Karns/Hardin Valley Shopper News 061713

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VOL. 7 NO. 24

www.ShopperNewsNow.com |

NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ

Towe to head Karns High

Kim Towe is the new principal at Karns High School, replacing Dr. Tracy Sands. Towe is currently the principal of the Dr. Paul Kelley Volunteer Academy. She joined the Knox County Schools Kim Towe in 1986 as a special education teacher at the Knoxville Adaptive Education Center. She has also served as a special education teacher at Ridgedale Elementary and Powell High schools. She began her service in administration in 2005 as an assistant principal at Halls High School and was assigned as principal at Ridgedale in 2008. Towe holds a bachelor’s degree in special education from UT and a master’s degree in education administration from Lincoln Memorial University.

Brad Corum at Karns Middle Brad Corum is the new principal at Karns Middle School, replacing Cindy White. Corum has been an assistant principal at West Valley Middle School since 2009. He joined the Knox County Brad Corum Schools in 1997 as a social studies teacher at Karns High School, and he began his administrative service in 2005 as an assistant principal at Powell Middle School. He has also served as an assistant principal at Karns Middle School. Corum holds a bachelor’s degree in history from UT, and a teacher certification and master’s degree in education administration from Lincoln Memorial University.

IN THIS ISSUE Karns: It’s all in a day’s work Firefighters, medics and deputies responded to a call when a man passed out in his car at Ingles last Tuesday. Shopper News freelance reporter Nancy Anderson was at the library where firefighters were talking with kids. While the medics were attempting to give first aid, the man regained consciousness, restarted his car and fled the scene throwing glass (which shattered on the pavement) out of the window as he went.

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June 17, 2013

American chestnut restoration By Theresa Edwards

In the early 1900s a blight wiped out American chestnut trees which once dominated our country’s forests. A restoration is underway to bring these trees back, and state Rep. Roger Kane is Roger Kane obtaining special blight-resistant trees for Karns and Hardin Valley. The Department of Agriculture is using a back-breeding process with Chinese chestnut trees which are immune to the blight. The trees are similar, but the American trees are much taller, so additional back-breeding is used to regain their stature. Early Americans used the chestnut wood to build their log cabins since it was rot-resistant. In Karns, a cabin built more than 100 years ago from chestnut wood was recently taken down and is currently being reconstructed. “It’s like looking at a dinosaur,” A Karns cabin built in 1900 with American chestnut lumber is being said Kane. “You just do not see reconstructed. these (chestnut cabins and trees) anymore.” The cross-bred chestnut trees is being kept at Hardin Valley This American chestnut tree are in short supply and can only Academy and will be planted there in the arboretum at Karns be obtained from the Department in the fall. High was provided by state Kane will be obtaining more as of Agriculture, Kane said. He Rep. Roger Kane. Photos by T. Edwards has provided one for the Karns they become available to plant in High School arboretum. Another the community.

HVA Foundation gives awards The newly-established Hardin Valley Academy Foundation has awarded $5,000 to various teachers and staff. “These initial awards represent the beginning of the Foundation’s mission to maintain, support and enhance the high standards of excellence for HVA,” said president Gary Rowcliffe. “Contributions are used specifically to further the education and professional development of the staff, to improve and enhance the technology facilities at

HVA, and to improve the physical plant and education needs at HVA.” These spring semester awards were approximately $1,900 in professional development awards, $1,600 in technology awards and $1,500 in educational needs, Gary Rowcliffe distributed among seven teachers and the library staff.

Several important requests remain to be fulfilled, including the acute need for a language lab and its related facilities. This is one of the priority funding needs for the school, Rowcliffe said. Along with Rowcliffe, Foundation officers are treasurer René Graves, secretary Sallee Reynolds and board members Tom Feiten, Doug Shover, Norm Templeton, David Combs, Donna Offutt, Susan Vaigneur (PTSA representative), and Maureen Cianciolo (HVAAC representative).

Chris Martin, an attorney with Ayres & Parkey in West Knoxville, has voluntarily served as legal counsel for the Foundation. Rowcliffe said, “The Foundation board is very excited to present these awards. Our talented board is grateful to be able to work on this wonderful opportunity for HVA.” Info: www.hvafoundation.hardinvalleyac.knoxschools.org , or on Facebook @Hardin Valley Academy Foundation or hvafoundation@ gmail.com/.

Sheriff’s race starts early and mean By Betty Bean

On June 6, 2012, a dozen deputies showed up at Don Wiser’s DUI school to take him to jail. On June 6, 2013, Wiser sent a letter to the county mayor, the law director and every member of county commission announcing his candidacy for sheriff and accusing incumbent Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones of abusing the department’s drive-home vehicle policy by keeping four cars, including a $70,000 Jack Roush R3 Mustang, for his personal use. He also accused Jones of allowing employees who live in surrounding counties to drive Knox County vehicles home overnight. “That was D-Day, Honey. And I’m declaring war,” Wiser said. Jones denied Wiser’s accusations and called the retired Knoxville Police Department investigator a liar. “In looking at the letter Wiser wrote, the only truthful statement I

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found was that I do have a marked vehicle at my house because often I ride patrol,” Jones said. “Everything else as far as I know is untrue. And since he stated he is a candidate for sheriff, it is my personal opinion that he is misinformed and as a former law enforcement officer is a disgrace to any man or woman who has ever worn a badge.” KCSO public information officer Martha Dooley released a list of the department’s fleet, which did not include any of the vehicles Wiser mentioned. The county finance office was unable to shed much light on the situation since the fleet list does not report vehicles purchased with drug fund money or seized from drug dealers. When asked if KCSO has a high end Mustang classified as a drug enforcement vehicle, Dooley refused to comment. “I can’t tell you anything because

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we get into safety and security issues,” she said. “Some vehicles are part of drug enforcement and are confidential, with no taxpayer money involved.” This is an argument that goes back to the days when then-County Commissioner Wanda Moody filed a raft of lawsuits against then-Sheriff Tim Hutchison in an attempt to force him to be accountable to county commission for large expenditures. She won on 18 of the 19 points she made, and Hutchison was convicted of criminal contempt for withholding information. Moody’s lawyer, Herb Moncier, says he knows nothing about the current sheriff’s policies, but takes a dim view of the historic “veil of secrecy” surrounding drug fund money. “There’s no secret down there as to who has what car. The problem used to be, they didn’t want any-

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body to know what they are doing, because they have more cars than anybody in the world. They’ve got to have insurance on those cars, and all of that’s public information. There may be some limited circumstances as to why a particular person might not want to be identified as driving a particular car, but that’s so limited.” Wiser, who is a state-certified driver’s safety and drug awareness instructor whose students are offenders referred by the court system, shut down his business after being charged with falsely certifying that a student had completed 16 hours of court-ordered safe driving classes. In June, he was charged with tampering with and fabricating evidence, a Class C felony. The case is currently mired in motions, and Wiser says he will work full time on campaigning for sheriff.


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