The green oasis at the dead end of Jefferson Street is on its way to becoming Nashville’s newest park.
Friends of the Jefferson Street Park are purchasing the 1.75-acre lot from Cindy David and Bob Vernon. The couple have owned and shaped it for eight years, turning a former pay parking lot into a quiet, contemplative place.
Over the years, they’ve entertained interest from several people and groups interested in buying the property. Since it’s in the floodway, the options for what could be done with it are limited. One man wanted to park his RV on it. Another wanted to build a miniature golf course. Kids on Wheels were interested in creating a teen/skate park there. The Nashville Town Council considered buying it as a municipal park. But none really fit the vision that the couple had for the space.
Friends of the Jefferson Street Park are planning to turn it into a combination dog park and nature sanctuary. An old well house on the property could serve as a bird observation point.
[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]A steering committee has been formed to lead the effort, including Wanda Jones, Jay Charon and Steve Miller. The group is partnering with Keep Brown County Beautiful, the Brown County Humane Society, local naturalist Leslie Bishop, Ruth Reichmann and some volunteers with Brown County Habitat for Humanity, Jones said.
Last month, Friends of the Jefferson Street park earned a $10,000 matching grant from the Brown County Community Foundation.
As of July 11, they had raised about $12,100 of their overall $141,633 goal, Jones said.
The group is buying the land on contract for $115,000; the asking price had been $125,000, Vernon said. Reducing the price was their way of making a donation to the fundraising effort and showing their support of the park in general, he said. Though the couple is not directly involved in the friends organization, they have been helping to plan, they said.
The rest of the money raised will go toward fencing in the dog park, laying an asphalt path to make the park handicap-accessible, adding picnic tables and benches, and possibly building a shelterhouse.
Jones would like to see the dog park part of it open by early October. This would be the first dog park in Brown County, besides the one at Hawthorne Hills for those apartment residents, she said.
A series of fundraising events is being planned, like maybe a bring-your-dog ice cream party or an evening of string music, Vernon said. Details will be announced in the coming weeks.
However, fundraising is under way now, Jones said. Donations can be made through the Brown County Community Foundation.
The rest of the park plans will fall in line according to the availability of Keep Brown County Beautiful volunteers, who will be doing a lot of the work, Jones said.
The location is perfect for a park, being right next to a town-owned parking lot, she said. The organizers hope it will be a useful spot for folks with limited mobility to enjoy the outdoors.
“I think the contemplative aspect of it is very, very powerful … just because of the varieties of people we’d love to see show up,” David added.
“It’s been considered by many to be a park anyway, as we know,” Vernon said.
One of the hangups to the couple opening it as a public park on their own was insurance coverage, they said in 2014. Jones, an attorney, said the friends group is looking to partner with an entity that could provide that for them.
Passing the land they’ve loved along to another owner comes with mixed feelings, David said. “I could get kind of tearful right now talking about it, but I’m tired now,” she said. “I’m ready to pass it along, and it is a beautiful little place, and we’re just going to hope people will love it that much to keep it that way. And it’s a group of people that are really special that are invested, and think they’ll really keep that vision going.”
“I can hardly wait to not mow it,” Vernon added.
The Jefferson Street property isn’t far from one of the trailheads for the Salt Creek Trail. Jones and David said they’ve thought of how this property might connect to the trail eventually and take it out to Deer Run Park, but that would be far into the future if it’s able to happen.
Nashville, which had no public parks two years ago, could soon have three of them.
In addition to the Jefferson Street project led by the private “friends” entity, the Town of Nashville is developing a park on town-owned lots at the corner of Washington and Johnson streets. In October, a town-owned, all-ages play space opened at the Village Green at East Main and Jefferson streets.
Outside of town limits, at the county-owned Deer Run Park, Kids on Wheels are in the process of developing a skate park.
“(They’re) all very precious pieces of property,” David said, “and that’s the wonderful thing about it.
“No matter how many (parks) there are, it couldn’t be bad.”
