Through the Years
Late '70's and 80's: Community improvements were made through a Citizens Action Committee (CAC), of which our neighbor Roni Snider was the President. Other neighborhood members were Jane Crook and Marva Williams. Willis McAllister, our councilman at that time, helped get over $300,000 used for improvements here such as buying property and building or renovating condemned homes to provide affordable housing. They also got our first sidewalks put in in the late '80's. (In many cases, our streets were too narrow to put them on both sides, so we have them on one side only.) The CAC also bought and donated the playground equipment at Park Ave. School.
January 1996: A neighborhood watch (NHW) group was started by Judy Hoskins, by delivering flyers to houses along Chamberlin, parts of 37th and 38th Avenues North, asking for volunteers.
April 11, 1996: First NHW meeting, with Officer Jeff Cherry helping us organize. Using the organizational guidelines supplied by the police, Judy Hoskins agreed to be Director, other participants agreed to be Block Captains in their areas, and a neighborhood map was created.
April 27, 1996: To define our area of responsibility, we chose boundaries (37th Avenue North, 38th Avenue North, Sentinel Drive, Charlotte Pike) and voted on a new name, choosing "Sylvan Heights" because of our proximity to Sylvan Park and our high hills.
May 1996: John Stern, Pres. of Nashville Neighborhood Alliance (NNA), urged us to broaden our scope by creating an association, offering a free temporary membership in the NNA. So our NHW members decided to create an association, the Sylvan Heights Neighborhood Group (SHNG). I liked "Group" 'cause it had fewer syllables than "Association" - Judy
June 6, 1996: First SHNG officer elections (Pres. - Judy Hoskins; Co-V.P.'s - Samantha Howard, C.F. Morris; Sec. & Treas. - Dorothy Vreeland). These elections were mostly a matter of simply finding someone willing to volunteer - no competition!
August 6, 1996: First Nashville Night Out event, a flashlight walk to Fire Station No. 13. Started collecting donations for neighborhood watch signs.
October 1996: First 4 NHW signs installed. After a few months, crime statistics are already showing a big drop in crime rate in Sylvan Heights.
March 2, 1997: Carolyn James takes over as SHNG newsletter editor, expands newsletter to 2 pages, D. Vreeland, Group Sec., providing meeting notes for each issue.
April 12, 1997: Second SHNG officer elections: (Pres. - Judy Hoskins; V.P. - Dorothy Vreeland; Sec. - Carolyn James; Treas. - Bessie Hanserd; NNA Rep. - Pat Jackson)
August 5, 1997: Sylvan Hts. Nashville Night Out event, a flashlight walk through Sylvan Hts. followed by hot dogs and games at Park Avenue School.
September 13, 1997: SHNG voted to become a full (paying) member in the NNA.
March 12, 1998: Sylvan Heights watch members, along with several other neighborhood watch groups, helped organize a Forum for candidates for Juvenile Court Judge held at Bass Middle School. S.H. neighbor Jamie Rounds moderated the debate.
April 16, 1998: Tornado plowed through Nashville in late afternoon. Our police liaison, Andy Garrett, called our NHW Director as soon as it touched down, and she called all block captains who were at home and able to notify those at home in their areas. Block captain Lissa Hanner later organized tree replacements with Re-Leaf Nashville.
August 4, 1998: Third Nashville Night Out event, with a neighborhood walk, bake sale, special guests, held behind church at 37th & Park (then called the "Hanvit Baptist Church").
February 1999: Jamie Rounds took over as newsletter editor.
August 3, 1999: Fourth Nashville Night Out event, behind Korean Hanvit Baptist Church. First Sylvan Heights web site created.
November 13, 1999: SHNG officer elections (Pres. - Linda Park; Treas. - Diane Green; Sec. - Karen Swingly). Also, Roni Snider reported at this meeting on an NES citizens committee helping choose a route for new power lines. Chairing the committee, she voiced our opposition to a proposed route cutting through our neighborhood, instead supporting the route eventually adopted, where the lines go along the outer edge only.
August 1, 2000: Nashville Night out event, cookout and games in side yard of Judy & Darwin Hoskins home.
December 2000 - Sylvan Heights Neighborhood Association came into it's own, electing the first official President, Karen Swingly.
December 2001 - Kelly Tipler elected as second President of SHNA.
Decmber 2002 - Kelly Tipler re-elected as President. Created the association ByLaws placed into effect April 2003.
December 2003 - Jessica O'Bryan elected as third President of SHNA.
February 2004 - Founded by Carolyn James, Kelly Tipler, and Tommy Pinkston, neighborhood Community Garden breaks ground.
May 2004 - VP Carrie Apple becomes fourth President and fills vacancy due to Jessica O'Bryan moving out of town. Suzie Faver becomes Neighborhood Watch Director, taking the place of Judy Hoskins.
Feb 2005 - Carrie Apple re-elected as President. Chuck Koehler becomes Neighborhood Watch Director.
March 2005 - Neighbors stage protest in front of galvanizing plant.
April 2005 - A beautiful wooden, hand painted sign was commisioned by a local artist to designate our neighborhood. Many corner properties were considered to display this wooden 5ft sign, however Codes kept options limited. We were granted permission to permanently install the sign at our Community Garden site on Park Ave Elem School grounds, located on the 38th Ave on the street block between Park/Elkins!
Thank you to local builder, Chris Day of ReSolutions Group, for donating time, labor and skill in getting this into the ground.
Aug 2005 - Annual Night Out was held at Climb Nashville on Redmon Street. (Located just off 37th Ave, one block south of Normandy Place.) We had a great time as we met new neighbors to the musical backdrop of Celtic band “Athas” (pronounced Ah-hosh).
See the pictures!
March 2006 - Andy Schenk becomes fifth elected President of SHNA.
February 13th, 2007 - SHNA officer elections were held at the membership meeting. Richard Cowan replaced Chuck Cardona as Secretary. Chuck became a Steering member. All other officers remained in place.
September 2007 - Andy Schenck resigns as president after a year and a half. Carrie Apple (VP) fills role until the new year elections are held in Feb 2008. Vice President seat remains open until Membership votes at the October meeting.
Septmeber 2007 - Jason Holleman wins run-off election between Kathryn Beasley and becomes the new District 24 councilperson, replacing John Summers' two term tenure. Visit www.jasonholleman.com to learn more.
Spring 2008 - No one offers to take the place of current officers thus in a standstill. Two news Steering Committee members were added, Erin O'Bryan and Jonanthan Gilligan. Carrie Apple would LOVE it if someone would step up to the president's plate.
