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Miracle Maker
Since she was a child, Farragut High School teacher Wanda Lacy has had a passion for math. “I love it. I love how things connect,” Lacy said. Because of that love, she changed her course of study in college from engineering to teaching.
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See Sara Barrett’s story on A-9
Meet Bart Bart Watkins is a busy guy. He owns LizBeth and Co. Fine Art Gallery, which he founded with his mother over 20 years ago in his grandmother’s basement. He co-founded Art in Public Places with Eddie Mannis eight years ago to inspire both the community and visitors with sculpture. He and his wife have a small child and another on the way.
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See Coffee Break on page A-2
Oakwood lives on Nancy Irvine of West Knoxville was just out of UT when she began teaching 1st grade at Oakwood School in 1954. She’s been sad to watch the building decline over the years, and is pleased that it’s coming back to life.rk.
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See story on page A-3
NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ
PlanET comes to Farragut The Town of Farragut will host a PlanET “Meeting in a Box” after the regularly scheduled Farragut Municipal Planning Commission meeting at 7 p.m. Thursday, March 21, at the Town Hall, 11408 Municipal Center Drive. Throughout March, PlanET is hosting a public-participation series focusing on how the people who live, work and play in the five-county region of Anderson, Blount, Knox, Loudon and Union counties think the region should grow. This is the third round of community input since November 2011 to explore community members’ priorities and look at options for growth as new people and new jobs come to the area. The FMPC meeting and PlanET presentation are open to the public. For more info, visit www.planeasttn.org.
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VOL. 7 NO. 11
IN THIS ISSUE
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March 18,, 2013
The billboard busters By Wendy Smith Knox County Commission voted to ban digital billboards last month after receiving a flurry of emails against the showy signage. It was a major victory for Scenic Knoxville, and a handful of women who serve on the organization’s board are foot soldiers in the battle against the billboard. Marsha Grieve has been part of the organization since it formed in 2008. After deciding that billboards were not a “fact of life,” she chose to invest her time. “I, like a lot of people, always hated billboards. But I had no idea that I could do anything about it. I realized, as a group, we could get something changed.” Joyce Feld, president of Scenic Knoxville, had experienced life without billboards. She moved here from Hawaii, where there are none. While she could have chosen to be involved with “a thousand wonderful causes,” she felt drawn to this one. “I want to live in an attractive city. I think it’s important,” she says. “My involvement is partly selfish – I’m fighting for the kind of city where I want to live.” Margot Kline, president of the Council of West Knox County Homeowners, is concerned with anything that affects quality of life and property values in West Knox. She’s lived here since she was a child, and remembers how
Margot Kline, Joyce Feld and Marsha Grieve were among those who led the fight against digital billboards in Knox County. The county’s recent ban on the flashy signs is due to the hard work of the entire Scenic Knoxville board and the community’s willingness to speak up, they say. Photo by Wendy Smith
a billboard placed in the heart of Fountain City 30 years ago took away the small-town appeal of the area – and angered residents. The women were able to channel the community’s frustration with billboards in general, and digital billboards in particular, into
one voice that was heard by Knox County Commission. Before the Feb. 25 vote, they knew that four commissioners were on their side, but they also knew that two were on the fence. When they asked the constituents of those commissioners to speak up, they did.
Scenic Knoxville got its message out through an email list and got community organizations, like garden clubs and neighborhood associations, on board. They also created a Facebook page to keep followers informed. There has been overwhelming public support against digital billboards, says Feld. In additions to concerns about aesthetics, Grieve, Feld and Kline think the billboards, which change every few seconds, are unsafe. In the U.S., there is little data about drivers having accidents around the signs, but research in other countries has resulted in the banning of digital billboards, says Feld. “Their nickname is ‘weapons of mass distraction.’” There are currently 11 digital billboards in Knox County, and they will remain. Six more got permits during the moratorium but now will not be built, says Grieve. Commissioner Richard Briggs originally proposed that all new billboards and electronic message centers (EMCs) be banned along with digital billboards, but discussion of new static billboards and EMCs has been deferred. Grieve, Feld and Kline would like for all new billboards to be banned. But they are not antiTo page A-3
‘All great schools’ By Sandra Clark It’s got a principal and 20 teachers. It’s got a website, and it’s even got a PTA. It already has several Partners in Education. It just needs a name. Deadline is Friday, March 22, to submit a vote or suggestion for the name of the new southwest sector elementary school which will open in August 2013. Principal Susan Davis has already received 500 submissions at nametheschool@ knoxschools.org/. (That compares favorably with the 100 or so suggestions for the
and Blue Grass elementary schools. Zone lines were impacted for Cedar Bluff and Hardin Valley as well. Davis recalled a comment made by a parent: “They’re all great schools.” She said the kids are eager to know the school’s culture. “Do you have Pajama Day?” asked one. “Can we have pizza (in the cafeteria),” asked another. “It didn’t take them long to connect,” said Davis. Fifth graders will help establish customs for the new school. “They will have projSusan Davis at work in the ects from day one,” said DaAndrew Johnson Building vis. “Working together on a Photo by S. Clark project will help them bond.”
