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VOL. 5, NO. 22
MAY 30, 2011
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Scholarships top $330K By Lorraine Furtner
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 Summer fun with a message See pages A10-11
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If a 4.0 grade point average (GPA) won’t even land you a spot in the top 10 percent of graduates at Farragut High School, then what GPA does it take to get a full ride to the nation’s top schools? Only one hundredth of a point separated Farragut High School’s top two students. Valedictorian Jemin Park graduated with a 4.58 GPA, and salutatorian Edward Ko had a 4.57 GPA. Park had offers to UT, the University of Michigan, Georgia Tech and Washington University, but accepted a $175,088 full ride to Dartmouth College, where he’ll major in neuroscience. Park became interested in that field after volunteering at NHC in Farragut, working with elderly patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Ko received the highest scholar-
By Lorraine Furtner Growing up with four older brothers prepared Sue Buckley to face life challenges with a “can do” attitude. The genetic disorder von-Hippel Lindau disease (VHL) caused Buckley to have low vision as a child and eventually lose sight in both eyes. VHL is also the reason she may have the opportunity to address the medical community at the third International Symposium on Genetic Disorders in Paris, France, on Sept. 14 -17. VHL causes tumors that can be life threatening, causing strokes, kidney failure or even requiring heart transplants. Buckley is the only one in her family to lose sight so far, but one brother had a heart transplant and another had brain surgery. Several family members have had tumors on their adrenal glands, the cause of her mother’s death. Joyce Graff, executive director of VHL Family Alliance contacted Buckley about helping write an application to make a presentation at the symposium. The pair hope the
A closer look at Burchett’s budget
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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
Analysis
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 33,237 homes in Farragut, Karns and Hardin Valley.
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presentation to doctors will urge an accelerated progression of treatment in individuals known to have VHL in their families. Buckley said, “I’ve heard that doctors learn ‘if you hear hooves then look for horses,’ but what if they should be looking for zebras? A person with VHL is like that zebra, and their symptoms are individual like a zebra’s stripes,” said Buckley. “This would be the most amazing thing I’ve ever had the opportunity to do,” said Buckley. That is a large statement considering what Buckley has accomplished, including: ■ Initiated the creation of a girl’s basketball team in her high school in Warsaw, Ill., where she still holds school records for most points in a game and in a season. ■ Started the Y-CAP (Community Action Program) project for the inner-city population in Memphis while executive director for YMCA. ■ Taught herself how to cope living alone when becoming totally
“Gadget girl” Sue Buckley answers e-mail using a screen reader that enables her To page A-2 to access the Internet even though she is blind.
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ship at Vanderbilt University, the of $159,600, turning down offers Cornelius Vanderbilt full tuition from Cornell, John’s Hopkins,
Listening for zebras
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Farragut High School valedictorian Jemin Park and salutatorian Edward Ko enjoy their last day of high school. Photo by L. Furtner
Duke, Tulane and others. Ko plans a career as a biomedical engineer. During high school he worked with Park and the University of Tennessee studying animal digestion and waste for creating bio fuels and green energy. The two are friends and both play violin in the Knoxville Youth Symphony Orchestra (KYSO). They have planned camping trips and visits to Dollywood when not traveling with their parents this summer. Park’s family is going to France and Italy, and possibly to Korea. Ko said his family is planning a trip to Germany and possibly Taiwan. So, do these “super grads” have any advice to rising 9th graders? Ko said, “Don’t procrastinate” And Park said, “Don’t worry too much how others are doing. Just concentrate on yourself and it will work out.”
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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