GOVERNMENT/POLITICS A4 | OUR COLUMNISTS A6-7 | YOUR NEIGHBORHOOD SCHOOLS A9 | HEALTH & LIFESTYLES SECTION B | BUSINESS SECTION C
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VOL. 5, NO. 21
MAY 23, 2011
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Farragut seniors earn Optimist scholarships
Ride the wave at Wild Wings
Farragut seniors Cassaundra Hoplite, Conner Taylor and Whitney Kubega recently received $1,000 scholarships from the Cedar Bluff Farragut Optimist Club.
Town MPC discusses possible coming attraction to local restaurant
Photo by N. Lester
See Natalie Lester’s story on A3 for more details.
Hardin Valley Academy football team tackles tornado debris By Valorie Fister For the Hardin Valley Academy football team and its friends and coaches, a Saturday cleanup trip to tornado-devastated Greene County turned out to be a team-building experience unlike any other. “It was something I don’t think you can put into words, the experience itself,” said HVA football coach Wes Jones. “When we got to ground zero, so to speak, you could hear a pin drop in the bus. You see pictures on the news and on Facebook, but nothing puts it into perspective.” Jones and his group of 55 football players and adults recently volunteered to travel the 1 1/2-hour journey to the county where homes were leveled and residents’ lives were lost in April’s string of historic and unprecedented tornado touchdowns. Tornados tore through the South, leveling entire communities in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia, Tennessee and Virginia. The tornado
Rachel and Andrew’s love story Jake Mabe tours The Hermitage See page A-6
FEATURED COLUMNIST LARRY VAN GUILDER
It’s a numbers game … See Larry’s column on page A-4
ONLINE
HVA Football Coach Wes Jones stands with Greene County resident Gladys Morgan and HVA football players Thomas Echols and Jacob Gallaher. The football team cleared Morgan's yard which was full of tornado debris from neighbor's houses.
HVA Assistant Football Coach Rudy Furman leads his group of football players including Xavier Dumay and Chris Thomas who are next to Furman, as other teammates including Jordan Jackson stand by for back up. Photos courtesy of Richard Bettis, West Knox Rotary Club
that knocked homes off their foundations and splintered trees in Greene County was an EF3. Both Jones and friend Richard Bettis, a SunTrust Bank assistant vice president and member of the West Knox Rotary Club, grew up in Greene County. After talking with family who still live there, they decided to sponsor the trip to help clean yards of debris. In one week’s time, the trip
And food snacks were donated by SunTrust Bank. “I hadn’t even been back home since all this craziness,” Bettis said. “It was a really bad deal.” Students worked in five teams, each with a coach, to clear a blueberry farm littered with trees and the yard of an elderly woman named Gladys Morgan. “We worked about six hours on the farm and put a little bit of a dent in it,” Jones
was organized. “The sad part is so many people there have very low income,” Jones said. “They really need help. I feel that in a couple of weeks, after the newness wears off, there won’t be as much help for them. I hope it doesn’t happen that way. Bettis said a bus was donated by Russell Ooten of Greene Coach Tours. Work gloves were donated by Walmart at Walker Springs.
said. “The little lady’s house we cleaned up. Bless her heart, she had no power (the night of the storms) and couldn’t find the basement.” Jones said the football players were in awe of how rural an area Greene County is. “Many have never been back into that area,” he said. “We were at the foot of the mountains of the Cherokee National Forest. They were mesmerized by the beauty
To page A-3
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Broyles intends to propose a 3 By Larry Van Guilder It’s no secret that Knox County percent across-the-board pay increase for county Mayor Tim Burchett’s proposed employees in the budget, notable for its austerity, current budget has not been met with universal with a property acclaim. That was dramatically iltax increase to follustrated when dozens of black and low for FY 2013. If a tax increase translates to a pay raise, that’s reason enough for KCSO white residents turned out at last McCord employees and othweek’s County Commission workshop to oppose a 92 percent reduc- er county workers to support it. But more than purely selfish motion in county funding for the Beck tives were evident as the discussion Cultural Center. A more surprising reaction to passed between the commissioners the budget came two days later at and their audience last Wednesday. a community meeting called by Reflecting on the dozen years that 2nd District Commissioner Amy have passed since the last property Broyles and 1st District Commis- tax increase, KCSO employee Jeresioner Sam McKenzie. Nearly all my McCord said, “At some point taxwho attended were Knox Coun- es are going to have to go up. … We’re ty Sheriff’s Office employees or not a parish in Louisiana which has spouses of employees. Some char- no money. This old Ross Perot theory acterized the mayor’s lean budget of no new taxes (doesn’t work.)” McKenzie agreed. “We’re going as a response to a “manufactured crisis,” and none opposed the idea to have to start talking about our revenue,” he said. of a property tax increase.
Analysis
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Broyles’ assessment of the proposed budget cut to the heart of what is shaping up as a cultural clash before the budget comes to a vote on June 13: “Our administration is trying to sell a financial crisis that isn’t there.” Burchett strongly disagrees. Months ago the administration began spreading the word that the county was facing a $3 million shortfall. To meet the challenge, unfilled positions will remain vacant, a few employees will be terminated, and the mayor has proposed sizeable cuts in community grants and contracted services. None of these moves should surprise. Burchett’s campaign stressed his belief in small government – the smaller the better. At the same time, contracting with the Hope Resource Center, which provides counseling for unplanned pregnancies and opposes abortion, is consistent with the conservative principles of the mayor and his base. Pushing through any substantive changes to the proposed bud-
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Commissioner Sam McKenzie get will be a challenge. Broyles and McKenzie may gain a couple of allies before June 13, but if the vote divides along city/county lines, which seems as likely as any other outcome, they can’t count enough noses. The mayor’s constituency lies outside the inner city districts, and Burchett’s years in Nashville taught him how to assess the prevailing political winds. McKenzie summed up and framed the question for those who oppose this budget: “Does the mayor have six votes already?”