VOL. 9 NO. 38
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September 23, 2015
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BUZZ Free Flu Shots Free Flu Shot Saturday is 8 a.m. to noon (while supplies last) Sept. 26 at six schools: Austin-East, Carter High, Farragut High, Halls High, South-Doyle Middle and West High. Donations will be accepted with proceeds to benefit the Empty Stocking Fund which provides food and toys to disadvantaged East Tennesseans during the holidays. Info: 865-342-6871.
Fox Den For the Cure is in the pink The fall is very pink at Fox Den Country Club. The community has embraced the fight against breast cancer. Last year, eight events brought in approximately $67,000, with only four percent used for expenses. Still to come are the Tennis Volley For a Cure, Spin For a Cure, Men’s Golf Challenges and Junior Tennis Pro-Am, all on Sept. 26; and Neighborhood Walk For a Cure on Oct. 26.
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Read Sherri Gardner Howell on A-3
Frost on baseball Baseball has been very, very good to Rob Frost. Before he was on City Council, or a lawyer or a father, he was a fan. He played Little League for Rodgers Cadillac against teams like National Plastics and Copper Cellar in the Knoxville Youth Sports league. Vance Link was the commissioner; Jimmy Haslam was his coach. He has passed his Sequoyah All-Stars jersey down to his older son, Sonny.
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Read Betty Bean on page A-5
Mobile meals She’s only 17, but she’s the boss. Allie Mobley’s crew at First Farragut United Methodist Church is considerably older than she is – old enough to be her parents and grandparents. Allie, a senior at Farragut High School, has been coordinating the cooking, boxing and delivering of about 25 meals one Saturday a month for the last year.
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Read Carolyn Evans on page A-7
By B y Car Carolyn olyn l Evans Evans The season-opening play at the Clarence Brown Theatre is a hilarious high-speed spoof of an Alfred Hitchcock silver-screen classic. While the audience is laughing their heads off at “The 39 Steps,” Bill Black may be biting his nails. Black, who lives in Farragut, is a costume designer and is responsible for about 30 costumes for the spy thriller that’s playing tonight through Sept. 27 on the University of Tennessee campus. “This play involves fast costume changes,” Black says. “There are four actors in the play and two guys play about 50 characters. They’re constantly changing clothes. Sometimes they are a policeman or a milkman or a train conductor … even a woman.” The veteran costume designer said crafting the right costume has to take into account how quickly the actors need to change. “The costumes are made in tricky ways to change really fast, and the design has to take in quick fastenings,” he says. “Most of the Farragut’s Bill Black, costume designer and University of Tennessee professor, holds the hem of a costume he de- costume changes are offstage, but signed for “The 39 Steps,” the season-opening play at the Clarence Brown Theatre. In front of him is his sketch of the costume. Photo submitted To page A-3
Elderly housing and CLUP discussed at MPC By Wendy Smith A puzzle over whether an assisted living facility is residential, institutional or commercial adds a new wrinkle to the town’s efforts to clarify, and adhere to, its land use plan. Peter Falk, developer of two other local Autumn Care assisting living facilities, seeks to build a 40-unit facility on the 4.5-acre parcel at the southeast corner of Campbell Station and Herron Roads. The property is zoned R-2 (single family residential). The Municipal Planning Commission (MPC) opened the floor for discussion of the proposal at last week’s meeting. Property owner Jim Herron says the parcel has been for sale for 22 years. He’s received a number of calls from developers, but none has wanted to build single
Business and government leaders from across the state were wowed by the 3D printing and other manufacturing innovations available in the megalab at the Strawberry Plains campus of Pellissippi State Community College.
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Read Sandra Clark on page A-11
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about safety to pedestrians due to increased traffic on Campbell Station and the “slippery slope” of allowing commercial development in an area that has long been residential and institutional. Yong Bradley, another Cottage Creek resident, said a commercial use shouldn’t be permitted in the area, even if it’s attractive. The next developer might argue that an attractive oil change place should be allowed, he said. “It’s commercialization of the corridor, period.” Herron family member Elmer Parlier provided renderings of the proposed facility along with renderings of what the site might look like if developed with singlefamily homes that backed up to Ken Shipley of Sweet Briar subdiviCampbell Station. An attractive sion speaks in favor of a proposed assisted living facility at Herron Road. To page A-3 Photo by Wendy Smith
Burritt hiring signals shift in direction for PBA By Betty Bean
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family homes. Commissioners expressed more openness to the idea of an assisted living facility on the site than when it was discussed at the May MPC meeting. At that time, commissioners were inclined to protect Campbell Station Road south of Grigsby Chapel Road as a gateway to Farragut. Assisted living facilities currently require R-6 (multi-family residential) zoning, which has a 5-acre minimum lot size. Commissioners discussed creating a new zoning district specifically for elderly housing when a similar facility on Grigsby Chapel Road was proposed last year. A residence, a retaining pond and green space separate Cottage Creek subdivision from the proposed site. Cottage Creek resident Bill Tuller expressed concern
Last week, Public Building Authority board members decided to demonstrate an abundance of caution and wait a few weeks before appointing Jayne Burritt president and CEO. Instead, they voted to vote when they meet again in the regularly scheduled October meeting. Burritt’s name is the only one under consideration. Burritt, PBA’s director of property management, is well liked by board members and by both Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett and Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero. If appointed, she will fill the position Dale Smith is scheduled to vacate Jan. 1. The announcement that the PBA board will forgo a national search raised some eyebrows. Board member Lewis Cosby said it shouldn’t. “We only have two clients – the city and the county, and when we
started this process, both our clients said she was at the top of their list,” Cosby said. He gave little credence to the brief kerfuffle over Burritt’s authorization of surveillance cameras in the City County Building. “I don’t think there’s anything Jayne Burritt to that,” said Cosby, pointing out that PBA met the legal requirement of posting notification of the surveillance. Burritt, a native of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, came to PBA from First Tennessee Bank in 2008 and has had 23 years of experience in property management. PBA sources say she came with a strong recommendation from Larry Martin, former chief operating officer of First Tennessee Financial Services and now commissioner of
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Finance and Administration for Gov. Bill Haslam. Her selection for the top job has led some observers to conclude that PBA is getting out of the construction business in the wake of PBA property development director Jeff Galyon’s abrupt resignation after running afoul of conflict-of-interest laws. “There’s some truth to that,” Burritt said. “I think we have to regain our clients’ trust. The city has some concerns, and we want to rebuild that department (property development) if need be.” PBA still has some $30 million worth of building projects – mostly for the city – in the pipeline. When she is appointed, Burritt will become the fourth president of the PBA, which was created in 1971 for the purpose of building the City County Building and structuring an arrangement under which both city and county governments
would be co-equal tenants. The county uses more space, but the two bodies have equal status. Outgoing CEO Smith, who has held the job for nearly 16 years and draws a $196,000 annual salary, said he is delighted with the choice of Burritt as his successor. “It sends a huge, positive signal to our employees,” he said. “People don’t know where they stand when a new boss is hired.” Smith said his major charge when he came to Knoxville was to navigate feuding city and county factions. The two sides get along better now, but he said there are still “built-in conflicts with the two mayors. Sometimes our job is to tell them no.” Once Burritt takes over, PBA will be run by a triumvirate of women that will include finance director Robyn Smith and Susan Davis, acting director of property management.
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