A great community newspaper serving South Knoxville and the surrounding area
10
IN THIS ISSUE SKA mixer South Knox Alliance is hold- ing a holiday mixer from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15, at Labor Exchange. South Knox businesspersons and organiza- tion leaders are invited to at- tend. Info: www.KTownSouth. org. ➤ Read Betsy Pickle on page 3 ‘I am not a ...’ Last week, the school board had important business that stretched Monday’s workshop into a three-hour ordeal. At Wednesday’s voting meet- ing, board members burned through the long agenda ... The meeting was punctu- ated by two unusual events: a heartfelt opening prayer by Buzz Thomas and a near meltdown at the end of public forum by former chair Lynne Fugate. ➤ Read Betty Bean on page 5 Nativity Pageant The Knoxville Nativity Pageant will be presented at 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14, and 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15, at the Knox- ville Civic Coliseum. Admis- sion is free. All shows begin in dark- ness, and audience members are requested to come early in order to find seats and get settled. Each performance lasts approximately one hour. Info: www.knoxvillenativity. com or 258-9985. ➤ Read Carol Shane on page 7 7049 Maynardville Pike 37918 (865) 922-4136 NEWS [email protected]Sandra Clark | Betsy Pickle ADVERTISING SALES [email protected]Shannon Carey Jim Brannon | Tony Cranmore Patty Fecco | Wendy O’Dell To page 3 VOL. 2 NO. 49 December 10, 2014 www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNow SOUTH KNOX LASTS AND LASTS AND LASTS.™ Heating & Air Conditioning We Offer: We Offer: • Complete inspections, maintenance & repairs for all air conditioning & heating equipment • Money-saving high-efficiency system upgrades! • FREE ESTIMATES on new equipment • FINANCING through E-Score programs • Maintenance plans available. 5715 Old Tazewell Pike • 687-2520 “Cantrell’s Cares” “Cantrell’s Cares” Over 20 years experience A+ RATING WITH SALES • SERVICE • MAINTENANCE SALES • SERVICE • MAINTENANCE By Betsy Pickle The biggest holiday party in South Knoxville is this Saturday, and everyone is invited. It’s the Candoro Arts & Heri- tage Center’s 14th annual Holiday Open House, 4:30 to 8 p.m. The halls will be decked with peacock-themed finery as the Candoro Marble building shows off its past and future. The Charles Barber-designed building, which opened as offices and a showroom in 1923, will begin a lengthy resto- ration next year. The Candoro Marble building at holiday time. Photo submitted Candoro Arts & Heritage Center is using a peacock decor theme to glitz up the open house. Celebrate Candoro’s past, future Admission is free, though do- nations are welcome. There will be festive food and wine – and music. The mother-daughter flute duo of Carla Manley Brown and Bethany Brown will perform, as will pia- nist Paula Johnson. Johnson is the incoming presi- dent of the Candoro board. New board members will be installed at the event, which will also recognize outgoing president Becky Wade. A special presentation will be made honoring Sean McCollough, who has organized the music for Vestival since its beginning. Last year, Candoro began paying trib- ute to longtime volunteers, begin- ning with Bill Snyder. Renovations originally planned to begin in January will now start in late summer or early fall, says Jeff Mansour, executive director of the Aslan Foundation, which bought the Candoro property this year. Mansour says they’re “not in a terrible rush.” “We want to make sure the end product reflects the history and legacy of the building while at the same time performs some new functions,” he says. “It wasn’t de- signed as a history center, as an Put-in below Asheville Highway bridge By Bill Dockery There may not be trolls under the 11E Asheville Highway Bridge, but there are sure to be trolling motors in the future, thanks to a new public boat ramp. The lower reaches of the Holston from Cherokee Dam near Jeffer- son City to Knoxville have been notoriously inaccessible to boaters. The only public access points have been immediately below the dam, downriver at Nance’s Ferry and in Knoxville’s Holston River Park. Knox County Mayor Tim Bur- chett joined dignitaries from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Tennessee Valley Au- thority and the Tennessee Depart- ment of Transportation to snip the ceremonial blue ribbon and open the ramp on Nov. 11. “Water recreation is an impor- tant part of our local economy, and this access area will allow more Knox County recreation- ists to enjoy the water,” Burchett Joint effort creates Holston River access To page 3 The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has completed construction of an access area under the J. Will Taylor Bridge allowing boaters, anglers and paddlers to put in on the Holston River a few miles upriver of its confluence with the French Broad. Here, a lone angler tries his luck. Photo by Bill Dockery said. Harry Brooks, state legisla- tor from District 19, thanked the three agencies for their coopera- tion in completing the project. The access area includes a boat ramp and a generous parking area. The entrance to the area is just west of the intersection of Asheville Highway and John Sevier Highway. Users must enter the facility from the westbound lane of Asheville Highway just before it crosses the bridge. Vehicles leaving the area must turn right onto the westbound lane of the bridge. TWRA official Tommy White- head said that the access area had been planned since about 2007, when land for the access road was Let’s pitch in to help families By Sandra Clark It’s impossible to know the emptiness felt by three Knox County families this Christmas. Two children and an adult were killed and several others injured Dec. 2 when two school buses col- lided on Asheville Highway. When the news came, my thoughts went first to the kids at Sarah Moore Greene Magnet Academy, where some of us volun- teer each Wednesday to launch a newspaper club. News trickled out slowly. Can you imagine the anxiety of those parents and grandparents who gathered at the old Food Lion store to await information about their child? Finally, the names were re- leased. Dead were Zykia Burns, 6; Seraya Glasper, 7; and teacher’s aide Kimberly Riddle, 46, who left a husband and two young children. Schools Superintendent Jim McIntyre said, “Our families and community suffered an unspeak- able tragedy, and our thoughts and prayers are with all of the families and staff members at Chilhowee Intermediate School and Sunny- view Primary School.” Both schools were closed last Wednesday, and Church Street United Methodist Church held a candlelight vigil. TVA Employees Credit Union opened funds to receive dona- tions to help the families of Se- raya Glasper and Zykia Burns. Simply call or visit any branch location and refer to your contri- bution as “For the benefit of Se- raya Glasper” or “For the benefit of Zykia Burns.” Those making contributions will receive a receipt for their do- nation. For questions or more informa- tion, call 865-544-5400 or email [email protected]. Additionally, contributions to the family of Zykia Burns can be made at www.gofundme.com/uke- nniaarinze. There is also a gofundme ac- count for the family of Kimberly Riddle. Others wishing to help can con- tact Stephanie Jeffreys with KCS at 865-594-1621. Money can’t replace their loss, but it’s a tangible way to show the families our sympathy and sup- port. Butch may exaggerate Any day now Butch Jones will deliver his best bowl pep talk, how almost all of America is focused on the surging Vol- unteers and maybe millions will be lining up to secure tick- ets for 50-yard-line seats. The coach has great enthu- siasm for this bowl game. It is the fulfillment of a year-long goal. ➤ Read Marvin West on page 5 Pot pie from Parkside Grill Swanson’s was famous when the Shopper-News mystery diner was a child for one rea- son: chicken pot pies. “My mother did not buy many meals that were ‘heat and eat.’ The serving sizes were so small, and my mother only knew how to cook for an army. Things in individual portions, like TV dinners or chicken pot pies, were considered a luxury. ➤ Read Mystery Diner on page 7 Seraya Glasper Zykia Burns
Transcript
IN THIS ISSUE
SKA mixerSouth Knox Alliance is hold-
ing a holiday mixer from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15, at Labor Exchange. South Knox businesspersons and organiza-tion leaders are invited to at-tend. Info: www.KTownSouth.org.
