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Miracle Maker
Since she was a child, Wanda Lacy has had a passion for math. “I love it. I love how things connect,” Lacy said. Because of that love, she changed her course of study in college from engineering to teaching. Meet this week’s Miracle Maker inside.
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See Sara Barrett’s story on A-9
Changing your business culture Powell resident and business consultant Rick Ross says if there’s anything he’s learned in 12 years it’s this: “If sales is a problem, training is not the answer.” Speaking at the Fountain City Business and Professional Association, Ross said getting your company culture right is “easy when you’re smaller, and harder as the business grows.”
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See Sandra Clark’s story on A-2
NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ
Powell Alumni to meet April 6 Powell High Alumni Association will meet Saturday, April 6, at Jubilee Banquet Facility, 6700 Jubilee Center Way, off Callahan Dr. Grads Phil Campbell and Lynnus Gill will speak. The Golden Grads of 1963 will be recognized. Registration lines open at 4:45 with dinner at 6 p.m. and a short business meeting to follow. Reservations: Lynette Brown, Lbrown8042@ aol.com, 947-7371, or Vivian Jett McFalls, 607-8775. This year’s scholarship will be given in memory of Allan Gill. An alumni endowment is being established. Info: Mary Whittle Mahoney, mmahoney@utk.edu.
Church-wide flea market is April 5-6 Church-wide Flea Market at Powell Presbyterian Church 6-8 p.m. Friday, April 5 (twice the price for first choice), 8 a.m. – 2 p.m. Saturday, April 6. Donate items for the sale: drop-off April 4 -5 until 4 p.m. All proceeds support church ministry and missions. The church is located at 2910 W. Emory Rd, Powell, TN 37849. Info: 9388311 or www.powellpcusa.org.
7049 Maynardville Pike 37918 (865) 922-4136 NEWS news@ShopperNewsNow.com Sandra Clark | Theresa Edwards ADVERTISING SALES ads@ShopperNewsNow.com Shannon Carey | Patty Fecco Jim Brannon | Tony Cranmore Shopper-News is a member of KNS Media Group, published weekly at and distributed to 8,185 homes in Powell.
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VOL. 52 NO. 11
IN THIS ISSUE
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March 18, 2013
Karns Connector moves forward By Theresa Edwards It will be easier to get around in Karns if County Commission approves a contract March 25 to complete the Karns Connector. Mayor Tim Burchett is recommending $222,000 for Cannon and Cannon Inc. to provide surveying and engineering services. Commissioner Brad Anders said completion will “draw a lot of traffic off the narrow back roads around Karns High School and the (Ben Atchley) veterans’ home. And it will give access from Oak Ridge Highway to Hardin Valley through the industrial park (at Westcott Boulevard off Hardin Valley Road).” Anders and state Rep. Roger Kane met Friday with state and local road personnel to discuss the design. “We will hold public hearings to receive the community’s input, complete the environmental process and acquire the necessary rights-of-way,
Paul Beebe, TDOT survey and design manager; Jim Snowden, Knox County Engineering and Public Works deputy director; state Rep. Roger Kane and Commissioner Brad Anders discuss the traffic problems at Pellissippi Parkway and Hardin Valley Road. Photos by T. Edwards of TEPHOTOS.com
said Jim Snowden, deputy director of Knox County Engineering and Public Works. “The earliest people would see groundbreaking for road construction would be the spring of next
HPUD sets public meeting The Hallsdale Powell Utility District management has prepared a budget that does not require a rate increase. General manager Darren Cardwell and financial officer James Smith will present the budget to the board of commissioners at 6 p.m. Monday, March 18, at the headquarters on Cunningham Road. Commissioners Kevin Julian, Bob Crye and Todd Cook had requested a hard look at the upcoming budget. A recent bond refinancing enabled savings that made an increase unnecessary, Cardwell said. Julian said a small increase was scheduled, but “a lot of work by a lot of people” made it possible to hold the rates steady.
year,” he said. “Then we hope it would not be more than 18 months from that point for construction, totaling 2-1/2 to 3 years to complete the project.” The connector will help drivers turning right off
Watoto Children’s Choir coming to town A children’s choir from Africa has set concerts in area churches, part of a sixmonth tour. The Watoto Children’s Choir will be at New Covenant Baptist Church, 10319 Starkey Lane, Farragut, 7 p.m. Thursday, March 21; Faith United Methodist Church, 1120 Dry Gap Pike, 6 p.m. Saturday, March 30; and Rogers Memorial Baptist Church, 520 College Street, 10 a.m. Sunday, March 31. All performances are free and open to the public. Each child in the choir has lost one or both parents. They live in Watoto Children’s Villages where they receive the care and nurturing they need to grow up as productive citizens of their own country. Info: www. The Watoto Children’s Choir rehearses in Uganda watoto.com/. before starting a tour of the United States.
