HALLS/FOUNTAIN CITY Shopper news • OCTOBER 7, 2013 • A-3
Gibbs mad about middle school Commissioner Dave Wright will hold a meeting 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 8, at Henry’s Deli and Bakery on Tazewell Pike to encourage community support for a new Gibbs Middle School.
Jake Mabe MY TWO CENTS Wright has been holding a series of meetings on the issue. Last Tuesday, he spoke to roughly 25 people for more than an hour at Henry’s. School board member Mike McMillan was also present. “This is the most important thing that is going to happen while I am on the Knox County Commission,” Wright says. Wright is encouraging all interested parties to attend Knox County Schools’ Insight Session meeting 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, at Halls Elementary School, or one at 6 p.m. tonight (Monday, Oct. 7), at Carter Middle School. “If we don’t give community input into the (superintendent’s) next 5-year plan, if (building) a new Gibbs Middle School is not brought up, it won’t be brought up again (for five years).” Gibbs Middle School was closed in 1991. Currently, students who attend Gibbs Elementary attend Holston Middle School before attending Gibbs High. ■
Dave Wright
Photos by Jake Mabe
Sandra years ago at a church. Our friendship took flight whenever he’d stop by the old Shopper office from time to time. We like baseball. We’re Republicans. We like classic rock and classic country. We like Lincoln automobiles. (The difference is he can afford them and I can only afford to dream about them.) I found out last week we both love trains. David called to say he enjoyed an article I wrote about Jimmie Rodgers music, trains and hobos. “Meet me at your office,” he said. Up he pulls in a charcoal gray (my Camry’s color) 2012 Lincoln MK2. I’m already drooling. He takes me for a ride. He shows me his THX music system. We both say we’re incredulous that Gene Watson hasn’t been inducted into the Country Music
Brothers from different mothers
David Marshall and I have to be related. We may be separated by just more than 30 years, but I call him my brother from a different mother. I met David and wife David Marshall
Busting up
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Tressa Graves releases new book
A few years ago, I told you about Halls novelist Tressa Graves, who specializes in mysteries of the macabre. Graves has released a new book, “The Sawgrass Footpath.” “It’s about a doctor who leaves Virginia and moves to Tampa, Fla., after his mom and dad are brutally murdered,” Graves says. “”It turns out that the house he buys has a cult thing going on (in it) and the man who owned it before was the doctor he is replacing, who was also murdered.” She says the book is age
appropriate for adults 18 and older and includes some adult language. It is currently available in e-book form for $8.50 at Graves’ website (www. tressagraves.com) or at Amazon.com. Graves says the book can be downloaded to any computer because it is an Adobe file, so one does not need to own an e-reader to buy it. A sample chapter is available at the website. Those who purchase her book through her website will also receive a free ecopy of her new short story, “Rachel’s Widow.” “That (the short story) is the most enjoyable writing I’ve ever done. The story takes you into another world.” Graves says the novel will be released in paperbound form at a later date and that plans are already in the works for a sequel. Graves has embraced social media. She interacts with readers on her Facebook page and her website. She also received a certificate of appreciation from the second annual Warrior Transition Battalion (Wounded Warriors) Run, held April 11 in El Paso, Texas. It’s a group to which she contributes in part because of one of her readers, Darrell G. Mond. She is also asking fans to create a YouTube video and upload it to her website telling her how they enjoy the book. The winner will receive an autographed copy. About as close as I usually get to this genre is the tame 1960s ABC-TV daytime drama “Dark Shadows,” Alfred Hitchcock movies or a few Stephen King novels. But, I
Tressa Graves Photos submitted
Tressa Graves’ book cover
have to tell you that Tressa’s book has me on the edge of my seat, heart pumping, pulse pounding, waiting to see what happens next. “When it comes to scaring people, I think I know what I’m doing.”
Graves can be contacted through her agent, Derek Spratley, at dlspratley@ aol.com or through manager Sam Hamilton at wfg hamilton@gmail.com. “Pull Up A Chair” with Jake Mabe at jakemabe.blogspot.com.
