VOL. 9 NO. 29
July 22, 2015
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Taking to the water
BUZZ Chateau La Paws Dixie Lee Wine & Liquors, 13044 Kingston Pike, invites the community to a wine tasting/pet adoption event from 5:30 to 7 p.m. Friday, July 31, in the store’s tasting room. The event features Chateau La Paws, a wine brand that donates a portion of its proceeds to “no kill” animal shelters. Manager Any Taylor says, “We are coordinating the event with SBRET (small breed rescue of East Tennessee) which is a non-profit located here in Knoxville. They will be bringing adoptable pets.” Info: 865-966-5551.
By Carolyn Evans
Senior Center seeks volunteers The Strang Senior Center, 109 Lovell Heights Road, is looking for volunteer computer instructors. “We are seeking a friendly person, who is knowledgeable in Windows operating systems, Android phones and possibly the iPad,” said director Lauren Monahan. The center offers courses in Windows, Excel, Internet and email. Interested persons will work flexible times. Most classes are 8-hour courses, over two weeks. Volunteers must be familiar with computers, teaching and projection systems. Classes will start in September. Info: 865-670-6693 or lauren. monahan@knoxcounty.org
Practicing what they learned: R.J. Fillmore, age 12, from Michigan; instructor Lisa Taylor; Lacey Neeld, 13, from Delaware; and Lexi Hall, 10, Knoxville. Photos by Carolyn Evans
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Read Bean’s column on page A-5
IN THIS ISSUE Teacher incentive pay out for FY16 Sandra Clark writes: “Let’s lose the evaluation rubric, the strategic compensation matrix and the committee that’s reformatting incentive pay. APEX is gone, and it’s not coming back. “Let’s launch the new year with teachers and kids excited about returning to school, not feeling overwhelming dread.
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Read Clark’s column on page A-5
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Cell towers and food trucks discussed at FMPC
Rethinking George Wallace Betty Bean writes: “George Wallace is beginning to be mentioned among the possible contenders to succeed Mayor Madeline Rogero when she leaves office in four years. He has clearly developed the art of dodging questions about his aspirations.”
Last week three middleschool kids from different states – Tennessee, Delaware and Michigan – made a summer memory. They were part of Kids’ Social Paddle at the Cove. They spent three hours getting to know each other, learning to kayak and then touring the lake to see all sorts of wildlife. Lisa Taylor, an eighth-grade science teacher at South-Doyle Middle School, is offering the class ($25) again on Tuesday, July 28, and Sunday, Aug. 30, from 9 a.m. to noon at the Cove. Her goal is to teach children, elementary through early teens, how to kayak and to instill a love of science at the same time. Parents are welcome to kayak alongside their kids ($15) in their own kayak or with their kids in a two-seater. The kayaks are the sit-on-top variety, which are wider and afford more stability, Taylor said. Once she’s covered water safety
Sarah R. Mailen talks about possible uses for a 6.8-acre parcel on Concord Road that used to be part of a large farm. Photo by Wendy Smith
By Wendy Smith The Farragut Municipal Planning Commission took a break from controversial development and turned its attention to cell-
phone towers and food trucks at last week’s meeting. The FMPC discussed, for the second time, rezoning property located southwest of Clarity Pointe on Concord Road to accommodate a cell tower. The conversation focused on the visual impact of the 170-foot tower proposed by Branch Towers and the most appropriate zoning for the 6.8-acre parcel. Property owner Sarah R. Mailen said the property was part of her great-great-grandparents’ farm, where she grew up. The original farm was hundreds of acres, but only 50 remained after TVA condemned most of the farm to create Fort Loudoun Lake. Mary Miller of Branch Communications showed visual simulations of the proposed tower as it would be seen from Concord Road, Turkey Creek Road and other locations. Commissioner Ed Whiting observed that the view from Turkey Creek Road is already obscured by power lines.
Commissioner Noah Myers said the site would be hard to develop due to its close proximity to the First Utility District sewage treatment facility, so he thought it was as good a site for a cell tower as any. Mailen said she’d prefer C-1 (General Commercial) zoning to S-1 (Community Service), which doesn’t have many permitted uses. Rezoning to S-1 would require an amendment to the Comprehensive Land Use Plan (CLUP). Casual Pint owner Pat O’Brien has requested an amendment to the town’s zoning ordinance to allow food trucks. Food trucks are currently only allowed to operate in Farragut through a special events permit. O’Brien told commissioners he doesn’t want to get into the food truck business but would like to occasionally utilize food trucks from restaurants that can serve only fresh food, like Big Kahuna Wings and the Shrimp Dock. Community Development Di-
rector Mark Shipley brought up a number of issues related to food trucks, such as whether or not they compete with brick-and-mortar restaurants, the visual obtrusiveness of some trucks and parking. The staff has recommended that the issue be discussed by the Economic Development Committee and the Farragut Business Alliance. The FMPC discussed proposed changes to the town’s zoning ordinance in regard to outdoor site lighting. A local lighting expert has given feedback on modifications that would update and clarify the current ordinance, Shipley said. In addition to updating language, like changing “watts” to “lumens,” commissioners discussed whether special provisions should be given to development in the Mixed Use Town Center area and whether architectural accent lighting should be permitted. The commission briefly discussed issues related to a proTo page A-3
Anne Woodle: lousy politician, splendid human By Betty Bean Not to say that those who run for office can’t be also good people, but the qualities that made Anne Woodle a crappy politician were the very things that made her a fine human – unswerving fealty to what she believed to be right and an unfettered refusal to compromise her principles, even when she knew that the stands she was taking were incompatible with longevity in office. Like the time she served on the election commission and refused to vote to hire the candidate for administrator favored by Knox County’s most powerful local Democrat (that would be Joe Armstrong) because she believed another candidate was more qualified. Woodle’s candidate won, but she lost her seat come reappointment time. And she probably never lost a night’s sleep over it. Same deal with her single term on the school board. Knox County Schools had run into
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afford to pay for bus service for all, it had to take drastic measures. The political fallout was severe, even though anybody with two grams of gray matter knew the inequity couldn’t continue. The resulting parental responsibility zones meant no more bus service for families living close to schools, and that city kids living some distance away would ride instead of walk. Woodle voted for the changes and became a one-termer. That one hurt, but probably more for the vicious racist attacks on her teenaged son, Jason, who is bi-racial, than for anything that happened to her. Woodle, whose sudden death last week Anne Woodle. Photo provided by North Hills Garden Club from a catastrophic stroke has left her friends (and there are lots of them) stunned and reeltrouble with the federal government because ing, was a single parent and loved her son students who attended schools outside the city fiercely. And the true fact that can be backed up in limits enjoyed bus service while those who attended schools inside the city limits had to To page A-3 fend for themselves. Since the county couldn’t
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