➤ Read Betsy Pickle on page 3
‘I am not a ...’Last week, the school board
had important business that stretched Monday’s workshop into a three-hour ordeal. At Wednesday’s voting meet-ing, board members burned through the long agenda ...
The meeting was punctu-ated by two unusual events: a heartfelt opening prayer by Buzz Thomas and a near meltdown at the end of public forum by former chair Lynne Fugate.
➤ Read Betty Bean on page 5
Nativity PageantThe Knoxville Nativity
Pageant will be presented at 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14, and 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15, at the Knox-ville Civic Coliseum. Admis-sion is free.
All shows begin in dark-ness, and audience members are requested to come early in order to fi nd seats and get settled. Each performance lasts approximately one hour. Info: www.knoxvillenativity.com or 258-9985.
VOL. 2 NO. 1 July 29, 2013www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNowVOL. 2 NO. 49 December 10, 2014www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNow
SOUTH KNOX
LASTS AND LASTS AND LASTS.™
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• Money-saving high-effi ciency system upgrades!
• FREE ESTIMATES on new equipment
• FINANCING through E-Score programs
• Maintenance plans available.5715 Old Tazewell Pike • 687-2520
“Cantrell’s Cares”“Cantrell’s Cares”
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WITH
SALES • SERVICE • MAINTENANCESALES • SERVICE • MAINTENANCE
By Betsy PickleThe biggest holiday party in
South Knoxville is this Saturday, and everyone is invited.
It’s the Candoro Arts & Heri-tage Center’s 14th annual Holiday Open House, 4:30 to 8 p.m.
The halls will be decked with peacock-themed fi nery as the Candoro Marble building shows off its past and future. The Charles Barber-designed building, which opened as offi ces and a showroom in 1923, will begin a lengthy resto-ration next year.
The Candoro Marble building at holiday time. Photo submitted
Candoro Arts & Heritage
Center is using a peacock
decor theme to glitz up
the open house.
Celebrate Candoro’s past, future
Admission is free, though do-nations are welcome. There will be festive food and wine – and music. The mother-daughter fl ute duo of Carla Manley Brown and Bethany Brown will perform, as will pia-
nist Paula Johnson. Johnson is the incoming presi-
dent of the Candoro board. New board members will be installed at the event, which will also recognize outgoing president Becky Wade.
A special presentation will be made honoring Sean McCollough, who has organized the music for Vestival since its beginning. Last year, Candoro began paying trib-ute to longtime volunteers, begin-ning with Bill Snyder.
Renovations originally planned to begin in January will now start in late summer or early fall, says Jeff Mansour, executive director of the Aslan Foundation, which bought the Candoro property this year. Mansour says they’re “not in a terrible rush.”
“We want to make sure the end product refl ects the history and legacy of the building while at the same time performs some new functions,” he says. “It wasn’t de-signed as a history center, as an
Put-in below Asheville
Highway bridgeBy Bill Dockery
There may not be trolls under the 11E Asheville Highway Bridge, but there are sure to be trolling motors in the future, thanks to a new public boat ramp.
The lower reaches of the Holston from Cherokee Dam near Jeffer-son City to Knoxville have been notoriously inaccessible to boaters. The only public access points have been immediately below the dam, downriver at Nance’s Ferry and in Knoxville’s Holston River Park.
Knox County Mayor Tim Bur-chett joined dignitaries from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, the Tennessee Valley Au-thority and the Tennessee Depart-ment of Transportation to snip the ceremonial blue ribbon and open the ramp on Nov. 11.
“Water recreation is an impor-tant part of our local economy, and this access area will allow more Knox County recreation-ists to enjoy the water,” Burchett
Joint eff ort creates Holston River access
To page 3
The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has completed construction of an access area under the J. Will Taylor
Bridge allowing boaters, anglers and paddlers to put in on the Holston River a few miles upriver of its confl uence
with the French Broad. Here, a lone angler tries his luck. Photo by Bill Dockery
said. Harry Brooks, state legisla-tor from District 19, thanked the three agencies for their coopera-tion in completing the project.
