We offer this final collection of Rivers and Spires photos for your enjoyment.

All photos by Bill Larson/Clarksville Online

Clarksville Online was on the scene, soaked to the skin, capturing many of the day events — and the people — on camera. Here is a gallery of those shots.

Rivers & Spires Festival orginated in 2003 as a tribute to the soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division who, at the time, were returning from a deployment. Since then, it has continued to honor the community’s heritage by paying special tribute to Fort Campbell soldiers, many of whom are are currently deployed overseas, and their families.

The 2008 event opened with a re-igniting of the eternal flame on Public Square. Before the ceremony, I was reassured by City Councilor Geno Grubs that the flame, which has been off more than on over the past year, had been snuffed by a mechnical problem, and not by a city trying to save money or “the wind blowing out the flame.”

An impressive ceremony was held at the Pillar of Clouds, Pillar of Fire monument,with a color guard and numerous city and Fort Campbell officials present.

Thursday evening was also designated APSU night, one of the main highlights was the fact that DJ $crilla was to present a song written for Austin Peay State University. He was chosen last fall by the Govs Programming Council to write an original song for APSU. He has written songs for other universities, including George Washington University, Louisiana State University and Vanderbilt University. $crilla also performed other original songs written in honor of various Greek organizations. University President Tim Hall attended the performance.

Austin Peay State University was also one of the signature sponsors Rivers and Spires this year. Many of the volunteers are APSU students, faculty and staff.

Also performing Thursday night was singer/songwriter Josh Phiffer, who grew up in a musical home immersed in his parents love of music. Now 21, Josh brings this history to the stage. His rich musical heritage and wide range of influences is evident in his melodic songwriting, his tasty, adept guitar playing and on-stage presence. He has an uncanny knack for putting the audience at ease and welcoming them into his world. Over the past year, Josh has been touring around the U.S., playing over 150 shows, opening for such bands as Rookie of the Year, This Day, and Age, Making April, Foreverinmotion, Long Since Forgotten, All the Day Holiday, Get Your Guns and A Plea for Purging..

Cypher Addicts Crew, a group which is composed of APSU students also was one of the spotlighted performers of the evening.

Schedule and map

The schedule of events, performers, and a map showing the location of each of the 6 stages is available on the Rivers and Spires official web site.

Photo Gallery for Thursday

At approximately 4:36 a.m this morning, a 5.4 magnitude earthquake located near Gards Point Illinois rattled buildings and caused minor damage. The quake was felt as far as the Chicago area, and even into Arkansas. The earthquake was easily felt in Clarksville, Tennessee as it was reported by multiple callers to 911, and by police officers over the public safety radio system.The quake occurred on a fault line adjacent to the New Madrid fault.

The New Madrid has been quiet for over a century, but is notorious for its devastating clusters of quakes in 1811-1812.

Here’s some information on the quake from the USGS Web site.

There have been 2000+ reports from people feeling the quake around the country, with a few from Clarksville.

Earthquakes are one of multiple scenarios that Clarksville area emergency preparedness officials, including the Red Cross, prepare and train for.

Here’s a little bit of history on the New Madrid seismic area:

The New Madrid Seismic Zone is made up of reactivated faults that formed when North America began to split or rift apart during the breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia in the Neoproterozoic Era (about 750 million years ago). The resulting Midcontinent Rift System failed but remained as a scar or zone of weakness. The area was then flooded by an ancient ocean, depositing layers of sediment on the rift. Since the 1970s, thousands of earthquakes have been recorded in the New Madrid seismic zone.

In 1974, instruments were installed in and around the area to monitor seismic activity. Since then, more than 4,000 earthquakes have been recorded, most of which are too small to be felt. On average, one earthquake per year is large enough to be felt in the area.

In studying maps of quake epicenters, two trends are apparent. First is the general northeast-southwest trend paralleling the trend of the Reelfoot Rift. The second is the intense cross trend (northwest to southeast) that occurs just southwest of New Madrid. This second trend coincides with an intrusive igneous body which lies deeply buried beneath the sediments of the rift zone. Several other bodies of deeply buried intrusive rock are known to exist within the seismic zone. The depths of these igneous rock bodies closely corresponds to the depth of the seismic activity.
1811/1812 earthquake series

Looking at those early 1800 quakes:
* December 16, 1811, 0815 UTC (2:15 a.m.); 7.7 magnitude; epicenter in northeast Arkansas. It caused only slight damage to man-made structures, mainly because of the sparse population in the epicentral area. However, landslides and geological changes occurred along the Mississippi River, and large localized waves were caused by fissures opening and closing below the Earth’s surface.

* December 16, 1811, 1415 UTC (8:15 a.m.); 7.0 magnitude; epicenter in northeast Arkansas.This shock followed the first earthquake by six hours.

* January 23, 1812, 1500 UTC (9 a.m.); 7.6 magnitude; epicenter in the Missouri Bootheel. The meizoseismal area was characterized by general ground warping, ejections, fissuring, severe landslides, and caving of stream banks.

