SOUTH KNOX VOL. 2 NO. O 23 1
IN THIS ISSUE
Civil rights leader to visit The city of Knoxville will continue its celebration of the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 with two events on June 19, the date celebrated nationwide as Juneteenth in recognition of the end of the Civil War and the abolition of slavery. The Rev. C.T. Vivian, a C.T. Vivian veteran of the civil-rights movement and a friend of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., will lead a “Mass Meeting” at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, June 19, at Payne Avenue Baptist Church, 2714 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
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Mushroom business takes root in South Knoxville
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Third-row seat to history It’s a big deal for East Tennessee each year when the Ella Baker Child Policy Training Institute brings a couple thousand of American’s brightest and most idealistic young people for a weeklong training session before they go out to manage Freedom Schools across the country.
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Read Sandra Clark on page 6
Messing around with magic Aside from the full opening of the Henley Bridge, it was the most magical thing to happen in South Knoxville last week – Michael Messing’s magic show for the Summer Library Club at the South Knoxville Branch Library. Children and parents packed the “theater” at the north end of the library to watch as Messing performed feats that elicited both squeals of excitement and peals of laughter.
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Read Betsy Pickle on page 3
Booster shot for John Bruhin Patience, please. John Bruhin is facing a long walk, and it may take an extra minute. He is on his way back into the spotlight for one big night this summer. On July 24, he will be inducted into the Greater Knoxville Sports Hall of Fame. Bruhin, 49, has been “training” for a while. He is 70 pounds down from 420 and trying to get closer to playing weight. He has one new knee and needs another but can get along with a trusty cane.
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June July 29, 11, 2013 2014
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Bob Hess checks on the progress of new pearl oyster mushrooms. Photos by Betsy Pickle Everything Mushrooms avoids the typical button-type mushrooms and instead grows varieties that are as beautiful as they are tasty.
By Betsy Pickle Everything Mushrooms is part of a mushroom explosion – a quiet explosion because, you know, a mushroom may be a fungi, but it’s not very loud. Bob Hess, who started the business in 2007 and moved into a building at 1004 Sevier Ave. twoplus years ago, has been around
long enough to see the changes in the industry. “In the past two or three years, we’ve seen an increase in business around mushrooms,” he says. Most of the enterprises are small, like a mom-and-pop-type business. “People either have a very intense interest personally for food or health, or they immediately see dollar signs, and they think they’re going to retire rich growing mushrooms,” he says. “I don’t
know where that comes from, I really don’t, because it’s really hard work.” Hess regards his own business as still being very small. There are eight full- or part-time employees, but that’s double what he had not long ago. And since moving from the Central/Broadway neighborhood in 2012, he’s been able to take his company from almost purely e-commerce to a business that serves the community and makes its presence known. Part of that is having a booth
Nicely is new SoKno principal Tanna Nicely is the new princi- and a math coach before entering pal at South Knoxville Elementary school administration in 2008 School, replacing Muncie Cooperas an assistant Harbin, who retired. principal at DogNicely was an assistant princiwood Elementary pal at Sarah Moore Green Magnet School. Technology Academy. She joined Nicely holds a Knox County Schools in 1991 as bachelor’s degree a kindergarten teacher at Powell in elementary eduElementary School and has also cation, a master’s taught at Sunnyview Primary in instructional School. She also served as a curtechnology, and an Tanna Nicely riculum and instruction facilitator educational spe-
cialist degree in educational leadership, all conferred by the University of Tennessee. Other appointments by Superintendent Dr. Jim McIntyre include Tiffany Watkins, principal at Fair Garden Family Community Center; Kristi Woods, principal at East Knox Elementary School; Dr. Chad Smith, principal at Carter Middle School; and Susan Espiritu, principal at Sarah Moore Greene Elementary.
at the weekly Knoxville Farmers Market on Market Square. While in the past Everything Mushrooms offered demonstrations a couple of times a season, they started participating more frequently last year. “This year, we’re down there every Saturday,” says Hess. The mushrooms they sell at the Farmers Market are from their demonstration garden, which is an extension of their lab, or foraged mushrooms, a specialty of Whitey Hitchcock, who joined the staff early this year. The thing is, growing mushrooms isn’t the main focus of the company. It exists to help customers grow mushrooms. “We are mostly a spawn and seed supply company,” Hess says. “We sell mostly equipment and tools and materials for people to grow and garden mushrooms. There are probably only about three companies in the country that come close to doing what we do on a broad scale, and even on that level there are things that we concentrate and focus on that some of those other companies don’t.” To page 3
South-Doyle program is last Ag Ed standing By Betty Bean The Agricultural Education program at South-Doyle High School is the last remaining such program in Knox County following the elimination of the program at North Knox Vocational Center on the campus of Halls High School. North Knox teacher Mike Blankenship, who began teaching at Doyle High School in 1978, was told his position was eliminated because of low enrollment, even though students say school counselors advised them not to sign up because the program was being cut. North Knox also lost its Child Development program. Don Lawson, supervisor of Career Technical Education (CTE), said there had been four such programs in Knox County but those at Farragut High and Byington-Sol-
James Dunn, a senior at Gibbs High School and president of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter, recited a partial list of the honors the club won under Blankenship’s guidance. “We will no longer be able to compete in career-development events,” he said. “We as a class and a chapter are very disappointed. This closure will take away many opportunities.” James Dunn and Ryan Cox, wearing What Dunn didn’t say that their FFA gear, prepare to address night is that one of the lost opporthe school board. Photo by S. Clark tunities could be his chance to go to college. “I was hoping to try to get a way have been shuttered. Classes scholarship through the FFA, but include wildlife management and there cannot be an FFA if there’s forestry as well as horticulture no ag class,” he said later. Dunn and greenhouse management. lives on a family farm and wants Several students and their fam- to major in agriculture at UT. ilies attended last week’s school Ryan Cox, also a rising senior, board meeting, and two spoke. has invested three years in a vo-
cational track he won’t be able to complete. Afterward, board members and Superintendent Dr. Jim McIntyre spoke to him. Cox said their attempts at consolation were too little, too late. “They told us that we did well and that our speeches were good, but honestly, that doesn’t mean anything to me,” said Cox. “Individually, I think they all want to help us, but together they all felt that it was too far gone. The decision has been made and it will stand.” Blankenship is packing 25 years’ worth of records and memories while dealing with a family health crisis – his son was diagnosed with a brain tumor, and his condition remains precarious. Although he has been interviewed for a new position, Blankenship has no guarantee of a job this fall.
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