Elliott Park Ground- Breaking & Work Day

A special community work day to install the required surface material to complete the new playground at Elliott Park, will begin at 1 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 7. This will be followed by a grand opening of the renovated Elliott Park, with a celebration and ribbon cutting. 

The Sewanee Civic Association (SCA), in partnership with the University of the South, has brought to completion the second project in the Sewanee community parks system. The Phil White Dog Park was the first park that SCA sponsored in the community.

The community, along with the South Cumberland Community Fund, the Sewanee Community Council Funding Project, the Kaj Krogstad Memorial Fund, the Joel and Trudy Cunningham Charitable Fund, the Monteagle Sewanee Rotary and donations through a designated fund with the Sewanee Community Chest, donated more than $56,000 to purchase and install the new playground equipment, which is located in Elliott Park on University Avenue adjacent to the bookstore.

The mulch-like fiber surface material needs to be installed; community members are asked to sign up for shifts, as well as bring wheelbarrows, rakes and pitchforks to lend for the event. 

Volunteers should wear gloves and closed-toe shoes when working and children are welcome to participate. Snacks and beverages will be provided during the four hours. Volunteers are asked to sign up via the Sign Up Genius form at <www.signupgenius.com>; click Find A Sign Up and search using the volunteer coordinator email address <eduncan@sasweb.org>.

A minimum of 50 volunteers will be needed during the course of the day in order to spread the fiber material throughout the playground. Students from the College, St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School and Boy Scout Troop 14 have been invited to participate, as well, to help complete the task.

The phrase “The more the merrier” could never be more true.

The celebratory festivities to honor the park’s opening will begin at 5 p.m., with live music from Sewanee’s The Hill Brothers Band featuring Paul Schutz, Tom Adamson and Chris Crigger. 

The Shenanigans Food Truck will be on hand, and everyone is invited to bring a blanket and picnic dinner if they choose to enjoy the first day of the new Elliott Park. 

Lessons & Carols Tickets Available on Nov. 2

The 56th annual Festival of Lessons and Carols at the University of the South will be celebrated at three services, one on Dec. 5, and two on Dec. 6.

As part of the University’s outreach to others, the Chapel is pleased to offer available places in the service for reservations. Online reservations will be available at 10 a.m., Monday, Nov. 2. 

Go to<www.sewanee.edu/student-life/spiritual-life/56th-annual-festival-of-lessons-and-carols/> to make reservations. For more information call 598-3247 or email <lessonsandcarols@sewanee.edu>.

University Schedules Two Workshops for Input

University Avenue Planning

The University of the South is hosting a planning session to gather input on how the University develops a plan for the University Avenue corridor. Community members, alumni, faculty, staff and students are welcome to attend the session at 4 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 12, in Convocation Hall.

These meetings are part of the decision-making process laid out recently by the Board of Regents and the Vice-Chancellor.

The University Avenue corridor is defined as the area from Georgia Avenue to the University Book and Supply Store and Print Services along both sides of the street—including the Rebel’s Rest site, Convocation Hall, the Quad, Fulford Hall, Thompson Union, All Saints’ Chapel, McClurg, the bookstore and Chen Hall.

Attendees of the public meetings should come prepared to discuss these questions: Where should the University locate the University Commons? What are the best and most appropriate uses for the University Avenue corridor to serve the long-term interests of the University and its community?

For more information go to <se​wanee.edu/uaplanning/> or email
<ehartman@sewanee.edu>.

Downtown Master Plan

In conjunction with consultants Town Planning and Urban Design Collaborative (TPUDC), the University is working to develop a plan for the Sewanee downtown area. The next step in the process will be a virtual workshop, 5–7 p.m., Thursday, Nov. 12, in the upstairs meeting rooms in McClurg Dining Hall. For people who cannot attend the event, they may participate online (details below).

During the workshop the University’s town planner will present the plan developed during workshops held in August. This is an opportunity for interested parties to provide ideas and feedback on the draft plan and to help finalize the vision for downtown Sewanee. Attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions and give feedback on the plan before the final draft is completed in December 2015.

TPUDC has been charged with finalizing a downtown master plan with specific steps for future growth, and overseeing design and development. TPUDC’s workshops in August resulted in a draft plan to create a more vibrant downtown area that will attract investment and support mixed-use development at a village scale. 