L&N STEM Academy.) “There’s a lot of support for this school and real excitement in the community,” said Davis. She’s working out of an office at the Andrew Johnson Building until the school is finished. The school is located on Thunderhead Road in the Northshore Town Center off Northshore Drive at Pellissippi Parkway. The school zone, adopted in December after extensive public meetings, includes an area west of Pellissippi and south of FarFarragut Primary, Farragut ragut. Students will come from Intermediate, A.L. Lotts
Going to extremes Legislative majority presents challenges for Haslam By Betty Bean During the 2012 national elections, there was talk about a Republican War on Women. In 2013, Tennessee’s 108th General Assembly widened the battle into a multi-front conflagration, hitting hot-button themes that used to work so well as wedge issues when the GOP was in the minority. Now that they are a supermajority, the only significant obstacle in their way is Gov. Bill Haslam, a cautious man not inclined to extremes. Showdown No. 1: Medicaid expansion. These lines were drawn when the United States Supreme Court left Medicaid expansion up
to the states. Some Republican governors (Rick Scott of Florida, Jan Brewer of Arizona) have opted in; others (Rick Perry of Texas, Scott Walker of Wisconsin) have opted out. Haslam is being heavily lobbied by the state’s major hospitals, who want to offset looming Medicaid cuts with billions of federal dollars available under the new law. Showdown No. 2: It may not rise to the level of war, but few school boards or PTAs support diverting public money to private schools via vouchers. Haslam supports vouchers, but his bill is limited to 5,000 needy students in failing school districts during the first year, and gradually increases thereafter. Cultural conservatives favor a competing bill to make vouchers available in all districts immediately. Showdown No. 3: Some call
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Registration for children entering kindergarten or first grade at the new southwest sector school (if not currently attending a Knox County school) will be 4-7 p.m. Tuesday, April 9, in the cafeteria at West Valley Middle School. Packets may be picked up in advance at area elementary schools. Details are available on KCS website at www.knoxschools.org/.
To page A-3
Haslam’s workers’ compensation reform initiative a War on Workers. Others call it a War on Lawyers. Whatever it’s called, there isn’t much daylight between Haslam and the most conservative elements of his party, who share a common distaste for organized labor and trial lawyers. This one will create a state agency run by a Haslam-appointed administrator to hear workers’ compensation cases, replacing courts and lawyers. It will negatively impact collections from fee offices as a revenue source for county governments. Showdown No. 4: Clerks hate this Stacey Campfield-sponsored bill because it will force them to shoulder half of the burden of notifying creditors when garnished debtors change jobs. Senate Bill 243 will make work for clerks, but will be far worse for debtors, who will be subject to contempt of court if their creditors aren’t notified – re-establishing debtors’ prisons in Tennessee.
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Showdown No. 5: The War on Vanderbilt, Part 2, is too good to skip. Last year, Haslam vetoed a bill outlawing Vanderbilt University’s “All Comers” rule, which requires student groups to allow any interested student to join. Social conservatives complain that this rule violates the rights of religious organizations to keep undesirables out, but Haslam came down on the side of keeping the state out of the business of private institutions. The issue is back this year, in the form of Sen. Mae Beavers’ bill requiring the state to de-certify the police forces of private institutions that violate the civil rights of religious organizations. Haslam’s 2012 veto stood because he waited until the General Assembly concluded its two-year session, too late for legislators to override it. The 108th session won’t end until 2014.
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