HALLS/FOUNTAIN CITY
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VOL. 51 NO. 28 NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ IN THIS ISSUE
Food City’s Gilbert is best
Halls resident Terri Gilbert, manager of Food City’s Clinton Highway store, was named among the 2012 Progressive Grocer Top Women in Grocery Award winners. She will be Terri Gilbert recognized at an event in Chicago later this year. “We are extremely proud to have a member of our store management team receive such a prestigious honor,” says Steven C. Smith, Food City president and chief executive officer. “Terri is an exceptional store manager. She is dedicated to her customers, her associates and her community and is most certainly a tremendous asset to our company.”
Farewell message
The Rev. Lester Mullins has pastored Pleasant Hill Baptist Church for 25 years and now it’s time to retire. Mullins told his deacons he wants to continue to worship at Pleasant Hill, but as a senior member. His final sermon as pastor will be Sunday, July 15, and he hopes for a big turnout. Pleasant Hill is located on Brushy Valley Road across from Copper Ridge School.
July 9, 2012
$11 million left turn
By Sandra Clark
How much must it cost to turn left? Halls residents occasionally ask about road improvements for Maynardville Highway (state route 33). The widening of Hwy. 33 from Temple Acres to the Union County line has been designed and rightsof-way purchased. But environmental concerns have pushed back a contract letting until later this year, according to Mark Nagi of the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Nagi said last week that the earliest possible letting would be Oct. 26. TDOT recently opened the five-laned stretch of Hwy. 33 within the city limits of Maynardville. Knox County is no closer to starting a project to allow a left turn from Norris Freeway onto Hwy. 33. Currently, traffic from Emory Road (Powell) and Norris Freeway must either travel on the two-lane Emory Road that winds between Halls Middle School and Beaver Dam Baptist Church to continue on toward Gibbs or Maynardville, or turn right onto Hwy.
33 and look for a cross-over to turn north. Jim Snowden, engineer with Knox County Engineering and Public Works Department, said the “best case scenario” would be this time next year, Jim Snowden and that depends on TDOT’s level of funding. He estimated $11 million to complete the project. Existing northbound lanes toward Union County will not be altered, Snowden said, but the southbound lanes will be shifted over, eliminating the wide median at Norris Freeway. The resulting median would resemble Middlebrook Pike, he said. The current median is 200 feet wide at its widest point. The Middlebrook Pike median is about 20 feet wide. He said the dogwood trees planted by the Halls Business and Professional Association could be transplanted. “Our focus is to try to move the
traffic to Maynardville Hwy. or east to Corryton. All that traffic and not a good way to get there.” Engineers have determined it is “too close” to widen Emory between the church and the school. He said to simply modify the signal “would be a confusing layout. “We did take several alternates to public hearing. A majority of the comments were that this plan is the best one.” Lanes will be added to May-
nardville HIghway to create better traffic flow, Snowden said. “To try to do that with that median would have been very difficult. “Although it’s expensive, for the longterm benefit of the community – we’re looking at 30 years out – traffic is going to flow better with this design. Snowden reiterated that his department’s goals are to make traffic flow more efficient and to make it safer. Betty Bean contributed to this report.
Burchett offers employees days off When Mayor Tim Burchett announced that county employees who report to him, along with the 1,000 or so who report to the Sheriff, would get an additional five days of vacation, we asked about the county’s vacation policy. Communications manager Michael Grider gave this response: “An extra five days is correct. The formula is unchanged. The accrual rates stay the same, and the additional leave hours are just added to the employee’s balance. “Employees accrue annual
hours each pay period (every two weeks). The accrual rate varies based on longevity. Employees who are just starting with the county accrue annual leave at a rate that is 4.62 percent of hours worked each pay period. That is to say that an 80 hour employee will accrue (80 x .0462) 3.696 hours of annual leave each pay period. Each year, the accrual rate goes up slightly. Employees with 20+ years of service max out at an accrual rate of 9.23 percent of hours worked.”
Mayberry comes to Halls
Redgate Festival and Rodeo
The 13th annual Festival and Rodeo will be Friday and Saturday, July 13-14, at the Red Gate Farm, Hwy. 33. Festival admission is $15, with children 10 and younger $8, and 3 and younger free.
Index Business A2 Jake Mabe A3 Government/Politics A4 Marvin West/Jake Mabe A5 Betty Bean A6 Faith A7 Kids A9 Health/Lifestyles Sect B
4509 Doris Circle 37918 (865) 922-4136 news@ShopperNewsNow.com ads@ShopperNewsNow.com GENERAL MANAGER Shannon Carey shannon@ShopperNewsNow.com EDITOR Sandra Clark sclark426@aol.com FEATURES EDITOR Jake Mabe jakemabe1@aol.com ADVERTISING SALES Patty Fecco fecco@ShopperNewsNow.com Brandi Davis davisb@ShopperNewsNow.com Shopper-News is a member of KNS Media Group, published weekly at 4509 Doris Circle, Knoxville, TN, and distributed to 27,825 homes in Halls, Gibbs and Fountain City.
Squad car gets 80 ‘smiles’ an hour, owner says By Jake Mabe The reaction to Mark Cawood’s Mayberry squad car coming to Halls was fiercer than any kind of Independence Day firecracker, I’ll tell you that. Cawood, a Karns resident and former Knox County commissioner, drove the customized 1964 Ford Galaxie 500 by the office last Thursday following the news of the death of Andy Griffith. The popular actor’s self-titled 1960s CBS-TV show, set in fictional Mayberry, N.C., is a sweet slice of Americana. A big fan of the series, Cawood found the car in Livington, Tenn.
He had it painted and said the hardest part to find was the clip that holds the car’s trademark rear antenna in place. He found it at Wade Shields’ electronics store, “back in the ’70s box!” The police light came from Phoenix, Ariz. The rear license plate says “Fife,” named after Barney Fife, M.D. (Mayberry Deputy), and the car has a bumper sticker of Barney’s favorite saying, “Nip it in the bud!” Cawood has the car rigged to play the “Griffith Show” theme and blast a Barney Fife siren, too. He’s even got Barney’s hat and motorcycle helmet and a “Bert Miller Merchandise” suitcase along for the ride. Everywhere he goes, Cawood stops traffic. We almost had a fender-bender on Doris Circle last Thursday.
A shot of Mark Cawood’s 1964 Ford Galaxie from its rear side, customized to look like the Mayberry squad car from “The Andy Griffith Show.” Note the “Fife” license plate and the “Nip it in the bud” bumper sticker. Cawood, a longtime “Griffith Show fan” and former Knox County commissioner, brought the car by the Shopper-News office last week. Andy Griffith died July 3 at age 86. Photo by Ruth White
“It gets 80 ‘smiles’ per hour,” Cawood said. He’s taken photos of the squad car’s stops all around town. You can see them on his Facebook page. He even got flagged down when he passed a wedding at the World’s Fair Park on June 30 so the bride and groom could get a photo with the car. Police officers also love to stop him – to get a (camera) shot of the car. “I’m a chronic jaywalker,” Cawood jokes. He gives out stickers to the kids
and brochures to the adults designed by Cawood’s pastor, Steve Higginbotham of Karns Church of Christ. “Andy Griffith was such a great actor, but he was also the creator of great entertainment all around. The show was written not just with jokes in mind, but with smalltown values in mind. Mayberry is the way Halls and Karns and all these communities used to be.” About that time, somebody pulled up sporting a smile and a cell phone. Cawood grinned, too. “Happens everywhere I go.”
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