Leadership Brentwood class works on three projects for city

Brentwood Home Page news reports
The graduating class of Leadership Brentwood has created three projects to benefit the city: restoration of a spring house, refurbishment of a school playground and replanting of tree at the site of a historic oak.

The public is invited to the city's Arbor Day celebration at 10 a.m.-noon April 9, where the new tree will be dedicated at the site of the former historic bur tree on the Brentwood Library property. A gavel made from the 300-year-old bur oak, lost last year due to disease, will be presented to the City Commission.

There will be activities for children, tours of the library arboretum, free seedlings and an exhibit of artwork made from the historic bur oak. Food and beverages will be available.

The Leadership Brentwood class, which graduated earlier this month, was part of a program that each year educates 15 Brentwood leaders about the city, its institutions and its issues. Each year the class is broken into three groups that create a project to benefit the city.

This year’s projects:

• Restoration of a spring house on the Brentwood Library property – Before the arrival of electricity, spring houses were commonly used to keep food cool. They were built near springs to take advantage of the cooling properties of water.

One of the Leadership Brentwood groups is restoring a spring house located on the property of the Brentwood public library and will also created signage for the building.  The group is composed of Ben Claybaker, Susan Earl, Cole Hodges, Steve Smith and Randy Whitman.

• Refurbishment of a playground at Lipscomb Elementary School – The group removed the asphalt portion of the kindergarten playground at the school and replaced it with mulch to make it a more suitable play area for young children.

Hertz Construction donated time and machinery to remove the paving. The Lipscomb PTO is currently raising funds to purchase a play structure for the area.  The Leadership Brentwood team is composed of Kimber Barton, Richard Flohr, Doug Brooks, Trent Klingensmith and Michelle Contich.

• Replanting of tree at the site of the historic bur oak at Brentwood Public Library –The Leadership Brentwood project group will plant a seedling on the site grown from an acorn that came from the original tree. The seedling was donated by Brentwood residents Steve and Sheree Foster.

The team is working with the Brentwood Tree Committee to create an area for the public to enjoy with benches and a plaque detailing the history of the Brentwood bur oak.  Leadership Brentwood team members for this project are Brit Boatright, Mike Harris, Tiffany Cheuvront, Rob Hazard and Jeremiah Pyron.

More information about Leadership Brentwood is available at www.leadershipbrentwood.org. Applications for the class of 2011-2012 are being accepted until June 1.