GOVERNMENT/POLITICS A4 | OUR COLUMNISTS A6-7 | YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS A11-12 | BUSINESS A13
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powell
VOL. 50, NO. 19
MAY 9, 2011
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Making a splash! Thank you, Powell! The fundraising effort for “the face of Powell” is moving ahead See Greg’s story on Page A-2
‘Scoop’ Remembering old-school newspaper reporter Bob Cunningham See Dr. Tumblin’s column on page A-7
FEATURED COLUMNIST JAKE MABE
How four teachers made a difference Chad Edwards says thanks, 50 years later See page A-6
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4509 Doris Circle 37918 (865) 922-4136 news@ShopperNewsNow.com ads@ShopperNewsNow.com EDITOR Larry Van Guilder lvgknox@mindspring.com ADVERTISING SALES Patty Fecco fecco@ShopperNewsNow.com Darlene Hutchison hutchisond@ 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.
Powell Elementary Carnival revived after several years By Greg Householder
If you were sitting around on an early Saturday evening a couple of weeks ago – April 30, to be exact – and were bored, well, it was your own fault. Area merchants had posted it on their marquees, signs were up all over the community and the word was definitely out: Powell Elementary School was holding a carnival. From 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., the school campus was a place for fun. The Powell Elementary PTA organized it, but it was a community effort. Area professionals, merchants and, of course, the kids pitched in. The carnival featured vendors of all stripes, games, contests, health and wellness booths and lots of food. Each grade sponsored a hallway inside the building and set up games. The classes were able to keep a portion of the proceeds. According to principal Reba Lane, while this was not the first carnival at PES, it had been several years since the school had put one on. Outside were dunking booths and a miniature golf course.
PES 3rd grade teacher Terry Wright gets wet in the dunking booth at the Powell Elementary School Carnival on April 30. Photos by Greg Householder
Lane said the carnival, besides being a fun occasion, was part of the school’s family engagement program by encouraging all Powell Elementary School families to come out and enjoy the evening.
Natalie Noble pounds the hammer as she tries to ring the bell at the Powell Elementary School Carnival on April 30.
Norman says fire was ‘meant to send me a message’ By Betty Bean April 4 was unseasonably hot, with gusty winds up to 35 miles per hour. Around 10 a.m., a resident of Plumwood Road in West Haven noticed smoke billowing up from Tony Norman’s yard and called the Knoxville Fire Department. Before it was doused, the flames had climbed about 35 feet up a hickory tree, consumed a 15-foot section of a wooden privacy fence and destroyed a storage shed and its contents. The remains of a blue plastic Waste Connections container are puddled on the ground. Some small ornamental cedars closer to the house are badly, probably fatally, singed. Arson investigators told Norman and his wife, Jani, that the fire had been deliberately set, and although the damage was relatively minor, the “what ifs” were frightening. The property is heavily wooded, the fire not far from the wood-frame house. The Normans say the “whys” are disturbing as well. “I have a friend who was a private investigator who looked at it, and he said. ‘Obviously, somebody had been to your house at least twice (once to case property, once to set the fire).’ He
The burnt fence on Norman’s property.
Tony Norman surveys the spot where someone set his property on fire. Photos by Ruth White said it was an amateurish job meant to send me a message.” The Normans hadn’t spoken publicly about the fire until a meeting of the West Knox County Council of Homeowners when Tony Norman was called upon to talk about the Hillside and Ridgetop Protection Plan, which County Commission rejected by a 6-5 vote at its April meeting. The slope protection plan is a joint city/county project developed over a threeyear period by a group of
volunteers and Metropolitan Planning Commission staffers. Norman is the cochair and the face of the plan, which would apply to slopes of 15 percent or more, prohibit development on 50 percent grades and impose stricter guidelines for clearing and grading on steep slopes. The plan would allow narrower roads and shorter setback requirements for higher elevations with incentives for developers to place ridgetops under conservation easements. It is unpopular with de-
velopers, real estate interests and the Chamber of Commerce, and Norman has become a target of hate mail and Internet invective, which he says ramped up after Mayor Tim Burchett became a vocal critic of the plan. “A group of people and the Chamber decided this is not good for economic development,” Norman told the homeowners’ group. “In the end, the Chamber decided this needed to be killed, and they came up with their strategy to kill it.”
After Norman said that his wife and son would like to see him step back from the plan, Jani asked to be recognized. She said they have received “hate mail” and called the last few months “a horrible, horrible ordeal. “Three weeks before the vote, our property was set on fire. If we hadn’t had a Good Samaritan neighbor, 10 minutes later our house would have been set on fire.” City Council will be taking up the slope protection plan next, and Norman said he doesn’t plan to quit advocating for it. “This just makes me more determined,” he said.
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