VOL. 2 NO. 12 NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ
Public forum on Jackson Avenue Officials will host a public meeting to discuss redevelopment of the 500 block of West Jackson Avenue where the city cleared the McClung Warehouses following a fire. Potential developers, downtown advocates and anyone with a redevelopment idea or suggestion is invited at 5:30 p.m. Thursday, April 3, at the Southern Depot, 318 W. Depot Ave.
Fulton football to be honored The Army National Guard national ranking trophy will be given to the Fulton High School football team at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 26, in the school auditorium as part of the MaxPreps Football Tour of Champions. Fulton (15-0) finished No. 129 in the final rankings after completing its first unbeaten season since 1967 and winning the state championship in 4A. MaxPreps ranks more than 16,000 varsity high school football teams. All are invited.
Williams Creek public meeting The city of Knoxville and Tennessee Clean Water Network are co-sponsoring a public meeting from 6:30 to 8 p.m. Tuesday, March 25, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, 600 S. Chestnut Street, to discuss the Williams Creek Urban Forest in East Knoxville. Topics will include the development of the urban forest and amenities it will provide to the community, the closure of Dailey Street and the history of the project site. Everyone is invited to come learn more about the project.
IN THIS ISSUE SKA’s banner haul Every month, members of the South Knoxville Alliance head to Fort Dickerson to pick up trash, and every month they collect several bags’ worth. But on March 15, they made a banner haul.
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Read Betsy Pickle on page 3
What really matters ... Fans are buzzing about the Tennessee quarterback derby. The race is on to determine who starts the last Saturday in August. Of course that is a big deal but the Vols can line up with any of the four.
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Read Marvin West on page 5
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fun fit By Betsy Pickle The sounds of percussion and smiles on the faces of participants in the weekly drum circle at the East Tennessee Technology Access Center make it clear – ETTAC has found its rhythm. ETTAC, 116 Childress St., is a nonprofit devoted to giving people with disabilities access to and through technology. The new drum circle, which meets from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Wednesdays, gives young people access to musical instruments so they can express themselves. Coordinated by April Stephens of the Cerebral Palsy Center, the group is open to anyone with a disability, along with family and friends. “It’s a traditional circle because it’s about self-expression, but it isn’t traditional in the way that we have people who want to have less control and more direction,” says Stephens. It’s a learning time and a social time, she says. “It’s a way to make the day a little bit more fun.” ETTAC, which serves 24 counties, celebrated its 25th anniversary last year. It has grown from a basement at the University of Tennessee to offices on Broadway to its impressive facility on Childress, a block off Chapman Highway just south of the Taliwa Drive traffic light. But director Lois Symington worries that the center still lacks visibility. “We need people in the South Knoxville community who have disabilities and have family members with disabilities to know we are here, and we’re a community resource for them,” says Symington.
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Houston Vandergriff and his mom, Katie, enjoy participating in the weekly drum circle at ETTAC. Katie homeschools Houston, a ninth-grader who has benefited from ETTAC programs since he was 5. Photos by Betsy Pickle
“We’ve got a basement full of durable medical equipment to give away to anybody who lacks insurance or money to get what they need. We have literacy services, equipment programs, veterans’ services.” ETTAC tackles things many take for granted. It helps people with disabilities adapt their homes to make them more livable and teaches people who are blind how to use cell phones. The center also has batteryoperated toys that it has adapted for easier use by children with disabilities. A toy that might cost more than $160 at retail usually can be adapted for about $3 in parts. ETTAC never denies services because people can’t afford to pay, and it also offers free programs. One example is its Accessible
Movie Night & Dinner, which is held quarterly in the center’s spacious basement. “The Avengers” will be shown this Friday, with a pizza dinner at 6 p.m. and the movie at 7 p.m. “People with disabilities don’t get to go to the movies with their friends,” says Symington. Jason Oglesby has a blast playing a drum. Theaters don’t allow for multiple wheelchairs, and the spaces are often too close you’re blind. It’s completely acto the screen, where the volume cessible, if you want to come with can bother those with sensory is- your friend who also uses a chair.” Movie nights can turn into a sues. “We make ours accessible on family affair. “Last fall, I noticed that some the front end,” Symington says. “It’s captioned, if you’re deaf. We have the descriptive video, if To page 3
Kids share the ‘dream’ with UT athletes By Kelly Norrell When Tyree Gibson, age 10, shot baskets with UT basketball player Cierra Burdick recently, he tried to steal the ball from her and missed. “You need to spend some time in the weight room,” Burdick teased Tyree. They were playing pickup basketball with some other neighborhood kids in JustLead, Emerald Youth Foundation’s leadership program for children at Mount Zion Baptist Church. Emerald is a nonprofit ministry that serves about 1,400 inner-city children yearly with faith, education and sports programs. “Aw, you’re just older than me,” Tyree said. He added: “I don’t care if she is an SEC champion.” Standout forward Burdick
laughed. She and her UT teammates had just won the SEC women’s basketball tournament in Duluth. (They went on to receive a No. 1 seed for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.) On this day, Burdick was doing another of the things she is passionate about – being a role model and friend to inner-city kids. Burdick comes to Mount Zion Baptist in East Knoxville each Monday afternoon as a member of the UT DREAM (Daring to Role Model Excellence as an Athletic Mentor) Team, an outreach she initiated locally to benefit area children. In February, the SEC commended Burdick for the work of the DREAM Team. Burdick and her peers are committed to being drug, alcohol,
Ja’doriauna Williamson (left) trades a high-five with Cierra Burdick. With them are (left, partly hidden) Tyree Gibson and Kobe Glass. tobacco and violence free, and to been spending regular afterschool promoting that lifestyle among time each week with the about 75 kids. Since early January, she and five other UT athletes have To page 3
Counting the county patrol
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March 24, 2014
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By Sandra Clark Last week candidate Bobby Waggoner said at any given time there are fewer than 30 officers on patrol in the 400 square miles beyond the city limits, the area patrolled by the Sheriff’s Office.
We asked Sheriff Jimmy “J.J.” Jones for a response and were told “The Sheriff doesn’t respond to purely political innuendos.” This writer is old enough to remember when Bobby’s grandpa, the late Bernard Waggoner Sr.,
was sheriff. In the mid-1960s, Knox County had four cars on patrol for each shift: south, east, north, west. Tim Hutchison drove on the north patrol. Since then, under Hutchison’s leadership, the Sheriff’s Office has
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grown to some 1,000 employees. Most are eligible for a generous pension. And I believe the folks who are paying the bills deserve to know how many officers are patrolling the neighborhoods on each shift. It’s a simple question. Stay tuned. We will continue to ask until you get an answer.