Have a Voice in Future of Greenline

Plans continue for the Greater Memphis Greenline, and public meetings are scheduled to discuss design and management of the greenway that will run from Midtown to Shelby Farms Park.

Meeting Dates:
* July 6 (Mon.) 7-9pm, Benjamin Hooks Central Library(3030 Poplar)
* July 7 (Tues.) 6-8pm, Agricenter (7777 Walnut Grove Rd.)

Shelby Farms Park Conservancy, Shelby County Government and Greater Memphis Greenline ask for your input.

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Red, White, & Blues for the 4th

Celebrate the 4th of July Memphis-style.
* Music in WC Handy Park (Beale & 3rd) starts at 5 pm.
* Fireworks on the Riverfront in Tom Lee Park start at 9:30pm.

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From Rome to Memphis - FfOR Website the Link

She travelled the farthest to attend The Delta - Everything Southern conference at University of Memphis.

Laura Sanderson Healy was in Rome when she read about the conference on this website and flew to Memphis to attend. Healy, who grew up in Memphis, now lives in Los Angeles, but the lure of the MS River and this area are in her blood.

Healy’s parents Bob and Jane Sanderson lived in a neighborhood on the riverfront along with Shelby Foote and other artists in the 1950s. It was there that Foote wrote his novel September, September. The book was made into a 1992 TV movie "Memphis" directed by Larry McMurtry
starring Cybill Shepherd.


The Delta conference was huge success. Speakers included (pictured left to right): anthropologist Sam Brookes, attorney Bill Luckett, journalist Curtis Wilkie, and art history professor Carol Crown. Filmmaker and author Willy Bearden, Blues pianist and singer Edent Brent, and oral historian Owen Brooks rounded out the list of fascinating, entertaining speakers. Click HERE for their short bios.

It’s an annual event, so next year, whether you’re in Memphis, Clarksdale, New Orleans, or Rome, put the conference on your calendar.

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Tom Lee Park on Father's Day

The sprinkler was working, people were there to enjoy Father's Day, but Tom Lee Park wasn't in the best shape. A "friend" sent these photos as a plea for quicker park repair.

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Hot, but Fun & Beautiful

It was HOT, but fun and beautiful at Randolph for the Sunset Cook-Out yesterday.


Special thanks to Nancy and Tom Ream of the Sierra Club Chickasaw Group for manning the grill and making sure things ran smoothly and to TN Parks and Greenways Fdn. for sharing the site with all of us.

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Councilman Strickland e-mails Tax Warning & Request

City Councilman Jim Strickland has e-mailed a warning and request concerning the city budget and your taxes. He urges citizens to speak out and show up Tues. (6/16) after 3:30 pm at the City Council meeting (ground floor of City Hall (125 N Main)).

Click below to read the e-mail.

Neighbors,

The city's budget will be voted on tomorrow, Tuesday, sometime after 3:30 pm, and your help is needed to avoid a large tax increase.

Traditionally, the city's and school board's budget have been approved at the same time by the council, and a unified tax bill was sent to all Memphians. This year, the city's budget will be approved this week, and the school's budget will be approved in July or August. As a result, two tax bills will be sent -- one in July (city) and one in August (school).

Several months ago, the trial court ruled that the city could not reduce funding to the schools. While the case is on appeal, the trial court indicated that, if the city failed to fund for the 2009 - 2010 year, he would immediately order the city to fund up to $57 million.

As a result, it is highly likely that the city will have to fund the schools with $57million in July or August.

If the council passes the mayor's budget, you will receive a tax bill in July for approximately the same amount as last year.

But, in August, you will get a huge tax bill for up to $57 million to pay for the schools because the mayor's budget does not include the school's funding..

At least one council member is trying to agree with the mayor that the city's budget is balanced and ignore the huge bill that will come a month later.

He has written, "I believe we should let the courts resolve the school issue and deal with this at a later date." The problem is that the later date will likely be only 30 days after the city's budget is approved.

Please be on alert and know that whether we have a tax increase will be decided tomorrow; if the city's budget is approved without reductions and/or use of the reserves of $57 million, you will receive a tax increase this year.

You should let your voice be heard in person; please come to the meeting tomorrow at city hall sometime after 3:30 pm.

Jim

Councilman Strickland's e-mail is about the city operating budget, but what's in the capital improvement budget is also important. Bonds are issued for these big ticket items, and the annual debt service on those bonds has to come out of future operating budgets.
Riverfront projects in the CIP budget - click HERE.
One of the projects is the $33million boat dock facility Beale Street Landing. Debt service on bonds for this project will be approximately $1.5million annually. For info. on Beale Street Landing click HERE and HERE.

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Sunset Picnic Upriver at Historic Randolph Bluff

You're Invited!
Sat., June 20, 3 - 9 pm, at a spectacular site on our river.








Hosted by: Sierra Club/Chickasaw Group and Friends for Our Riverfront. Please RSVP by e-mail to info@friendsforourriverfront.

Where is Randolph Bluff?
On the 2nd Chickasaw Bluff, Randolph is an unincorporated community in a beautiful rural area about 45 minutes NW of Memphis.
For a map and directions, click HERE.

What do I need to bring?
Bring a side dish - maybe a favorite family recipe! Hot dogs, hamburgers, and soft drinks are provided by your hosts. We do need a head count, so please RSVP!

What's notable about Randolph Bluff?
In its heyday, Randolph rivaled Memphis as a river port. Until 1840 it shipped more cotton annually than Memphis did! It declined commercially due to failed railroad development, an unfavorable mail route, and the town burned twice during the Civil War. Even so, today the site itself is still so beautiful that it was recently purchased by TN Parks and Greenways Foundation, and is protected as greenspace by a conservation easement for the public similar to the Memphis Public Promenade.

