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ISSUE 35 VOLUME 25
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FARRAGUT, TENNESSEE
THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2013
Mayor ends in-home gun ordinance talk ■
STEPHANIE EDWARDS Correspondent
Town of Farragut Mayor Ralph McGill proposed a straw vote during the April 25 Farragut Board of the Mayor and Aldermen meeting to decide whether town staff should form an ordinance requiring households to keep a gun. “A citizen’s proposal stirred all this up, and it would require all households in Farragut to have a gun,” McGill said. “I
believe the federal government has no authority to tell people you must to buy health insurance. I also believe we have no authority to tell people you must buy a gun. All the talk about the benefit for the McGill town, I don’t believe.” McGill and Alder-men Jeff Elliott, Ron
Honken and Dot LaMarche voted no. Alderman Bob Markli voted yes. “That’s four to one,” McGill said. “That’s the end of this talk.” In other meeting news, Town engineer Darryl Smith presentMarkli ed three bids for the resurfacing of 16 roads during the next fis-
cal year. The project budget is $500,000 out of State Street Aid Funds, which are distributed by the state from fuel taxes on a per capita basis. Rogers Group, Inc. proposed the lowest bid at $410,477.17, followed by APAC-Atlantic, Inc., at $415,966.80 and Greenback Asphalt Company, Inc. at $502,138.15. Smith suggested that the BOMA approve the lowest bid in order to potentially be able to resurSee GUNS on Page 3A
Synthetic drug use by teens probed High school athlete synthetic drug use growing
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ALAN SLOAN asloan@farragutpress.com
With Metropolitan Drug Commission having trained Knox County high school and middle school health and wellness teachers about synthetic drugs within the past nine months, Hardin Valley Academy principal Sallee Reynolds expressed concern about a key step in the enforcement process. Once observing evidence that a student might be using a synthetic drug, Reynolds said, “A lot of parents will immediate go get a drug test. When I heard Karen [Pershing] say that that’s not showing up on any drug screen, we’ve got to get that worked out. “That’s a big, big concern. I’m hearing it quite a bit lately.” Reynolds hosted Pershing, MDC executive director, and Knox County Attorney General Randy Nichols for “The Synthetics Scare,” a discussion about synthetic and prescription drug abuse, especially among youth, in front of about 30 people in HVA auditorium Tuesday evening, April 23. Detecting synthetic drugs is not possible “with a urine test,” Nichols warned, “but we can find out” through a blood test. However, even with a blood test, “That’s going to be a problem, too,” because synthetic drugs “dissipate too quickly, in fact,” he said. Nichols and Pershing said they were unsure whether or not a hair follicle sample could be used to detect synthetic drug use. Pershing said synthetic marijuana is growing in popularity “especially among high school athletes ... because it does not show up on a drug test. The chemical compound is different from the natural, illegal street drug.” Pershing recalled an incident within Knox County Schools Sept. 27, 2011, when “a 15-year-old high school student was causing a disturbance ... was basically out of control. ... He attacked the officers. ... It was found he had taken an overdose of a hallucinogen.” Pershing added that she was advised, “This was a very good student, a very good kid, and had never done anything like this.” About lasting effects from synthetic drugs, “We really don’t know long-term damage,” Pershing said. “They are so new.” As for parent responses, “The fact that synthetic drugs don’t show up in a regular drug test, that’s shocking. ... It was eye-opening,” said Susan Perry, whose two children, a senior and a freshman, attend HVA. Dan Doyle, a community health teacher at Tennessee Wesleyan College School of Nursing, has two sons, the younger a junior at Bearden High School. See DRUGS on Page 5A
Alan Sloan/farragutpress
Randy Nichols, Knox County Attorney General, holds up a package of confiscated synthetic marijuana while joined by Karen Pershing, Knox County Metropolitan Drug Commission executive director, during their “Synthetics Scare” presentation at Hardin Valley Academy.
Town proposes hotel/motel tax ■
STEPHANIE EDWARDS Correspondent
Town of Farragut administrator David Smoak presented a possible new hotel/motel tax during a special Board of Mayor and Aldermen workshop Thursday, April 25. The tax would require hotels and motels within town limits to pay a three percent tax to the town. This would be in addition to the five percent Knox County hotel/motel tax. Smoak said prior to 2003, cities were not permitted to charge hotel/motel tax if the county already had a tax structure in place and vice versa. It was at this time the following exceptions were made: If the county adjacent to the city has a commercial service airport The county has a 50,000-squarefoot or larger convention center with
a hotel that is attached or adjacent The city is in a county that has a regional airport “I believe we meet steps one and two,” Smoak said. “The BOMA will need four out of five members to vote yes in order to implement. We recommend that we designate the funds to be spent on tourism, parks and capital improvement projects that would go toward economic development and get people to come to our town.” Alderman Bob Markli expressed his concern. “I hate to see the town of Farragut institute a tax,” Markli said. “We’ve always been very tax neutral/business friendly, and now we’re talking about instituting a tax for the first time I think. I wonder do we really need it, or are we taking it as an opportunity to grab money?”
During the workshop and the subsequent Board of the Mayor and Aldermen meeting, Smoak stressed that the tax would not affect Town residents, but rather visitors and the hotels/motels. “We reviewed the local hotel rates and found a range of $70 to $189,” Smoak said. “We came up with an average of 70 percent occupancy, and we would generate $460,000 over the course of a year.” Smoak pointed out that the funds collected would help replace funding as the Hall Income Tax continues to decrease in the coming years, which will eventually be eliminated. The first reading of the proposed hotel/motel tax passed the BOMA vote. The hotel/motel tax addition will have to pass a second reading in order to go into effect.
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