The access area includes a boat ramp and a generous parking area. The entrance to the area is just
west of the intersection of Asheville Highway and John Sevier Highway. Users must enter the facility from the westbound lane of Asheville Highway just before it crosses the bridge. Vehicles leaving the area must turn right onto the westbound
lane of the bridge.TWRA offi cial Tommy White-
head said that the access area had been planned since about 2007, when land for the access road was
Let’s pitch in to help familiesBy Sandra Clark
It’s impossible to know the emptiness felt by three Knox County families this Christmas.
Two children and an adult were killed and several others injured Dec. 2 when two school buses col-lided on Asheville Highway.
When the news came, my thoughts went fi rst to the kids at Sarah Moore Greene Magnet Academy, where some of us volun-teer each Wednesday to launch a newspaper club.
News trickled out slowly. Can you imagine the anxiety of those parents and grandparents who gathered at the old Food Lion store to await information about their child?
Finally, the names were re-leased. Dead were Zykia Burns, 6; Seraya Glasper, 7; and teacher’s aide Kimberly Riddle, 46, who left a husband and two young children.
Schools Superintendent Jim McIntyre said, “Our families and community suffered an unspeak-able tragedy, and our thoughts and prayers are with all of the families and staff members at Chilhowee Intermediate School and Sunny-view Primary School.”
Both schools were closed last Wednesday, and Church Street United Methodist Church held a candlelight vigil.
TVA Employees Credit Union opened funds to receive dona-
tions to help the families of Se-raya Glasper and Zykia Burns. Simply call or visit any branch location and refer to your contri-bution as “For the benefit of Se-raya Glasper” or “For the benefit of Zykia Burns.”
Those making contributions will receive a receipt for their do-nation.
For questions or more informa-tion, call 865-544-5400 or email [email protected].
Additionally, contributions to the family of Zykia Burns can be made at www.gofundme.com/uke-nniaarinze.
There is also a gofundme ac-count for the family of Kimberly Riddle.
Others wishing to help can con-tact Stephanie Jeffreys with KCS at 865-594-1621.
Money can’t replace their loss, but it’s a tangible way to show the families our sympathy and sup-port.
Butch may exaggerate
Any day now Butch Jones will deliver his best bowl pep talk, how almost all of America is focused on the surging Vol-unteers and maybe millions will be lining up to secure tick-ets for 50-yard-line seats.
The coach has great enthu-siasm for this bowl game. It is the fulfi llment of a year-long goal.
➤ Read Marvin West on page 5
Pot pie from Parkside Grill
Swanson’s was famous when the Shopper-News mystery diner was a child for one rea-son: chicken pot pies.
“My mother did not buy many meals that were ‘heat and eat.’ The serving sizes were so small, and my mother only knew how to cook for an army. Things in individual portions, like TV dinners or chicken pot pies, were considered a luxury.
➤ Read Mystery Diner on page 7
Seraya GlasperZykia Burns
2 • DECEMBER 10, 2014 • Shopper news
health & lifestyles
Third straight year Fort Sanders named Joint Commission Top Performer
Fort Sanders Regional Medical Cen-ter has been recognized as one of the nation’s Top Performers on Key Qual-ity Measures by The Joint Commission, an independent nonprofit organization that accredits more than 3,300 hospi-tals across the country. The honor is based upon accountability measure data reported during 2013 and it’s the third straight year Fort Sanders Regional has garnered the status. The Joint Commis-sion announced the distinction in its an-nual report.
Fort Sanders Regional was recognized
for exemplary performance in using ev-idence-based clinical processes that are shown to improve care for certain con-ditions. In all four areas – heart attack, heart failure, pneumonia and surgical care – Fort Sanders Regional met or ex-ceeded target rates of performance.
“The hard work of our employees and leadership team is reflected in this Top Performer status, and I would like to thank everyone who puts our patients first,” says Keith Altshuler, president and CAO of Fort Sanders Regional.
Each of the hospitals named as a Top
Performer must perform at a rate of 95 percent or above in accountability mea-sures. For example, an accountability measures may include giving an aspirin at arrival for heart attack patients or getting that person to the heart cathe-terization lab quickly, both of which are considered evidence-based practices.
“We know our patients expect safe, dependable care,” explains Altshuler. “And we are honored to see our efforts paying off. I am proud to be a part of Fort Sanders Regional.”
The Joint Commission is an indepen-
dent, not-for-profit organization thataccredits and certifies more than 20,500health care organizations and programsin the United States. Joint Commissionaccreditation and certification is recog-nized nationwide as a symbol of qualityand reflects an organization’s commit-ment to meeting certain performancestandards.
For more information about the TopPerformer program, visit http://www.jointcommission.org/accreditation/top_performers.aspx.
Cardiac patients receive consistent, award winning care
Fort Sanders is one of only 256 hospi-tals in the nation to receive the Ameri-can College of Cardiology’s NCDR AC-TION Registry–GWTG Platinum Performance Achievement Award for 2014.
The award recognizes Fort Sanders’ commitment and success in implementing a higher standard of care for heart attack patients. It also signifies that the hospi-tal has reached an aggressive goal of treating their patients to standard levels of care as outlined by the American College of Cardiol-ogy/American Heart Association clinical guidelines and recommendations.
To receive the ACTION Registry–GWTG Platinum Performance Achieve-ment Award, Fort Sanders consistently
followed the treatment guidelines in the ACTION Registry–
GWTG Premier for eight con-secutive quarters and met a performance standard of 90 percent for specific per-formance measures. Full participation in the regis-
try engages hospitals in a robust quality improvement
process using data to drive im-provements in guideline recommen-
dations and overall quality of care pro-vided to heart attack patients.
Cardiopulmonary rehabilitation department receives certifi cation
The Fort Sanders Cardiopulmonary (CROP) department recently received certifi cation of its program by the Amer-ican Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation (AACVPR). CROP was recognized for its commit-ment to improving the quality of life by enhancing standards of care.
Recognized programs help people
with cardiovascular problems (e.g., heart attacks, coronary artery bypass graft surgery) and pulmonary prob-lems (e.g., COPD, respiratory symp-toms,) recover faster and improve their quality of life. Both programs include exercise, education, counsel-ing, and support for patients and their families.
