Road closure starting tomorrow

Hazelwood Drive - Road Closure May 30 - Mid July, 2012

Beginning Wednesday, May 30, 2012, Hazelwood Drive between Bailey Collins and Bane/Hankins will be CLOSED daily from 7:00 AM till 7:00 PM for Utility Department sewer rehabilitation work. Detours will be clearly marked. Detour traffic will take Bailey Collins Drive, Gilbert Drive and Hankins Drive or Bailey Collins Drive, Hager Drive and Bane Drive. Please consider using Old Nashville Hwy. and Enon Springs Road as an alternate route.

This is the first of three section closures of Hazelwood to Enon Springs that will continue through early July. Please use extreme caution in this area and be alert for flag personnel. Thank you for your patience and understanding.

From the DNJ

It's hard to make a difference in society if you don't get involved, and the DNJ is offering you a chance to get involved by volunteering to help their message.

The Daily News Journal is looking for candidates to fill the citizen position on its Editorial Board, the group that forms The DNJ’s opinion each day.

People who are interested in local events and issues are encouraged to apply for the position, which lasts for three months and requires one meeting a week. Elected officials and government leaders are not allowed to serve.

Anyone who would like to serve on the board, or who has questions about serving, should contact DNJ Senior Writer Sam Stockard at 615-278-5165 or by email at stockard@dnj.com.

Local Company hiring

I'm very happy to post that Signature Security Service, Inc., a local Smyrna company is hiring for those interested.

We are taking applications for unarmed and armed security officers. Please email us if interested in working in the security field with all of your information. admin@signaturesecurityservice.com

Here is some basic information about them.

About "Tennessee's Best Security and Executive Protection Service" Description Providing top notch security officers, background checks, and executive protection. Will are a full service provider. 

General Information We provide unarmed security, armed security officers, and off duty police officers for your events or commercial property needs. We also provide Tennessee state required training to obtain a guard card. We offer unarmed, armed, baton, OC spray, EVOC, handcuffing, and First AID/CPR training.

2 years, 2 days

That was how long ago that a graduation party was turned from a fun filled evening to a occasion of sadness. The suspect in the shooting of the young man was quickly identified and after a few months returned to Smyrna.

2 years and 2 days later the suspect entered a surprise guilty plea.

A last-minute plea deal accepted by Chris “Gong” Nachampasak on Friday ended a first-degree murder case against him but has left family members with no real sense of closure or satisfaction. Nachampasak, 21, pleaded guilty to the May 16, 2010, drive-by shooting death of 14-year-old Rachan ‘Micky’ Chatree, who was attending a graduation party in Smyrna at the time.

I hope this brings some closer to the family. At least they do not have to suffer through a long drawn out trial that wound likely create more heartache.

EMS day tomorrow

Don't forget that tomorrow is the EMS day. Here are just some of what will be going on for those interested. It runs from 11AM to 3PM.

Rutherford County Emergency Medical Service with StoneCrest Medical Center will host the 6th Annual EMS Day. This gives the community an opportunity to interact with our emergency responders such as medics, firefighters and police department. The event is FREE. We will have food, bounce house, car seat saftey, bicycle rodeo, booths, games, black hawk helicopter, climbing wall and of course ambulances, fire trucks and police cars.

Music at the Mill - TODAY!!!

Smyrna Parks and Recreation Summer Music Series
Friday, May 18 at 7pm at Gregory Mill Park

Join the Smyrna Parks and Recreation Department at Gregory Mill Park at 390 Enon Springs Road, East for an evening of free music. Food vendors will be available and there will be inflatables for children. The first of our music series will feature "The O’Donnells". The O'Donnells are a father and son duo who bring a combination of musical influences together to create an honest and refreshing new sound. Very rarely will you find a pair who can entertain the crowds like Darryl Lee and Klinton O’Donnell do.

Assist us to grow

It's Friday and I'd like to ask a favor. This is Smyrna is over 7 years old and still going strong, but we could use your help. Our website does not accept advertisements now tries to make money for ourselves. What we like to do is point out grand-openings, charity events, fund raisers, and news. We like to talk about the issues that affect us, and how it will touch you in your daily life.

Our greatest desire is to make a town that grows from a bedroom community to one where you want to take part in local happenings.

One of the ways to do this is by putting the word out about our website. If you could like this comment on your facebook page, or directly link to the blog and mention it on your blog it will help us grow and to help others connect to a great town.

