What's Happening in Whitland

It was a good call to cancel our creek clean-up on April 20th.  The weather was terrible!

But this Saturday, May 6th is looking much more promising and we will gather to cleanup Kingfisher Creek from 8:00 - 11:30 am at the Mary Catherine Stroble Park at the end of Carden.  Please wear tough pants and shoes.  We will have T-shirts, gloves and trash bags.  Bring any tools that you may want to use.  We will be focusing on the area between Bowling and the pedestrian bridge at Carden.

Hope to see you there!

Whitland Neighbors,

Do your part for the neighborhood and for Earth Day by helping us clean up our lovely creek!  

We will gather this Saturday, April 22 from 8:00 - 11:30   am at the Mary Catherine Stroble Park at the end of Carden.  Please wear tough pants and shoes.  We will have T-shirts, gloves and trash bags.  Bring any tools that you may want to use.  We will be focusing on the area between Bowling and the pedestrian bridge at Carden.

 

At 11:30 the celebration will continue with a creekside Easter egg hunt and lunch lovingly prepared by our own "WANA Bob" (Lyons), Lesley Omary and team including Pru Sherrill, Charlotte Covington, Bob Duthie, and Bob Glenn.  The neighborhood association will provide smoked main entry, Chick-Fil-A nuggets, water and beer.  Neighbors are asked to bring a salad, side dish or desert (emphasis on salads and side dishes). A bounce house will be provide for children.  To keep it safe, please have a parent or responsible adult present and providing supervision for your kids.

 

We will have this Rain or Shine but will cancel if there is thunder and lightning.

 

Hope to see you there!

 

For questions contact Cyril Stewart, cyril@cyrilstewart.com or at 615-207-5959.

  Spotted recently in Whitland: wild turkeys!  Have you seen these large strutting birds around the hood?  While we're thrilled that wildlife is drawn to our land of creekside and lush trees, please note that wild turkeys can be hard on lawns and gardens.  So if they're going after your property, you may want to shoo them away.  Also, since they're not the sharpest of birds, if they wander into your back yard, they may have no idea how to get out. Turkey GPS may be required!

So many of us love to wander along Rolland Road to look down at our beloved stream or gaze into the water from the Carden Avenue walking bridge to see the fish who live and thrive there.  But next time you’re fish-gazing there’s something new to look for: a Streamside Salamander, also known as an Ambystoma barbouri.

Can You Find One?

Back in the sixties, six populations of this salamander were spotted in the Green Hills area probably in fishless small streams with no other streams feeding into them.  Sadly, the salamanders are so rare these days, they’ve become a protected species, and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation would like to know if they still survive here.  Rediscovery of this species would be an important find. 

Look in Winter

A. barbouri lives hidden for much of the year, but are winter breeding.  It’s only as they move towards their breeding site from mid-December to mid-March that they can be spotted. Though they’ll breed in streams that flow year-round, they are most often drawn to ephemeral streams. Think of the streambeds along the alleyway from Craighead to Leonard and along Rolland across from the Richmeade townhouses, streams that are dry in summer, but flow gently in wetter seasons.

Take Photos NOT Salamanders

You can identify these creatures by their grey and black speckles and by this photograph.  If you see one, take a photo, please!  And contact david.withers@tn.gov who is a zoologist with the Tennessee Natural Heritage Program to let him know. But please do not turn stones looking for the salamanders, or disturb their delicate habitats.  We want to encourage this rare friend to think of our neighborhood as his own!

The Whitland Area Neighborhood Association will host "Dumpster Day" on Saturday, October 1st.  The main feature of this day are neighborhood-wide yard sales from 8:00am to 1:00pm.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We make this easy for you by providing the following:

• Advertising the sales
• Posting signs that direct shoppers into the neighborhood
• Marking your sale with balloons at the curb
• Providing maps to help shoppers locate all of the sales

All you need to do is empty out those closets/attics/basements, price your items, set them out by 8:00am on Saturday, October 1st and sell, sell, sell!

To register your sale, please send an email to Bob Glenn at re.glenn@yahoo.com so your sale will be included on our neighborhood map of the sales so shoppers can find you!

Click here to see the June 2016 Newsletter. Click here to pay your annual dues online.

 

 

Among our Whitland neighbors, we have lots of proud graduates and their parents to salute this spring.  They include:

Sam Fisher, son of Luci Crow graduated from USN and will be attending Washington University in the fall.