Covenant Health hospitals
leading safety initiativesEach year, teams from throughout
Covenant Health identify projects to improve the care and safety of our pa-tients. Information is gathered, hypoth-eses are formed and new processes are implemented. And when an idea works, we share it with the rest of our health system and within our community.
In an effort to reward those teams who go above and beyond in their quest for excellence, Covenant Health created Performance Excellence Awards.
The following are the Fort Sanders departments/projects recognized at the 2014 Performance Excellence Awards:
PNRC Fall Risk Assessment and Prevention – This project established a fall-risk model specific to the rehabili-tation setting and put processes in place to monitor and reduce all falls. PNRC was recognized as having best practices for fall prevention by The Joint Com-mission and the Center for Accreditation of Rehabilitation Facilities.
Surgical Site Infection Reduc-
tions – Fort Sanders’ physicians andleadership set a goal of reaching top per-formance in reducing SSI rates amongfive patient populations: Coronary Ar-tery Bypass Graft, hip, knee, laminec-tomy and fusion patients.
Expanding Door-to-Balloon Ex-cellence into the Community – Thisphysician-driven project involved col-laboration among multiple depart-ments, facilities and emergency trans-port companies in counties throughoutEast Tennessee to decrease mortal-ity and readmission rates and increasefirst-medical-contact-to-device timesand volumes for patients transferredto Fort Sanders with a STEMI (specifictype of heart attack). Submitted by Neu-roscience and Cardiovascular Services,this project was also given the Innova-tion Award.
Congratulations to our winning teamsand to those whose projects that re-ceived honorable mentions.
Fort Sanders employees recognized for commitmentThe Covenant Health Everest Award
recognizes individual peak performers from throughout Covenant and its af-filiates. Nominations are submitted by employees, physicians or volunteers and recognize the employee’s commitment to ensuring quality patient care.
This year, two Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center employees were recog-nized as finalists for the award: Robert Roebuck (Patient Representative, Pa-tricia Neal Rehabilitation Center) and Doug Young (Engineering and Facility
Services). Both have shown exceptional commitment to our patients and staff and both deserved the honor.
“Both Robert and Doug are great am-bassadors for Fort Sanders and Patricia Neal,” says Keith Altshuler, President of Fort Sanders. “We are fortunate to have them on our staff.”
Only three Everest Awards are given each year and Doug Young of Facili-ties Services was selected as an Everest Award winner. Congratulations Doug!!
Fort Sanders Regional Medical Centerwishes you and your familya wonderful holiday season
and a happ y new year.
fsregional.com • (865) 673-FORT
Covenant Health CEO Tony Spezia congratulates Doug Young, Fort Sanders Engineering and Fa-
cility Services on being named an Everest Award Winner.
Buddy Mulkey and Debra Bradshaw have fun talking with guest speaker Judy Householder
after the South Knoxville Alliance meeting. Photos by Betsy Pickle
SOUTH KNOX Shopper news • DECEMBER 10, 2014 • 3 community
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Programs and features at the University of Tennessee Gardens are growing.
That’s the message Der-rick Stowell, gardens edu-cator, brought to the Chap-man Highway Garden Club at its latest meeting.
Stowell, who joined UT Gardens almost three years ago, has done programs for children, youth and adults and has seen overall par-ticipation in the education-al programs grow by nearly 1,500, to just over 4,000 a year, since he came on board. This year more than 1,500 children have come to programs or camps.
Several projects are in the works, including a new children’s garden, a new pavilion that will hold 200, a vegetable-trials garden, a hosta garden and a wet-lands area. Therapeutic horticulture is also becom-ing an emphasis at the Gar-dens.
UT Gardens has two workshops this Saturday. For kids and their families, there’s one on Holiday Fairy Gardens, where you bring your own container and make an indoor seasonally themed fairy garden (per family $40/$30 members). Adults can learn to make wreaths from fresh green-ery 1-3 p.m. ($40/$30).
Pre-registration is re-quired. Info: Stowell at 865-974-7151 or [email protected].
The garden club will meet at 10 a.m. Thurs-
Betsy Pickle
Celebrate Candoro’s From page 1
arts and culture center.“It’s a balancing act. We
want to complete the reno-vations as thoughtfully and comprehensively as possi-ble and return the building to its former glory.”
Trudy Monaco, founder and historian of the Can-doro Arts & Heritage Cen-ter, is excited about the renovations but happy that they have been pushed back a few months.
“We had announced that we wouldn’t be book-ing weddings after Jan. 1,” she says. “Now we can book
weddings through June.”Candoro is also starting
an old-time pickers group in January, open to all. It will be held 1-3 p.m. the second Sat-urday of each month.
Monaco says the Candoro group had put $200,000 into renovations since it formed 14 years ago. Their efforts included a new roof, plastering, fl ooring and adding electricity, plumbing and heat.
“All our money was going toward caring for it through repairs and the restoration,” she says. “Now we are going
to be able to really focus on programing, building an educational program and starting to do tours.”
Chair for the open house is board member April Burt, whose “Three Parties in Three Days” was featured in Southern Living. Board member Sharon Davis is as-sisting.
Johnson, who notes that Candoro’s new piano was donated by Burt, says there will be a raffl e drawing ev-ery half hour. The main pre-sentations will take place around 6 p.m.
Holston River From page 1
donated. The TWRA de-signed the facility, and its heavy equipment crew did the construction.
“The main use for the area is boating and fi shing from the bank,” Whitehead said. A fi shing pier is not planned for the site; boats launch directly into the riv-er channel at the ramp. Pic-nicking is allowed, though the site does not include pic-nic benches or restrooms. Camping is not permitted.
“While it was under con-struction, we had a lot of interest in the access area,” Whitehead said. He said the agencies are surveying other possible river access locations.
