GREAT AMERICAN CLEANUP EVENT REMINDER

Keep America Beautiful is a nation wide effort to keep our communities as lovely as we would want them to be.

Keep America Beautiful's Great American Cleanup, the nation's largest community improvement program, takes place annually from March 1 through May 31, involving an estimated 3 million volunteers and attendees. The hardworking volunteers donated more than 5.7 million hours in 2010 to clean, beautify and improve more than 33,000 communities during more than 30,000 events in all 50 states and beyond. Activities included beautifying parks and recreation areas, cleaning seashores and waterways, handling recycling collections, picking up litter, planting trees and flowers, and conducting educational programs and litter-free events.

As part of the local effort the town of Smyrna is holding their 6th annual stream clean up. For anyone who enjoys fishing, boating, or just sitting and watching the stream flow past, this gives you the chance to keep the area the way you would want it to be.

6th ANNUAL
TOWN OF SMYRNA
STREAM CLEANUPS

AS PART OF THE NATIONWIDE
GREAT AMERICAN CLEANUP EVENT

**********
STREAM CLEANUP #1
MARCH 12TH
(3-26-11 makeup date)
***
STREAM CLEANUP #2
APRIL 30TH (no makeup date)
***
STREAM CLEANUP #3
MAY 14TH (5-21-11 makeup date)
***
ALL SATURDAYS
**********
8AM – NOON
**********
YOUTH GROUPS, SCOUTS, CHURCHES, FIRMS, &
INDIVIDUALS ARE ALL WELCOME
**********
HERE’S YOUR CHANCE TO TRY OUR EQUIPMENT
“FUNDED UNDER AN AGREEMENT WITH TWRA”
**********
STREAM CLEANUP MEETING SITES:
TO BE ANNOUNCED
**********

FOR MORE INFORMATION & TO SIGN-UP
CALL GREG Upham @ 355-5701 (or email)

If you like to join in please give Greg a call and make plans for the days listed.

This post will repost the Friday before each scheduled date.

In Smyrna?

You hear of the horror like living conditions of migrant workers in the fruit and vegetable fields of Florida and California. The cramped quarters and substandard housing is part of all good labor disputes. I am shocked to hear the word "labor camp" and "Smyrna" used in the same article...the same sentence even.

Under the H2-B program, "the foreign worker is bound to the sponsoring employer and if the employer terminates the employment relationship - even illegally - the worker loses his legal status to work or remain in the United States," the complaint states.
The Vanderbilts sent the plaintiffs and other workers to its labor camps in Mason and Smyrna, Tennessee.

I'm surprised no one has attempted to photograph this labor camp so the world can see the horror...or the hyperbole of the scare tactics of the complainant.

Good news people

Every job counts.

More than 60 new jobs are coming to Rutherford County.

Gov. Bill Haslam and state economic officials announced Wednesday morning that the auto supplier Valeo is moving to Smyrna.

Valeo is renovating a facility on Enon Springs Road. The company makes front-end parts for Nissan.

I'm going to have to be less pessimistic in the near future.

Water Rapids In Slow Motion

This is at Nice Mill Dam in Smyrna, TN. When the water levels are high there are some cool looking rapids that i had to film and put in slow motion. Filmed with Kodak Zi8. Enjoy

Spaghetti for Friday

Good local cause

The Smyrna Senior Center, located at 100 Raikes St., near the Smyrna Public Library, will host a spaghetti dinner from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday. The dinner includes baked spaghetti, salad, bread, homemade desserts and tea or coffee. The cost is $8 for adults and $4 for children younger than 10. The dinner is dine-in or carry out.

Enjoy.

Hiring at Nissan....NOW!

It looks like the hiring phase of the plant and new production line going online next year is now happening.

Jobseekers in Rutherford and neighboring Middle Tennessee counties are invited to apply to Yates Services, LLC, for positions located at Nissan’s Vehicle Assembly Plant in Smyrna.

The job fair will take place between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Saturday at the Murfreesboro Career Center, 1313 Old Fort Parkway.

Good luck.

BIG event reminder for today

Information can be found here

Todays Thunder Storms in Smyrna

2011 Great Tennessee Air Show

In all of my time in Smyrna I never have gone to the Tennessee Air Show. I might try to make it this year...it all depends on my poor knees. I hope this is a great show. We lost the BBQ festival and the air show did not happen last year, so we could use a great community event such as this to balance out the September Rotary Fish Fry.

We're fighting mad.......

Well, as most of you know, our Kroger's on S. Lowry is closing on May 19th. There are several of us so upset about this store that has been there for 18 yrs, that we have started a facebook group called keep Kroger's on Lowry open. We have well over 100 members so far and it seems to be growing daily. I have also joined up with Karen's Kustards and we are getting people to sign a petition when they come in for a bite to eat. April 17th from 1pm til 5pm we will be having a big petition drive at Karen's Kustards. There will be free ice cream cones for everyone that signs the petition plus we will be having a few things in the field beside her business. Someone has donated a few inflatables so the kiddies can bounce around and have fun while the adults talk about Kroger's.

I have been told by several business people at the strip mall there that Sears did look into the few parcels that where on the left side of Kroger's to put in an outdoor living center. When Sears found out Kroger's was leaving they decided not to come to town. This would have been jobs created plus tax revenue for the city. This is something the city needed but Kroger's says it's loosing to much money. Why not do a small remodel and put in gas pumps as well to build that side of town up? You have to spend a little money to make money. Please try to come by on April 17th to sign our petition or at least stop by soon to show your support.

Smyrna Cemetery Committee flyer

The Smyrna Cemetery Committee has a new informational flyer out that they would like me to share with our readers. This volunteer group really shows the best of Smyrna and is deserving of our support.



Click for larger image

News Update

Nissan has announced that the plant in Smyrna and plants elsewhere, will be closed for certain days due to part supply issues.

Nissan will stop production at factories in Tennessee, Mississippi and Mexico over the next two weeks because of uncertain availability of parts from Japan, the company said today.

Assembly plants in Smyrna, Tenn., and Canton, Miss., and an engine plant in Decherd, Tenn., will be idle on April 8-11 and then April 18-21.

Nissan did say that these days were scheduled later in the year and moved forward.

Nissan said in a statement that it was moving forward previously planned non-production days from the second and third quarter of this year.

Nothing is said about the pay for employees during these shutdown days.

Higher than the county

The unemployment numbers for the county and Smyrna have been released and Smyrna is higher to my surprise.

Rutherford County’s unemployment rate for February stayed at the same 8.8 percent rate measured in January, the state reported Thursday.
.....
Smyrna’s unemployment rate was at 9.7 percent for both the first two months of this year. Both rates are lower than the 10 percent unemployment measured February 2010.

This is not a horrible difference...unless you're one of the .9 percent employed that is the difference.