VOL. 8 NO. 1
IN THIS ISSUE
Great snaps
Sherri Gardner Howell says: For me, the best part of (the community newspaper business) is when we can be your photo album. The Karns/ Hardin Valley Shopper-News has had some great snapshots this year. On this first Monday of the new year, take a look at some of our favorites from 2013. We’ve got “Hello, Dolly” and Mabel Teague selling carrots at the fair. We’ve got beavers and somebody blowing up the STEM lab at Hardin Valley Academy.
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See Sherri’s Wrap on A-3
The Doc is in Carol Zinavage scored an interview with band leader and trumpeter Doc Severinsen at his home in Blount County. She writes: The paint crew that’s working upstairs doesn’t know who he is. “He’s the nice guy who hired us to paint,” they say with grins and shrugs. They agree to Google him when they get home. Anyone who grew up watching The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson instantly recognizes the iconic bandleader.
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Find Carol’s Corner on B-2
On tearing down Gibbs Hall Marvin West goes way back with UT’s Gibbs Hall. He writes: Down goes Gibbs Hall, well, soon. The old athletic dorm and Stokely Center will be mere memories as Tennessee clears the way for progress – parking garage, new dorm and three practice fields for football.
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Read Marvin’s tale on A-5
First Tennessee to mark 150 years First Tennessee Bank’s promise is to be the best at serving our customers, one opportunity at a time. The bank was founded in 1864 when Abraham Lincoln was president, and employees have been practicing that promise ever since – even if it wasn’t written down. No financial institution could endure for a century and a half without dedicated employees earning the trust of generations of customers.
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Read Pam Fansler on A-10
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January 6, 2014
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Home for the New Year Vietnamese Catholics celebrate in church of their own By Betsy Pickle Everything feels new to the Church of Divine Mercy – new year, new building. Getting there, however, has taken a lot of old-style hard work. The church, which serves the area’s Vietnamese Catholic community, moved into a building of its own at 10919 Carmichael Road on Sunday, Sept. 1. “We had mass in the morning, and in the evening we started fi xing the church,” says Father Hoan Dinh. Former home of Northstar Church, the building had been sitting empty for some time and had deteriorated. The pastor says church members pitched in and cleaned the whole building. “We remodeled the sanctuary to make it look like a Catholic church,” he says, adding that renovating the social hall was one of the biggest projects. Even now, the renovation isn’t finished. “Thank God they are willing to do it,” says Hoan. “They know that we’re small, and we don’t have money to pay workers. They come here to help the church.” Having a building of their own means a lot to the members of the church. The Divine Mercy Catholic Mission has had a couple of homes throughout its nearly 20-year history, first at Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in downtown Knoxville, and then at Knoxville Catholic High School at Cedar Bluff. “Immaculate Conception was far away from most of the people, and also the mass time was not good for them – it was 6 p.m. on Sunday,” says Hoan. Once the community moved to the high school and moved mass to Sunday morning, attendance started growing. “We knew we couldn’t stay there forever because it is a school, so we started to think about a place,” says Hoan. “We didn’t think about buying a church like this one. We thought we would maybe buy a warehouse and fi x it for our gatherings. We looked around a lot and found this place. We were very lucky.” The church was able to purchase the building with the help of the Catholic Foundation of East
The star at the front of the Church of Divine Mercy shows the way to the new church building for the Vietnamese Catholic community. Photos by Sherri Gardner Howell
Father Hoan Dinh leads an evening mass on New Year’s Day at the Church of Divine Mercy’s new home at 10919 Carmichael Road.
Olivia Dang, age 3, brought a party horn to church to help with the celebration. Tennessee. A dedication was held Nov. 17 with Bishop Richard F. Stika presiding. Hoan says an average of 200 attend Sunday’s 9 a.m. mass. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and every other Saturday, mass is held at 8:30 a.m. Since coming here in June 2012 from Maryland, Hoan has helped strengthen participation among
the younger crowd by starting the Eucharistic Youth Society, which meets after Sunday mass. “They’re very active now,” he says. “Through that group the kids get more involved in the community.” Daily masses are in Vietnamese, but Hoan, who came to the United States from Vietnam five and a half years ago, does parts of
the Sunday service in English “for the kids who were born here.” The next big event for the church will be the Lunar New Year celebration. The new year begins Jan. 31, but the celebration will be held Sunday, Feb. 16, at Sacred Heart Cathedral School gym. Even the church’s new digs won’t accommodate the event – 1,000 to 1,500 people usually attend.
Legalizing Jim McClain By Sandra Clark James L. McClain was one of Knoxville’s hardest-working business owners with retail nurseries in various parts of town including a big one on Clinton Highway. In the 1980s, he started raising plants on 19.44 acres in the middle of nowhere. How was he to know that Lovell Road would surge to a 5-lane thoroughfare with an interstate interchange and subdivisions springing up like a field of daisies? In a case that’s been pending at the Metropolitan Planning Commission since 2009, McClain seeks to rezone his land to commercial.
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That’s what the county’s department of codes administration implied when it cited the John Deere Nursury (McClain’s tenant since 1996) for operating improperly for the land’s agricultural zoning. Yikes! Nearby homeowners are at peace with the ongoing nursery operation, but commercial zoning could open up the land to who knows what. In November, MPC commissioners told McClain’s lawyer, Arthur Seymour Jr., that the day’s postponement would be his last. We’ll see, because McClain’ petition is back on the MPC agenda for this Thursday, Jan. 9, at 1:30 p.m.
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Lovell Road site is zoned commercial and used for the utility’s office, shops and truck storage.
Farragut committees schedule meetings It’s back to business for the town of Farragut. ■ The Education Relations Committee will meet at 4 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7, at Town Hall. ■ The Economic Development Committee will meet at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 8, at Town Hall. ■ The Board of Mayor and Aldermen will meet at 7 p.m. Thursdays, Jan. 9 and 23, also at Town Hall.
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Seymour argues that Knox County can’t regulate the John Deere operations because the land use is consistent with state law. The storage and sale of nursery plants and related equipment is an accepted agricultural use, he says. Not so fast, says the MPC staff. “The site is completely surrounded by homes, and placing a commercial designation on 19.44 acres would be incompatible with surrounding land uses. ... Deny.” McClain is seeking both rezoning and an amendment to the county’s sector plan. Seymour points to West Knox Utility’s headquarters just north of McClain’s property. That
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