This is not good

It's 9:22 this fine Friday morning and I was impressed with how cool it felt already. Normally the last week or so the cool night was retreating already from the heat of the sun. I went to check the weather hoping for nice good air for the weekend airshow and the news is mixed.

While this shows the daily temps not being horrific, and the clouds will assist people from getting to sun burned, the thunderstorms will likely be an issue.

The weather channel has specifics.

Saturday
Mostly cloudy with thunderstorms and a chance of rain in the afternoon. High of 81F. Winds from the ENE at 5 to 10 mph shifting to the SSE in the afternoon. Chance of rain 40%.
Saturday Night
Overcast with thunderstorms and rain showers. Low of 59F. Winds from the SE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 60% with rainfall amounts near 0.5 in. possible.
Sunday
Overcast with thunderstorms and rain showers. High of 68F. Winds from the East at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 70% with rainfall amounts near 0.5 in. possible.
Sunday Night 
Overcast with a chance of a thunderstorm and a chance of rain, then a chance of rain after midnight. Low of 59F. Winds from the NE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 50% with rainfall amounts near 0.2 in. possible.

Be on the look-out.

The Smyrna Police Department has named its Top Five Most Wanted for May.
Anyone who has information about the suspects is asked to call 615-459-6644.

New Town of Smyrna Website...and problems

The town of Smyrna has rolled out a new layout for their website. The old system was a bit problematic for me so I'm hopeful this is a well tested and user friendly setup. I wish that our blog that has been reporting on issues and trying to connect people to our community was listed under media...7 years and and still going strong. The Meetings and Events section is real nice. They have a small part of it on the main page, but the larger calendar is well filled out and a great resource.

Council Missing
I found that I could not find a direct link to the Town Council. Unless I am overlooking it, there seems no way to find it directly. I finally found it by looking on the meetings and agenda page, that was directly linked, and noticed that this page was a sub-page to the council page. I say jokingly "What are they hiding?"...but it seems they're hiding the council. The council page is seemingly part of the 'Department' pages, but the general department pages is also a link I do not see...That's one I normally use the most outside of the contact page, on the old site.

404 Issue
They have made one small error...maybe not so small when you look at it. Most people look up information on Google, and a good example would be the town centre. If you went to Google, searched for 'Smyrna Town Centre', you would find that all of the links that Google has are now bad. Instead of using the old internal links, they changed them all...so until Google re-maps the website and the old address slowly fade, the people searching for information might find it hard to get said information. This extends to all the internal links that Google pulls up for me. Smyrna has removed their selves from the search results for the largest search engine in the US, and likely others.

Examples
Here is the address Google Returns
http://townofsmyrna.org/towncentre/index.asp

Here is the new address for the Town Centre
http://www.townofsmyrna.org/Departments/TownCentre.aspx

All new websites have a break-in period where they polish it and make it work better, but they would have to re-link all the pages to overcome the Google issue.

Taste of Smyrna

The annual Taste of Smyrna is on the Horizon for those interested.

Hosted by StoneCrest Medical Center, the event features signature menu items from local restaurants, live music by The Crusty Veterans and a healthy play zone. All funds raised will benefit the North Rutherford YMCA’s annual giving campaign

Currently it is scheduled for June 1st.

Teacher fair this Saturday

The Moon, Sky, Clouds, Sun, Stars, & Cars....

The Moon, Sky, Clouds, Sun, Stars, & Cars...., a photo by Tom C. Frundle on Flickr.

Taken in Smyrna

EMS Day...make plans

The Rutherford county EMS service (I hope I got that correct) is hosting a family event you might want to take your kids to see. It's called EMS day and it will be at Stonecrest Medical Center in Smyrna. Planned for May 19th it will run from 11AM until 3PM. Not only will it have the below described events, they will be offering child fingerprinting and id and some health screening for those interested.

Rutherford County Emergency Medical Service with StoneCrest Medical Center will host the 6th Annual EMS Day. This gives the community an opportunity to interact with our emergency responders such as medics, firefighters and police department. The event is FREE. We will have food, bounce house, car seat saftey, bicycle rodeo, booths, games, black hawk helicopter, climbing wall and of course ambulances, fire trucks and police cars.

This sounds like a fun event and I will post here and on FaceBook a reminder the day before.