Good morning, Nashville. It’s been two years since Metro started up a program to deal with the backlog of stormwater issues, tacking a special fee onto water bills intended to generate enough revenue to pay for all the fixes. So far, just 246 stormwater projects of 3,277 have been completed and some folks are concerned that Metro isn’t moving fast enough. It’s important to note that many of the projects grew out of last year’s flood, and Metro Water was also sidetracked by the ballooning costs of the flood home buyout program and fixing the water treatment plant that flooded back in May. Given the volume of projects on the waiting list, they haven’t been able to provide a timeline for completion.
- A helping hand for Japan. Several groups in Hendersonville joined together to hold a bottled water drive over the weekend and collected more than 300 cases of water to send to victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami.
- Hispanic population boom. The drastic increase in Nashville’s Hispanic population could factor into the redistricting discussion. According to the 2010 census data, nearly 10% of Nashvillians are Hispanic.
- Bits & pieces. Nashville is rapidly gaining cred with the technology sector for its boom in tech jobs and startups … University of Tennessee fans held a rally in support of men’s basketball coach Bruce Pearl, who may not last another season thanks to some hefty allegations of ethical violations … Both the Rivergate Mall and the Cool Springs Galleria seem to be on the rebound from the recession … Remember when the TVA just announced a decrease in fuel costs? Rates are also about to go up for the summer, resulting in an average increase of $3 on each bill … Vanderbilt needs some new male volunteers for the HIV vaccine trials. No, you don’t have to have HIV, and no, they don’t give it to you.
Photo by Rebecca Seung.