Eat, drink, and do good for the town

Lori, from Smyrna Tennessee History and stuff asked me to share this with our readers.

RCCRA Pancake Breakfast

When: Saturday, October 3, 2009 6:30-9:30 am
Where: Smyrna Rescue Squad building - 203 Front Street in Smyrna

Tickets are $5.00 (all you can eat- pancakes, sausage, coffee, juice)

Proceeds from the breakfast will be used to purchase building materials for local projects. For more information call 615-330-2297or e-mail rccrasmyrna@yahoo.com Proceeds from past breakfasts have been used locally to build 7 wheelchair ramps, repair 2 storm damaged roofs, improve porches / steps on 3 homes and cut and remove numerous downed trees. In addition, the RCCRA also helped with disaster relief following the April tornado in Murfreesboro.

The Rutherford County Christian Relief Association works locally were it matters to you and I.

Vandalism in Smyrna

Three businesses suffered vandalism in the same night.

Gil’s Ace Hardware, Rockin’ Chair Cafe and Krystal on Nissan Drive had glass broken out of their windows and doors around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, said Ginny Williams, who operates the hardware store. Her family owns the Gilsville center where the hardware store and cafe are located.

It sounds like the idiocy of a drunken weekend ending on a low note for someone.

Today!

I tried to contact the church to get permission to post this, but received no reply in the short time. I figured this was public as they asked to get the word out, so here it is.

September 26, this Saturday is the Community Fish Fry at Smyrna First United Methodist Church located on Sam Davis Road. All proceeds are going to Georgette and Mark Norman. Georgette began chemo yesterday for ovarian cancer. This is a tough transition for this self-employed hard working woman who is taking a leave from work. Also, be sure and visit Mark Norman at Alexander Chevrolet in Murfreesboro for Service Work where Mark is a Service Writer. Ask for Mark! The fish fry is from 4:00-7:00 pm. Henry Brendle will be cooking up "enough fish to feed the town!!" So invite your friends and neighbors. We'll also have beans, cole slaw, hush puppies and home-made dessert, all for just $7.00!!
**Please help us get the word out about a great meal and a great time with some great people!!**

Sandra Phelps
Office Manager
Smyrna First United Methodist Church
459-2826 Church

Google link to map to find the church.

Lotus Blossom Photography contest

Amber is a frequent commenter here at This is Smyrna and I noticed that her blog for Lotus Blossom Photography has a contest going on called "Money Saving Monday contest!!!" .

I’m very excited to announce our first Money Saving Monday contest!! Simply leave your best money-saving tip for weddings in the comments section between now and Sunday September 27th. Next Monday I will post all the tips and we will have a vote to determine the winner. What fabulous prize will you win?? You’re choice of a Starbucks gift card or an iTunes gift card! I can’t wait to see what you come up with!

I'm a guy so I'll admit that I'm at a loss for a good suggestion, but what say you all? You might just win a nice prize if you brainstorm the best answer.

Benefit this Saturday

This is a fundraiser that the fisherman fisherperson in your life might be interested in. An employee of the town is having a hard time and the Murfreesboro Bass Association is hosting this event to help him.

Kenny Davis, who works in our Vehicle Maintenance Department, has been battling cancer. He is now receiving treatment through the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. A benefit fishing tournament for Kenny is being held at Fate Sanders on September 26th

Here is the flyer with details.

Kenny Davis (2)

When being in the top sucks

This might sound like a post to create fear in parents but you need to note one phrase first.

Chemicals most responsible for the toxicity outside this school

These are the chemicals we all breath in.

The USA Today did a report and by using the numbers based upon air pollution at schools ranked them and Smyrna was in the top 1 percent (1%) for having issues with pollution.

John Colemon Elementary School 348 of 127,809
Lancaster Christian Academy 541 of 127,809
Smyrna High School 212 of 127,809
Stewartsboro Elementary 328 of 127,809

If I read this right that means there are only 212 schools with worse outside air then Smyrna High School in the country. That counts all of the industrial towns, mill towns, towns with refineries. Please tell me our air is not that damn bad people. If it is why is no one up in arms about it. Not just for our kids, but for our own lungs.

