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HomeMedia CoverageBelmont Proposes to Rehab, Share Nashville's Rose Park

Belmont Proposes to Rehab, Share Nashville’s Rose Park

Proposal includes more community service offerings in Edgehill community
rosepark.JPGToday’s Nashville City Paper reports on Belmont University’s proposal to Nashville’s Metro Parks Board to pay for the bulk of rehabbing E.S. Rose Park in the city’s Edgehill neighborhood to use it a venue for its NCAA Division I outdoor sports teams – baseball, softball, soccer and track – while also maintaining it as a community park and recreational facility. In addition, Belmont is proposing to expand its community-service offerings at the park’s community center. (Click map thumbnail at left.)


Belmont’s baseball team current plays at city-owned Greer Stadium and Shelby Park, its softball team leases a field on the Aquinas College campus, and the track team practices and competes in home meets on the Vanderbilt track.
A Metro Parks master plan calls for an update of all its community centers, including the Easley Community Center at the E.S. Rose Park, which contains a swimming pool. Belmont University offers to pay for the bulk of the cost should the partnership become a reality. “The partnership that is proposed has two dimensions – a recreational/athletic dimension and a community service dimension,” Belmont writes in its proposal. The first phase of the plan would include the construction of a baseball field, softball field, soccer field and track that meet NCAA Division I competition standards. The athletic fields would used by Belmont’s sports teams as well as Metro Parks patrons, with Belmont having control over the fields during the competitive season, approximately one third of the year.
In addition, Belmont proposes to expand on the community services the university offers through student programs in the Edgehill Community.
“Belmont is prepared to announce a Presidential Initiative to focus its community service even more intensively into the Edgehill community,” Belmont writes and suggests additional Belmont students to mentor children in after-school programs, nursing students to conduct additional clinics, accounting students and professors to offer free tax clinics, as well as new programs in music, theater and dance at the community center.
A Metro Parks subcommittee will meet Tuesday at 2:15 p.m. in the Board Room, 2565 Park Plaza, to consider the plan.

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