* February 7, 1812 (the New Madrid Earthquake), 0945 UTC (4:45 a.m.); 7.9 magnitude; epicenter near New Madrid, Missouri. New Madrid was destroyed. At St. Louis, Missouri, many houses were damaged severely, and their chimneys were thrown down. The meizoseismal area was characterized by general ground warping, ejections, fissuring, severe landslides, and caving of stream banks.

Geologic effects of the New Madrid quakes:

Large areas sank into the earth, fissures opened, lakes permanently drained, new lakes were formed, and forests were destroyed over an area of 150,000 acres (600 km²). Many houses at New Madrid were thrown down. “Houses, gardens, and fields were swallowed up,” one source notes. But fatalities and damage were low, because the area was sparsely settled.

The earthquakes were felt as far away as New York City and Boston, Massachusetts, where churchbells rang.

This series of temblors caused permanent changes in the course of the Mississippi River, which appeared to flow backward. Because of the change in the course of the Mississippi River, land was cut off from counties by the river and wound up on the other side of the new riverbed, on the other side of the Mississippi. The settlement of Reverie, Tennessee, in Tipton County was cut off and placed on the western bank of the Mississippi River on the Arkansas side.

Along the Tennessee/Arkansas state line, geological features are still present almost 200 years after the events, showing the former course of the Mississippi River as it was before the 1811/1812 earthquakes.

The potential for the recurrence of large earthquakes and their impact today on densely populated cities in and around the seismic zone has generated much research devoted to understanding earthquakes. Establishing the probability for an earthquake of a given magnitude is an inexact science. By studying evidence of past quakes and closely monitoring ground motion and current earthquake activity, scientists attempt to understand their causes, recurrence rates, ground motion and disaster mitigation. This is the potential impact area of the New Madrid fault:

The probability of magnitude 6.0 or greater in the near future in the New Madrid fault area is considered significant; a 90% chance of such an earthquake by 2040 has been given. In the June 23, 2005, issue of the journal Nature, the odds of another 8.0 event within 50 years were estimated to be between 7 and 10 percent.

Because of the unconsolidated sediments which are a major part of the underlying geology of the Mississippi embayment, as well as the river sediments along the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys to the north and east (note the red fingers extending up these valleys in the image above), large quakes have the potential for more widespread damage than major quakes on the west coast. Additionally, the area affected will be larger since beyond the rift zone itself there are few other faults to attenuate the seismic waves.

Source material from Wikipedia

I hereby challenge our city to fix our broken intersections, and not to profit off a problem the city has created intentionally or otherwise!

The city insists their goal is road safety and not revenue, so I am sure they would not mind putitng their money where their mouth is. I propose that if they approve red-light cameras in Clarksville any money generated by fines should by ordinance be placed in a lock box account and the use of those funds be restricted to enacting safety enhancing engineering and other improvements to the very same intersections where the cameras would be located. The city should also not approve any contract which gives a per violation fee to the ‘for profit’ camera vendors.

The city should also commit to take steps to re-time the red-lights throughout Clarkville to enhance the flow of traffic. I drove from one end of Clarksville to the other the other day, and during that drive I was stopped by red-lights at every single signaled intersection I passed through. I was driving exactly on the posted speed limit. The way the lights are timed encourages aggressive drivers to drive more aggressively and to increase their speed to beat the lights.

Our lights are likely timed this way intentionally as a “traffic calming measure,” or as an electronic speed bump, but it’s not working. One would expect red lights to be timed to stop people who are driving at any other speed than designated speed of the road, this would provide encouragement to speed up excessively slow drivers, while slowing down fast ones.

Our city’s public safety committee expressed interesting views on this matter with the chairwoman saying “We don’t care if the public supports or opposes this,” during a public meeting that I attended. At the same meeting they were actively discussing ways of limiting the ability for the public to give our elected officials input on this matter. I think this kind of arrogance sums up our city’s view on a lot of things that they do.

This is something we must work to change in the next couple of elections by giving pink slips to those who seek to force their will on the city of Clarksville regardless of the will of the electorate.

City council members I hope you are listening, because we the people are wide awake, watching what you are doing. We are not happy, and we WILL NOT forget!

Tim and Ana introducing their 15 month old son Johnny to the rising river.

The devices were successful between 2006 and 2007 in issuing 19,087 tickets worth $1,431,525. “We think there’s a value to taking the program to the next step,” Police Chief Daniel Oates told the Rocky Mountain News newspaper.

However, at three of the four ticketing locations, rear end collisions increased dramatically from 2005 to 2006. At Mississippi Avenue and Potomac, rear end collisions jumped 175 percent. At Alameda Avenue and Abilene Street, the increase was 100 percent.

Only one intersection saw a 60 percent drop in one specific type of accident, likely as a result of the statistical phenomenon known as regression to the mean. This happens when a camera is installed at a location with an unusually high number of accidents in one year. As the number of accidents returns to the “normal” level, city officials will then credit the change to their camera program.

