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NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ
Broadacres homeowners to meet The Broadacres Homeowners Association will meet 7 p.m. Tuesday, March 27, at Powell Presbyterian Church. Everyone who lives in Broadacres is invited and urged to come by president Ed Smith. Annual dues of $50 go toward upkeep and lighting of the entrances as well as mailing expense, Smith said. Discussion at the annual meeting will include the group’s Facebook page, neighborhood maintenance concerns and Broadacres’ real estate sales trends. Retired U.S. Marine Roderick Creigh, a longtime Broadacres resident, made an additional contribution to enable the association to close out 2011 in the black. Membership dues should be mailed to Broadacres Homeowners Association, P.O. Box 1101, Powell TN 37849. Info: Ed Smith, 947-0129 or 250-2460. Andrew Sharits is vice president.
Meetings at Powell Branch Library County Commissioner R. Larry Smith, school board member Kim Sepesi, state Sen. Randy McNally and state Rep. Harry Brooks will meet with constituents for “coffee and conversation” 5-7 p.m. Thursday, March 15, at the Powell Branch Library. Everyone is invited. State Rep. Harry Brooks will meet with constituents at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 17, at the Powell Branch Library.
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4509 Doris Circle 37918 (865) 922-4136 news@ShopperNewsNow.com ads@ShopperNewsNow.com EDITOR Sandra Clark sclark426@aol.com ADVERTISING SALES Debbie Moss mossd@ShopperNewsNow.com Shopper-News is a member of KNS Media Group, published weekly at 4509 Doris Circle, Knoxville, TN, and distributed to 8,314 homes in Powell.
By Jake Mabe
Ask anybody who experienced Brickey Elementary School during the John R. McCloud era and they’ll tell you the same thing – it was a family. John R. was what Sara Baskin calls Papa Bear, our fearless leader, our daddy. We loved him. We still do. We always will. Members of the family got together at Steamboat Deli in Powell last Thursday. They meet for lunch every three months, a tradition started about a decade ago. “We couldn’t stand each other every month!” McCloud said. “Well, we put up with him every day for a lotta years,” Imogene Jenkins, who worked in the cafeteria, shot back. “But he was always a true friend,” she said. “He would always fight for you if you needed him.” “Where’s John R.?” former custodian Dorothy Irwin asked when she sat down. “I don’t hear him!” John R. says his buddies at Christ United Methodist Church were giving him a hard time for being in the Shopper-News last week dancing at the school’s 50th anniversary. (It now also bears his name.) “They said, ‘Do a little shakin’!’ When I did my Tom Jones impression for
At the Brickey (Elementary) Buddies reunion are Dorothy Irwin, John R. McCloud, Terry Carr, Edith Moseley, Mildred Rowland (Faye Heydasch’s aunt), Rena Walters, Faye Heydasch, Sara Baskin, Carolyn Dobbs, Jean Mills, Ernie Israel and Imogene Jenkins. Photo by Jake Mabe the seniors, one of them is fighting a serious illsaid, ‘my god, McCloud, ness. Viryou move like you’re 50!’ ” ginia Rains He’ll be 84 next month couldn’t and says life feels good. attend be“I had a good day yescause of illterday,” John R. said. ness. “You usually have a Behind good day,” somebody said. the counter John R. smiled. “Yeah, at SteamI do.” boat, I spotAva Barber The laughter lifted evted owner eryone’s spirits. But, it and former “Lawrence Welk wasn’t all fun and games. Show” star Ava Barber. Terry Carr’s son-in-law “Ms. Barber, I’m one of
your biggest fans,” I said. “I always loved you and Ralna English.” “Well, which one was your favorite?” she said. “Why, you of course.” She smiled. “You’re too young to watch ‘The Lawrence Welk Show.’ ” “I record it every Saturday night,” I said, truthfully. “How about that,” she said. Back with the Brickey Buddies, John R. tried to
wiggle his way out of the photo. “No way,” I said. “You get front and center.” Then John R. came with one of his classics. “Those guys at church tell me I get in the paper or on TV all the time. I tell them, when you’ve got it, you’ve got it.” That’s him. Papa. Head of the family that will forever be the Brickey Bears.
Meet Buddy Burkhardt, sign guy By Sandra Clark William Franklin “Buddy” Burkhardt Jr. says he’s just a sign guy, doing a job. Buddy was at the Powell Bojangles’, taking an election day break for lunch. Outside, his truck and trailer were filled with posts and signs for Richard “Bud” Armstrong, candidate for law director. “Just call me Buddy,” he said. “I’m like Madonna or Cher. Nobody spells the last name right anyway.” Burkhardt had taken the day off. Actually, he started the night before when he left work. Election eve is important for sign guys. That’s when they move the signs from yards and intersections to the polling places. Buddy even invented a word – “shoused.” “When I was working for Bud (Armstrong) two years ago (when he unsuccessfully ran against Ed Shouse for County Commission at-large), I got up on Election Day and it looked like Ed had dropped signs from a helicopter. I had been shoused. “This morning, there were Joe Jarret signs ev-
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Buddy Burkhardt, sign guy. Photos by S. Clark
erywhere and I felt shoused all over again. Those signs were just falling out of the sky.” This writer detained Buddy for an hour, but it wasn’t long enough. At day’s end, Armstrong had unseated Jarret. Buddy says there’s etiquette among sign guys, and the pros can tell when an amateur shows up. “Some people see these signs as road trash, but candidates spend too much
Burkhardt has even picked up and returned signs to other sign guys, taking care to keep the posts separate. “I take a lot of pride in what I do. I move them, rearrange them, shift them around. After two weeks people don’t see a sign any more. Yes, I’ve lost quite a few. Sometimes they turn up missing, poles and all.” Burkhardt, a farmer, says putting up signs falls “somewhere in between cleaning out the chicken coop and meeting the president.” The divorced father of two lives off Brushy Valley Road a c r o s s Buddy’s truck is filled with signs for Bud Arm- from Copstrong. per Ridge School. money for us to be waste- He’s got two college deful. There are four simple grees (honest) and had a rules: don’t tear down a traveling job for Harris sign; don’t block a sign; ask Computer Systems before permission before posting taking “a huge pay cut” to a sign; and always pick join the Sheriff’s Office to fi x computers. them up.”
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See Cory Chitwood’s story on page A-9
Brickey Buddies reunite at Steamboat
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Between the end of basketball and the beginning of baseball, the Powell High boys soccer team gets things started. After a couple of rebuilding years, the team boasts a plethora of seniors and what is being called Powell’s best team since 2008.
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Spring soccer
March 12, 2012
Maynardville HWY.
IN THIS ISSUE
Sandra Clark Government/Politics Marvin West Bob Collier Faith Schools Business
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VOL. 51 NO. 11
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A civilian employee, Buddy now works with jail industries, overseeing inmates who perform community service. He says, “I’m in a good place.” He’s retired from the Navy Reserves and holds an associate degree in electrical engineering and a bachelor’s degree in technological adult education. He also operates a picture frame shop, owns a lawn mowing company and leases a farm. “I love being busy,” he says. He came into the Sheriff’s Office “absolutely apolitical,” but it’s hard to be around political talk without getting hooked. Now he attends the Powell and 8th District Republican clubs and is secretary for the Halls GOP. Buddy cans his garden veggies and froze “half a pig.” He allows he’s not been to the store since January. He has chickens for eggs and when they age out, he takes them to the farm where they can live out their days in the barn. And on Election Day you’ll see him again. Just a sign guy, doing a job.
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