VOL. 8 NO. 9
‘ROUND TOWN
www.ShopperNewsNow.com |
March 3, 2014
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Secret’s out:
Couple can now brag on reality-star daughter
By Betsy Pickle
➤ Tax time is
around the corner Spring is coming, believe it or not! And with Spring comes April 15: Income Tax Day in America. If you need help, the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) team is waiting every Friday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Farragut Town Hall. These volunteers will complete and e-file IRS tax returns at no charge for seniors and lower income residents. Bring with you the following: wage and earnings statements; interest, dividend, capital gains, pension, IRA and social security statements; list of items that might be considered for itemized deductions; support for income and credits; copy of last year’s tax return; social security card and correct birth dates for all taxpayers and dependents to be listed on return.
➤ New exhibit
of budding Picassos A new exhibit opens today at town hall. The 2014 Farragut Primary Schools Art Show puts the work of students at Farragut Primary and Intermediate, Concord Christian and St. John Neumann Catholic schools in the spotlight. A reception honoring the young artists is at 5 p.m. Tuesday, March 4. Visitors can enjoy the exhibit through March 14 during regular town hall business hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
➤ Care about
parks? There is a new playground in Farragut’s future. One more public meeting is on the books for tomorrow, Tuesday, March 4, for you to voice your opinion about the placement of the playground and the surface to be used at Mayor Bob Leonard Park. The public meeting is at 5 p.m. You have until March 15 to express your thoughts online through Facebook and Twitter by going to townoffarragut or email parks@townoffarragut.org.
➤ Upcoming at
Town Hall Farragut/Knox County Schools Education Relations Committee – 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 4; Arts Council Meeting – 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 4; Economic Development Committee – 8 a.m. Wednesday, March 5; Board of Mayor and Aldermen (BOMA) – 7 p.m. Thursday, March 13; Farragut Planning Commission – 7 p.m. Thursday, March 20; BOMA – 7 p.m. Thursday, March 27
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Fans of the ABC reality show “The Taste” were excited when they finally got to see Louise Leonard win the cooking competition. Carl and Julie Leonard were excited that they no longer had to keep their daughter’s success a secret. The finale of “The Taste” aired Feb. 20, nearly four months after it was recorded. The producers had flown the Leonards, who live in West Knoxville, to California for the tapings of the original elimination show and the finale. Since then, the hard part has been “keeping our mouths shut,” says Julie Leonard. “Not for her,” says Carl Leonard, referring to his wife. “She’s rather soft-spoken. I’m a blabbermouth. I’ll go out of my way to find somebody to talk to. So for me to go that period of time without telling anybody was not easy.” He says talking about the show Carl and Julie Leonard pause their DVR to see daughter Louise, winner of with friends on Facebook was es- the reality TV show “The Taste.” They have saved every episode of the series. pecially tricky. Photo by Betsy Pickle
“You wanted to encourage people to tune in and watch, but you had to be careful that you didn’t do anything, say anything.” They had a strong incentive however. If they revealed the outcome, their daughter’s $100,000 prize money would be in jeopardy. The Leonards seem capable of taking anything in stride. They retired to Knoxville in 2000 because they liked the area. She was born in Johnson City; he was born in French Lick, Ind. She grew up in Tennessee and Florida. He grew up in Indiana and Wisconsin. So naturally they met in California. “I went to California to find Carl,” says the deadpan Julie. “She lucked out,” Carl comments. He moved to California, he says with a touch of blarney, “because I knew somewhere down the line I was going to meet my intended. To page A-3
Shipley gets permanent director’s job By Sandra Clark Mark Shipley is the real deal. The former interim director of community development has been offered and has accepted the full time position. The announcement came from Town AdministraMark Shipley tor David Smoak at last week’s meeting of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
Shipley had served as former director Ruth Hawk’s assistant. The Greeneville native attended UT and holds a master’s degree in planning from Virginia Tech. School Gifts: Thursday’s 15-minute meeting was highlighted by check presentations to principals of five public schools that serve town residents: Farragut High, Farragut Middle, Farragut Intermediate, Farragut Primary and Hardin Valley Academy. Each school received $22,000. And Mayor Ralph McGill called
the presentations the best part of his job. Outdoor Classroom: The board awarded a contract for $355,774 to the low bidder, J & D Excavating and Contracting, to build the outdoor classroom on Campbell Station Road near Farragut High School. Town Engineer Darryl Smith said two alternatives in the bid were eliminated to save money. The gardens will be built at grade, rather than raised, and a pergola can be added later, he said.
