Guest Editoral in the Commercial Appeal

The nonprofit group Park Friends was founded in 1992 to help maintain Overton Park and to oppose plans to pave several of its green spaces for parking. We have been advocates for protection of the park ever since. We have defeated several proposed developments and completed projects that include sprinklers for the formal gardens, signs for the Old Forest trail, ongoing maintenance and clean-ups.

And now Park Friends has a modest proposal for city of Memphis officials: a conservation easement that would cover all the public green spaces of the park. Such a move would not only protect the irreplaceable old-growth forest but also prevent further paving and construction in the remainder of the park.

There has been a lot of ink spilled lately about the merits of proposed legislation that would establish the forest as a state natural area, versus the conservation easement that city officials prefer. But an easement and the natural area legislation could easily co-exist. Several parks across the state, including Shelby Farms, have a state natural area -- where the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation enforces restrictions on development and usage -- paired with an easement that protects the overall park in a way that allows for recreational facilities but prohibits inappropriate development.

An easement can be as loose or as protective as the property owner chooses to make it, but its advantage is that it would be an appropriate vehicle to cover all of Overton Park instead of just the forest. It is time for Memphians to stand up and demand a comprehensive and tightly written easement that would protect the entire park for generations to come.

The nonprofit Land Trust for Tennessee, which holds the easement for Shelby Farms, has been consulted by the city and is currently writing its first draft of an Overton Park easement. The Land Trust would hold the easement and legally enforce, if necessary, all protections written into the final draft. If the full park is covered by the easement, future generations of city officials would not be allowed to sell off or over-build the park.

Unfortunately, however, even with the excellent example of Shelby Farms in front of them, the city's Division of Park Services requested a draft easement that covers only the forest. Not even the Greensward, the large field and gathering place by Rainbow Lake, is covered in this first draft. Park Friends has been urging the city for months to cover the whole park, and it is disappointing that city officials are so far ignoring this opportunity to protect the crown jewel of the Memphis park system.

Expanding protection to all of Overton Park is crucial because the city has had an abysmal track record of defending the park in the past. Do we need a fire station? Let's put it in Overton Park. A maintenance area? Sure, put it in the park. More parking? Let's pave over another field. A senior center? Why not? Cut down some trees. Parts of the forest have been eaten away, but the other areas of the park are regularly threatened as well.

Shelby Farms and the new Shelby Farms Greenline have been prominent in the news lately, and there is a growing consensus that parks and recreational facilities are crucial elements for the city's future. Professionals deciding whether to bring jobs to the city and young creative types who enrich a city immeasurably are all drawn to green spaces and recreational facilities. Shelby Farms has been rightly hailed as a treasure, but the grand, old, urban park of Memphis remains Overton Park. It contains much of our history as a city and is accessible to and integrated with the neighborhoods on all sides. This park deserves comprehensive protection, not just for its forest but also for its remaining open spaces.

The golf course has been continually threatened by city budget cuts. It is important to the life of the park, and Park Friends is fighting to keep it operational; but if we ever do lose it, I worry that a land grab for asphalt parking lots or a sell-off of frontage along Poplar Avenue will follow. There needs to be protection in place to maintain the integrity and beauty of this historic and irreplaceable park.

Mayor A C Wharton has made park issues one of his major platforms. I hope he will step up to the plate and give Memphians an easement that has tight protections for both the forest and the other public spaces in Overton Park. The park deserves it. Memphis deserves it. Our grandchildren deserve it.

Martha Kelly is a Memphis artist and president of Park Friends.

Play Overton

The golf clubhouse is open for business, and it's not just for golfers. Overton is still lagging in rounds played and concessions sold, so please stop in to the clubhouse, have a soda or a beer, and sit on the lovely porch and watch the park go by for a few minutes.

We have several Park Friend members who are paying for a round of golf a week, whether they play or not. It's only $7 per round (another $7 to rent a cart), and only $4 a round if you're a senior.

You can also pick up one of our "Play Overton" stickers for your car.

The publicity about closing the golf course went away (for now), but we need to get the numbers up to keep making a strong case to the city council that Overton Park is an important course for the city to invest in and keep open.

There's a new foreman on the course who's been improving the greens and the roughs, so if you haven't played in a while, PLAY OVERTON and check it out!

Currently the course and clubhouse are open Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, but Park Friends and Councilman Kemp Conrad, who's taken an interest in the course, are encouraging DPS to give it a trial period of seven days a week for September and October. Audubon is closed for renovations, and the weather will break any time now, so it's a great time to test our numbers out at seven days a week.

T.O. Fuller Threatened -- Online Petition to Sign

The state budget cuts are threatening to close the golf course at T.O. Fuller State Park here in the Memphis area. It's the only other area park I know of that has an active park friends group that does maintenance and projects, and it would be a shame for the state to cripple one of our important area parks. As at Overton Park, the friends of T.O. Fuller feel that the park gets attention and maintenance because of the presence of the golf course. I would fear for Overton if we lost our golf course, and they fear that the closing of their course is a prelude to the closing of their park.

Middle and East Tennessee have many beautiful state parks, and it feels like a West Tennessee state park in an African American area tends to get less attention and care from far-flung state officials than some of the more flagship parks in tourist areas. Please rally around and take a minute or two to show support for an area park. There's an online petition to sign on the Friends of T.O. Fuller website.

Volunteer Reinforcements for Parks

The CA has a good story today on Joan Alperin, a volunteer landscaper at Fox Meadows Golf Course, one of the city-owned courses. She spends hours each week tending to the golf course and setting out plants for it. Outdoors, Inc. co-owner Joe Royer says that the park closest to your home is the most important park in the world.

