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VOL. 7 NO. 39
IN THIS ISSUE
September 29, 2012
Morgan is 2012 Dulcimer Champion Sarah Morgan works out a soothing dulcimer tune at her home in Sharps Chapel.
Best of Union County 2012
Director of Schools Wayne Goforth with wife Linda and attorney Herbert Moncier following the school board’s vote to reinstate him. Photo by B. Bean
Photo by C. Taylor
Vote for your favorites! See official ballot inside this week’s Shopper-News, pages 6-7.
Wayne’s back
Coffee Break Shane Brown has been the athletic director and head boys basketball coach at Union County High School for four years. He’s from a basketball state, Indiana, and says he’s proud of his family, his team and his hometown. Grab a cup of coffee and get to know Shane Brown.
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School board reinstates Goforth By Betty Bean
See Coffee Break on page 2
Looking for CFO By mid-November, Union County should be boasting a new position in county government. The commission has approved centralized accounting to include the highway department and the school system. Work is underway by a committee of seven to get a job description finalized and out to local papers.
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See Cindy Taylor’s story on page 4
Basketball at Sharps Chapel This week’s school visit is to Sharps Chapel where principal Bryan Shoffner and his leadership team are chugging along. The county’s elementary school basketball season starts this week with games each evening at Sharps Chapel.
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By Cindy Taylor With a list of awards already to her credit, Sarah Morgan recently received another that is much coveted. This month she was selected as the 2012 National Mountain Dulcimer Champion at the Walnut Valley Festival National Championships. The evenFlatpickingt was held in Winfield, Kan., and has been recognized as the top bluegrass event in the world. The 18-year-old high school senior began playing the dulcimer at age 7 on an instrument her grandfather built. “I tried to teach myself but didn’t make much progress,” said Morgan. “We found a wonderful dulcimer teacher in Knoxville, June Goforth, and I took lessons from her until I was 12.” Out of the 19 people competing at the festival, four were past national champions, four others had at one time received second place at the nationals, and two had at one time received third. “I was so shocked when I won,” said Morgan. “It was pretty competitive and pretty nerve racking. But still, it was a lot of fun. My goal was just to make it to the final round.”
Morgan says she enjoys many styles of music but folk is her favorite. Some of her musicians of choice are Pete Seeger, Judy Collins, Joan Baez, and Peter, Paul and Mary. Morgan’s own voice is reminiscent of a young Judy Collins. “Even if I had not won, I would have had a blast,” said Morgan. “And it would still have been worth the 12-hour drive.” She says her plans lean toward a career in music. Morgan is considering a major in either traditional music or Appalachian studies at Morehead State University, but the music business is also an option. Her first album, “Simply Sarah,” was released in 2010 and Morgan is currently working on her second album, “Run to the Window,” which is due out in October. To find out more about Sarah or to purchase her music, go to www.sarahmorganmusic.webs.com. To hear and see Morgan live, check out the Great American Dulcimer Convention in Pine Mountain, Ky., Sept. 28-29 and the Union County Heritage Festival on Oct. 6.
See Sandra Clark’s story on page 4
Index Coffee Break Community Government/Politics Marvin West/Lynn Hutton Best of Union County Down-home Update Kids Calendar
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4509 Doris Circle 37918 (865) 922-4136 news@ShopperNewsNow.com ads@ShopperNewsNow.com GENERAL MANAGER Shannon Carey shannon@ShopperNewsNow.com EDITOR Sandra Clark sclark426@aol.com UNION COUNTY REPORTER Cindy Taylor brentcindyt@gmail.com ADVERTISING SALES Brandi Davis davisb@ShopperNewsNow.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.
Helping others heal By Cindy Taylor Judy Gray now has lived five years as a breast cancer survivor. After Judy underwent a mastectomy, Jan Harness, also a breast cancer survivor, gave her a small heartshaped pillow to place under her arm to help with the pain. This was such a blessing to Judy that she was inspired to find a way to help other women diagnosed with the disease. “The pillow fits underneath my arm and helped me so much by taking the pressure off,” said Gray. “The Lord put it on my heart to provide this blessing to others, but I wasn’t quite sure how to begin.” Gray found out that in her small church, Irwins Chapel UMC, there were at least four other women who had been diagnosed with breast cancer. This is a huge percentage in a church that has an average attendance of 50. She made an announcement one Sunday that she would like to start a pillow ministry, and to her shock 10 women showed up for the first meeting. Gray had only bought 1 yard of material thinking that
would be all that was needed. It was used very quickly. She then bought 7 yards of material and the group went through that as well. On one of her trips to UT Medical Center for treatment, Gray visited the boutique. Betty Collins, who runs the boutique, asked if the group might consider making the pillows to give to others who had undergone breast surgery. As the ministry continued to grow so did Gray’s cost. She was now buying entire bolts of cloth. “We are just a small church and I wasn’t sure how we were going to support this ministry,” said Gray. “Donations started coming in and we knew God wanted us to do this.” The group has grown in number and today most of the women in the church participate. To date they have made 990 pillows, all of which are given free of charge to any who requests them. The women get together and cut, sew To page A-3
After four votes and two hours, the school board decided that Union County Director of Schools Wayne Goforth had made them an offer they couldn’t refuse – half of it, anyway. The only agenda item at Monday’s special called meeting was what to do about Goforth, who has been on paid administrative leave since November. Tennessee’s Open Meetings law requires such deals to be deliberated in public. First, board attorney Mary Ann Stackhouse reported Goforth’s two-part settlement offer: to be reinstated to work out the balance of his contract (until June 2012); and for the county to pay his lawyer $15,000. Goforth has been drawing monthly payments based on his $86,000 annual salary, pending a hearing before state administrative judge Kim Summers on an array of charges including bouncing checks for $500,000. Goforth’s attorney, Herb Moncier, blames county commission for not adequately funding the school system and the county mayor for not timely submitting a document to the state comptroller that would have covered the checks, most of which were related to opening Paulette Elementary School. Stackhouse advised her clients that proceeding would be expensive, and that they were unlikely to prevail. “There is a substantial likelihood that the administrative law judge may say that so many of the charges were things the board had approved by vote, or was aware of,” Stackhouse said, predicting that the judge would say, “You guys cannot get along, but I find there was no cause to terminate the contract. Therefore, while I may not require you to take (Wayne) Goforth back, I will allow you to pay out his contract.” Stackhouse told her clients that state law doesn’t require them to pay Goforth’s attorney, but said that the judge could order them to do so. Union County would also foot the bill for the Nashville-based administrative judge’s fees and expenses. Moncier, whose hourly rate is $350, said that $15,000 amounts to about a third of the tab he has already rung up. Stackhouse said, “I am very aware of how strapped Union County is, and I have been careful to not to cost you unnecessary expenses.” After considering options like buying out Goforth’s contract or reinstating him and paying attorney fees, Brad Griffey moved to put Goforth back to work under the oversight of board chair David Coppock. Brian Oaks, Gerald Smith and Marty Gibbs joined Griffey on the prevailing side. Coppock, Danny Wayne Collins and Bill Sexton voted against reinstating Goforth. A separate lawsuit against the four board members who voted to fire Goforth (Coppock, Sexton, Collins and former member Don Morgan) was not part of the offer, and will proceed.
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