA will hold its monthly membership meeting tomorrow night (Monday, November 13) at 7 p.m. at the Cohn Adult Learning Center at the intersection of 48th Avenue and Park Avenue. The meeting will be held in the Senior Renaissance Center in the basement of the building. See you there!

Home sales up in October

According to this City Paper story, October home sales in Nashville were up from the same month in 2005, and home sales for the year are up 3.9 percent over 2005. In a market where home sales are peaking or even falling across the country, this is great news for the city.

The Greater Nashville Association of Realtors has more details about recent sales activity and a chart of sales for the year.

"Nashville is very fortunate to be sustaining an active market for home sales," said Christie Wilson, 2006 GNAR president and Sylvan Park resident. "The consistent good news of companies and families relocating here gives us reason to believe the healthy market will continue. We are enjoying a steady pace that is keeping us on track for 2006 to be another record-breaking year."

Love at First Sight sign

Our neighborhood puppy and kitten adoption center, Love at First Sight (4423 Murphy Road), recently added a digital marquee to its storefront window. The marquee scrolls through a series of important facts about pet care, and it features some pretty adorable graphics (see above). I also didn't know about pets' prowess when it comes to fat consumption, though it certainly isn't a surprise. Add this to your list of reasons why pets have it good. :)

By the way, National Pet Wellness Month was in October, but it's still a good idea to take your pet in for a check up if it's been a long time.

Brush and leaf collection updates

Good news for those of you who have "extra" leaves in your yards: There are three ways you can dispose of your leaves in the next few weeks:

1) Place your leaves in your alleyway (or near your curb if you do not have an alley) in biodegradable/brown paper bags by Sunday, November 19th, the beginning of the next scheduled brush collection sweep for Sylvan Park by Metro Public Works. (Note: Do not place your leaves in plastic bags for this option.)

2) Drop off your bagged leaves at Metro’s Bordeaux mulch facility at 1400 County Hospital Road free of charge. If your leaves are bagged in plastic, please plan to take the bags back home with you. Plastic bags will not be accepted with your leaves.

3) Place your leaves in your alleyway (or near your curb) in by Wednesday, December 27, in biodegradable/brown paper bags. MPW will complete pickup for this sweep by Monday, January 8th, 2007. (Again, no plastic bags permitted.)

For additional information about brush and leaf collection, see this MPW news release, this story in today's Tennessean, the MPW Web site or call Gwen Hopkins-Glasscock at (615) 880-2439.

Contra Dance Friday night

Neighbor Jenny Frampton reports that the Nashville Country Dancers will hold their next Contra Dance at the Cohn Adult Learning Center (4805 Park Avenue) this Friday, November 10, from 7:30 to 10:30 p.m.

Sylvan Park resident Susan Kevra will do the calling for the evening, and Nashville's own Small Time String Band will perform.

Jenny invites everyone to attend and promises a night of fun, along with great exercise and great music. No experience or partner is necessary. The regular dance runs from 8 to 10 p.m., and a beginner session precedes the dance at 7:30. General admission is $7 for adults and $5 for students and seniors. For more information, call 615-356-1526 or visit the NCD Web site.

Bank designs

The City Paper made an interesting point about the design of three nearby bank branches in yesterday's edition.

Comparing the fairly conservative Fifth-Third bank branch on Murphy Road with the two new First Tennessee bank branches on West End Avenue and White Bridge Road, reporter William Williams prefers the latter two:

"A cookie cutter design approach — which can be exacerbated by the reality that free-standing banks often are accompanied by excessive surface parking (note the Fifth Third facility on Murphy Road) — simply enforces the notion that industry officials are unwilling to think outside the bank vault, er, box...

But hold your checkbooks.

Following the recommendation of LRK architects (who likely were seeking some creative stimulation that the prototype designs fail to offer), First Tennessee officials opted for a very different appearance for two recently finished financial centers, one on West End Avenue and the other on White Bridge Road.

Good move.

In particular, the West End center, which rises about 30 feet at its highest point, offers a striking contemporary flavor with its green-tinted glass, deep chocolate brick and clear anodized aluminum window frames/canopy/trim.

Even more eye-catching is how the bank’s crisp and clean design renders as cartoonish a neighboring Stoney River Legendary Steaks building — the poor architects for which were required to incorporate a faux mountain lodge theme."

I tend to agree about Stoney River, which seems out of place in terms of design on West End. I think the Fifth-Third location looks nice, but I do like the more engaging designs of the First Tennessee locations better, though they took a little while to grow on me. I completely agree about the excess parking at Fifth-Third, and I miss Mr. Gatti's. ;)

Skunk update

Skunks sightings continue in the area around 45th through 48th Avenues and Nevada Avenue, despite neighbor Wendell Goodman's tireless and much appreciated work.

Here are two recent comments about skunks in the neighborhood.

• "Shelby Brooks spotted another skunk this past Thursday night going between 4506 and 4508 Nevada due North... if Wendell is still on the hunt."
• "I live on Nevada and also saw on crossing 46th, going into the first yard at 4600 Nevada. Thank you so much for catching the ones already."
  

Here are tips from PETA's HelpingWildlife.com Web site regarding skunks in case you encounter them and Wendell can't come to the rescue. :)