GOVERNMENT/POLITICS A4 | FEATURES A6 | YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS A9-11 | BUSINESS A13 | HEALTH & LIFESTYLES SECTION B
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VOL. 50, NO. 39
halls / fountain city
SEPTEMBER 26, 2011
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North Sector Plan matters By Sandra Clark
Vol prentice Central grad joins Walgreens contest in retail marketing See Anne Hart’s story on page A-13
End is near for Emory Road ‘cow path’ in Powell Haslam Administration sets funding for 5-lane to Clinton Highway See Larry Van Guilder’s story on page A-3
Arrested in the pulpit Wendy Smith writes on the colorful past of Knoxville’s First Presbyterian Church See story on page A-6
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Come on, people. Let’s outnumber the planners at today’s (Sept. 26) meeting from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at the Powell Library on Emory Road. That wasn’t the case last week when MPC officials including the executive director, Mark Donaldson, came to Halls to discuss the North County Sector Plan. Fewer than five non-government folks were present. Sector plans set land use boundaries for 15 years. Property owners should care whether the land Linda “Snuff y” Smith, Commissioner R. Larry Smith (no relation) and MPC plannext door or down the street is de- ner Mike Reynolds discuss land use maps at the North County Sector Plan foveloped for commercial or apart- rum at Halls Senior Center. Photo by S. Clark
ments. The days when developers just waved a rezoning past a favorable County Commission are no more. State law has put teeth into sector planning, and it’s harder to obtain changes. Planner Mike Reynolds is heading the north sector study, which includes Powell and Halls. The area has grown from 32,391 residents in 1990 to 42,557 in 2000 and is expected to top 52,261 by 2009. MPC is taking comments and will come with a concept plan, Reynolds said. If you can’t attend tonight’s meeting, contact Reynolds at 215-2500 or mike.reynolds@knoxmpc.org/.
Landry tells ‘Heartland’ tales in Fountain City By Jake Mabe Longtime “Heartland Series” host Bill Landry drew an overflow crowd to the Fountain City Branch Library last week. Landry told tales from 25 years of hosting the popular “Heartland Series” on WBIR. He has collected some of his favorites into a new book, “Appalachian Tales and Heartland Adventures,” which was released this month. He and his crew shot 1,900 shows over 25 years. “People shoot TV today on a phone,” Landry says. “When we started, the camera weighed 20 pounds and was connected to a big metal box (the recorder) that weighed about 20 pounds and the tripod that the camera sat on weighed about 12 pounds.” That first year the gang got the idea to do stories about Mount LeConte. “Nobody had ever taken a camera on location in the Smoky Mountains. It was too expensive for local television. It took three people and you had to carry the equipment.” Somebody got the idea to let horses carry the gear. The only problem was the park didn’t allow
had kicked her in her butt and she started bucking and jumping up and down like she was at a rodeo. Every time she’d buck, equipment went flying over into the woods. We managed to get up there and back.” Over the years, Landry says they told moonshine stories, Halloween stories, even World War II stories. One was about a Knoxville woman whose husband was serving in the Navy. She and a friend went to a movie house while he was gone only to see a newsreel that showed the sinking of her husband’s ship. “She was shocked and horrified. It was the first she’d heard about Longtime “Heartland Series” Bill Lan- him.” dry signs copies of his new book, “ApOne day he met Kenneth Russell, palachian Tales and Heartland Adven- who joined the military underage. tures,” at the Fountain City Library last While all of his friends were attendweek. Photo by Jake Mabe ing their school prom, Russell was horses on many of the trails lead- jumping by parachute over Noring up to LeConte. Landry turned mandy Beach on D-Day. He got his to Hal Watson, whom he says is parachute stuck on a church steeple “the best actor I’ve ever seen in my in a German-occupied village. Red life (without) any training.” Watson Buttons played Russell in the movie got some horses, but none had ever “The Longest Day.” been in the Smokies before. “He said jumping from that air“Just before we were set to go, I plane was like jumping into hell.” heard a huge commotion. Hal was After awhile, the “Heartland” cussing with his mare. The tripod crew decided to film April Fools’ Day
shows, which became quite popular. One year, somebody got the idea to do a story on “electric trees.” Only this year, they didn’t say “Happy April Fools’ Day” at the end of the show. Bill got a call from a vice president at TVA who’d heard about it from somebody working in electric power in California who’d heard about it from somebody who had a relative who lived in Blount County. They wanted to know all about this new technique. “People believe television. It’s crazy!” Whether climbing LeConte, doing a moonshine show or talking to Maynard Leadbetter, who had grown up in Cades Cove near what is now the parking lot at the park entrance, Landry always had one credo. “We’d never make anybody look bad or stupid and we’d always show respect. We would never make fun of anybody except ourselves.” Did they ever stretch the truth a bit? Landry answers in true “Heartland Series” style. “As to whether all of these stories are true, you’ll just have to take it or leave it, as my daddy used to say.”
Dawson Hollow disaster victims ‘just hanging on’ By Betty Bean “What’s going on with the development on Childress Road?” County Commissioner Tony Norman wanted to know about the June 28 detention pond collapse at a development atop Copper Ridge that sent a wall of contaminated water rolling down onto the property below. It destroyed the home of Gary and Marsha Carter, damaged Patty and David Dowling’s house and eroded their front yard, drowned wildlife and contaminated a pristine lake on Chuck and Mandy Parrott’s property at the foot of the ridge. Norman wanted to know why it happened and how such catastrophes can be prevented in the future, so he asked Public Works and Engineering chief Dwight Van de Vate for answers at last week’s commission workshop. Van de Vate absolved the county of responsibility for the past and offered limited reassurance about the future. “We will always do our best to ensure that all applicable grading, construction and stormwater management regulatory policies are
strictly observed,” Van de Vate said. He added that while new pollutant discharge elimination standards will reduce the likelihood of pond failures, there is “no plausible way” for the county to guarantee failures won’t occur. Norman didn’t disguise his dissatisfaction with Van de Vate’s response, even after Commissioner R. Larry Smith announced that developer Rufus Smith Properties has agreed to build the Carters a new home. Gary Carter, who has been living in a motel room with his wife for three months, says that Smith’s announcement is news to him, and he agrees with Norman that the county should do more to protect homeowners. “Ma’am, I have not heard that statement from anybody except R. Larry Smith when he showed up out here one day. Since that I haven’t heard anything about it,” he said. “This has been about the most miserable time of my life. Having to come home twice a day to take care of my animals and then leave it behind and go to the motel and spend
TITAN A SELF-STORAGE
Water started coming down and I had to get off the porch or my feet were going to get wet. By noon, I couldn’t walk on the porch without walking in running water. … We’ve been dealing with this since June and we’ve got no future in sight.” Patty Dowling, whose husband, David, built a detention pond in hopes of protecting their home from the Smith Properties runoff, says her family is still dealing with runoff every time it rains. Her husband and some friends dug a drainage ditch through the yard to keep the water away from the house and they have decontaminated the bedroom where their daughters, one of whom is disabled, sleep, but there is mold in other rooms of their living space Gary Carter Photo by Ruth White and the bank behind the house is the night – it’s just destroyed the breaking down. “We haven’t suffered nearly as way I think, the way I do and the bad as the Carters, but our problem way I act,” he said. Carter also takes issue with Van has been going on for a year. As that de Vate’s contention that drainage pond filled up, more water came problems at the Rufus Smith site over and it got worse and worse. We are under control. just can’t keep waiting and waiting “It rained on Labor Day, and I and waiting and letting it get worse was out on the back porch, reading. and us living in it.”
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