Cooper

Mayor John Cooper at May groundbreaking for The Briarville apartment complex

 Michael W. Bunch/Metro Photographer

Metro Council finally approved a controversial resolution to fund the management of homeless encampments and to renovate Brookmeade Park with significant amendments. But it is one of six bills to allocate American Rescue Plan Act funds — only half of which passed.

Originally drafted to funnel $1.9 million from the ARPA budget Nashville received as one of the 18 cities in Tennessee to get its allocation directly from the federal government, the resolution as approved now gives Metro Parks about $1.2 million. The $700,000 reduction comes with the removal of 120 of 126 cameras, a bulldozer and other items like fencing due to unease over the past three council sessions about whether the bill was initially intended to surveil and forcibly remove unhoused residents. That concern was disputed at the time by Councilmember Courtney Johnston in statements ostensibly contradictory to previous explanations from Metro Parks Director Monique Horton Odom.

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