Halls/Fountain City Shopper-News 060315

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VOL. 54 NO. 22

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BUZZ New bridge for Holbrook Drive City of Knoxville contractors have begun work on the Holbrook Drive Bridge Replacement Project in Fountain City. The work consists of removing and replacing the existing bridge on Holbrook Drive over Fountain Road, near the First Baptist Church of Fountain City. The project is expected to take 10 months. Road closures at Holbrook Drive and Fountain Road will be in effect for the duration. To detour around the project, from Fountain City Lake take Midlake to right on Kingwood to right on Dahlia Drive. The funding for the almost $2 million project is 80 percent federal ($1,514,111.52),16 percent state ($302,822.31) and 4 percent city ($75,705.58).

Fountain City Lake update Work continues on Fountain City Lake, but city officials say there won’t be any publicly noticeable changes for a while. “The lake level will be up and down several more times heading into fall,” said Eric Vreeland, communications manager. “It was drained last fall while the earthen weir was repaired, and then again six weeks or so ago, when the environmental engineer, Lamar Dunn, measured the topography of the lake floor. “The lake refilled, then was lowered again, as a shear gate valve was installed to fi x the weir mechanisms. Then it refilled in time for the Fountain City Day festival.” Vreeland said future drawdowns will occur when piping is added for an aeration system, for grading to adjust the lake’s depth in spots, and finally for planting new vegetation for the carefully-designed ecosystem. “So people who use the lake should anticipate two to three more drawdowns before the corrective plan is finalized, with the aim being a betterfunctioning and sustainable ecosystem with much less algae.”

Budget hearing Knox County Commission has set a budget hearing for 6 p.m. Monday, June 8, at the City County Building. Residents are invited to attend and speak. Mayor Tim Burchett has submitted a balanced budget that does not require a tax increase yet offers a three percent pay increase to general government employees and deputies.

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Fountain City Man and Woman of the Year Johnson, Whittaker honored by Town Hall By Shannon Carey Fountain City Town Hall honored two longtime community members May 25 at the annual Honor Fountain City Day event. Hardy Johnson and Mary Ellen Whittaker were named Man and Woman of the Year for 2015. Born and raised in Fountain City, Johnson is a third-generation shoe-repair expert. He went to work full time when he was in the eighth grade, pausing only to serve in the Korean War starting in 1951. He still owns and operates the Shoe Repair Shop in Fountain City. Whittaker is a 51-year resident of Fountain City. While raising four children, she held many jobs, volunteered in the PTA and was active in her church, Fountain City United Methodist. She is a past president of the Fontinalis Club. She now has nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren. Also honored were David and Lori Hensley for residential beautification and Planet Fitness for commercial beautification. City Council member Nick Della Volpe was named Friend of Fountain City, and Church of the Good

Fountain City Man and Woman of the Year for 2015 are Hardy Johnson of the Shoe Repair Shop and former Fontinalis president Mary Ellen Whittaker. Photos by S. Carey Shepherd received the Chairman’s Award for allowing Fountain City Town Hall to meet in its fellowship hall for more than 10 years. The Memorial Day event was a celebration of 40 years of Honor

Fountain City Day. Food vendors, crafters, musical acts and special activities were available all day in Fountain City Park. Special presentations honoring the community and veterans started

at 3 p.m. “Communities like this are what makes Knox County a great place to live,” said Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett, the keynote speaker.

Community Design Center begins 1,000th project By Wendy Smith East Tennessee Community Design Center Executive Director Wayne Blasius is still new to the job, but he was the first to recognize that the organization had reached an important milestone. The nonprofit reBruce McCarty cently took on its 1,000th project. “I thought it was a great opportunity to blow our horn,” he says. The project is for First Tee of Greater Knoxville, a nonprofit foundation that helps young people develop values like honesty, integrity and sportsmanship through golf. The organization plans to use a grant from the United Way to improve its Williams Creek Golf Course facility, 2351 Dandridge Ave. The design center, located in the Greystone Carriage House at

1300 N. Broadway, utilizes volunteer design professionals, and it was a happy coincidence that David Collins of McCarty Holsaple McCarty Architects and Interior Designers was next in line for a project. Bruce McCarty, a founder of McCarty Holsaple McCarty, was also the founder of ETCDC. McCarty, whose design legacy includes the 1982 World’s Fair, the City County Building and several buildings on the University of Tennessee campus, raised his family in the Bearden area. He was president of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects when he took a road trip to visit community design centers in the Northeast in 1969. His sons and another local architect tagged along. Doug McCarty, the current president of McCarty Holsaple McCarty, was 16 at the time. The group met with the executive director of the Philadelphia design center, who explained the process of engaging design pro-

fessionals to help the community. His dad thought it was a great idea, Doug says. After the trip, he initiated the development of Knoxville’s community design center and served on the board for most of the following decade. Doug joined the board around 1982 and recently became an emeritus board member. The mission of the organization is to make East Tennessee a better place to live and work by providing professional design services to community groups and nonprofit organizations. Concept designs created by the ETCDC are used for fundraising and community buy-in, says studio design director Leslie Fawaz. The work for First Tee of Greater Knoxville will include an improved layout for the existing building, which was originally an African-American school for the deaf, as well as the design of a new pavilion and new signage. Fawaz is one of six ETCDC staff

members. The variety of projects is one of the things she enjoys most about her work. The most common are building design, streetscape design and park planning. Another function of the design center is to help communities express their ideas about design. Doug McCarty is especially proud of the role the organization played in the development of the South Knoxville waterfront. The city needed an independent agency to facilitate good communication with affected neighborhoods, and the design center stepped in. Former Executive Director Annette Anderson was successful in that role, he says. “The design center is very good at getting people to sit down at the table and work out problems together.” Bruce McCarty passed away in 2013 at the age of 92. There’s no question that the organization fulfilled his dad’s hopes, Doug McCarty says.

Outspoken teacher gets walking papers; supporters charge retaliation

By Betty Bean Delivering the news to nontenured teachers that they’re not coming back in the fall is one of the last tasks on a principal’s endof-year to-do list. June 15 is the deadline to inform teachers whose contracts will not be renewed. By the end of last week, 33 nontenured teachers had gotten the ax. Fifty-five such contracts were not renewed last year. This number doesn’t include outright firings, retirements, resignations or those who lose their jobs due to funding cuts, nor does it reflect administrative transfers. Nontenured teachers have no appeal rights. The nonrenewal of Christina

Graham, a third-year, nontenured kindergarten teacher at Copper Ridge Elementary School, has not only roiled the rural community where she teaches but is drawing statewide attention because Graham is an outspoken critic of overreliance on high-stakes testing, especially the SAT-10, an achievement test recommended, but not required, by the state for kindergartners through third grade, which Knox County has now discontinued. Christina Graham Allegations of retaliation do not come from Graham herself but from parents, colleagues and sup- renew Graham’s contract and by porters who are upset by principal her method of informing Graham Kathy Castenir’s decision not to – out of the blue, and on the last A subsidiary of RIGGS DRUG STORE

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day teachers were required to report to school. Graham’s supporters object to Castenir’s ordering Graham to clear out her room and turn in her keys by the end of the day. Graham’s colleagues pitched in to help her pack up the contents of her classroom, much of which she’d bought last year with the proceeds from a summer job at Hobby Lobby. Teachers across Knox County and the state are using Graham’s picture on their Facebook pages to show solidarity, and they are angry because Graham’s evaluation To page A-3

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