TDOT provided land rights under the bridge, and TVA provided permit-ting and funding. Bucky Edmondson, TVA’s senior manager for public outreach and recreation, praised the
cooperation that brought the project to completion, saying, “Partnerships are really what it’s all about. One person, one organiza-tion, one agency can’t do it all.”
Get to the Gardens
Early Christmas presentSouth Woodlawn resident Danny Gray shows off the bike he won from Harper’s Bicycle Shop
through the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club Fall Festival raffl e. Gray picked up his bike recently
after the shop staff tweaked it for him. From left are Harper’s technician “Dirt Jump” Dave Wil-
liams, shop co-owners Jon Magnuson and Shawn McCann, Gray and AMBC president Matthew
Kellogg. (Kellogg said he’d use any excuse to hang out at a bike shop. Don’t tell his boss.)
At the South Knoxville
Neighborhood and Business
Coalition meeting to talk
about the South Knoxville
Elementary Community
School, site coordinator Su-
san Martin, school principal
Tanna Nicely and Stephanie
Welch of the Great Schools
Partnership put on their
best faces.
day, Dec. 18, at Woodlawn Christian Church.
■ Staying safeThe South Haven Neigh-
borhood Association heard a warning that’s been echoing throughout South Knoxville courtesy of the Knoxville Police Depart-ment:
Be extra careful during the holiday season to keep from becoming the victim of a crime.
At the November meet-ing at the Round-up Res-taurant, Offi cer Adam Bar-nett advised South Haven residents to watch out for people posing as repair workers who park in front of houses and use their trucks to disguise home break-ins. Other KPD li-aisons have been advising residents to stay alert while shopping and avoid leaving holiday purchases in plain sight in cars.
On a more upbeat note, SHNA’s Barry Neal and Linda Rust met with Knox County Mayor Tim Bur-chett about the future of the unoccupied Giffi n Elemen-tary School. So far, plans for redevelopment haven’t gelled.
Other topics included the Baptist Hospital site redevelopment, green way growth, hazardous traffi c around South-Doyle Middle School and plans for the next What’s Shakin’, South Haven program.
The December SHNA meeting will be at 10 a.m. Saturday, Dec. 20.
■ ‘7 Deadly Sins’The South Knoxville
Alliance is on a roll with programs designed to help members hone their busi-ness skills.
At the November meet-ing, consultant Judy House-holder outlined the “7 Deadly Sins” that entrepre-neurs and business owners must avoid. They include sloppy accounting, unreal-istic pricing, naïve hiring, fear of fi ring, lack of stan-dards, lack of control and poor branding.
SKA is holding a holi-day mixer from 5 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15, at Labor Exchange. South Knox businesspersons and organization leaders are in-vited to attend. Info: www.KTownSouth.org.
■ School stuff The South Knoxville
Neighborhood & Business Coalition got an earful of school news recently.
New school board mem-ber Amber Rountree came to the November meeting at Woodlawn Christian Church and talked about
needed improvements at SoKno schools as well as student testing.
To discuss the new South Knoxville Community School at South Knoxville Elementary, site coordina-tor Susan Martin, SKES principal Tanna Nicely and
Stephanie Welch from the Great Schools Partner-ship talked as a team. They explained the concept of community schools, talked about what’s going on in the new South Knox program and encouraged SKNBC members to get involved.
■ By candlelight Marble Springs State
Historic Site, 1220 W. Gov. John Sevier Highway, will present Christmas candle-light tours 4-8 p.m. Satur-day, Dec. 13. A $2 donation is suggested.
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4 • DECEMBER 10, 2014 • Shopper news
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The Gospel of John tells us Jesus was brought be-fore Pontius Pilate, the Ro-man prefect of Judaea, who signed off on his crucifi xion.
After Jesus told Pilate his mission was to bear witness to the truth, Pilate asked, “What is truth?”
I’m not cadging material from Lynn Pitts’ column. Pilate’s words, cynical as they were, are more relevant than ever in the modern world.
The big lie, spoken loudly enough and often enough,
LarryVan
Guilder
The truth hurts(your ratings)
becomes true, especially when embedded in a 24-hour media blitz.
Fox News understands this principle better than its competitors, but none of the major cable news networks
is an unfl inching guardian of the truth.
A PunditFact survey of 83 Fox statements found only 15 to contain some of the truth, and only eight were deemed “completely true.” CNN was truthful 60 percent of the time, and MS-NBC was 31 percent honest.
The hillbilly wisdom of Jed Clampett echoes down the years: “Pitiful.”
Television and the Web shape more opinions today than every teacher, preach-er and newspaper columnist combined.
In “Idiot America,” Charles P. Pierce writes of a panel discussion about the “science” of creationism that aired on “Larry King Live.”
King asked: “All right, hold on, Dr. Forrest, your
concept of how you can out-and-out turn down cre-ationism, since if evolution is true, why are there still monkeys?”
And, as Pierce noted, “Why, dear Lord, do so many of them host televi-sion programs?”
Fueled by lies from Fox, the Tea Party and assorted Obama-haters, congressio-nal Republicans did every-thing but foam at the mouth over Benghazi, the scandal that never was.
In dozens of prime-time segments, Fox commenta-tors claimed Obama gave an order to special forces soldiers at the American embassy in Tripoli to “stand down.”
It never happened.Two Fox News contribu-
tors claimed Hillary Clinton faked a concussion to wea-sel out of testifying about Benghazi.
False and despicable.Why repeat the lie after
it’s been thoroughly de-bunked? The lie sells quick-ly, and the truth is rarely easy to tease out.
Viewers and browsers have little patience for nu-ance. Unless it happens on PBS, no broadcast medium is going to carefully dissect a White House position pa-per.
Reading engages the intel-lect like television will never do, but reading by adults has been in freefall for de-cades. Last January the Pew Research Center released a report showing 23 percent of Americans had not read a
book in the past year.That number was 8 per-
cent in a 1978 Gallup poll. Is it any wonder newspapers are struggling?
