The Nashville Chamber of Commerce had their general membership meeting yesterday and they heard from some Southern Illinois University Carbondale architecture students who had visited Nashville at the beginning of the school year. Instructor Steven Turnipseed said their project was to look at 3 county seats along the Route 127 corridor from Interstate 64 going south and explore their physical environment and then develop ideas to reinforce the character each town possesses.  This included Nashville, Pinckneyville and Murphysboro.  3 preliminary proposals were presented to the Chamber and Mayor Raymond Kolweier, who was in attendance.  Nicholas Mack and his group had an idea involving the 4-way intersection at Routes 15 and 127, as they wanted to incorporate a roundabout at that location.  The idea is to slow down traffic and have them look around and notice there is a downtown section, instead of just driving through on Route 127.  This also included doing some landscaping in the area, as well as a clocktower or statue.  Joshua Curvey’s group looked at the parking arrangements downtown, especially behind Lee’s and going west, as it is somewhat disorganized, so it should be repurposed to be more efficient, as well installing some bike lanes for the active community.  They also thought of having more upper level housing downtown, as well as there being a problem of identifying downtown to passerbyers, as there isn’t any signage to turn towards downtown.  He suggested a clocktower at the intersection, as some other communities have done, as they are symbolic and really feels like home.  The corner area is a really great place for a 4-story clocktower, which can then incorporate a really nice gateway to downtown Nashville, or even something else that creates a nice entranceway to downtown and invites motorists in and makes them want to visit.  The final idea by Reno Mason’s group also wanted to make people go west on Route 15, including some sort of plaza area, possibly with a clocktower or some sort of signage or plaque or statue about Nashville.  They also felt like the parking behind Lee’s going west was unorganized and should be set up better.  They idea of having more housing downtown included having more above the businesses as well as some apartments.  Some in attendance agreed that signage would be a good idea at the intersection, but that the parking situation for some businesses would need to allow for large delivery trucks to have access to the buildings in the back, which would not allow for organized parking.  This was all preliminary work and a final report will be brought back after the projects are completed.  The students thanked all the people they talked to, as they made them feel welcome during their visit.