GOVERNMENT/POLITICS A4-5 | OUR COLUMNISTS A6-7 | YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS A8-9 | HEALTH & LIFESTYLES SECTION B | BUSINESS SECTION C
A great community newspaper.
VOL. 5, NO. 34
karns / hardin valley
AUGUST 22, 2011
INSIDE www.ShopperNewsNow.com
Leading the way Community pastor sets example of compassion See page A-4
Yard sale fundraiser Support a rescue group and learn how you can become a foster parent to some furry friends See Sara’s story on page B-2
FEATURED COLUMNIST JAKE MABE
Nixon at Neyland Jake tells of the former president’s time in Tennessee at a Billy Graham crusade See page A-6
ONLINE
DO YOU
LIKE? TELL US! The Shopper-News is now on Facebook! Check us out for updates, photos and more! www.facebook.com/ ShopperNewsNow
10512 Lexington Dr., Ste. 500 37932 (865) 218-WEST (9378) news@ShopperNewsNow.com ads@ShopperNewsNow.com EDITOR Larry Van Guilder lvgknox@mindspring.com ADVERTISING SALES Darlene Hacker hackerd@ShopperNewsNow.com Debbie Moss mossd@ShopperNewsNow.com Shopper-News is a member of KNS Media Group, published weekly at 10512 Lexington Drive, Suite 500, Knoxville, TN, and distributed to 33,237 homes in Farragut, Karns and Hardin Valley.
|
www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNow
|
twitter.com/shoppernewsnow
Karns student earns wings By Valorie Fister As teenager Kelsey Beeler’s peers learned to drive cars this summer, the 16-year-old was busy learning to maneuver something else. She took a Cessna Skyhawk airplane out for her first solo flight after about 15 hours of practice flight time. She’s the first student in the Karns High School Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps to earn solo wings for her uniform. “I thought ‘Wow, is this happening? Is this really happening?’ ” she said of her experience. “It was surreal. It hit me in the first turn.” Beeler’s family and her Senior Aerospace Science Instructor, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Chuck O’Donnell, are thrilled that she attained such a goal. “This is great. This is exciting,” O’Donnell said. “This was my first opportunity to take someone from zero to hero,” adding that Beeler is an exceptional student. “She’s very dedicated,” O’Donnell said. He said Beeler is in the top 1 percent of her class and is also a third-degree black belt in taekwondo. In addition, she’s a strong academic performer with a Scholastic Excellence Award in ROTC from the American Legion. She is also nominated for entry in the National Honor Society. “She’s a type-A kind of gal,” O’Donnell said. In keeping with old flying traditions, O’Donnell cut off the back “tail” of Beeler’s shirt and signed and dated it. In former years, when instructors rode behind stu-
dents in the double cockpit planes, they would often tug on the tails of students’ shirts in front of them to get their attention. Cutting the shirttail represents the student no longer needing the instructor to coach “over their shoulder.” Beeler’s training and flight time was all made possible through an approximately $2,300 scholarship given by the Flight Lessons Instructional Grants Helping Teens Foundation. Flight Foundation has been in existence for about 20 years, according to U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Bill Powley. Powley is O’Donnell’s counterpart at Sullivan South High School in Kingsport who oversees the program. Powley said Beeler is among a group of 4,700 kids who have learned to fly planes through high school Junior ROTC programs in 12 different high schools throughout upper East Tennessee. She is the 94th flight soloist to earn wings through the program. Each year, between 6,000 and 7,000 students get into planes and fly. And each year, six to seven of them excel and are able to fly solo. In 1999, the Flight Foundation received a NASA grant. Since 2000, the foundation has received a grant from the Tennessee Aeronautics Division each year. Grant money is used along with matching funds from local, regional and national donations to sponsor students. “So we fly kids and it’s pretty neat,” Powley said. Beeler can now instruct other students while she
Karns High School junior Kelsey Beeler earned her solo flight wings this summer. Photo submitted
Flight instructor Chuck O’Donnell cut the back of Beeler’s shirt and signed and dated it to memorialize her first solo flight. Photo by Valorie Fister
continues her schooling to get ready for college. She can continue her flying and turn it into a career. But that’s just one of her many choices right now. She’s looking at colleges from Alabama to Nashville and courses of study from psychology to pre-law. And now that Beeler can fly, she’ll work on something closer to the ground – driving. “She has personal knowledge,” of what it’s like to fly, O’Donnell said. “It’s a hands-on environment.”