Source: Aurora may add cameras to catch red light runners (Rocky Mountain News (CO), 3/26/2008)

Here’s some information for you compiled from various websites:

• The average commute time for Clarksville workers is 24 minutes, compared with 26 minutes nationwide. A total of 26 fatal motor vehicle accidents occurred in Clarksville between 2001 and 2003, according to reports gathered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. This is a rate of 2.5 fatal crashes per 10,000 population, which was lower than the national norm.
• In Tennessee about half of all property damage accidents result in injuries or fatalities. Since 1966 the rate of fatalities by population has fallen around 40%, by numbers of drivers over 50%, and by numbers of miles driven by almost 70%. We are driving allot more miles and yet our accidents are declining, a trend you will reverse in Clarksville if you put in red-light cameras.
• Among all tennessee motor vehicle accident deaths, about 65% were due to roadway departures, 16% were intersection related, 10% fatalities in crashes involving large trucks, and 104 nonmotorist (pedestrians and bicyclists) fatalities.

Tell our City council and Mayor that we want them to stop planning on bringing this dangerous revenue generating scheme to our town! Just say no! to traffic enforcement cameras on on our streets!

* Story courtesy of The Newspaper: A Journal of the politics of driving

The rally featured Christina Walsh , Clarksville Property Rights Coalition Spokesman John Summers, Dan Brown of the Tennessee Preservation Trust and others. They addressed plan opponents and members of the press on the issues they perceive in the current version of Clarksville’s Redevelopment Plan. Summers and Brown have been frequent speakers at CPRC meetings.

After the rally, the public forum began in the Burt School Cafeteria. with Mayor Piper making the first statement. The program continued with a presentation by Knoxville’s KCDC President Alvin Nance, followed by Downtown District Partnership board member and recent appointee to the Clarksville Housing Authority Frank Lott. The presentation given was identical to the KCDC video on the “Our view: The updated redevelopment plan still has major flaws” article; watching that video provided all the same information as last night’s forum.

Laws mean exactly what they say on paper; it does not matter what those who created it intended for it to say. What counts is in the actual letter of the law. Members of the City Council do not see any issues with the plan they approved, even though a common sense reading shows that this plan is faulty, open to major abuse, and was clearly intended to make it easier for developers to take private property from its owner and then profit from it. Mayor Piper and the council have denied that, but that is exactly how the currently plan reads.

Counting heads, the Fire Marshall allowed only 180 people inside the hall for the meeting, with another estimated 150 people turned away. [Editor's note: At the Train Station meeting in December, more than 300 people turned out to oppose this plan.] CPRC members provided a list of the names and addresses of people who were denied access to this public forum: page after page was full of names and addresses.

This was a purported “public” forum, where some but not all interested members of the public were allowed inside, due to insufficient space, despite the fact that public interest in this issue and the turnout for prior meetings on this issue warranted larger quarters. Limiting attendance may have been a primary consideration due to the fact that there are three nearby locations with significantly more capacity: Burt school’s own gym, APSU’s Clement Auditorium, and the Dunn Center. The public were denied their right to speak. Many members of the audience wore red tape over their mouths as a visible protest over the acts that silenced them. The city could have but did not allow each person who wished to do so to address the City Council and the Mayor. The public was not allowed to ask questions, questions which should have been clearly answered.

When the forum ended, a number of attendees described it as “a farce,” “a dog and pony show,” “a joke,” and “just plain sad.” It was a public forum without public participation.

During a interview with Mayor Piper, News Channel 2 asked the mayor if the locations was chosen to limit public participation. Piper said “no,” then removed his microphone and terminated the interview. The Channel 2 newscast, in broadcasting this interview, cut away immediately following Piper’s “no.”

One gentleman was placed in handcuffs by the Clarksville Police for protesting the trampling of his rights by the city a little too vigorously (watch the video). He was released without any charges.

With such a large number of people opposing Clarksville’s redevelopment (eminent domain) plan, and the lengths the city is apparently ready to go to in order to enact it, one must ask who is the power behind the throne on this issue, who or what is giving Mayor Piper and the City Council the impetus to defy the clearly expressed will of the public.

The actions regarding the development plans, when combined with statements by city officials at other meetings and events, are clear examples of the contempt and disregard that Clarksville’s elected and appointed officials have for the wishes of their constituency.

As many of you know, I have in the past written articles strongly disagreeing with the Iraq war. I still oppose it and will continue to protest until it is finally ended, and the last American soldier has safely returned home. Now that we have made that clear, I must make something else clear.

 I have nothing but the highest respect for the dedication and the totality of the sacrifices that the soldiers serving our country make. As someone who has served in the military I understand that those who serve in our military are not granted the privilege of being able to cast a moral judgment about the legitimacy of the wars they are ordered to fight, and they share none of the blame so richly deserved by those who intentionally lied us into this conflict.

So on Saturday around dusk I went to Public Square in downtown Clarksville Tennessee in order to conduct what amounted to a one person vigil honoring those lives which have been lost in this unjust and immoral war in Iraq. I said my silent prayers for the souls of those no longer with us, and my continuing prayer for the safe return of those who are still in harms way.

After I was finished, I went for my camera. It is frequently said that a picture speaks a thousand words, so I will let the picture I took speak loud and clear, “Someone has a lot to answer for!” Fuel the flame; honor our soldiers.