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VOL. 10 NO. 16
BUZZ Art show Envision Art Gallery, 4050 Sutherland Avenue, will host artist Sarah Moore’s solo exhibition “Find Ourselves� April 22 through May 20. An opening reception will be held 5-8 p.m. Friday, April 22. Refreshments and wine will be served, and a violinist will perform. Moore’s paintings are done in acrylics and feature nature, people and travel. Info: www.envisionart gallery.com and www. smoorestudio.com.
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April 20, 2016
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Local residents hooked
on sailing
Long-time math teacher Leslie Brock learned to sail just before she retired. Here she and crew member Jeff Gamey bring the boat in after winning the Concord Yacht Club championship in 2012.
David Williams seeks memories Do you have fond memories of shopping at any of the dozen or so old-time neighborhood grocery stores that used to populate Sutherland Avenue from the 1930s to the ’60s in the Pond Gap and Marble City communities? In their day, stores like Noble Brook’s, Stansberry’s Market, J C Knott, Clyde King, Eula’s Cash Store, and others served their customers well. Contact David Williams, president of the Pond Gap Neighborhood Association, at 588-2268 or email dawill64@ yahoo.com.
Karns trash pickup A cold morning wind didn’t stop state Rep. Roger Kane, County Commissioner Brad Anders, Carolyn Greenwood, Charlie Austin, Cassie Kiestler, Joseph Qualls and some dozen more volunteers from scouring Karns’ roads to pick up trash. “We’re just going to work through the cold,� said Roger Kane “If you’re moving, you’re not cold. Stay moving, stay warm.� And stay moving they did.
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Read Nancy Anderson on page A- 3
Peace in the valley The school board had one job at last week’s called meeting – to approve next year’s budget. Members breezed through the blessing of a $453.5 million general purpose budget, but the fight over the $71.2 million capital improvement plan went the length of the bar and into the street, so to speak. Although the 5-4 outcome was hardly in doubt, as the board majority switched funds into Tracie Sanger’s project. ... And Jim McIntyre’s departure won’t heal this rift on the school board.
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Read Betty Bean on page A-5
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By Carolyn Evans At the lake on a sunny afternoon in the late 1960s, University of Tennessee student R.G. Smithson made a realization. Not only was he in love with his young wife, he was also in love with something else. On that afternoon on Smith Mountain Lake in Virginia, he said hello to a friend’s Sunfish, a tiny, one-person boat – basically a surfboard with a sail on it. Smithson was hooked. And through all the years since then, the Karns resident is still in love with Lin-
da and with the thrill of sailing. Smithson loves being out in the fresh air and sunshine, but says there’s more to it than that. “The reason I like sailing is that it’s cerebral,� he says. “You have to read the wind, the waves, the water and the weather. There’s a whole skillset involved in sailing a boat. The higher the wind goes, the more work it is. On a day the wind is blowing five miles per hour, it’s a piece of cake. If the wind is blowing 15 miles per hour, you have to know what you’re doing.
