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| What Nashville's Talking About |
| 🗳️ It’s Election Day! | Today is Election Day for the Davidson County Primary Election. Only 22,078 Nashvillians cast their ballots during early voting, less than 6% of registered voters. Polls are open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Check your polling location here, and read our guide to the election. This election determines who will fill Nashville’s criminal, circuit, and general sessions court benches, several clerk’s offices, and four Metro Nashville Public Schools board seats. [DCEC; Nashville.gov; 📰 City Cast Nashville] | | | 💰 Mayor Files Proposed Budget | Mayor O’Connell has filed his proposed $3.8 billion Metro spending plan for fiscal year 2027. The plan includes a grocery tax decrease from 2.25% to 1.75%, $69 million to Metro’s Unified Housing Strategy to address affordable housing, and a 4% budget increase for Metro Nashville Public Schools. Councilmembers will now begin crafting their own spending proposals, with a final vote on the budget in June. [Nashville Scene via Nashville Post] | | | 👮 MNPD Wants New Transit Policing Unit | For the first time, Nashville could have a transit policing unit. If approved by the Metro Council, 29 Metro Nashville Police Department officers will patrol the WeGo Star station, bus stops, transit centers, park-and-ride lots, transit vehicles and routes, and areas adjacent to WeGo properties. [WKRN] | - We recently reported on a state bill requiring all sheriff offices in the state to cooperate with Immigration and Customs Enforcement under a 287(g) agreement. However, Sheriff Daron Hall says the bill excludes Nashville, since the agreement applies only to POST-certified offices, which the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office is not. [WKRN]
| | | 🍽️ Save Money at These Happy Hour Spots | Anyone who still thinks happy hour means pitchers of watery beer is missing out on the incredible variety of food and drink specials available across Nashville in the early evenings. On today’s podcast, contributor Margaret Littman shares her current favorite spots, from downtown rooftops with free valet to neighborhood bars offering nonalcoholic drinks, enough food to fill you up, and great community vibes. [🎧 City Cast Nashville] |
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| Parenting That Works: Nashville’s Free Parenting Program |
|  | Learn more about Nashville’s free program for parents. (Courtesy of Parenting That Works) |
| “Parents helping parents, helping children” is the tagline for Tennessee’s free Regional Intervention Program, currently being rebranded as Parenting That Works. I know I’m not the only parent who has felt overwhelmed, so I spoke with the program’s Director of Infant and Early Childhood Initiatives, Melissa Binkley, to learn more. | | How did this program get started? | “The Regional Intervention Program and Parenting That Works is native to Tennessee! The program started in 1969 at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College, and has been growing ever since. Parenting That Works has been replicated locally, nationally, and internationally. I started with the department in 2015, first as the training coordinator and now as director, and I’ve learned so much about children and families from the people who pass through our doors. I wish I could have begun my career here!” | | | | What kind of services does the program offer parents? | “RIP and Parenting That Works is a positive parenting program that supports children ages two through five and their families who are dealing with challenging behaviors — both big and small. Parenting That Works is FREE! There’s no diagnosis or income requirement. Families participate together over the course of 4-6 months, and their commitment leads to positive results. Parents who complete the program express more confidence in their own parenting skills, lower parenting stress, and improved social skills and behavior from their children. We see parents as the experts on their own children, and here they will have a chance to learn and practice strategies alongside other parents and children, while receiving support from staff members who completed the program themselves.” | | What advice would you give to new Nashville parents? | “Parenting is HARD WORK! And you don’t have to go it alone — or scroll social media’s endless supply of ‘parenting hacks.’ At RIP, and within the Parenting that Works program, you will find a community excited to support you and your child! As one parent shared, ‘Learning from and being supported by other families in similar situations has been both normalizing and encouraging beyond words.’" | | Check out RIP’s 3rd Annual Spring Festival on May 9 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. They’ll have family fun including touch-a-trucks, a puppet show, face painting, community resources, and program tours and information. | | |
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Heads up: Cornelia Fort Airpark in Shelby Bottoms will be closed for several days this week, but according to Friends of Shelby, it’s expected to be back open by the weekend. |
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