COMMUNITY A4 | OUR COLUMNISTS A5-6 | YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS A7-8
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VOL. 6, NO. 17
APRIL 23, 2011
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Easter egg hunt at Wilson Park See page A-5
Patriots’ diamond shines See Cindy’s story on page A-4
Sharing their gifts
FEATURED COLUMNIST BONNIE PETERS
A tribute to Ruth Gentry Raley See page A-5
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Art in the Park wows the crowd By Cindy Taylor Despite inclement weather, Union County’s first Art in the Park event showed local and regional artists at their finest, just indoors in the Union County High School commons area instead of outdoors in Wilson Park Curious residents were strolling through half an hour before some vendors had their booths completely set up, and the spillover of children from the Easter egg hunt had balloon
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4509 Doris Circle 37918 (865) 922-4136 news@ShopperNewsNow.com ads@ShopperNewsNow.com EDITOR Cindy Taylor brentcindyt@gmail.com ADVERTISING SALES Darlene Hutchison hutchisond@ Shopper NewsNow.com Shopper-News is a member of KNS Media Group, published weekly at 4509 Doris Circle, Knoxville, TN, and distributed to 11,000 homes in Union County.
rently has six best-selling CDs to her credit. She tours the country continuously, and the festival was fortunate to catch her in between tours. She wowed listeners on the fiddle, banjo and acoustic guitar, and the audience fell in love with her musical stylings. The Union County Farmers Market set up just outside the school to kick off its first season, and some vendors were sold out almost immediately. Donna Riddle brought fresh local produce from Seven Springs Farm, and Allen Beeler had plants and hanging baskets to sell from BeeGreen Nursery.
Blacksmiths Fritz Voss and Kelvin Ryder, who won the Demonstration Award, exhibited their craft on the lawn using a portable forge that drew people back outdoors frequently during the day. Artist Shirley Keaton won the Item of Distinction Award for her painting titled “Copper and Onions,” and Lori Potts won the People’s Choice Award for her jewelry booth. There were two drawings for door prizes, and these were won by Edith Kitts and Justin Brown. To page A-3
Toppins steps down as union leader
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artist and face painter Zach Richardson on his toes early in the day. Musical entertainment for the event was presented by local talents Jared Graves and New Union Grass, and Union County High School student Jason Earley opened the show with original contemporary Christian music. Earley also had a booth in the festival featuring his music, artwork and T-shirt designs. Mean Mary drove from Nashville that morning in the bad weather to bring her own style of blues and bluegrass. Mean Mary has been singing since she was 5 years old and cur-
Maryann Sartini spins wool at her Art in the Park booth. The event, driven indoors by rainy weather, hosted a plethora of artists and vendors, along with live musical entertainment. SEE MORE PHOTOS ON PAGE A-3.
By Cindy Taylor Marilyn Toppins announced her decision to step down as president of the Union County Education Association, also known as the teachers union, at the April 14 school board meeting. “It’s been a long year, and it’s still not over,” said Toppins. “I know that all of you have worked very hard and diligently, and the budget is about to be upon us. On a personal note, I have served now as president for three years. It has been an adventure. It has had its exciting times as well as times that have been challenging. I have enjoyed working with you, and if this sounds like a swan song speech, it is. I will be finishing up in May, and by May or June you will have a new president standing before you. The association stands ready to work with you, and I thank you.” Chuck Grant has become a familiar face at Union County school
board meetings, and he brought more change orders for review at the April 14 meeting, change orders that totaled more than $100,000 between Luttrell, Sharps Chapel and Big Ridge Elementary renovations and the building of the new school at Paulette. Some of these change orders fall under the umbrella of items that should have been caught by the architects Michael Brady and Associates and totaled $6,500 of the nearly $100,000. The board voted to approve all items requested except for the $6,500 and will review that amount further. No new money will be needed, as the existing contingency fund still has enough left to cover all these additional costs. Board members and Director of Schools Wayne Goforth were still not happy about the additional funds being used, and Goforth explained part of the reason this had happened. “The three addition projects at Big Ridge, Luttrell and Sharps Chapel Elementary Schools were ex-
Marilyn Toppins steps down as president of the Union County Education Association, the teachers union. Photo by C. Taylor
pected to occur concurrently. The Sharps Chapel project received approval first, and construction began. It was expected that approval would be as readily received for the
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Big Ridge and Luttrell projects, but this did not occur,” said Goforth. “There were delays at the state level in receiving approval from the fire marshal. I had to appeal to state Sen. Mike Faulk for assistance in getting action from the state fire marshal. Then, further delay was encountered when the local fire chiefs in Luttrell and Plainview had reservations about approving the projects due to former fires, the location of fire hydrants, etc. The builder D & S Construction requested additional general conditions reimbursements for the project delays caused by the delay in receiving fire marshal permits.” One attendee at the board meeting was heard to comment that going through the change orders each month had taken as much time as building the new school. In an effort to stay ahead of cost overruns, change orders and punch lists, the board has planned a special called meeting April 28 at Luttrell to review the punch list for that school.
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