At the meeting the board heard annual reports and progress updates from several park partners and friends groups.

Friends of Bales Bend Park summarized event attendance and stabilization work on an 1840s farmhouse, reporting about 728 attendees at an outdoor festival and roughly 1,250 at Farm Day. Emily Foshay, for Friends of Beaman Park, highlighted the group's role in the Tennessee Naturalist Program (15 participants), more than 200 volunteer hours for the year, trail maintenance, bench replacements and environmental-education partnerships.

Chrissy Cassidy of the Nashville Downtown Partnership reviewed management and programming work in downtown parks. Cassidy said the Partnership holds two contracts with Metro Parks (Church Street Park and Walk of Fame Park) and has a pilot programming permit for Riverfront Park. She cited survey results and listed planned investments: approximately $335,000 in Church Street Park, $768,000 in Walk of Fame Park, and $510,000 in Riverfront Park. Cassidy also described recurring programming, a new holiday market at Walk of Fame Park, and partnerships that supported events and operations.

Jane McLeod, president and CEO of Cheekwood, reported that final construction-issuance drawings are targeted for the end of the month, that the organization has reached roughly 85% of its enhanced phase-2 fundraising goal, and that short-term construction financing is proceeding. McLeod outlined traffic-management strategies (time-ticketing, parking fees for nonmembers, use of the Cheek Road entrance) and thanked the board for extending Cheekwood's MOU through December 2027.

Board response and next steps

Board members thanked the presenters and noted continuing partnerships are central to park programming and facilities management. Director Odom noted the parks department's written capital and greenways reports were available to board members and flagged upcoming holiday events in Public Square Park.

The presentations provide the board and staff with partner metrics and operational context for programming and capital planning.