VOL. 11 NO. 7
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FIRST WORDS Creative ways to build sidewalks
February 15, 2017
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Bearden Middle School experiment
By Nick Della Volpe We need your help. As a city councilman, you often hear from neighborhood groups and individuals about the need/ desire for more sidewalks, a safer way to get around the neighborhood on foot or bike. In a May Della Volpe 10 Shopper article, I wrote about the five criteria the city’s engineers use to assign priority to sidewalk segments to build. Let’s focus on quantity. Currently, Knoxville builds roughly a mile-plus of new sidewalks and rebuilds another mile-plus of reworked/repaired walks each budget year. How can we build more? If you skip over the restrictions of topography and space limitations, that work generally costs over $1 million per mile. Indeed, it is estimated that retrofitting sidewalks in established areas costs about $300 per running foot, considering land acquisition cost, plans, stormwater drainage (piping and infrastructure), curbs, ADA requirements and the actual concrete pad work. Most of this work is contracted out by the city, although our Public Service crews tackle small segment repairs and replacement, when a break in regular work permits. Public Service is also building some greenway segments. How can we improve on our sidewalk build-out rate? More money is the simple answer, but that resource is as scarce as a pinch of saffron for your next paella. City government services already cost some $215 million of your annual tax dollars. A general tax increase, anyone? Didn’t think so. Realistically, we have to look for creative solutions. That’s where you come in. One obvious solution is to require new subdivisions to include sidewalks in their design and build-out. When built as part of that original build-out and grading, the cost is much lower, estimated at $100 per foot (it depends on drainage, grade, etc.) – roughly 1/3 of the cost of a retrofit. To page A-3
Sherri’s photo feature:
Bully to all
The Smoky Mountain Bulldog Club held its Wine to the Rescue fundraiser at Crowne Plaza Saturday night. ➤ See pictures on page B-3
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Video Tape to DVD cial
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Creators of the experiment to be launched for study at the International Space Station are Bearden Middle School eighth-graders William Walker, Jack Lathrop, Elise Kersch, Mauricio Sanchez, Riley Speas, Moamen Emara and Katherine Trent, and instructional coach Kayla Canario. Not pictured: students Alex Hoffman and James Pierce. Photo by Kelly Norrell
By Kelly Norrell Eight Bearden Middle School students and one West High School student will travel to Cape Canaveral to watch their work launched to the International Space Station later this month. An experiment they developed to test a medical
treatment for pinkeye will be performed at the space station. The students are Bearden Middle School eighth-graders Moamen Emara, Alex Hoffman, Jack Lathrop, William Walker, Elise Kersch, Riley Speas, Mauricio Sanchez and Katherine Trent, and
James Pierce, now a ninth-grader at West High School. The trip comes about through Knox County Schools’ participation in the National Center for Earth and Space Education’s Student Spaceflight Experiments Program (SSEP). Schools in grades
5-12 are eligible to submit proposals. Bearden Middle School, which made finalist the two previous years, learned in early 2016 its work would travel in space this February. To page A-3
Williams is council candidate
the Pond Gap Area Neighbor- and zoning disputes. By Kelly Norrell hood Association, which he Williams, who is single, is a lifelong resiDavid Williams, 64, is a candidate for helped found and incorporate dent of the neighborhood that his greatKnoxville City Council from District 2, the in 2001. Williams’ efforts led grandfather, Charles Murphy Newman, district currently represented by Vice Mayor to historical markers and helped develop. Williams attended West Duane Grieve, who is term-limited. recognition for the neighbor- High School (1970) and earned a bachelor’s He is a Pond Gap neighborhood activist hood and improved city ser- degree in statistics at UT (1976), an master’s and ran David Williams Algebra Tutoring for vices, such as sidewalks and in religious studies at Liberty University about 35 years before retiring. He held a citypedestrian crossing signals (1991) and a doctorate in religious education wide, annual Mathmindedness contest for at Pond Gap Elementary. He at Christian Bible College (1996). He is not afabout 20 years, rewarding adept youngsters Williams troubleshoots between busiwith prizes like savings bonds. To page A-3 Williams has been president for 17 years of nesses and residents on issues like parking
Age discrimination settlement costs tax dollars By Betty Bean Donald Trump is not the only Republican officeholder who’s got a problem with women.
Analysis Knox County’s clerk of Criminal and Fourth Circuit courts, Mike Hammond, has a pattern of behavior that recently cost county taxpayers almost $200,000. The latest scrum was the settlement of an age discrimination lawsuit brought by two female supervisors whom Hammond fired shortly after taking office in September 2014. The firings of Debra Sewell, 62, and Jean Smathers, 68, cleared the way for Hammond to hire or promote younger individuals. They probably would have won at trial, but trials are expensive and uncertain and three years is a long time to wait for compensation, so they settled. Smathers received $57,500, Sewell got $65,000 and Knox County paid their attorney, Jeffrey C. Taylor,
$28,100.50 per client. Hammond could have avoided this with better personnel practices. Richard Julian, manager of Knox County’s human resources department, said the employee handbook clearly outlines procedures for a progressive discipline procedure. Hammond (Hammond has opted his office out of the county’s HR department.) “Do an annual performance review,� Julian said. “If you want improvement, put it in writing.� The next steps are verbal warning, written reprimand, suspension up to 10 days without pay and termination. “I can’t imagine why anyone would not go through these steps,� Julian said. Another way to terminate is simply to abolish an unneeded position. Hammond gave no reason for the terminations initially, but when the women filed suit in March 2016, he denounced them for running a disorganized, cha-
otic office permeated by a “circus atmosphere� that allowed lawyers free run of the place. This accusation was puzzling, even infuriating, to many lawyers who used the office. Fourth Circuit Court was the domain of Judge William Swann, who retired in 2014. His penchant for issuing orders of protection brought massive, angry and often unruly crowds to the City County building on Thursdays, where feuding parties waited for their cases to be called. Extra security was required, and OP Thursdays were dubbed “good love gone bad� days. Hammond has said the office is running more smoothly now, but a veteran lawyer who has handled divorce cases for decades said any changes in the office culture are due to Swann’s successor, Judge Greg McMillan. “You need look no further than the judge who sat in Fourth Circuit for 30 years for creating whatever atmosphere was there. The judge sets the tenor,� the lawyer said. “Ms. Sewell and Ms. Smathers were the go-to people in that office. When you needed a question
answered or something done, you went to them. I’d say they have more friends in the courthouse than Mike Hammond. This was a debacle. He took that office’s institutional memory out in one day.� Clashes with women are becoming a hallmark of Hammond’s post-county commission career (he is a career radio broadcaster who served as a county commissioner for 10 years). He ran unopposed in 2014 after unleashing a barrage of withering attacks on his predecessor, Joy McCroskey, who chose not to stand for re-election. Next he took aim at the county’s other court clerk, Cathy Quist Shanks, who heads operations for the balance of Circuit Court as well as Juvenile and General Sessions courts. Late last year, in a memo to Mayor Tim Burchett marked “Confidential,� he outlined a plan to consolidate his office with that of Shanks. She quickly criticized his plan, saying he was trying to make himself a “super clerk� who would control hundreds of jobs and a massive budget. Hammond retreated.
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