Jackson Regen, son of Robinson & Doug Regen graduated from Albion College

Anna Pitz, daughter of Bob Pitz & Carol Armes received her DDS from Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, ,VA  She will continue with a 3-year residency in prosthodontics at the University of Texas Health Sciences in San Antonio in July, 2016

Joel Bell Covington V, grandson of Charlotte and the late Joel Covington, graduated from Hillsboro High School with an International Baccalaureate diploma.  He will be attending Furman University in Greenville, SC in the fall

Crawford Lyons, son of Bob & Melissa Lyons graduated from USN

Elizabeth Conrad, daughter of Marty & Jim Conrad completed her PhD in Molecular Physiology at Vanderbilt University

Will Allen, son of Kelly Motley and John Allen graduated from Montgomery Bell Academy and will be attending Kenyon College and playing baseball for the Lords this fall.

Congratulate these neighbors when you see them!

The May 21 cleanup of Kingfisher Creek took place as scheduled. In spite of the event being advertised as annual it had not been done last year.  Vegetation had grown up so high the creek could not be seen almost the entire way from Wilson to Bowling. What a difference a day makes to improve the appearance of the street when there is a crew of about 20 neighbors and friends to help. 80% of the work was completed in 2 hours. Click on photos to enlarge.

Lessons Learned

1. Unwanted papers are washed down Carden and Leonard during rain storms and wind up littering in near the creek. Please clean up these papers when delivered and advise the advertisers to take you off their list.

2.  A significant number of filled doggy bags were tossed into the brush and not carried home.  This is worse than not using bags where the waste disintegrates in a few days. Bags can take years. Photo too disgusting to show.

3. The use of woody plant pullers, borrowed from Warner Parks thanks to Melissa, made it much easier to pull up invasive species by the roots easily. This stops the plants from just growing right back. Left side photo shows one standing up. Right side shows Kevin in action.

4. Where the creek runs under Leonard, there is a dam of gravel which creates a pond that could provide a mosquito breeding ground.  Committee Chair Bob is removing some of invasive plants at the bridge.

5. Committee Secretary Cyril provided and operated a chain saw which made quick work of some of the invasive trees and dead branches. Left photo right to left Lucius, Revell & Cyril

6. How to identify plant signs all along the route were a great help to workers to avoid the poison ivy.

 

 

7. It took three people to clean up around the Carden bridge.

 

 

 

8. Most of the crew worked the creekfrom Carden to Leonard. Amazingly there was very little trash to collect along Rolland Road (see 1 & 2 for the exceptions). Chairman Bob G. arranged to have one lane of the road blocked on the creek side. This was a brilliant move since we avoiding having to submit a comprehensive plan and employ an off duty policeman. A number of cones and lane blocked signs were rented. Traffic on the open lane proceeded with caution with very few exceptions.  Being able to put so much brush on the road made it much easier.  Thanks very much to the Rolland Residents for putting up with this. Metro is scheduled for Monday to take all the brush away.

9. At noon a potluck lunch was enjoyed by all. Two residents unable to attend the clean up kindly provided homemade BBQ pork tenderloin.

 

 

 

 

Report & photos by Bob Duthie

Google fiber is being installed in the Whitland Neighborhood.  Crews were up installing the cable between Carden and Leonard a week ago. Google will leave door hangers before coming to do construction in this neighborhood. Those door hangers also include Google contact information should you have any questions or concerns during the construction process.  This new fiber network will offer up to 100 or 1000 MB/S Internet, TV service with DVR, and Local and International Phone service.  I learned at a presentation yesterday that once the fiber is brought to your home your existing coax and Ethernet wiring can be used within your home to connect your TV's and computers. Our good neighbor and Halloween costume prize winner, Martha Ivester, who is also Google fiber's Operations Leader was interviewed by the Tennessean and stressed that customer service "Is something we want to always deliver on. When we tell you someone is going to be there at 8:35 they are there at 8:35 ".  What a refreshing statement to hear from a utility provider.  More here or call 877-454-6959

Bob Duthie, 220 Carden

The crown jewel of our extraordinary neighborhood was here long before the first house was erected.  It's Kingfisher Creek, a rare taste of wild beauty in an urban world. 

On May 21^st from 8:30 12:00, come pitch in to help maintain our natural gem with the Annual Creek Clean-Up.  Neighbors will join side by side to clear away brush, overgrown vegetation and garbage that can inhibit the creek's ability to renew itself.  And as a reward there will music, a potluck lunch and barbecue.