This is also the air that you and I breath. Examine the school ranking between Smyrna and Murfreesboro and note the differences.

The main polluter according to the article is Nissan. Scorecard website information on Nissan pollution output.

Depot Day

It is coming and they still have a lot of open spaces to rent out to YOU. Rhonda Allen emailed me and asked me to pass this along.

Please tell everyone you know about Depot Days, Smyrna's only community-wide festival. Years ago this event was as celebrated as the Main Street festival in Murfreesboro. The downtown business district is trying to revive the tradition to match the revitalized downtown.

The date is Saturday, October 10th. Booth space is 20'x20' and the fee is $50. All spaces are outdoors, no electricity furnished. Vendor must provide all set-up items. The fee pays for advertising and clean-up.

The business owners of the downtown historic district organize this event.
Their website is historicsmyrna.org.

For more information about Depot Day or booth rental, please contact the people below:

Joel Cox
Phone: (615)459-3825
Email: joelpcox@yahoo.com

Scott Miller
Phone: (615)355-9787
Email: smiller@nssionline.com

For more information about Smyrna's Got Talent at Depot Day or entertainment questions, please contact:

Karan Harrell
Phone: (615)355-8586
Email: karanh61@yahoo.com

Rated R [for Religion]

I like recycling and multi-use buildings. One thing that has always impressed me about the town government here is that fact that the Town Hall, and now the Justice Center were recycled medical buildings. instead of building from the ground up they re purposed them.

Multi-use is also a great idea. The Market that recently opened is one such place. Being open as it is it can be used for almost any combination of items. Now into Smyrna we will have an odd teaming of movies and religion.

The New Vision Baptist Church in Murfreesboro is expanding to Smyrna, and instead of having a whole new campus, they are creating a temporary campus at the Malco theatre. The Smyrna AM reported on this last week. In an email to This is Smyrna, TN. Campus Pastor Blake Nichols said..

We really think this is going to be a neat experience for the Smyrna community. New Vision has spent lots of money with a consulting and equipping group out of California called “Church on Wheels” (www.churchonwheels.com ) to purchase sound and light equipment, children’s ministry equipment, signage etc to turn the theater into a church every Sunday morning.

They guarantee that we can go from theater to church in 45 minutes from the time we roll the trailer up to the front door. We get the equipment Oct 11 and are anxious to see if we can accomplish that.

The Smyrna campus starts Sunday October 18th at 10:00 and we have to be completely packed and out by noon for the first matinee.

As for the service:

Music will be live as well as stuff for the kids but the message will be a video of Pastor Brady Cooper in HD projected full screen through the theaters equipment. The first Sunday, worship will be led by Russ Lee the award winning lead singer of the contemporary Christian band New Song.

We’re excited about bringing a new experience to Smyrna and know this has the opportunity to really impact the community.

This is our first time to try this but multi-site churches and “video pastors” are a growing trend across the nation and there are currently about 1000 churches either experimenting with it or planning to in the next 5 years.

I remember when I lived in Kansas seeing that one of the theatres has reserved one of the screens for a video conference for a local corporation. I guess with modern technology and modern electronic communications more and more different forms of services will find new partnerships that work for both.

They did WHAT!!!!

The Smyrna Am has been posting the police reports online for a bit and I will admit a bit of voyeuristic pleasure in reading them.

Sept 18th
An unknown caller at the Shell gas station at the corner of Sam Ridley and StoneCrest parkways called police around 6:30 p.m. Thursday to inform them of an armed person.
According to the caller, two men were inside the vehicle and one had a large handgun with a scope mounted to it. The caller said it was being pointed at an unknown target down the street. No arrests were made.

Sept 17th
A Sam Davis Road resident called police to report a man in a Century Fire Protection truck pointed a gun at her Wednesday evening.
The woman watched from her home as the man approached Smyrna Elementary School before he drove the truck towards Lowry Street around 7 p.m. She told police the man followed her on the road for several minutes before flashing a silver handgun. She was able to give officers a description of the vehicle, which an officer passed en route to the school.
An officer made contact with the driver at the Town Centre and called the company, based in Atlanta, to confirm the man was an employee. The suspect’s supervisor said the man had been in town to pick up some tools the previous day. The man was told not to come back to Smyrna, but was not arrested.