■ Alderman Bob Markli missed the meeting. ■ Jim Holladay was re-appointed to the town’s Economic Development Committee. ■ Smoak said the town is cosponsoring the Chamber’s breakfast with TDOT Commissioner John Schroer at 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, March 4, at Fox Den. ■ Town staff will meet with commercial real estate practitioners at 9 a.m. Wednesday to discuss vacancies and the upcoming recruiting trip to Las Vegas.
Heagerty relives Farragut memories blarney, Pat Sr. was a lifetime ho- him $5 that he couldn’t get Kathtelier who’d been the accountant at ryn Grayson’s autograph. She was the Andrew Johnson Hotel the day in town for the it opened and was the last manworld premiere of ager of the Lamar House when it “The Grace Moore closed. Story” at the Ten■ Meeting Merv: Greg’s earnessee Theatre. liest Farragut recollection was “Never one to when he was 5 and his father bet miss a chance to make some cold, hard cash (it was Greg Heagerty 1950, and $5 was a considerable City officials tout Farragut Hotel redevelopment sum), I took him up on his wager, found out her room number Knoxville Redevelopment couple of decades. This will put and went up on the elevator and Director Bob Whetsel is bull- more people on the streets. It knocked on her door. A young ish on the Farragut Hotel. More will help the convention center man opened the door and took a precisely, he’s and bring more economic vitalminute to look down at the tyke extremely sup- ity to the community, potentialstanding there. portive of the ly,” he said. “I asked for Miss Grayson’s Halo HospiDowntown coordinator Rick autograph (I saw her across the tality Group’s Emmett sees the numerous room). He closed the door and proposal to re- benefits of a restored 190-room came back with her name scrawled store the nearly hotel downtown. on the piece of paper and sent me 100 -ye a r - old “It could be a catalyst for on my way. When I brought my building at that next phase of downtown prize back to my father, he tried to the corner of development,” he said, citing its Bob Whetsel wheedle out of the bet with, ‘She Gay Street and strategic location a short block didn’t hand it to you. You don’t Clinch Avenue as a hotel. away from the streetscape projknow that she actually signed it.’ Halo hosted an open house at ect that is soon to begin in the “I didn’t know for years the sigthe building last week. 700 block of Gay Street. nificance of the young man at the “We’re very excited that deAdd that to work under way door. It was Kathryn Grayson’s covelopers are exploring the op- on the former Baptist Hospital star, Merv Griffin!” portunity to restore the Farra- site at the south end of the Gay When he was a little older, gut to a full-service hotel with a Street Bridge, and the relatively Greg was intrigued by the Interrestaurant, ballroom and a bar sluggish revitalization of the national Visitors Center, a large on Gay Street,” said Whetsel. south end of Gay Street may suite leased by TVA to accommo“We have a building that’s soon become a thing of the past. date foreign visitors. Some were been essentially vacant for a – B. Bean from developing countries, but the
By Betty Bean
Greg Heagerty lives in Atlanta but has a boyhood full of downtown Knoxville memories, many of them entwined with the Farragut Hotel, where his father, Pat Heagerty Sr., was the last Knoxvillian to manage the place. A round, jovial man with an Irish gift of
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majority seemed to be Soviet civil engineers whom locals suspected of being here to spy on Oak Ridge and who in fact were not allowed to enter Anderson County. “It was eye-opening to my Cold War-era mentality that they weren’t monsters and, on the contrary, presented themselves on a personal level that was anything but the ‘Second World.’ ” ■ Civil Rights: Historian and civil-rights leader Bob Booker, then employed by TVA, lived in the International Visitors Center from 1964 until he was elected to the General Assembly in 1966. He says the Farragut’s address was significant to the city’s AfricanAmerican population because it was once the site of the Hattie Hotel, where famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass stayed when he visited Knoxville in the 1880s. Booker was surprised by that because he thought a law prohibited African-Americans from staying there. “The Hattie was replaced by the Imperial Hotel, and when the Imperial burned, they built the Farragut, which was the first hotel we could go to. It was the first hotel where we could go to have dances and parties,” Booker said. ■ Athletes: Greg Heagerty met famous athletes as well as movie stars. He particularly liked
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