GOVERNMENT/POLITICS A4 | OUR COLUMNISTS A6-7 | YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS A10-11 | HEALTH & LIFESTYLES SECTION B | BUSINESS SECTION C
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VOL. 5, NO. 23
JUNE 6, 2011
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Public Market By Sandra Clark
Fun Day Farragut Intermediate School 3rd graders enjoy outdoor games See page A-10
What if they threw an election and nobody ran? See Betty Bean’s column on page A-4
Charles Atchley. Photos by S. Clark Turkey Creek Public Market is set to open in mid-July with a vendor orientation this week. Paving is underway and 600 booths
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are framed in at the former outlet mall off Lovell Road. The 162,000-square-foot building was gutted down to the concrete slab. A new roof with 4-inch insulation makes the interior “feel like you’re under a shade tree,” said owner Charles Atchley. The Kodak-based entrepreneur also owns the Great Smokies Flea Market, a Geno’s Pizza franchise and Atchley Outdoor. Atchley and Turley are proud of the market’s eco-friendly elements. The lights and air conditioning are computer-driven, providing adequate utilities based on conditions. The roof is raised in the center with natural light flooding the building’s interior. Atchley said 1,200 light fixtures and 68 new 5-ton air conditioning units were installed, along with all-new plumbing. The Public Market will be open from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Saturday and Sunday, to take advantage of high traffic times, Atchley said. Vendors must commit to only To page A-3
Vegas recruiting Town team travels to engage new business By Natalie Lester
GET OUTDOORS! Fly fishing, geocaching and summer fun
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This antique cheese cart is the centerpiece of the rotunda at the Turkey Creek Public Market. Charles Atchley bought it at the Regas Restaurant auction where owner Bill Regas estimated it to be 200 years old. “It was the cheese cart at Regas,” said Atchley, “but no one could see the intricate metal carving because the bar area was so dark.”
Vendors rev up for Get set, Farragut, for a new concept in shopping and entertainment. Developer John Turley said, “It’s amazing. No one has ever done this. It’s a niche and there’s a need.”
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Although they were in Las Vegas, the town of Farragut economic development team was not on vacation. Associate town administrator Gary Palmer, Alderman Bob Markli, developer Jim Nixon, Farragut Business Alliance president David Purvis and Phil Dangel recently attended the International Council of Shopping Centers convention in an effort to recruit new businesses to Farragut. “It was somewhere to simply introduce retailers to the town,”
gave the businesses flash drives containing a promotional video of the town and a copy of census data, along with a town of Farragut lanPalmer said. “We talked about our yard keychain. geographical region and the mutu“We prefaced (the flash drive) ally beneficial economic advantages with a general relaxed discussion to locating a business here.” about the town, East Tennessee and Before the trip Palmer contact- both parties’ goals and objectives,” ed approximately 75 businesses in Palmer said. “The group flowed well hope of saturating the convention and we all played off each other. with meeting requests. “I believe we left each meeting “Our tactic was to fill our sched- with the message that the town is ule with the most desirable retail- here, willing to compete and ready ers for Farragut and this region,” he to do business.” said. Palmer said each member of his During the three-day conven- team was influential, but Nixon’s tion, the team met with 17 differ- contributions were particularly ent retailers. Some of the meetings helpful. “Nixon has been involved with were as short as 10 minutes, but others ran up to an hour long. They developing this region for some
time and has brought several great businesses to our town,” he said. “He has the experience at this convention. He brought a professional, relaxed perspective to the meeting that can come only from experience and repeated success in business development.” Palmer hopes the town will continue to attend the ICSC convention each year. He believes it is the best way Farragut can grow its business community the way it wants to. “You have to go out and actively recruit,” he said. “Sitting back and hoping a good business locates here is not a method. The biggest success was that we were able to pull this quality team together, fill our calendar and hit the ground running for three straight days.”
Chase to legislators: Stay out of TWRA’s business By Betty Bean Mike Chase is a tough guy who has had a spectacularly successful career in the restaurant industry. He’s been a fi xture in Tennessee business and politics for two decades and his 17-restaurant Copper Cellar Corp. stretches from Gatlinburg to Nashville. He is a Democrat whose support is courted by both major parties and friends occasionally kid him about a passing resemblance to Tony Soprano. Those who know him best, however, say he’s happiest when he’s fishing. That’s probably why he lights up when he talks about his six years on the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission, which oversees the operations of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. Chase was appointed by former Gov. Phil Bredesen and served as chair in 2010 and until his term was up earlier this year. He is an enthusiastic booster of the agency’s mission. “I don’t think most people know that the agency doesn’t get any money from the state. It is totally self-funded
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through hunting and fishing license sales. One of the things I would like to see is a portion of the sales of all boating, fishing and hunting licenses go to fund the agency,” Chase said. “The sale of hunting Chase licenses has been on the decline for years. “I don’t think the average person realizes what a wildlife officer has to deal with on a daily basis,” he said, mentioning a wildlife officer who worked a 20-hour shift dealing with a woman who had two fingers ripped off in a water skiing accident and a bear that was sighted and trapped in South Knoxville. “And I wonder if the average person realizes that the management job the agency does has made hunting what it is today in the state of Tennessee. Twenty years ago, we probably had wild turkeys in six or eight counties. Now, they’re all over the place. Something like 3638,000 of them are harvested every year. The same thing can be said for deer, and the same has taken place
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mantly opposed to Rep. Frank Niceley’s deer farming bill, which was defeated this session. “In listening to the people I knew whom I have to respect, it would have been a very bad thing for wildlife in the state of Tennessee. Sometimes I think some of the legislators resent the independence of the commission – but that’s the reason the commission was set up – to keep it separate from the political in Nashville. “The agency has to be constantly monitoring what’s going on and try not to let these private acts pass. There would be different rules in every county. There would be no statewide enforcement, especially for the last two years because there’s been such a change in Nashville. Even a few bills, which have been withdrawn, to allow the Legislature to appoint commissioners and even put legislators on the commission, I personally think would be the death of the commission. The existing format has been working with great success and they need to leave it alone. Leave the commission alone. Leave the agency alone.”
in our lakes and reservoirs and rivers for fishing. Look at the trout below Norris Dam or in the Caney Fork River. Somebody has to raise and stock these trout. If you’re a hunter or a fisherman, you’ve sure got to give credit to somebody.” Chase is modest about his role in shaping policy, but says he’s proud of prodding the agency to spend money on hatcheries. “Since I have such an interest in fishing, I wanted to get our hatcheries to where we could start meeting the needs of fishermen out there as far as producing fish. Most of our lakes are past their prime as far as fishing goes, and it’s necessary to restock them. Under Gov. Bredesen, there was a strong emphasis on state parks and tourism, and this is part of it. Our lakes need to be attractive to out-of-staters who come to fish. It’s an important part of our economy and economic development for the future. I felt it was very important.” Chase said politics never played a part in the board’s decisions but sometimes were imposed from the outside. He is, for example, ada-
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