Sept 15th
Two men were arrested Monday afternoon after allegedly robbing a man at gunpoint on North Lowry Street.
Rick Roberts told police he was waiting on a cab at the Keystop Market at North Lowry and Nolan Drive after his car broke down around 1 p.m. Monday. He was approached by two men, one of whom put a silver .38-caliber revolver in his face.
The men, James Stanback and Anthony Milton, were detained at the store shortly after the incident happened. A team of officers searched the area and found the gun and wallet behind Family Cash Advance at 408 North Lowry.
Stanback, 25, was charged with aggravated robbery and taken to the Rutherford County Jail on a $20,000 bond. Miller, 20, was charged with a count of simple possession of a Schedule VI drug. His bond was set at $2,500.

You could easily get the view that Smyrna is not a safe town.

I think these police reports are great to get a feel for a community.

Stringing words together

The last few weeks I have had to force myself to do what little writing I have done. My enthusiasm for blogging is at a low of late and I hope to pick things up. Right now stringing words together is a labor.

a loss for the chickens.

Article link

A Smyrna Get-together

The bloggers in the area once in a blue moon get-together to talk and say hi, but it is a rather small tight group.

I'd like to throw an iddea out to ALL readers. If I can convince our intrepid co-blogger that works at a local bowling lane to try to get us a deal I was thinking of having a larger get-together. We have regular readers and I want to try to meet more of you and give you the chance to meet each other.

If we can get about 15 RSVP's I'd love to try to have a "This is Smyrna, TN. " night at the lanes. Leave a note in comments if you feel this would work.

The freshest eggs

This is a step above backyard chickens. Your local restaurants having their own layers. That's so cool!

Reporting from Oakland - When the chickens arrived, clucking and pecking, in the rush of Saturday dinner hour -- Witch, Bootsy and five layers to be named later -- they transformed Pizzaiolo restaurant into the latest outpost on food's frontier.

Many urban eateries boast their own kitchen gardens, with mizuna and Mr. Stripey heirloom tomatoes sprouting on rooftops and busy street medians. Some farms even host top-flight dining rooms, where next season's prosciutto snuffles placidly nearby.

Of course banned here, but we are working on it.

Hopefully the cooling trend will continue and Depot Day will not be a scorcher like the last one I attended. I could use a nice cool one.

Fish Fry

The wings of Freedom Fish Fry is this weekend.

Be there.

On stage in Smyrna

The Lamplighter's Theatre Company here in Smyrna might have some competition in the future according to this small DNJ article

New theater group putting on production
Consider This Productions will present "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown" at 7 :30 p.m. Sept. 24-26. An additional performance will be held at 2:30 p.m. Sept. 26.

They will perform at the Smyrna Church of Christ. I checked the CoC website and found nothing on the group so I'm not sure whom they are or anything else. If you have information please drop the information into comments.

Lamplighter's will also be performing this month.

Lamplighter's presents 'My Fair Lady'
Theatre opens season Sept. 18
Lamplighter's Theatre Company's “Season to Fall in Love” opens with one of the most beloved musicals of all time, Lerner & Loewe's “My Fair Lady.” The musical took Broadway by storm when it opened in 1956 earning nine Tony Awards including Best Musical, Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Choreography, and Best Costume Design. “My Fair Lady” went on to become the longest running major musical in Broadway history to that time.

Good luck to the new company.

Question

What do the readers here think of the Minami Japanese Steak Seafood & Sushi. I'm thinking of taking my wife there tonight and I've NEVER been to a sushi joint

Google map of Smyrna Liquor Applications

View Package Liquor Applications - Smyrna in a larger map

This is a map of the applications for stores to sell package liquor in Smyrna. I'll update it monthly as the agendas go up and color code it as to voted for or against. As of right now only one has been voted against...but two I have added will be coming up for their vote before the board tonight.

I'm surprised that none have been added to the South Lowry stretch of road towards Murfreesboro.