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VOL. 10 NO. 20
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BUZZ Street repaving Weather permitting, the town of Farragut’s annual street resurfacing program will take place the weeks of May 16 and May 23. APAC-Atlantic Inc./Harrison Construction Company was awarded this year’s resurfacing contract. These streets will be resurfaced in this order: ■Campbell Lakes Drive (eastern end) ■Turkey Cove Lane and Fords Cove Lane (Cove at Turkey Creek Subdivision) ■Allen Kirby Road ■Lost Tree Lane (Fox Den Villas/Condos) ■Outlet Drive (near At Home) Drivers should be cautious when traveling these roads and expect possible minor delays with flagging operations for alternating traffic, if required. Info: Greg Norman with the town’s Engineering Department at gnorman@townof farragut.org or 966-7057.
Bob Thomas is running for mayor Bob Thomas, radio guy and at-large county commissioner, kicked off his campaign for Knox County mayor last week with a baloney-cutting at Powell Auction. He followed Mayor Tim Burchett’s path (Burchett also launched his campaign there), but two years ahead of the election. Turnout was huge, and it was great to see old friends.
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Read Sandra Clark on page A-5
Remembering Pop Wendy Smith recalls her grandfather, the late A.K. Bissell, longtime mayor of Oak Ridge. Preparing her parents’ home for sale brought back many memories.
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Read Wendy Smith on page A-4
Derby Day The formal dining room at Sherrill Hills Resort Lifestyle Community was filled with seniors wearing their finest duds and fanciest hats as they gathered for “Derby Day,â€? a horseracing event featuring all the excitement of the Kentucky Derby ‌ but none of the mud. “Derby Day is a big deal at Sherrill Hills,â€? said lifestyle director Ashley Dixon.
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Read Nancy Anderson on page A-6
(865) 218-WEST (9378) NEWS (865) 661-8777 news@ShopperNewsNow.com Sandra Clark | Sherri Gardner Howell ADVERTISING SALES (865) 342-6084 ads@ShopperNewsNow.com Patty Fecco | Tony Cranmore Beverly Holland | Amy Lutheran CIRCULATION (865) 342-6200 shoppercirc@ShopperNewsNow.com
Bringing the Scots home
At the 2015 Smoky Mountain Scottish Festival & Games, the Greaser family poses for a photo. From left are Dan Greaser, Shirley Greaser, Leigh Sterling and Dawn and Steve Zilles. Photos submitted
By Carolyn Evans As the caber is tossed and the bagpipes wail, Dan Greaser will smile. The former corporate executive will be decked out in one of his favorite outfits: a green and blue plaid Weir clan kilt. Greaser, a Fox Den resident, is the president of the Smoky Mountain Scottish Festival & Games and has been busy for
By Wendy Smith David Purvis, president of the Farragut Business Alliance, presented a proposed memorandum of understanding between the FBA and the town to the Board of Mayor and Aldermen during a workshop last week. There was no regular board meeting since there were no business items on the agenda. FBA funding isn’t for business, but for the town, he said. While 68 percent of Farragut’s budget is generated by sales tax, just 1.64 percent of the town’s FY2016 budget was spent on economic development. The proposed one-year memorandum of understanding requires a $70,000 grant from the town. The budget would eliminate the Red, White and Blues Pre-Independence Day Picnic, which has lost money every year, while add-
year at Maryville College. And that doesn’t include the long-haired coo (Scottish cow) or the thousands of visitors expected to attend the event. Originally founded in 1981 as the Gatlinburg Scottish Festival and Games, it is one of the oldest Scottish Festivals in the country. The event starts on Friday evening with a $100-a-plate gala. Then
Dan Greaser helms prestigious festival
Fox Den resident Dan Greaser shows off his kilt at a meeting of the Association of Scottish Games and Festivals in Alexandria, Va. gates open on Saturday at 8 a.m. with a pipes and drums competition, followed with one event after the other. The Ceilidh Under The Stars concert that evening will feature a host of musicians. The fun To page A-3