No political party or phi-losophy holds a monopoly on expedient lies. Vietnam was the most tragic lie foisted upon 20th-century America, and the deepening and continuation of that war was the work of both Demo-crats and Republicans.
Communism was a monolithic entity, we were told, and North Vietnam a puppet for the ambitions of Red China and the Soviet Union. That lie ground up 58,000 American lives.
The truth is always out there. Turn off the talking heads and take a look for yourself.
Former Knoxvillian, UT graduate and Etowah native Chris Whittle, who left Knoxville after Whittle Communications collapsed in 1992, has rebounded fi nancially from his low point some 22 years ago. According to the Nov. 21 Wall Street Journal, he and his wife, Priscilla Rat-tazzi, have listed their East Hampton home including 11.2 acres on New York’s Long Island for $140 mil-lion.
Chris Whittle thrives in the Big Apple
Named Briar Patch, it’s one of the most expensive residential listings in the history of the affl uent Hamptons. The house is 10,000 square feet with six bedrooms, built in 1931 right after the Great Depression.
According to the WSJ, the Whittles bought the property in 1989 and spent two and a half years reno-vating it to include a three-stories-tall great room in the main house with a sepa-rate four-bedroom guest house.
The house was previ-ously up for sale in 2002-03 for $45 million but did not sell and was taken off the market. The asking price has now jumped almost $100 million in 12 years.
Rattazzi is a photogra-pher who has her own web-site, www.priscillarattazzi.com. Whittle is her third husband, and they are the parents of two daughters.
The Whittles, according to WSJ, “are embarking on a new chapter in their lives as empty nesters.” They plan to spend more time in China, Europe, Palm Beach and New York.
When I was fi rst elected mayor in 1987, Whittle was being mentioned as a can-didate for governor as well as the life raft for economic development in Knoxville. He could do no wrong. He walked on water.
It was in 1989 that he renamed his company, 13-30, to Whittle Com-munications, sold a 50 percent stake to Time Inc. and razed two blocks in downtown Knoxville with city help from the previous city administration.
A few years later it all collapsed, and the city faced the unwanted acquisition of the Whittle building due to the foolish fi nancial agreement that made the city liable in case of collapse. The impossible occurred. I was looking at an unexpected and un-wanted $14 million liability as then-mayor.
Luckily, the notion of making this building the home of the new federal courthouse came into play. The late Judge Jim Jar-vis pushed it, and GSA discovered it was cheaper to acquire the Whittle com-plex than to build a new courthouse.
Just in the nick of time, city taxpayers were saved the surprise gift of a cost-ly building for which the city had no reasonable use. Whittle has emerged from every setback he encounters more nimble and fi nancially enhanced. Just amazing.
Tell homeowners
to attend
meetings
Knox County is a big, diverse place, and county commissioners are doing their best to represent all of it. That was one of the messages delivered to the Council of West Knox Coun-ty Homeowners (CWKCH) by three new commission-ers and their vice chair last week.
“The four of us all really care, and we love to listen and hear what you have to say,” said at-large member Bob Thomas.
Commission members were invited to speak at the group’s holiday meet-ing. Thomas, along with at-large member Ed Brantley, District 3 member Randy Smith and District 8 mem-ber and vice chair Dave Wright, attended.
Knox County commissioners Randy Smith, Ed Brantley, Bob Thomas and Dave Wright take questions from the Council of West
Knox County Homeowners. Photo by Wendy Smith
County commissioners invite feedback
Brantley said he’d never appreciated the county’s diversity until commission duties required him to tra-verse it. While West Knox-ville is business oriented, other areas, like Washing-ton Pike, are scenic. The Halls community is its own little world, with little traf-fi c, he said.
Thomas has lived in East Knoxville and Fountain City and has family in South and West Knoxville, so he’s fa-miliar with the entire coun-ty.
“We have to take care of it. We want to develop it the way it should be.”
He’s concerned about
West Knoxville’s aging sub-divisions, which are pep-pered with homes that are falling apart as well as rent-als. Neighborhood associa-tions are important because they invoke pride, he said.
Brantley agreed. The se-cret to maintaining good neighborhoods is getting people involved, he said.
All four commissioners expressed a desire to hear from the community. At-tending meetings is one way to be heard, said Brantley.
“When we’re going through zoning, we ask if there is opposition. If there’s not, it gets approved.”
Thomas said he thought commission would have a hard time voting against homeowners if they were opposed to a zoning change. When CWKCH members disagreed, new commis-sioners acknowledged that there’s been little contro-versy in the months since they’ve taken offi ce.
Wendy Smith
Wright explained that commissioners have to take off all the hats they’ve ever worn to work for the coun-ty as a whole, rather than working for those in indi-vidual neighborhoods. De-velopment is ultimately the decision of property own-ers, he said.
Later, he said the county needs new middle schools in Hardin Valley and Gibbs.
The commissioners shared different perspec-tives on a proposed change to Knox County Commis-sion meeting times. Smith said he’s in favor of later meetings that would allow working people to attend. When it was suggested that evening meetings might be less safe for residents to at-tend, commissioners point-ed out that City Council and school board meetings are in the evening.
They asked for feedback on the appointment of a replacement for District 5 member Richard Briggs, now a state senator.
CWKCH president Mar-got Kline asked commis-sioners to support John Schoonmaker, a past presi-dent of the organization. The Board of Zoning Ap-peals chair is a business owner who wants the area to be prosperous and attrac-tive and have good schools, but not at the expense of individuals and neighbor-hoods, she said.
UT issues RFP for former Eugenia Williams estateProposals for restoration,
care, occupancy and leasing of a 23-acre property on Ly-ons View Pike in Knoxville bequeathed to the Universi-ty of Tennessee in 1998 are being sought.
The University’s request for proposals, or RFP, was released Nov. 24 with a
March 6, 2015, deadline to submit proposals.
