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VOL. 5, NO. 18
MAY 2, 2011
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Little actor, lots of attention 12-year-old Maggie Kohlbusch performs in “The Music Man” at Clarence Brown See Valorie’s story on page A-3
NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ
Burchett’s first budget Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett will present his first general budget proposal to the Knox County Commission and the public today (May 2) at 9 a.m. in the Burchett City County Building main assembly room. He will then make several community presentations. He will be at the Bearden Branch Library, 100 Golf Club Road, from 2:30 to 5:30 p.m. Friday, May 6, and at the Cedar Bluff Branch Library at 5 p.m. Thursday, May 5.
Road opening Interim Mayor Daniel Brown and others will be at Forest Park Blvd. near The Grill at Highlands Row at 11 a.m. today (May 2) to celebrate the completion of the Kingston PikeForest Park Boulevard Bridge project. The Tennessee Department of Transportation project to widen and improve the bridge in addition to expanding Kingston Pike at that location was completed in mid-April.
‘Don’t do it, Mr. Brown.’ Why a run for mayor may not be a good idea for Daniel Brown. See Betty Bean’s column on page A-4
10512 Lexington Dr., Ste. 500 37932 (865) 218-WEST (9378) 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.
By Wendy Smith
At 92, John Smartt is a track star. He has had more firstplace wins than any other male track athlete in the Senior Olympics. It’s not because he’s good, but because he’s competed for so many years, he says. He’s modest. He hopes to compete in all seven track events at the Tennessee Senior Olympics in Franklin, Tenn., in August. That’s the 100, 200, 400, 800 and 1500-meter races, plus the 5k and 10k. If that seems overly ambitious, Smartt has placed first in all seven events – at five different National Senior Olympics. Again, he’s modest. When he started competing, he didn’t realize that most runners focus on sprint, middle or long distances. He competed in all of them out of ignorance, he says. Last year, Smartt experienced a setback when he fell while running in his neighborhood. He was banged up, but decided to continue the sport – with one major modification. He opted for six contact points with the ground, rather than two, by running with a four-wheeled walker. He used the walker to qualify for this year’s National Senior Olympics in Houston. He also used it as the oldest competitor in the Knoxville Marathon 5k in April. It was the first time he participated in the race, and he loved finishing on the 50yard line at Neyland Stadium with a time of 49:40. “It was marvelous. I can’t think of any finishes that were as dramatic as this,” he said. “Everybody had their moment of greatness.” In spite of his track ac-
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complishments, Smartt says he is best known for his infamous hiking expeditions. For years he led two large hikes per year. For a 1984 hike from Newfound Gap to Cosby, one member of the group had hats made for the entire party that said “Smartt’s Death March.” That was the year his wife of 67 years, Harriet, encouraged him to discontinue the expeditions. “She said, ‘You have few enough friends as it is. Every time you take a hike, you lose a few more,’ ” he laughs. The rigorous hikes paid off. In addition to keeping Smartt in tip-top shape, his reputation earned him the summer job of leading hikes from the swanky Swag Country Inn in Waynesville, N.C. He’s reasonably good at identifying wildflowers, and also good at spotting people who know more, he says. He will make his 23rd trip to the inn this summer, accompanied by his daughter, Jane Smartt Stroud, whom he is training to take his place. He has advice for those who want a long, active life such as his: marry a good nutritionist. Harriet, he says, always provided good food for him and their four children. Harriet observes another quality in him that she thinks has contributed to his longevity. “He’s the most positive person I’ve ever known. He doesn’t worry about the little things.” As proof of this, Smartt says he thoroughly enjoyed his two careers – alumni director at UT and coordinator of the Tennessee Law Institute. No two days were ever the same, he says. “I’ve had more fun in life than three or four people usually have.”
John Smartt poses with his wife of 67 years, Harriet, and the walker he has used to compete in Senior Olympic track events and the Knoxville Marathon 5k. He is wearing a jacket and stopwatch from his 26 years as head timer for UT swim meets, a hat from an HonorAir trip to Washington, D.C., and a Senior Olympic medal. Photo by Wendy Smith
Economics prof talks debt and deficits By Betty Bean Sherry Kasper, professor of economics at Maryville College and visiting fellow at the Howard H. Baker Jr. Center for Public Policy, says she has devoted her career to making sure that people have the Sherry Kasper vocabulary to talk about big issues. She shared that new vocabulary with the 4th District Democrats last week – a vocabulary for discussing the country’s debt and deficit. She began her talk with a pop quiz: Q: What is a federal deficit? A: A deficit is when annual income is less than receipts. Q: What is a federal debt?
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A: The federal debt is the sum of annual deficits. Q: Is the U.S. debt burden (the amount of debt owed relative to income produced in the United States) more, less or the same as it was during World War II? A: The debt is much lower than it was in World War II. (“We have demonstrated in the past that we can have a high debt and pay it off,” Kasper said. “During World War II, we thought it was worthwhile.”) Q: What percentage of the debt is owed to China? A: 7.5 percent. Q: What percentage of the 2010 budget was devoted to defense, Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid? A: Defense got 20 percent; Social Security 20 percent; Medicare and Medicaid 21 percent. While Kasper says some debt
is worth taking on – like college loans for individuals (a college degree is worth more than $1 million additional income over a lifetime, she said) or the money Cleveland, Ohio, spent on Great Lakes restoration (which has been returned many times over in tourism and fisheries revenues and quality of life intangibles) – she’s not comfortable with the ballooning deficits of today’s economic climate. “Our current deficits are not on a sustainable path,” she said. “The timing is bad and not sustainable for the long run.” She is concerned about health care costs. “Everybody gets health care in the U.S., but incentives are not working well to cut costs, and we spend a lot of money at the end of life.” When asked if Americans need to worry about the Chinese wanting their money back, she was
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amused. “Why would China want to ruin us? We owe them a lot of money. There’s no incentive for them to want to ruin us – that’s my gut feeling. There’s nothing to gain by ruining the U.S. They need us to buy their stuff. …” Kasper said entitlements should be understood as a transfer of funds from working people to the recipients, and that although deficit reduction is problematic during a deep recession, it must be addressed. She sees value in budget discussions of the Obama plan versus the Republicans’ Ryan plan, particularly in dealing with the ballooning Medicaid debt. “Obama has asked the governors to recommend ways to improve efficiency,” she said. “The Ryan plan is for block grants of lump sums to the states that would decrease by $77 million over the next decade.”
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