National Night Out! Elijah Elliott gets into the spirit of things during National Night Out at Stewart Ridge subdivision in Halls last week. Photo by Faye Heydasch
Beaver Brook Nine Hole golf group Beaver Brook Nine Hole women’s golf group results for Play with the Pros are: (tie for first) Shirley Spignardo, Joan Funkhouser, Louise Nelson and Karen
Brown; and Susie Schneider, Beverly Dunbar, Susan LeCoultre, Carol McGhee and Nicole Workman. Both teams scored 62.
Smith wages war on signs By Sandra Clark
From page A-1
adjacent to the Holloways’ property, said he had spotted a debris jam in Beaver Creek. “I can’t tell you how many people at the county I talked to. But they kept saying, ‘It’s not our problem, it’s the property owners’ problem,’” Bonnie Holloway said. Finally, after talking with Shopper-News editor Sandra Clark, Holloway attended the Halls B&P meeting and spoke with Arthur, who said he would talk to Van de Vate. “Dwight called back. He was very nice and made an appointment for Heath Haun
Hall of Fame. When we get to lunch (we both said “Arby’s” at the same time), he hands me the latest copy of Trains magazine and two DVDs, one about two Norfolk & Western engines, the other about the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad. “I can’t believe we’ve never talked about trains before.” David is a Coast Guard veteran who served in Vietnam. He’s “a former Buckeye” who loves the Cincinnati Reds but says Knox County is the best place he’s ever lived. When we arrive at the office, he thanks me and says he’ll have me out to his house on my day off. Just as I am getting out of the car, Watson’s “14 Carat Mind” comes on David’s player. “That’s the perfect ending,” David says. I just shake my head. Brothers from different mothers, that’s us.
and him to (visit) Aug. 28.” Haun navigated the creek, Holloway says, and found more than 40 jams, five of which were large enough to cause flooding. “Three of the five were in the back part of Fountaincrest.” Haun had smaller crews with chainsaws working at the site. Holloway said that helped the water recede in 24 hours during the last major rain. The big equipment arrived last week. Holloway says so far, so good. “I think it will at least get it down to a tolerable level.”
Commissioner R. Larry Smith has carried his war on the furniture store formerly known as Mynatt’s to the county’s law department. He told residents last week the store “has until Nov. 27 to close for good.” Smith has personally removed the store’s sale signs from highway rights-of-way and said “it’s the biggest complaint I get.” Smith was at the Halls Senior Center with representatives from the Sheriff’s Office and several county departments. Doug Bataille, director of Parks and Recreation, said progress on Clayton Park in Halls has been slow because his department and Public Works are doing the work in-house. “The rough grading is almost finished,” he said. The county will finish a
driveway into the park and build a picnic pavilion and restrooms. Bataille confirmed that Knox County Schools owns the tennis courts on Andersonville Pike. He said Schumpert Park will get a full disc golf course with “another nine holes built into the woods.” Captain Bobby Hubbs of the Sheriff’s Office said residential car burglaries are “hot” as thieves target unlocked vehicles to steal GPS devices. “They will walk into an open garage to steal trimmers or chain saws,” he said. “Leave those garage doors down.” Jim Snowden, deputy director of Engineering and Public Works, said Knox County is currently acquiring right-of-way for the Halls Connector, which will add lanes on Norris Freeway and revamp Maynard-
Knox County Commissioner R. Larry Smith (center) talks with Erica Spires and Gary Watson during Smith’s public forum at the Halls Senior Center. Photo by S. Clark ville Pike from Doris Circle to Emory Road. “Hopefully, we can start construction this time next year,” he said. Knox County is expecting the state to fund construction. Maynardville Highway
from Halls to the Union County line will be widened to five lanes, and Snowden expects those bids to be let soon with construction to start next spring. “This is a $10- to $12-million project,” he said, also state-funded.
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