To participate in the workshop online, go to <www.GoToWebinar.com>. Click “Join Webinar” and enter Webinar ID # 101-745-131. Please register prior to the Nov. 12 event. 

Council Discusses Transfer Fee & Ground Rent :: Local Trick-or-Treating Set for Oct. 31

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

On behalf of the Sewanee Leaseholders, Louise Irwin addressed the Sewanee Community Council at the Oct. 26 meeting, ushering in a discussion about hardship posed by the transfer fee and ground rent, especially for non-university employees. The council also received an update from the Project Funding Committee.

Chartered in 1986, Sewanee Leaseholders, Inc., is in the process of reinstating its corporation, Irwin said. The group’s goals are to promote the interests of leaseholders, to assist the University in arriving at a lease policy and to provide a platform for discussing grievances. At a public meeting scheduled for 6 p.m., Monday, Nov. 9, at the Sewanee Senior Center, Irwin anticipates discussion about plans to establish a Welcome Wagon and concerns about the transfer fee.

“I hope the University will consider re-evaluating the transfer fee,” Irwin said. “It’s a big issue with many people.”

The ground rent and transfer fee policies differ for University employees and non-employees.

“Some people can’t afford to live here,” one community resident said, pointing to the increase in ground rent for a person who lost University employee status. He also cited potential hardship imposed by the transfer fee in inheritance circumstances involving non-employees.

Council representative John Flynn concurred, saying black residents were leaving the community because of the transfer fee’s impact on inheritance decisions. The policy “divides people on economic grounds.”

Another resident said the ground rent posed an even bigger burden than the transfer fee, especially for low- and low-to-middle income residents, because it increases on an ongoing basis relative to the increase in accessed property values. “In 20 years, I will pay the entire value of my house in ground rent,” he said. He recommended a fixed fee for ground rent.

Council representative Drew Sampson reminded the council that the University committed to revisit the transfer fee in the future following a decision five years ago to lower the fee from 6 percent to 4 percent.

Vice-Chancellor John McCardell agreed with the need for reviewing the ground rent and transfer fee and said the committee charged with examining the fees impacting residents should give due diligence to the issues raised.

The committee made its first report to the council last March, Provost John Swallow said. Complexity associated with evaluating the municipal service fee data has prolonged the review process, Swallow said.

Theresa Shackelford updated the council on the distributions made by the Project Funding Committee. The committee was established to review proposals for community enhancement projects on behalf of the council and to make allocations of up to $10,000 annually. In March of 2015 the committee recommended and the council approved awarding $9,975 to fund or partially fund seven projects. The committee has distributed just under $8,000, Shackelford said. Two grant recipients did not undertake the goals outlined in their proposals, leaving an additional $2,000 to be awarded in 2016. Shackelford said the committee will initiate the next request for proposals cycle earlier than it did in 2015. 

Sewanee Police Chief Marie Eldridge said trick-or-treat activities will take place on Saturday, Oct. 31 this year, the calendar day for Halloween. The council next meets on Jan. 25.

Holiday Balsam Wreaths Return to Mountain

After a one-year break, the balsam wreaths from Maine are coming back! It is exciting to announce that the Community Action Committee (CAC) will be the sponsors of this annual tradition that has brought wreaths to the area for 20 years, thanks to all the work of sixth-grade students from Sewanee Elementary and St. Andrew’s-Sewanee School. Profits from the wreath sales will now benefit the programs of the CAC, which works to alleviate hunger and poverty in Sewanee.

Orders will be accepted from Nov. 2 until Nov. 25. The cost of the wreaths is $25; they will arrive in early December. If you would like to receive a wreath before Dec. 4, please place your order by Nov. 15 and note that you want it early. The rest should arrive during the week of Dec. 7 and will be available for pickup at the CAC at Otey Parish. If requested, wreaths can be delivered. The CAC will contact buyers when their wreath arrives.

To order wreaths, either email <cacchristmaswreaths@gmail.com> or call Cindy Potter at 598-5773. Be sure to include your name, the number of wreaths you want and contact information. An order form will also be available at the CAC office; for details call 598-5927. 

Winners Named in Make A Difference Contest

Four projects from students in grades K–12 have been selected as winners in the South Cumberland Community Fund’s first Make a Difference contest.

