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VOL. 5, NO. 22
MAY 30, 2011
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Thanking ‘Mrs. G.’ Google doodler awards scholarships in Bearden High teacher’s name By Wendy Smith
World War II veteran Bob Courtney and Wade Jones enjoy the music, lunch and festivities at the Memorial Day celebration at New Harvest Park.
Happy Memorial Day! We salute our veterans.
The king of the wild frontier Jake reviews a new Davy Crockett book See page A-6
vbs 2011
Bearden High School art teacher Flowerree Galetovic intended to be the one delivering accolades when she presented former student and Google doodler Dennis Hwang with a Distinguished Alumni Award during the school’s May 20 graduation ceremony. But Galetovic, known as “Mrs. G” by her students, was honored herself when Hwang presented $1,000 scholarships to two art students in her name. Noelle Grimes, who will attend Watkins College of Art, Design and Film, and Malory Johnson, who will attend Columbus College of Art and Design, were the first recipients of the Flowerree Galetovic Art Scholarship. Hwang intends to fund two scholarships each year. Hwang, who graduated from Bearden in 1997, is well known for creating the doodles that appear on the Google homepage on holidays and artists’ birthdays. He flew all night from his home in San Francisco to spend graduation day speaking to Galetovic’s art classes. He was born in Knoxville but moved to Korea as a young child. He returned to Knoxville at age 12, having forgotten English. But he went on to become a stellar math, science and art student, and attended Stan-
Council snoozes; sparks may fly
Summer fun with a message
Loophole legalizes city fireworks
See pages A10-11
By Betty Bean
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Every July Fourth scofflaw with a firecracker and a match knows that fireworks are illegal inside the city of Knoxville, right? Wrong. On May 17, City Council voted not to close a loophole in the city code that has the unintended effect of legalizing fireworks. The glitch was inadvertently
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By Larry Van Guilder Amidst the controversy over Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett’s proposed slashing of the county’s contribution to the Beck Center and his inflexible stance on employee raises and property taxes lies the
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news@ShopperNewsNow.com ads@ShopperNewsNow.com EDITOR Larry Van Guilder lvgknox@mindspring.com ADVERTISING SALES Paige Davis davisp@ShopperNewsNow.com Darlene Hacker hackerd@ShopperNewsNow.com Debbie Moss mossd@ShopperNewsNow.com Shopper-News is a member of KNS Media Group, published weekly at 10512 Lexington Drive, Suite 500, Knoxville, TN, and distributed to 24,267 homes in Bearden.
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created when codes dealing with fireworks were rewritten. It was ratified by six members of City Council who disregarded pleas from Knoxville Police Department Chief David Rausch and Knoxville Fire Department Chief Stan Sharp, who requested the ordinance to cure the legal defect. The vote was 6-3, with Mayor Daniel Brown, Chris Woodhull and Brenda Palmer voting in the minority. At one point, Joe Bailey asked Deputy Law Director Ron Mills if fireworks are illegal.
Mills sighed, “Probably not,” he said, clearly uncomfortable at announcing the fact that citizens can now legally deploy roman candles, bottle rockets and other fireworks that do not violate the city’s noise ordinance. When contacted last week, he confirmed his misgivings. “The prohibition on sale and possession and use of fireworks in the city goes back a long time,” he said. “But it wasn’t laid out specifically in the city code. It was adopted by reference.
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because she didn’t like the word “assistant” in her title. Hwang thinks she probably regrets that decision now. He took the job himself and worked 80-100 hours a week while completing his senior year. He was the lone Google doodler for eight years; the team now has 60 designers and programmers. Hwang hasn’t forgotten where he got his start. “When I think back, it all started right here in this classroom,” he told the Bearden art students. “It’s pretty cool.” He encouraged them to continue to create art, even if they don’t choose it as a profession. The ability to communicate through drawing is a skill not everyone has and can be used in all kinds of situations, he said. One of the ways Hwang has chosen to give back is through Doodle 4 Google, a student contest to create the best Google homepage design on a given theme. Bearden art students, along with students from across the globe, compete for the chance to win a scholarship and have their artwork appear online. Hwang has travelled extensively in conjunction with the contest and was honored, and nervous, to meet Dennis Hwang, Bearden grad and Google doodler, visited Flowerree Galetovic’s the queen during a trip to London. art classes on May 20. He surprised Galetovic by presenting two art scholarships When she was told what he did for in her name at Bearden’s graduation ceremony. Photo by Wendy Smith a living, she asked, “Is this what you do all day?” ford University on a scholarship. homepage, they used online clip art. It was a surreal experience that made him think back to his humble The summer after his junior year, Hwang was not impressed. he applied for an internship at a “I looked at it and thought, ‘I can roots in Knoxville, he said. small start-up called Google. No one do a lot better.’ ” One student asked Hwang if Galeknew whether it would succeed, he After his first doodle, Hwang had tovic was as demanding a teacher said. There were fewer than 100 em- a new gig. When it came time for him during his high school days as she is ployees when he began his job build- to return to school, the company de- now. She was, he said. ing Web pages. cided to hire a full-time employee to “She’ll work your butt off, but the When the company began experi- take his place. The job was offered to more advanced you are, the better it menting with playful designs on its a young woman, who turned it down gets.”
mostly non-discussed heart of the budget, where everything from potholes to playgrounds takes a bite out of your tax dollar. Before County Commission votes on the budget in June, it appears certain that a compromise will be reached on Beck’s funding. An even greater certainty is that no acrossthe-board raises will be granted this year and no property tax increase will be enacted unless commission can override a mayoral veto. But
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what’s happening elsewhere with the mayor’s inaugural budget? Burchett’s FY 2012 budget unveils his plan to reduce the county’s debt by some $20 million per year between now and 2016. For those who watched with a great deal of trepidation the bonded indebtedness grow by more than $200 million under the former mayor, this will be viewed as a signal accomplishment if the administration pulls it off. There are two paths to get there: (1) Continue to shrink the size and scope of county government. There’s every reason to believe the mayor will go down that road until it hurts. (2) Grow your sales and property tax base. Because the mayor’s conservative principles dictate that government can do nothing more than create an environment in which businesses and individuals have the opportunity to thrive, there’s little direct action he can take to swell the revenue stream.
(These are mutually supporting paths, not mutually exclusive, and despite the administration’s pessimistic economic outlook this year, an eventual uptick in the economy has to factor into an ambitious debt reduction plan.) Outside the plan to whittle down the debt, it gets harder to find positives in the proposed budget. The school budget comprises nearly 60 percent of the total and is largely beyond the mayor’s control. The “general” budget, proposed for $149.2 million, continues to shrink, a trend that began with Burchett’s predecessor. Since 2008, and including the proposed FY 2012 budget, the general budget, which includes libraries, senior centers, parks, the sheriff’s office and public works, has shed $10.3 million. But that’s the aggregate, and it is deceptive. Over the same period, the sheriff’s budget has risen by $7.5 million. Take out public safety, and the remaining general budget
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has declined by $17.8 million, 18.5 percent since FY 2008. Even allocations for which a strong argument could be made that a healthy increase is warranted aren’t receiving much help. For example, stormwater management, a component of the engineering and public works budget, is slated to receive almost exactly the same funding as it did in FY 2011. It doesn’t take a hydrologist to conclude that with more effective stormwater management over the years, and stronger codes enforcement in general, much of the time and effort expended on the hillside and ridgetop protection plan might have been avoided. The proposed budget is likely to pass without major modifications. The mayor’s “I’m not Ragsdale” honeymoon will last at least through his first budget cycle, but citizen reaction going forward is likely to test the proposition that smaller is in all cases better.
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