Sound workshop Jubilee Community Arts will host a two-session workshop on audio setup, equipment and mixing for concerts 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Tuesday and Wednesday, Aug. 23-24, at the Laurel Theater. Dr. Lou Gross, volunteer sound engineer for the Laurel Theater, will lead the workshop. Admission is free, but participants will be expected to volunteer six hours of time over the next year to aid production of Jubilee Community Arts activities. Info: 522-5851.
Devon Group pulls a surprise Broyles: ‘That was directed at me’
The Devon Group’s announcement last week that it was pulling out of the Carter Elementary construction project caught more than a few people off-guard. Knox County purchasing director Hugh Holt was “devastated.” Commissioner Amy Broyles said, “I’m probably the most surprised person in the county right now.”
Analysis A letter from Bob Talbott, one of the principals in the Devon Group, to County Mayor Tim Burchett cites “a combination of political agendas and opposition to the Carter plan” as the reason for the firm’s withdrawal. Broyles is not mentioned, but until she questioned the selection process and asked about the State Street property purchased by Devon in 2007, there wasn’t a hint the developer would beg off.
Holt says he personally invested at least 500 hours since last November putting the project together. Devon has indicated it will give the county its work product on the school, which may go to Partners Development, runner-up to Devon in the selection process. But Holt cautioned it won’t be as easy as simply handing over the drawings to a new developer. “There were five attorneys involved in this,” he said, and with the developer, the county, the school board and the Industrial Development Board yet again being drawn into the process, the second time around will be no easier. Aside from the expected comments to online news stories, the criticism aimed at Broyles has been indirect. Broyles says she was doing what voters elected her to do. “I appreciate the out-of-the-box thinking (on the project),” Broyles said. “And I hope that the best parts of this process we can do again. “I was doing my due diligence on this issue and I raised the con-
cerns I had. … This is my job. Anyone who’s trying to pin this (Devon’s withdrawal) on me is giving me an awful lot of power.” Yet clearly Broyles’ questions caused the train to jump the track. Why? A hard-nosed cynic might answer that Broyles gave the developer cover, a reason to bail out of a project it wasn’t that happy with from the beginning. The school board’s approval surprised the mayor, this line of reasoning continues, but he was too far out on the limb to climb off. But that doesn’t wash. To buy it you must believe there was never any genuine concern for the children in the Carter community, that the process was a political sham. That’s frankly unthinkable. So what could Broyles have said to make the Devon Group nervous? “The first issue we need to address is the selection process,” Broyles said at last week’s commission workshop.
The Devon Group was ranked highest by the evaluation committee. According to Holt, the firm was not the low bidder, coming in with an initial price of $16.9 million dollars for the school. “I negotiated them down,” Holt said. The bid price was allotted 35 points in the evaluation process. So, much of the evaluation was subjective. But that wasn’t unique to this project, and a single commissioner wondering aloud about the selection process hardly seems sufficient reason to bail out. Bob Talbott’s financial problems are a matter of public record. Earlier this year he was named as a defendant in several lawsuits filed by lenders. Talbott filed a counterclaim against one lender. The Devon Group would have been carrying the cost of construction until completion. Are the firm’s resources too fragile to bear that burden? Right now there are more questions than answers to this bizarre turn of events.
Keep Your Memories SAFE! Preserve those old Pr reels, slides & vhs tapes today! “NEW & USED FURNITURE AND ACCESSORIES FOR YOUR HOME”
Decorator & Designer Items REFINDCONSIGN@GMAIL.COM
5014 N. BROADWAY • KNOXVILLE, TN
Bring your VHS, slides, film and more into the digital age.
10% OFF
entire order
*Cannot be combined with any other discounts.
Audio & Video Conversion
Expires 8/27/11 SN082211
686-5756
www.DigitizeItNow.com 12752 Kingston Pike, Renaissance Farragut, Ste 103, Bldg E