It may be more than a month away but mark your calendars!

Also if you'd like to be part of a committee now forming to chart the course for creek maintenance and renewal, please contact Bob Glenn: re.glenn@yahoo.com

 

 

Neighbors - ENDADA is a community event April 16th run by the students at MBA. It's a FREE celebration of all things art. There will be live bands on two stages, art demonstrations by local and student artists, art-centered activities for kids, local food trucks to celebrate the culinary arts,and much more . The weather is forecasted to be glorious. Come on down to the campus and enjoy a beautiful spring day!

Beth Preston

If you live in the city block defined by Carden, Whitland, and Leonard your power was out for 23 hours. This was no simple outage usually fixed in a few minutes. A high voltage line snapped and was lying on the road on Carden. Nashville Electric must have had a lot of failures due to the high winds and was unable to get to Whitland until Thursday afternoon, April 7th. It took 3 hours to fix the problem and restring new lines. Power was restored around 4 pm. At least one neighbor was seen buying dry ice to save the food in her freezer. It was tough to watch all the other homes across the street with lights blazing while we had to resort to flashlights, candles and oil lamps. 

Bob Duthie

We are conducting a brief survey about activities and events sponsored by the Whitland Area Neighborhood Association. Please take a moment to share your feedback through this survey. We appreciate your time and hope to better serve your interests in the future based on these results. We will be sharing the results once we have tabulated responses and look forward to sharing that with you. Please click here to take the survey.

Thank you!

Bob Glenn, President, Whitland Area Neighborhood Association

re.glenn@yahoo.com

 

Neighborhood photographers were out along side the Rolland Rd creek after the rain on Sunday March 13. Adele Tyler took the pair of ducks on the left. Bob Duthie took the other two photos. It was amazing to find the pair of ducks enjoying the rain garden (right photo) at the bottom of Carden Ave. Will we have baby ducks soon? Click on each photo to enlarge.

 

Click here to see a slideshow of photos taken on January 22, 2016 after the biggest snowfall since 2003. Pictures were taken along Carden, Rolland, Wilson, and Whitland by Bob Duthie.  Photo 32 was taken by Matt Davis on Rolland Road.  Let Bob know if you have any photos that should be added. Contact Bob@duthielearning.com

Sunday, Jan 31st at Blakemore United Methodist Church in the Fellowship Hall

Please mark your calendar.  3:30 PM - 4:00 PM coffee and dessert, 4:00 PM - 5:00  PM - Annual Meeting

Agenda to Include:

Invited guests, Metro Council Member Kathleen Murphy and Sgt. Linn of the West Nashville Precinct

Review of Past Year's Events

Election of the 2016 WANA Steering Committee

The 2015 WANA Steering Committee acted as the nominating committee for the 2016 WANA Steering Committee, in order to canvas as much of the neighborhood as possible. If there are other neighbors who are interested in joining the committee, please plan on attending the Annual Meeting and being nominated during the meeting.

2016 Steering Committee Slate

Officers (1 year term)

President - Bob Glenn, Vice President - Brooke Shuster, Secretary - Cyril Stewart*, Treasurer - Gwyneth Neuss

New/Renewing Members (2 year term)

Kirk Davis, Melissa Donahue, Lynne Falk*, Bob Lyons*, Robinson Regen, Kevin Stack*, Cyril Stewart *

*=new members

Continuing Members (not up for election)

Luci Crow, Bob Duthie, Lesley Omary, Brooke Shuster, Bob Glenn, Gwyneth Neuss

Thank you to our retiring members!!

Mike Jameson, Denise Hawkins, Revell Michael, Dianne Neal, Michael Rook

The new website is hosted on a private server and will be more secure than the old site. It is also much easier for volunteers to add content.   Whitland Area residents can download a draft copy of the new directory more easily than our old site. Check it out under the Directory Tab. 

Make a note, the Annual Meeting will be on Sunday  January 31st, 3:00-5:00pm at Blakemore United Methodist Church. Our council representative, Kathleen Murphy and Metro Nashville Police, Sgt. Steve Linn will talk about the latest developments in the neigborhood. Come and meet your neighbors and enjoy desert. 

Looking for the online form for the Whitland Directory update?  Click here for a Google Form that you can fill out to update your contact information.