Flooding Meeting update

Here's a good update of the sanitary sewer meeting sponsored by the Lick Creek Coalition (including Park Friends) last night at Evergreen Presbyterian. This subject wasn't directly related to the storm water flooding that threatens the park (or the misguided solutions offered by the city so far do), but it's a related issue that is affecting various neighborhoods bordering the park. The coalition is working together (neighborhoods and park groups) to solve all the flooding issues in the Lick Creek basin.

The update came out with the Evergreen Historic District news today. Both Chris Morton and Bill Bullock of Evergreen were planners for the sanitary sewer meeting.

"Last night several dozen midtowners met at Evergreen Presbyterian Church to learn about plans for resolving the causes of sanitary sewer backups in basements during heavy rain events. Public Works Director Dwan Gillion was on hand with his staff to address issues. Also on the agenda was a representative of the Tennessee Clean Water Coalition, and a presentation of the data collected so far from affected Midtowners.

If you have had issues and filled out a survey, that information will be shared with Public Works to help them pinpoint the trouble areas and design and implement solutions. Public Works indicated they have been performing "smoke surveys" to locate breeches in the sanitary and storm sewers. If you have yet to fill out a survey, fill it out and send it in soon- it will presented to Public Works in a few days. To download a copy of the survey, click here.

Director Gilliom and staff indicated that the solution will require an assessment of the specific problems which they are doing now, the hiring of a consulting engineering firm to design the solutions, and then the implementation of those solutions which may include realigning existing pipe, lining existing pipe with a "cured in place" product, or replacing pipe. There was an indication that such fixes may take as long as two years from now.

Most evidence points to these issues being caused by breaches in storm and sanitary sewers in city owned right-of-way. However, Director Gilliom noted that some issues may be exacerbated by issues with a homeowner's service line - the sewer line from the road right-of-way into the house. He recommended making sure all clean-out caps in yards are in place. He also advised than any repairs to that line are the homeowner's responsibility. A clean-out cap is usually a 5 inch diameter metal or PVC threaded covering over a sewer pipe in your front, back or side yard. If it is missing, storm water or other foreign material can enter your service line."

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.

Skatepark at Tobey!

Finally Memphis is joining the rest of the country and getting a skatepark. I'm glad to see our recreation reaching out to more youth. The skatepark will be in Tobey Park, near the fairgrounds, where the new dog park already is. It's nice to see Tobey get some attention and amenities, and hopefully it will continue to benefit from the fairground redevelopment. You can read the full CA article here.

Flyer article on Lick Creek

Halley Johnson wrote a nice overview article (with a great photo) on the Lick Creek issue and Jim Strickland's resolution to hire an outside engineer.

Photos from the Overton Park Junior Open

Board member Melanie White always is the Park Friends representative at the OPJO, one of the oldest youth golf tournaments in the country. Park Friends has helped sponsor it for several years now, and Melanie sent these photos in from this past week's play.

Emails needed before Tuesday!

Councilman Jim Strickland has proposed a resolution, passed in committee this past Tuesday, that would hire an outside expert in hydrology (no local engineers that we can find will go on record against the city engineers' Overton Park retention basin plan, since they all want to get contracts from the city) to survey the Midtown flooding and make recommendations. The city engineers are misrepresenting the 2006 study they commissioned and trying to do one large project in Overton Park instead of smaller projects all along the length of Lick Creek. We need an outside engineer to prove to the council that there are better and more effective solutions.

Please email the mayor and city council to let them know you support Jim Strickland's resolution. My letter is below. People present for the council meeting wearing park shirts Tuesday morning would also be very welcome.

Mayor@memphistn.gov, Bill.Morrison@memphistn.gov, Bill.Boyd@memphistn.gov, Harold.Collins@memphistn.gov, Wanda.Halbert@memphistn.gov, Jim.Strickland@memphistn.gov, Edmund.Fordjr@memphistn.gov, Swearengen.Ware@memphistn.gov, joe.brown@memphistn.gov, Janis.Fullilove@memphistn.gov, Myron.Lowery@memphistn.gov, Kemp.Conrad@memphistn.gov, Shea.Flinn@memphistn.gov, Reid.Hedgepeth@memphistn.gov


Dear Mayor Wharton,

I attended the council meeting this morning to support Councilman Strickland's resolution to have an outside engineering company that specializes in storm water issues do a study of the Lick Creek plan before proceeding with the city engineers' project.

I am the president of Park Friends and have been a member of the Lick Creek coalition from its beginning, and I have learned far more about storm water than I ever wanted to in my efforts to defend Overton Park from harm. The 2006 study by Oakley Ellers of the Lick Creek area concluded that detention in Overton Park will not help either Belleair or VECA, where the houses are flooding. They studied a smaller detention area than is currently being proposed by Director Gaskins, but they concluded it would not help.

The current proposal, which dumps a great deal more water in the park, has not been studied at all. Our coalition has tried to get local engineers to comment on the proposal, but all local engineers seem to be involved in city contracts one way or another, and no one will go on record about a plan proposed by the city office. We desperately need an outside, objective, expert opinion to weigh in on this major change to the park before we seriously consider it.

This plan may not help at all. The 2006 study said the only remedy was smaller detention basins up and down the length of Lick Creek. Your engineers have implemented only one of the study's recommendations as laid out, and it is not finished yet. Director Gaskins has been very unwilling to follow the study he himself commissioned and instead has come up with this one, huge, unstudied alternative that does harm to the park.

Please support Councilman Strickland as he tries to get an expert to take a look at our total drainage situation in Midtown before we do a large, irrevocable project with unknown consequences in an important and historic park.

Thank you for your support of our parks and green spaces.
Martha Kelly,
president, Park Friends

Old Forest Good for Health

The New York Times published an article saying that spending time in parks and forests can boost your white blood cells and lower your blood pressure, among other benefits. The Japanese have long recognized this benefit and go "forest bathing". It's also the coolest place to walk these hot days, so go ahead and reconnect to the Old Forest.