Old home week at Otter Creek

You learn amazing things when you listen. Here are just a few of the things I picked up today visiting the precincts:

• When the new children's area of the Brentwood Library opens in early fall, the kids won't walk in through a door. They'll get to their special place through a spectacular entry made just for them.
• There's a new "giving circle" in Nashville, a group comprised of 35 women of means working together to give their money where it can do the most good.
• Pete Schutt, one of my all-time favorite people, is moving out of Brentwood. He's giving up his swanky digs at The Heritage for a two-bedroom condo in a 50-plus community in Franklin. When he leaves, we lose one of our most engaged city residents. Brentwood really must find a way for seniors to independently downsize that doesn't involve buying a $750,000-plus townhome or having to choose an assisted living or continuing care facility.
• Speaking of The Heritage, I hear residents there can't understand why they can't vote at the Brentwood Library, located hardly half a mile from their senior residential community. Instead, they must travel to New Hope Church on Wilson Pike. Good question.
• Boyd Fulton, who does more to promote organ donation than anyone I've ever met, told me he knew "one old man who got out of the hospital on Monday and is voting today." Good thing. With turnout as low as it has been, that vote might be a tie breaker. (Research the 2007 city commission election for context).