The winning projects are: grades K–4—Fruit Tree Orchard; grades 5–8 (tie)—Coalmont Community Garden and Little Free Libraries; and grades 9–12: Advertising Fiery Gizzard’s Reroute. For fuller descriptions of the winning projects, go to <southcumberlandcommunityfund.org/difference/>.

“We want to say thank you to all of the youth of the South Cumberland Plateau who submitted their ideas for making their communities better, and to everyone in the community who participated by voting. The Community Fund looks forward to working with the four winning groups to make their ideas happen,” said Margaret Woods, SCCF board chair.

The South Cumberland Community Fund cultivates resources and leadership across the South Cumberland Plateau, offering direct grant funding and capacity-building initiatives to area nonprofits. For more information about SCCF, go to <southcumberlandcommunityfund.org> or email <laura@south​cumberlandcommunityfund.org>.

The Little Library That Could :: Thurmond Library Providing Books for the Community Since 1887

by Kevin Cummings, Messenger Staff Writer

In November 1923, Jim Sutherland hauled two horse-drawn wagonloads of books from Monteagle to Sewanee—and likely saved them from going up in flames.

In the previous year or so, Otey Parish Rector William SterlingClaiborne and his wife donated the Thurmond Memorial Library’s books to the DuBose Training School in Monteagle, which wasn’t a popular move for some local residents. So Sutherland hauled the books back to Sewanee in November 1923, two months before the DuBose school burned.

Those returned and nearly burned books are part of the lineage of the newest Thurmond Memorial Library site, which will celebrate its grand reopening at the Claiborne Parish House on Tuesday, Oct. 27, from 11:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. The library actually opened earlier this year when volunteers unpacked the books boxed up during construction of the new parish house, but this is the library’s official commemoration. 

The Community Action Committee will also host a free community lunch at noon at the parish house, and people can enjoy cake and coffee afterwards as they visit and learn about the library’s 128-year history, said Trudy Cunningham, a library volunteer.

“We’re worried that people just aren’t reading books anymore,” said Cunningham, a retired math teacher. “They’re on their iPhones all the time, so we’ve decided to focus on getting books circulating.” 

Volunteers also plan to put people’s names in a drawing. If your name is drawn, you can pick a book for the library to buy, and you’ll get first dibs on reading it.

Sophia Dabney Thurmond and her three sisters started the Sewanee Circulating Library on July 4, 1887, on Oklahoma Avenue in the classroom of Mrs. Smedes, in a house that later became known as the McDonald’s Cottage. 

In 1902 the library moved to the parish hall at Otey Parish and in 1910 leaders changed the name to Thurmond Memorial Library to honor its primary founder.

According to the April 7, 1936, publication of the “Gospel Mission,” the library at that time boasted 2,000 volumes, with 300 of those books circulating in the previous year.

Volunteers boxed up the books and shut down the library a number of times in its history, including during World War I and World War II, when people seemed to lose interest in keeping the library going, or when Rev. A.C. Adams turned the library into a Boy Scout museum.

The current location is open to everyone in the community, 24 hours a day.

“We tell parents who’ve got a screaming baby at home in the middle of the night: ‘One of you get up and bring the baby to the library and let ’em scream while you read and let the other parent sleep’ quietly at home,” Cunningham said, laughing.

All of the books are donations, and the library also has no due dates and no fines. 

`“While it would be fine if the books come back, if they don’t come back we’re not going to worry about that,” Cunningham said. “The secondary motto of the library is: In Sewanee books are like zucchini in August. People are happy to give them away to us. Consequently, we’re not going to worry about losing books.”

Book donations that don’t make it to the shelves are sold at an annual book sale held in conjunction with the Hunger Walk in April. Otey Parish also provides the library space and utilities free of charge. 

Thurmond Memorial contains newer and classic books, including fiction and mystery, nonfiction, children’s, young adult, and local interest. The library also has a selection of books on CD.

Jane Holmes, a retired special education teacher and library volunteer, said she loves working there in part because she’s a big murder mystery fan.

“I started volunteering in 1981 on Saturday mornings,” she said. “It was a good thing because every Saturday I could get a new book to read. I have found so many this morning, and I had to stop at two.”

To volunteer at the library, where reading is encouraged during shifts, email Cunningham at <tcunning@gmail.com>.

Editor’s Note: The historical information in this article is from the “History of the Thurmond Memorial Library” by Eva Pryor Jackson, which uses information from Sewanee Woman’s Club minutes compiled by Mrs. Marion F. Jackson.