MVPS
THE GANG’S ALL HERE
SPORTS, A-17
SEE PAGES A-6 and A-7
New F
EAT
UR
Jake, Marvin, Lynn, Bob, oh my!
PHS football holds annual banquet
ES
POWELL
Vol. 50, No. 6 • February 7, 2011 • www.ShopperNewsNow.com • 45 4509 9 Doris Circle,, Knoxville 379 37918 • 9 922-4136 4 3
Don Gallo throws
grande fiesta By R Rut Ruth uth ut h Wh Whi White ite ite it
D
on G Gallo ll Mexican M i Grill G ill has h managed to do several things very well. One, they make delicious Mexican food; and two, they know how to throw a party. The grill held a grand opening event recently and the house was packed with repeat customers and some new faces. A full restaurant usually means a lengthy wait for a table, but the Don Gallo staff did a wonderful job of keeping guests from getting antsy or hungry. The Aguilas de Oro mariachi band was on hand to entertain, and the appetizers flowed like water and provided everyone with a sampling of the wonderful cuisine that awaited them. The band circulated through the dining area and serenaded guests as they enjoyed their food or sat at the bar and waited for an opportunity to eat. One very popular hit of the evening was “Rocky Top.” Although slightly different than the version heard in Neyland Stadium, the crowd clapped and sang along with the band in true Volunteer fashion. Leaving the restaurant was almost like leaving a party – a little bounce in your step and a smile on your face. Don Gallo Mexican Grill is located at 980 East Emory Road near Brewster’s. They are open for lunch every day at 11 a.m. Info: 947-1777.
Members of the Aguilas de Oro mariachi band entertain the packed house at Don Gallo Mexican Grill’s grand opening celebration. Band members pictured are Guillermo Salome, Pedro Medina, Alfonso Garcia and Abel Maya. Photo by Ruth White
Nora Ramirez (center) brings white queso to Nancy O’Brien and David O’Brien during Don Gallo’s grand opening.
Donna Young drives greenway expansion By Betty Bean When Donna Young came to Knoxville in 1994, the city had fewer than five miles of greenways. This year, as she prepares to retire as greenways coordinator, Knoxville boasts 50 miles of trails, all of which are paved except the one down the middle of Cherokee Boulevard. Young has met and exceeded all but one of her ambitious goals. Her vaulting aspirations are limitless and unquenchable and stretch like the trail she hopes will one day run from here to the Smokies and beyond. When asked to name her proudest achievement, she thinks a quick minute and then answers with no hesitation: “My two goals when I started the job, and they were arbitrary, were to complete 50 miles of greenways and to create connections. The Project for Public Spaces says there’s only one city, and that’s in Colorado, that started with parks in disparate places and worked from the outside-in, like we have done.” Will Skelton credits Young with being “the consistent face of greenways development in the city. If you met her in a grocery store, she would start talking to you about greenways. She was also really good at the visionary thing – the best example of that is the Forks of the River to Ijams Wildlife Management Center. She suggested that and Bo
Townsend, the director, agreed that we could go through Ijams. That happened because of her. Donna’s been a real credit to the city and greenway development.” Young worked closely with former mayor Victor Ashe, whose parks and recreation chief Sam Anderson hired her. Ashe is proud of her successes. “I may be the only Republican Donna ever placed a bumper sticker for and I love her for it. She is dedicated. She is passionate. She lives, eats and breathes greenways. She could drive some city higher-ups nuts in the pursuit of more greenways, but I was always thankful she was there and worked hard each day to make my vision of connecting greenways across Knoxville a reality.” When asked if she has a biggest failure, Young doesn’t hesitate: “Fort Dickerson. I’m still sad that we couldn’t put a greenway around that beautiful park. We spent more money dynamiting the back of the Gateway Center (in the city-owned space near Ruth’s Chris Steakhouse), where they put in fake rock. I hate fake rock.” Young almost got fired from the U.S. Forest Service for complaining about fake rock in the Ocoee River prior to the Olympics. “It was the first time they’d put a course on a natural river, and we didn’t want
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“They had to send him back on another ship and tow the hulk of the USS Aaron Ward back to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which was an odd coincidence since our family’s farm was located there.” She counts Humphrey Bogart and Michael Douglas among the distant relatives. Young grew up near Atlanta and attended a Waldorf school where she learned “to view the world through art and nature. And kindness. Always kindness.” That reminds her of another failure: “Not connecting East Knoxville across the South Knoxville Bridge. TDOT wouldn’t allow it.” When Young moved to Knoxville, her daughter, Cameron Broome, now 29, was a student at Bearden Middle School. Young says she’s never regretted settling here. “I’m totally grateful to Victor Donna Young volunteers at Knoxville Green’s free bulb giveaway. Photo by S. Clark Ashe, who gave me my job and inspired me with his America Outany fake rock in there. But we had fine arts from UT and a master’s in doors experience. And Will Skelton to compromise with those SOBs and landscape architecture from UGA, was a great influence. He had this let them put fake rock underneath she long ago fell in love with the great idea – ‘Let’s put a greenway and real rock on top.” work of Frederick Law Olmsted, in every part of the city, then we’ll She jumped topics: “When I whose most famous work was New connect them.’ ” retire, don’t name anything after York’s Central Park. In retirement, look for Young me. Spend the money on putting a Young was born in Long Beach, in green politics. “A friend said greenway around the quarry. All the Calif., June 19, 1945, and went un- to me years ago that I have three way around it.” named for two weeks until her fa- agendas: education, environment A one-time college professor with ther returned from the war after his and taking care of those less fora bachelor’s in fine arts from the ship was sunk by a kamikaze attack tunate than myself. Those are my University of Georgia, a master’s in off the coast of Okinawa. credos.”
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