ing two location-centered minievents that would draw consumers to smaller shopping centers. The new budget would also allow the FBA to add contract labor as needed, expand the Shop Farragut program, ramp up a mentorship program for new businesses, produce new printed materials, conduct at least one business and residential survey, and seek volunteers and involvement from homeowners associations. While the community generally associates the business alliance with community events, the FBA board is serious about economic development, Purvis said. “They don’t want to be party planners.� Mayor Ralph McGill asked how much of the town’s $70,000 grant would go toward salaries. Approximately $45,000 of the total FBA
budget is spent on salaries, Purvis said. Alderman Ron Pinchok asked how often the FBA would report to the town, and Purvis said reports would be made at least quarterly. Town Administrator David Smoak said the board would vote on the proposed memorandum of understanding at its June 9 meeting, which would give members time to discuss it further. Resident Carol Christofferson asked if she could give public input. As president of the Sweet Briar Homeowners Association, she’s glad that the FBA views homeowners associations as powerful partners, she said. That contradicts the notion that the Board of Mayor and Aldermen and the Municipal Planning Commission place more importance on “making money� than on resi-
dents – an opinion she hears often, she said. She also liked that the proposed memorandum of understanding calls for accountability, because Christofferson the people of Farragut want to know that progress is being made in regard to the town’s future. She thanked the board for their work. “There’s a lot of work to do,� she said. After the workshop, Mayor Ralph McGill noted that Farragut has again received recognition − as one of the state’s 10 snobbiest towns. “But just barely. We were No. 10.�
Old Sears building targeted for sale By Betty Bean The Andrew Johnson building on Gay Street isn’t the only iconic, county-owned structure Knox County is looking to sell. Last week, Mayor Tim Burchett told the Shopper News that he intends to put the former Sears store at 1000 N. Central on the block before he leaves office in September 2018. “That’s part of the long-range plan,� he said. “And it’s in keeping with my philosophy of putting government property back on the tax rolls.� Sears, Roebuck & Co. started construction on the new department store on the south end of Happy Holler in 1946 on a 3.9-acre
nearly a year organizing the three-day event. With a budget of close to $100,000, the event is a big one – and important to a host of people. More than 100 athletes, 250 pipe and drum players, seven modern Celtic bands, 40 vendors, 35 clans, a bunch of sheep, a few dogs, some ducks and 200 volunteers will make up the 35th annual event, held for the sixth
May 18, 2016
Purvis pushes FBA’s benefit to town
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parcel in the Dameron Addition that consisted of 21 residential lots. The sprawling, Streamline Moderne/Art DECO store opened in 1948 and operated until the mid-1980s, when Sears, Roebuck & Co. sold it to the East Towne Mall Company for $800,395.92. Knox County bought it in February 1988, during the administration of County Executive Dwight Kessel. The purchase was controversial, in part because residents of surrounding neighborhoods – already riled because the neighborhood had been chosen as the site of a solid waste incinerator – feared that the county intended to use the former depart-
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ment store as an intake center for the jail. Others were suspicious because the sellers’ identity was shielded by a trust agreement for an investors group that acquired the property for $850,000 in 1987. Fears died down over the years as county government converted the building to more benign uses, including the purchasing department, a satellite sheriff’s office, a clothing depot, an office of veterans’ affairs and storage space for county archives. Burchett said he intends to take advantage of the hot market for Downtown North redevelopment, and that no employees will lose jobs when these services are
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relocated. “The time is right – the ‘Holler’ is hopping, and some people tell me (the old Sears building) may be even more valuable than the AJ Building.� As a historical note, although Dwight Kessel isn’t generally credited as a preservationist, his administration presided over the restoration of the historic Knox County Courthouse, the acquisition of the former Andrew Johnson Hotel and the purchase of the old Sears building. (Hat tip to Register of Deeds office manager Richie Beeler for his research on old Sears building history.)