To learn more about the site and the important reasons to protect it, click HERE.

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Councilman Strickland on City Budget

Councilman Jim Strickland says the City Council has the right, and the duty, to perform some drastic fiscal surgery on the City Budget. Wrap-up sessions are taking place this week. The budget goes to the Council for a vote next Tues. (6/16/09). Click below to read Strickland's article that ran in "The Flyer" and links to an interview and the website of Memphis Watchdog Joe Saino.

Time for the Knife
The City Council has the right, and the duty, to perform some drastic fiscal surgery.
By Jim Strickland

"The legislative power of the city shall be vested in the Council which shall have all legislative powers heretofore exercised by the Board of Commissioners, including but not limited to, the right to fix the tax rate and to approve and adopt all budgets." This authority over the city's purse strings, granted by the Memphis City Charter (Article 5, Section 16), is the most important power granted to the City Council.

In fact, the council has line-item authority over the budget though this authority has rarely been used by past councils. The current council has, however, broken with tradition on other issues and hopefully will decide this month to flex its authority over the proposed budget.

In Article 6, Section 40.1, the charter provides some details: "The operations and capital fund budgets of the City ... shall be prepared and submitted by the mayor with the assistance of the directors, and presented to the council, which shall approve or amend any and all budgets prior to the adoption of a tax rate as now provided, and said budgets as approved or as amended shall be the duly established budgets. The comptroller shall under no circumstances make disbursements not specifically provided for in any of the aforesaid budgets as finally approved by the council."

Again: The mayor may propose budgets, but it is the council that approves. or has the right to approve, "the duly established budgets." Consistent with the council's line-item authority, the administration cannot change any appropriation after the council establishes the budget. Traditionally, as we know, the council has waived this authority.

It is no secret that the world is in a recession. Most governments, businesses, and families in our country have less income than they did two or three years ago.

Last year, FedEx reduced the salaries of its highest earners. Earlier this year, it laid off thousands of workers. Last week, Governor Bredesen proposed 1,051 state layoffs, and Metro Nashville reduced the hours of its libraries and community centers.

By contrast, some two months ago, Mayor Herenton announced what he described as a balanced budget with no layoffs and a 3 percent raise for all city employees. In reality, this "balanced budget" ignored a court ruling to provide additional funding to the city schools next year up to $57 million.

Like the rest of the country, Memphis must make drastic reductions in spending. Many of us on the council refuse to raise taxes; our combined city and county property tax rate is already twice as high as that of Nashville, which has the state's second highest tax rate.

Besides the recent recession and the court's order on school funding (which has been appealed), Memphis is also challenged with a long-term population decrease and an economy that, even pre-recession, was static.

The City Council has been reviewing the mayor's proposed budget for six weeks and must make a decision by June 30th. The debate has ranged from a couple of council members pushing for no spending reductions to others, including me, trying to eliminate the raises and employment positions added in the last three years.

The majority of the budget committee has consistently rejected the notion of rolling back the raises. They argue that raises were withheld several years ago when the city administration grossly overestimated revenue, thereby creating a budgetary crisis.

Our current economic realities require drastic change. To date, the budget committee has reviewed about two-thirds of the proposed budget but has only reduced spending by about $6 million. We must do more.

Remembering that about 70 percent of the budget is personnel, we must reduce administrative staff. Eliminating the 3 percent raise would by itself save no less than $11 million. We can also eliminate most "company cars" and even address the issue of employment benefits.

Perhaps some city services can stand to be altered, but, importantly, no cuts must be made to public safety.

All we have to do to meet the challenges of this budget, while maintaining essential city services and avoiding a tax increase, is to make the kinds of tough decisions that most businesses and families have already made.

Memphis Watchdog Joe Saino agrees.
Click HERE for a news interview and HERE for his website.

There are 3 riverfront projects in the City's CIP budget.
Click HERE and HERE for budget info. on these projects.

City Councilmembers's e-mail addresses if you have concerns and/or suggestions about spending, projects, budget and would like to contact them:

Bill.Boyd@memphistn.gov
Harold.Collins@memphistn.gov
Wanda.Halbert@memphistn.gov
Edmund.Fordjr@memphistn.gov
Swearengen.Ware@memphistn.gov
Janis.Fullilove@memphistn.gov
myron.lowery@memphistn.gov
Reid.Hedgepeth@memphistn.gov
kemp.conrad@memphistn.gov
shea.flinn@memphistn.gov
bill.morrison@memphistn.gov
jim.strickland@memphistn.gov

Councilman Joe Brown does not accept e-mail.

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The Delta – Everything Southern!

If you’re interested in history, music, art, and literature, you won’t want to miss “The Delta - Everything Southern!” on Thursday June 18th. It’s a daylong look at the region that brings leading authorities to the University of Memphis’s Fogelman Center. To see presenters and a schedule, catch a sneak preview of Eden Brent on the piano, and register, click HERE. The cost for the day is $75/adults, $25/students, which includes lunch and parking.

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Solstice Hike Along River

Sat., June 13, 6:45 pm
Yes, the hike is a few days before the solstice this year, so be sure that doesn’t throw you off.

Join Sue Williams for the Sierra Club Chickasaw Group’s walk on the Chickasaw Bluff Trail. The Trail was saved for the public by the Chickasaw Bluffs Conservancy, the Sierra Club, and other organizations. There will be information about: their successful effort, effluent being discharged from the wastewater treatment plan, and the effect on air quality of electricity production at the TVA steam plan, visible from this area.

It’s an easy 2.5 mile walk on paved surface with a spectacular view of the Mississippi River - a great location for sunset photos. Meet at the Butler Park entrance on TN Street at the intersection with Butler Ave. next to the old Tennessee Brewery. For a map, click HERE.

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