Topic: Business

Excelerator grant funds new technology; Community Centers get computers

May 13, 2008 |

Accessing public information is now a little bit easier for citizens without personal computers thanks to a grant from AT&T. The City of Clarksville received a $6,000 AT&T Excelerator grant that provided new computers to the city’s community centers. AT&T Excelerator is a competitive grant program for projects that use technology to help nonprofit organizations build stronger communities.

Even though the grant was originally applied for to finance the purchase of four computers, the City was able to use the grant to purchase six new computers, two for each community center, because of special pricing obtained at the time of the grant award.

These computers provide vital public information with access to the City’s website and other public Internet sites, as well as enable youth and college students to utilize the computer labs for homework and other school or college assignments. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Education, News | No Comments

Americans need solutions to housing crisis

By Chris Lugo | May 13, 2008 |

America faces a housing crisis that it has not seen the likes of since the great depression. Hundreds of thousands of families have lost their homes due to the mortgage crisis in the past year and more are at risk if we don’t act now. That is why the US Senate must support some version of the Foreclosure Prevention Act, which passed this past week in the US House. This legislation, which is on its way to the Senate next week has been threatened with veto by President Bush.

As usual, the President is wrong. The President has said that he would veto the legislation if it comes to his desk because he doesn’t believe that certain types of people should be rewarded for their bad decisions. What the President means is that poor people shouldn’t be protected from predatory lenders and that the government shouldn’t have any regulatory responsibilities when it comes to mortgage lenders. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Business, Issues, Opinion | No Comments

Property Rights group slapped with $500k libel suit; CPRC vows “vigorous” defense

By Christine Anne Piesyk | May 12, 2008 |

• Property Rights group faces $500,000 libel suit
• Controversial development plan under fire
• Councilor Richard Swift, DDP member Wayne Wilkinson claim harm to public image and integrity
• Is this a SLAPP suit?
• CPRC will “vigorously defend” against “frivolous” suit

Another punch has been thrown in the ongoing battle between the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition and both city officials and the Downtown District Partnership: the CPRC has been slapped with a lawsuit over a dissenting advertisement on the issue of redevelopment.

The suit was filed by Wilkinson and Swift on Friday in the 19th Judicial District, Circuit Court of Montgomery County against the CPRC as an organization and, Pam Vandeveer, individually as CPRC treasurer. You can read the complete text of the lawsuit here at Clarksville Online.

CCRP member Joyce Vanderbilt with the CPRC ad

At issue is the veracity of an ad which ran in the Leaf Chronicle on May 3, prior to the May 8 City Council special session at which the final reading and approval of the highly controversial Downtown Redevelopment and Urban Renewal Plan occurred. The ad stated that Clarksville Mayor Johnny Piper, Councilman Richard Swift and DDP member Wayne Wilkinson as developers who worked for passage of the comprehensive redevelopment plan that would cover roughly two square miles of down town Clarksville and which designated the area as blighted.

The lawsuit charges that the CPRC ad made “libelous” statements against plaintiffs Wilkinson and Swift when the CPRC ad implied that [the plaintiffs] placed their “development interests” above the wishes of the community and their constituency. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Business, Issues, News | No Comments

Property Rights group: This is not over!

By Christine Anne Piesyk | May 10, 2008 |

Blatantly disregarding public input and dissent, the City Council voted to approve the controversial Downtown Redevelopment and Urban Renewal ordinance, nicknamed the “blight bill,” even as disgruntled homeowners and small business owners, all members of the Clarksville Property Rights Coalition, dressed in the blood-red color of protest, looked on.

In a May 8 letter written on behalf of the CPRC, Becky McMahan first thanked “those members of the City Council who have given us the courtesy of meeting with us to discuss the Redevelopment Plan,” then presented a number of points for the council to consider the all but pre-ordained vote. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Business, Issues, News | 1 Comment »

Succulent berries, fresh veggies and fruit in abundance at roadside stand

By Christine Anne Piesyk | May 3, 2008 |

On our way from point A to point B, riding along Madison Street this afternoon, I did a double take at the sight of a roadside vegetable stand. Basically, a small table laden with okra, beans, strawberries and succulent tomatoes. We continued on to our destination, but hurried back to check it out.