Prospective bidders are invited to a pre-proposal conference at the UT Pur-chasing Offi ce, 5723 Mid-dlebrook Pike, at 10 a.m. Friday, Dec. 12.
At 4848 Lyons View Pike, the property’s acreage is
between the street and the Tennessee River and in-cludes a 10,000-square-foot house and two-story horse barn. The three-story brick house has been unoccupied since 1983.
Through the RFP, the University seeks to lease the property to “the
individual(s) with the best plan for restoration and care of the property” and who proposes the highest rental payments.
Shopper-News colum-nist Victor Ashe repeatedly called for attention to this issue.
West offi ce: 10512 Lexington Drive, Suite 500 • Knoxville, TN 37932 • (865) 218-WEST (9378) • Fax: 342-6628
11,000 readers right up the road.
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Betty Bean
Last week, the school board had important business that stretched Monday’s workshop into a three-hour ordeal. At Wednesday’s voting meet-ing, board members burned through the long agenda: approving a contract for teachers, who have been working without one since 2011, appointing one an-other to committees, and discussing board member Karen Carson’s objections to the way the vote to dis-continue the SAT-10 test for grades K-2 was conducted.
Monday workshops ex-ist to allow board members to work out differences in the sunshine and ease the process of coming to agree-ments, so it’s not unusual for the voting meeting to be considerably shorter. But this one was different.
After Tuesday’s school
Marvin West
Any day now Butch Jones will deliver his best bowl pep talk, how almost all of America is focused on the surging Volunteers and maybe millions will be lin-ing up to secure tickets for 50-yard-line seats.
The coach has great enthusiasm for this bowl game. It is the fulfi llment of a yearlong goal. He gets a nifty bonus – $100,000. Assistants get 8.75 percent of their salary. Young play-ers get additional develop-mental time. Everybody gets a free ride for a holiday outing and gifts galore.
There is a chance for a winning season.
The coach talks a lot because he has so much to say: new culture, brick by brick, program growth, academic progress, the end of losing.
Some see Butch as a spin doctor, capable of sticking a smiley face on a red-zone fumble. I and others who really enjoy the rhetoric see him as an exciting orator, a colorful storyteller with an interesting background, an extensive vocabulary and fantastic lung capacity. He seldom pauses for air.
Sometimes he exagger-ates just a little. On rare occasions he soars over the top.
The other day he got off on the subject of national perception of Tennessee football.
“It is at an all-time high right now. The energy, the excitement, we see it every day because of recruiting and talking to high school coaches, not just in this great state, but across the country.
“We have players com-ing in from all over. We are going to have another great, great recruiting class, individuals that fi t our pro-fi le. It is a matter of time. People know that. They see the energy, they see the vision.”
Jones has recruited well. Only four SEC schools did better last year. By Tennes-see’s recent standards, the 6-6 record is modest prog-ress. Kentucky and Vandy were worse.
Peak of perception? All-time high? Maybe not.
Even in the context of a
Butch sometimes exaggerates
sales pitch, suggesting the national view of Tennessee football is atop the moun-tain is a stretch, consider-ing everything that hap-pened in those so-so years from 1989 to 2004. Sorry the national championship run wasn’t more exciting.
Jones speaks of Volun-teer history with great rev-erence. He gets it “each and every” day. I don’t think he was deliberately step-ping on the last third of the John Majors era or the best years of Phillip Fulmer or the pageantry of the Peyton Manning show.
Butch was just talking.Here is a historical
refresher, for evaluating national perception only:
1989: 11-1, SEC champs, AP rank No. 4; 1990: 9-2-2, SEC champs, AP rank 8; 1991: 9-3, 5-2 in SEC; 1992: another 9-3 and 5-3 and the conclusion of the Majors years.
1993: 10-2, 7-1, loss to Florida, symbolic of the Fulmer era; 1994: 8-4, 5-3, romped past Virginia Tech in Gator Bowl; 1995: 11-1, 7-1, AP rank 3, lost to Florida, defeated Ohio State in Citrus Bowl; 1996: 10-2, 7-1, AP rank 9, lost to Florida, beat Northwestern by 20 in Citrus Bowl.
1997: 11-2, 7-1, AP rank 7, SEC champs, lost to Flor-ida, naturally; 1998: 13-0, national champs; 1999: 9-3, 6-2, AP rank 9; 2000:8-4, 5-3, lost to Kansas State in Cotton Bowl; 2001: 11-2, 7-1, lost to Georgia, beat Florida, AP rank 4, mauled Michigan in Citrus.
2002: 8-5, 5-3, lost to Maryland in Peach Bowl; 2003: 10-3, 6-2, AP 15, lost to Clemson in Peach; 2004: 10-3, 7-1, lost to Auburn twice, defeated Texas A&M in Cotton; AP 13.
Ah yes, those were the days and the numbers, with little or no exaggeration.Marvin West invites reader reaction. His
bus crash that took the lives of two children and a teach-er’s aide and sent more than 20 others to the hospital, the nuts and bolts of school governance somehow didn’t appear quite as urgent. That doesn’t mean that the meet-ing wasn’t emotional. It was memorable for unusual oc-currences:
The fi rst came after the usual non-sectarian mo-ment of silence, in the form of a prayer delivered by Great Schools Partnership CEO Buzz Thomas (also an ordained minister) begging God’s help in the aftermath of the tragedy.
The second came after a
public forum dominated by pleas from parents of spe-cial-education students who say Knox County Schools is not meeting its legally man-dated obligations to their children. A couple of teach-ers spoke, too, hammering home their view that the inherently unfair SAT-10 is not only developmentally inappropriate but produces bad data that is then used to evaluate not only student progress but also teacher effectiveness. Knox Coun-ty Education Association president Tanya Coats cried as she expressed her thanks for the board’s approval of the Memorandum of Un-derstanding that was three years in the making.
The fi nal jolt came from former board chair Lynne Fugate, who acknowledged that board members nor-mally do not respond to
speakers at public forum but said that handing over the gavel to successor Mike McMillan this fall gave her the freedom to say things she couldn’t say when she sat in the big chair.