Going to extremes Legislative majority presents challenges for Haslam By Betty Bean During the 2012 national elections, there was talk about a Republican War on Women. In 2013, Tennessee’s 108th General Assembly widened the battle into a multi-front conflagration, hitting hot-button themes that used to work so well as wedge issues when the GOP was in the minority. Now that they are a supermajority, the only significant obstacle in their way is Gov. Bill Haslam, a cautious man not inclined to extremes. Showdown No. 1: Medicaid expansion. These lines were drawn when the United States Supreme Court left Medicaid expansion up
Oak Ridge Highway onto Pellissippi Parkway then making dangerous U-turns in the Solway area to go in the other direction. “There were 39 crashes reported in Solway January 2011 to January 2012, and
that does not account for those not reported,” said Kane. Snowden said the Karns Connector will have wider lanes and flatter curves, which will be much safer than the current roads which were not designed to carry a lot of traffic. Another area of concern is Pellissippi Parkway at Hardin Valley Road. Vehicles line up on the parkway at rush hour, waiting to exit. The congestion on Hardin Valley Road has caused accidents, including a recent fatality. The roads there were probably built in the early 1970s, said Paul Beebe, TDOT survey and design manager. “They were built for rural conditions, but now we have urban conditions,” said Amanda Snowden, TDOT director of operations. Anders and Kane asked for help, including possibly an additional lane on Hardin Valley Road under the Pellissippi Parkway bridge.
to the states. Some Republican governors (Rick Scott of Florida, Jan Brewer of Arizona) have opted in; others (Rick Perry of Texas, Scott Walker of Wisconsin) have opted out. Haslam is being heavily lobbied by the state’s major hospitals, who want to offset looming Medicaid cuts with billions of federal dollars available under the new law. Showdown No. 2: It may not rise to the level of war, but few school boards or PTAs support diverting public money to private schools via vouchers. Haslam supports vouchers, but his bill is limited to 5,000 needy students in failing school districts during the first year, and gradually increases thereafter. Cultural conservatives favor a competing bill to make vouchers available in all districts immediately. Showdown No. 3: Some call
Haslam’s workers’ compensation reform initiative a War on Workers. Others call it a War on Lawyers. Whatever it’s called, there isn’t much daylight between Haslam and the most conservative elements of his party, who share a common distaste for organized labor and trial lawyers. This one will create a state agency run by a Haslam-appointed administrator to hear workers’ compensation cases, replacing courts and lawyers. It will negatively impact collections from fee offices as a revenue source for county governments. Showdown No. 4: Clerks hate this Stacey Campfield-sponsored bill because it will force them to shoulder half of the burden of notifying creditors when garnished debtors change jobs. Senate Bill 243 will make work for clerks, but will be far worse for debtors, who will be subject to contempt of court if their creditors aren’t notified – re-establishing debtors’ prisons in Tennessee.
Showdown No. 5: The War on Vanderbilt, Part 2, is too good to skip. Last year, Haslam vetoed a bill outlawing Vanderbilt University’s “All Comers” rule, which requires student groups to allow any interested student to join. Social conservatives complain that this rule violates the rights of religious organizations to keep undesirables out, but Haslam came down on the side of keeping the state out of the business of private institutions. The issue is back this year, in the form of Sen. Mae Beavers’ bill requiring the state to de-certify the police forces of private institutions that violate the civil rights of religious organizations. Haslam’s 2012 veto stood because he waited until the General Assembly concluded its two-year session, too late for legislators to override it. The 108th session won’t end until 2014. 2704 Mineral Springs Ave. Knoxville, TN 37917 Ph. (865) 687-4537
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