I’ve suffered roadside fruit stand deprivation since I left New England, where it seems we could buy garden fresh produce on every other corner in town, walk or take a bus to the farmers markets, and never have to buy produce from a grocery store in summer. My favorite was fresh still-damp-with-dew butter and sugar corn (bi-colored corn), driven to the stand straight from the field. And yellow beans (which barely seem to exist here in the south). «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Arts and Leisure, Business, Opinion | No Comments

Artists, photographers showcased in DAC First Thursday Artwalk

May 1, 2008 |

Downtown Clarksville will be overflowing with artistic activity on May 1st for the First Thursday Artwalk. The Downtown Artists Co-Op will kick off the festivities with a reception for Claudia Balthrop’s one person show in the DAC gallery at 96 Franklin St. from 5-8 p.m today. It is free and open to the public. The show will run through May 28th with Claudia presenting her Gallery Talk to the public from 6-8 p.m. on May 15th.

Carlton by Claudia Balthrop

Claudia is an amazing water colorist with local, regional and national recognition. She has a degree in Art Education and taught art in public schools for 18 years. She continued her art education with post graduate work at the University of Tenn; Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts; Savanna College of Art and Design; and numerous workshops by well-known artists. She was vice president of the board of directors of the Oak Ridge Museum of Art, served as chairperson for education and as a jurist for numerous art shows. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: News | No Comments

Global ghost town: Oil crisis requires new vision, global action

By Chris Lugo | April 30, 2008 |

There is a crisis happening on a global scale, and we here in the United States of America have a moral responsibility to take action to help alleviate global food prices and ensure that millions of people do not suffer the ill effects of hunger and possibly even starvation. We are all complaining about the high cost of oil these days and how it is impinging on our budget, but in the developing world this is having extreme consequences.

The stark reality is that three billion people on the planet earth live on less than $2 a day, and a good portion of that money goes specifically to the purchase of basic food grains to survive. As a result of the skyrocketing price of oil, the price of food grains has risen due to commercial production costs and transportation to as much as $800 a ton for rice which has led to food riots in the developing world.

The reasons for high oil prices are complex, and due to many factors, but we can take steps now to deal with the global oil crisis and help people in the developing world avoid a worsening food crisis. One of the principal factors in the current oil crisis is directly related to the US invasion of Iraq. The war in Iraq, which administration officials believed would lead to democracy and stability has instead resulted in civil war and prolonged military expenditures. The financial uncertainty in the marketplace regarding the instability in the middle east has driven oil prices even higher and the worsening Federal debt, greatly impacted by the hundreds of billions of unpaid dollars committed to the war effort has made the dollar less attractive to global investors, driving down the value of the dollar in relation to global currencies and discouraging investment. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Opinion | No Comments

“Blight” bill up for 2nd reading & vote; City Council sets Executive & Special Sessions

By Christine Anne Piesyk | April 24, 2008 |

UPDATE: Upon receipt of a Special Called Session agenda at 12:30 p.m. today, the vote in question on the adoption of ordinance 96-2007-08 is NOT on the agenda; it was listed as part of the special session agenda previously received by Clarksville Online and discussed on 4/23/08, the agenda upon which this story is based. The ordinance will have its second reading as scheduled.

Ordinance 96-2007-08, a.k.a. “the blight bill,” is coming before the City Council in back-to-back meetings for a second reading AND a vote to adopt the controversial ordinance tonight starting at 4:30 p.m. in the City Hall Conference Room at 1 Public Square in downtown Clarksville. At a recent meeting on this issue on the APSU campus, Mayor Johnny Piper assured concerned residents affected by this ordinance, titled Clarksville Center Redevelopment and Urban Renewal Plan, that it would NOT come up before the Council “until May.” Today is April 24.

The first item under new business for the special session reads as follows:

1. ORDINANCE 96-2007-08 (Second Reading) Adopting the Clarksville Center Redevelopment and Urban Renewal Plan

The ordinance in its original form deemed approximately two square miles of downtown Clarksville as blighted, subject to eminent domain, under a Clarksville Redevelopment Plan. That plan was flawed in content and the process used to present it to the affected residents and business owners. A re-worked version which has some improvements, added the words “urban renewal” to “redevelopment” but still carried many of the same problems including eminent domain and an assemblage clause that Clarksville Property Rights Coalition (CPRC) attorney Attorney John Summers called “audacious.”

Here’s the game plan: The City Council will meet in a non-voting Executive Session first, at 4:30 p.m., in the conference room, with an extensive agenda that includes a second reading of the ordinance as the first item under new business, a move which caught members of the coalition members off-guard, but not for long. That Executive Session agenda lists time for “Public Comment” at the END of each meeting. The Executive Session will be immediately followed by a “Special Called Voting Session” at which a full agenda of items including the Redevelopment Plan will be presented. (See complete Special Session and Executive Session agendas at the end of this article). The Special Called Meeting will also only accept public comment only AFTER the meeting. «Read the rest of this article»

Sections: Issues, News | No Comments