Smithson has been sailing for 40 years, a member of the Concord Yacht Club since 1988. He’s owned a few different sailboats, raced in regattas, served as club commodore, and taught class after class on how to sail. He’s the coordinator of adult learn-to-sail classes offered in May and September at the yacht club on Northshore Drive. Classes are open to everyone. Neither membership nor boat ownership is required. It was at one of these classes in September 2006 that Cedar
Bluff resident and long-time math teacher Leslie Brock found something new to do just before retirement. She loved the learn-to-sail lessons taught by Brad Russell so much that she joined the club and the training fleet, which gave her the use of some of the boats. By November she’d bought her own, a one-person boat. She would be the captain of her own ship come spring. To page A-3
‘Appalachia Then and Now’ is topic Author George Brosi, a 1960 graduate of Oak Ridge High School, will discuss major cultural and social changes in Southern Appalachia since the time he was a student in East Tennessee. He will speak at 2 p.m. Thursday, April 28, in the Goins Building at Pellissippi State, 10915 Hardin Valley Road. The presentation is free and George Brosi
open to the public. “The first picket line I walked was at a segregated laundromat in Oak Ridge in 1961,� Brosi said. “When I was growing up, there were still deep coal mines in Anderson County. Knowing the historical perspective of things like this gives us hope that really dramatic social changes are possible in America.� Brosi is the owner of Appalachian Mountain Books, specializing in books about Southern Appalachia. He was editor of Appalachian
Heritage literary magazine for more than a decade, and has served as an English and Appalachian studies instructor in Kentucky’s higher education system, including at the University of Kentucky and Eastern Kentucky University. Brosi also co-edited “No Lonesome Road: Selected Prose and Poems of Don West� with Jeff Biggers, the author of Pellissippi State’s Common Book, “The United States of Appalachia.� Info: pstcc.edu or 865-694-6400
Thinking green(ways) in Knox and beyond By Betsy Pickle There’s a reason Ellen Zavisca and her colleagues are big on greenways. Three reasons actually: Health, safety and money. “People in this country have been hearing for years, decades, that we need to be more physically active,� Zavisca said last week to the Sierra Club’s Harvey Broome Chapter. “It’s not just a matter of telling people, ‘Do this; don’t do this.’ We’ve got to create an environment that supports it.� Zavisca, a senior transportation planner for the Knoxville Regional Transportation Organization, is involved with pedestrian and greenway planning and Safe Routes to Schools. Lifestyle choices and genetics also play a role in health, but when it comes to exercising, walkers, runners and bicyclists are stymied if they don’t have safe routes,� she said. The danger shows up in the data. Some 125 ped/cyclist injury crashes result in about eight deaths each year in Knox County. “About 10-12 percent of fatalities statewide involve pedestrians and cyclists.� The TPO covers Knox and the urbanized parts of Anderson, Blount, Loudon and Sevier counties. The area contains 100 miles of paved greenway – including roughly 50 miles in Knoxville, 16 in the Alcoa-Maryville corri-
dor, nine in Townsend and nine in Oak Ridge. Aside from improving health, greenways have been shown to reward individuals and communities financially. Zavisca noted a study in Charlotte, N.C., that found an average increase in home value of $3,200 for homes within roughly a mile of the trails. Research in Greenville, S.C., showed that retail sales near a trail region went Ellen Zavisca up. Priorities: Connecting the existing trail in West Knox County and West Knoxville to Oak Ridge is one of the biggest regional greenway planning efforts. The project would require about 13 miles of additional trail at about $9 million, not including right-of-way, trailheads and another amenities. Eventually, the hope is to connect with Turkey Creek and Farragut, about 2.7 miles of trail at a cost of about $3.4 million. Connecting the Knox-Blount Greenway all the way to Townsend and the Smokies will take several phases over many years. Zavisca says the typical cost for a mile of greenway is $500,000, but terrain can drive costs to about $3 million a mile. This project could reach $25
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million. Karns contribution: Success with Karns Elementary’s Walking School Bus portends a new approach throughout the county. “We’re working with the Safe Routes to Schools partnership to create a policy that we’ll probably be taking to the school board in the fall,� said Zavisca. County engineer Cindy Pionke has been prioritizing sidewalk investment around schools. With nudging from Commissioner Brad Anders, Pionke found money in the budget to build about a mile of sidewalk along Beaver Ridge Road that leads directly from the grade school to the library to the Ingles in Karns. “We did some counts on the sidewalk after it was built, and we found that hardly anyone was actually walking to school on it.� Primary use was recreational in the evenings and on weekends. The Knox County Health Department got involved with a program called the Walking School Bus. “They find community volunteers, reflective vests – it doesn’t cost anything but time,� said Zavisca. Adults walk with the kids so they can get to their subdivision and peel off, or they get to the Ingles where the parents pick them up. “It’s a very appealing program.�
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