Memphis parks are lucky to have various people adopt them and do a bit more tending and caretaking than the DPS budget can manage on its own. Lee Askew and Mary Allie McClellan have been long time daily litter gatherers on their morning walks through Overton Park. We've also been lucky enough to have different people clearing and maintaining Old Forest trails and the jogging trail. Overton Park manager Gary Basye cites Park Friends' volunteer efforts in the article.

Ms. Alperin makes the point that if everyone picked up just a bit of what they encounter in their daily lives, Memphis could be transformed. Please consider picking up a few pieces of litter, pulling a few weeds from flowerbeds, or doing other small services for the park that is most important to you. If many of us did a few small things regularly, our parks would become their best selves.

Golf Hours under further discussion

The CA has an article today on a recent meeting called because of continuing unhappiness among golfers over shorter course hours instituted July 1st. Mary Cashiola, my favorite local columnist and blogger, has a much more informative follow-up posted on the Memphis Flyer site.

OPJO Going Strong

The Overton Park Junior Open kicked off this morning, and it was great to see the golf course humming with the golfers of the future. It's a promising looking field and should be a fun week.

Overton Park Junior Open update

People wanting to sign their kids up for the Junior Open golf tournament have been having a little trouble getting through on the phone because of the new golf course hours. The mayor recently cut back most city courses to being open only half the week. Overton Park's course is now open Monday mornings, Friday afternoons (12-8), and all day Saturday and Sunday. During those times, staff should be on hand to answer the phones and register entrants for the tournament. People can sign up through the weekend, so keep encouraging your kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews, neighbhorhood kids, etc. to come on out for three fun days of golf, July 29-31.

Parks in the news

The CA has had two articles over the last two days talking about park news. The first deals with altered hours for golf on park courses. Recently the mayor's office closed most city courses three days a week and made the other weekday hours 12-8 at most courses. The afternoon heat is a tough time to play, esp. for the seniors who are a strong percentage of the customers, at least at Overton Park. Parks Director Cindy Buchanan appealed to city officials and got some mornings added back into the schedule.

The second article featured River Workout Fitness Program, a workout at the Greenbelt park that offered a free trial Saturday morning. Beats a concrete box gym building any day!

Lick Creek Meeting last night

Park and neighborhood groups met again with the city engineering dept. last night to talk about updates to the storm water flood plan for Lick Creek, both in Overton Park and throughout Midtown. Since our last meeting, the engineers have met with Kevin Tucker, a golf course architect who redesigned Galloway and did a master plan (apparently unimplemented) for the Overton course some years ago.

The plan still calls for widening the culvert under Poplar (which is unfortunately likely to take about six months) and a berm across the front of the zoo and its parking lot (skirting the edge of the Greensward but taking no trees). They've decided to route the water coming into the park under Poplar east and across golf hole #7 instead of west and across several others. That route allows water to flow more directly into the forest, where it can help the thirsty sycamores.

They will also have to rework several bridges, including two newer ones by the golf house and by the Rainbow Lake playground. Still in question are the two older bridges, esp. the one just downstream of Poplar, which were built by the WPA. They can reroute water around them or rebuild them to be wider at the base. The bridges are in dubious repair and may succumb to floods in the highest of storms if left in their present condition. Hugh Teaford of the engineers is due to meet with several of us, including representatives from Landmarks and Memphis Heritage, to consider the question.

Bad news from the meeting was the report on the contracting engineer digging the retention basin at CBU. He has breached a pipe or two and not done effective erosion control during the project, and brown water has been released into Lick Creek. I'd noticed several days ago that the creek through the park was stagnant with a terrible smell, and this is the cause. CPOP has photos of the site and more information here. Given how badly this retention basin construction has gone wrong, park lovers can rejoice that nothing like this project is going to happen in the Greensward.

Junior Open at Overton Park

Don't forget the Overton Park Junior Open is coming! The tournament, the oldest junior golf tournament in the USA, will be held July 29th, 30th and 31st on the Overton Park course, and it's open to children from ages 6-17. With a $10 registration fee, it's days' worth of fun for about the price of a movie. Please encourage children, grandchildren, friends’ children....all children who play any level of golf, to sign up for the fun. PFI has been a long time sponsor of this event and we hope you will join us for the 2009 OPJO. Volunteers for the event are also welcome. Come hang out in the park and watch the golfers of the future.

Overton Golf Course and others closing three days a week

The city just announced that six public golf courses will close three days a week to save revenue. Herenton had previously announced a plan to permanently close several, and this keeps them all open, but this money saving plan will be a loss to all of the seniors and families who depend on Overton as an affordable way to get out, get some exercise, see some friends, and play a round of golf. The Audubon and Galloway courses will remain open every day.

The CA article is here.

Hopefully a new mayor can get a better grip on the city budget and not cut parks and public amentities that draw people to the city and make it a good place to live.

Email Parks director Cindy Buchanan to let her know if you dislike this move. Your letters give her the clout to fight for our courses.

Overton Park Open golf tournament

The dates for the Overton Park Junior Open have been set. The tournament, the oldest junior golf tournament in the USA, will be held July 29th, 30th and 31st on the Overton Park course. Please encourage children, grandchildren, friends’ children....all children who play any level of golf, to sign up for the fun. PFI has been a long time sponsor of this event and we hope you will join us for the 2009 OPJO. Volunteers for the event are also welcome. Come hang out in the park and watch the golfers of the future.