BY NANCY M. WEST GRAPHIC, STAFF WRITER
NASHVILLE - The "Battleship" median strip on W. Washington Street will be busting out in fall decor after the town council approved the use of $1,000 in MSD funds for the purpose.
Shawn Lucas, planning director, asked for and received council approval Oct. 6th to decorate the battleship, located near Nash Arts and CVS, with items such as hay bales, cornstalks, seasonal mums and fall-themed stick figures "to complement the town's ongoing beautification efforts."
Lucas said the idea was brought up at a recent Downtown Strong Advisory Board (DSAB) meeting, although no specific budget amount was then agreed upon.
Lucas said that DSAB members are encouraging businesses and homeowners to decorate for fall, while town staff and DSAB members will be decorating both the Battleship area and downtown street corridors.
A flyer entitled "Let's Make Downtown Nashville Fall Beautiful" has been posted on the Nashville,NC-MSD Facebook page.
METAL FLOWERS?
The idea of planting large metal flowers around Nashville is gaining traction among DSAB members after they received photos of sample flowers at their last meeting Sept. 22nd.
The idea was initially proposed last month by DSAB member Michael Aycock, who envisioned them as signature pieces for the town in reference to the annual Chamber-produced Blooming Festival. Aycock said the flowers, which he thought could be 8' to 10' in height, could be placed here and there downtown and stretch down Barnes Street to the Nashville Junction.
Aycock compared them to New Bern's bears, which are painted in seasonal colors and outfits.
Tomasine Jones, code enforcer, promptly came up with examples for sale and shared them with board members present.
Garrett Shearin and Brian Hutson, DSAB members, suggested placement at intersection corners, giving the example of the corner across from the courthouse where pedestrians push a button to use the crosswalk.
Shearin also asked about the possibility of finding a local welder to make the flowers.
No board action was taken in order to give members time to look at purchase possibilities.
MURALS
Discussed last month was what art should be put on a mural facing CVS on the side of the Trash 2 Treasures RMT store. Among potential phrases discussed were "Nashville, Home of the Blooming Festival," and "Welcome to the Original Nashville."
Where to come up with the art, however, was the next question. Nash Arts was discussed as one option, in terms of asking local artists to come up with an art concept for the mural. Also discussed was the potential for a public contest, such is publicized each year through The Graphic for the Blooming Festival T-shirts.
No concrete decision was made on where to seek appropriate art, or if any monies would be spent thereon, but the board's preference was to start with a contest through the newspaper, with Nash Arts engagement as a fallback.
Hutson said at the Sept. 22nd meeting that he would like to see a mural painted by local high school students.
"They may spend 30 minutes painting something but they'll remember it for a lifetime."
A question was asked during the board's August meeting about the Boddie Street side of Al Hyde's building as a potential mural site, but Shawn Lucas, Nashville Planning Director, said he understood that Hyde was looking into that himself. Lucas said Hyde was communicating with the same company that did the Faith Christian Ministries mural about a mural idea, along the lines of celebrating that building's history; the building was reportedly owned originally by Hyde's great-grandfather.
MSD FACEBOOK PAGE
Launched last month was the "Nashville,NC-MSD" Facebook page, administered by Code Enforcer Tomasine Jones, who gave an update at the board's September meeting. The page, which had 92 followers as of Sept. 25th, has a community poll on it for the public to make their priorities know about what they'd like to see in Nashville's downtown area.
Jones said that she was hearing that people wanted nighttime dining options, especially an ice cream shop.
The page, which now bears a custom artwork logo of the W. Washington Street streetscape, was conceived of as another way to help generate commerce to downtown businesses.
BOARD VACANCY
Announced both on the page and at the meeting was a board vacancy with the departure of Bethany Lewis. Lucas said he was going to reach out to someone on lower end of Washington Street, presumably a business owner, to see if there was interest.
Hutson, Shearin and Slade Woodard were present, while JoAnne Pope-Clark was present virtually. Aycock and Evelyn Hart had excused absences.