And then she had a How-ard Beale* “I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore” moment:
“This board has been at-tacked for over a year as if we don’t give a darn and we don’t care ... Don’t patronize and treat us like idiots. We have gone through hell in this community … We are all here because we are try-ing to do the right thing, so please.
Do not insult me and as-sume I am a bitch. Thank you.”*Howard Beale was the fi ctional news an-
chor in the 1976 movie “Network” whose
epic on-air rant against his network
struck a chord with the public and won
actor Peter Finch an Oscar.
By Betty BeanPicking out poinsettias
offered by the Future Farm-ers of America at the North Knox CTE Center (they can’t call it a sale) is a tradition for residents of Halls and Foun-tain City, but six months ago, many feared the poinsettias had gone the way of Christ-mas past. Knox County Schools was Scrooge.
The role of Bob Cratchit was admirably fi lled by longtime agriculture teach-er/FFA sponsor Mike Blan-kenship, who had been in-formed that his program was being disbanded be-cause it wasn’t attracting enough students. It was a grim time for the Ag kids and for Blankenship, who found himself facing the possibility of an abrupt end to his award-winning, 37-year career with KCS.
But his students, led by rising seniors Ryan Cox and James Dunn, decided to fi ght for their teacher, their club and their future.
Cox, who will attend UT next year (and is waiting to hear about scholarship money), started bombard-ing administrators with emails. Here’s an excerpt from one he sent to Super-intendent James McIntyre and Halls High School prin-cipal Mark Duff:
“I feel that the Knox County School District should review its policy on teacher cuts. Positions should not only be quali-fi ed to be cut based on stu-dent enrollment, but by the quality and importance of the education received in the course. For instance, a class offered at Halls High consists merely of watching movies, and writing reviews on them. I challenge the fact that this class has a higher educational value than an Agriculture class.”
Ag students are 2014 Persons of the Year
Cox wore out Duff, Mc-Intyre and school board members. He contacted the media. He started an online petition. He and Dunn, a Gibbs High School senior and FFA president, went to the June school board meeting and spoke at the public forum. Dunn recited a partial list of the honors the club has won under Blankenship’s guid-ance.
“We will no longer be able to compete in career devel-opment events,” he said. “We as a class and a chapter are very disappointed. This closure will take away many opportunities.”
What he didn’t say that night is that one of the lost opportunities could be his chance to go to college through an FFA scholarship.
Before long, Blankenship was offered a job at the new Career Magnet Academy on Strawberry Plains Pike, which should have surprised nobody, given his long list of
professional and community accolades, not to mention the fact that CTE supervisor Don Lawson had been one of his fi rst students, back at the old Doyle High School.
Moved by what he’d heard from Cox and Dunn at the school board meeting, Law-son started working on a plan. Would Blankenship be inter-ested in teaching one class a day on the Halls campus so these seniors could fi nish out the credits they needed? Blankenship agreed, and the Ag class was restored.
The FFA crew is having a good year, winning awards and raising nearly $2,000 for homecoming candidate Casey Jo Mitchell. It hasn’t been easy; Blankenship commutes from Halls to Strawberry Plains every day at a time when his family has suffered terrible losses. His son, Mark, developed a brain tumor and died, and his father is under home hospice care, but he stays on the road and keeps on
teaching. His students ap-preciate it and say their fi ght was worthwhile.
“I’m not really positive that Mr. Blankenship will be back at North Knox next year, but they’ve got a biol-ogy teacher who went on the fi eld trip with us who took the test to get Ag cer-tifi ed. She’s hoping to teach biology, Ag and a computer class, and continue FFA. Meanwhile, she’s got the best instructor in Tennessee to learn from,” Cox said.
Dunn concurs.“He’s the same old Mr.
Blankenship. He’s a good one,” said Dunn, who has applied for a Tennessee Promise scholarship and hopes to attend Pellissippi State. “Everything was worth it. Everybody learned a little something from it, and I think it showed some people that we’re more than just farmers with pitch-forks.”Note: Each year reporter Betty Bean
selects her favorite story/people and
names them her POY.
Ryan Cox, James Dunn, Mike Blankenship, Jessica Costner and Jonah McMahan File photo by B.Bean
Rosario Dawson and Chris Rock make a connection in “Top Five.”Christian Bale plays Moses in “Exodus: Gods and Kings.”
Moses vs. Chris Rock: Who will be the winner?By Betsy Pickle
“Exodus: Gods and Kings” has drawn contro-versy for casting Welsh-born Christian Bale and Aussie Joel Edgerton as its leads. I say the biggest issue is, why is Hollywood show-casing an Old Testament story during the Christmas season?
Anybody out there have an infl atable or light-up Moses in their yard? I think not.
Out-of-season thinking aside, “Exodus” is exactly the kind of epic studios like to debut during the holidays, when some people have a little more free time on their hands for longish movies.
It tells the story of Moses defying Pharaoh Ramses and leading 600,000 Jew-ish slaves away from Egypt and some very unpleasant plagues. With Ridley Scott Bard (Luke Evans) prepares for battle in the fantasy adventure “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies.”
as the director and Ben Kingsley, Sigourney Weaver, Aaron Paul and John Tur-turro in the cast, the fi lm has a solid pedigree.
“Top Five” promises a whole bunch of funny – and early reports say it delivers that along with some hilari-
ous cameos and great per-formances from the leads.
Chris Rock wrote, direct-ed and stars in this comedy about a comedian turned movie star who’s trying to prove himself as a serious actor. As he prepares for his wedding to a reality-TV star
(Gabrielle Union), he fi nds himself baring his soul to a reporter (Rosario Dawson) who has always trashed his movies.
Part of the story involves revisiting his old neighbor-hood and friends who nur-tured his comedic start. But
the fi lm is about more than comedy and celebrity – it touches on recovery, reality and what’s important in life.
There’s another little movie opening on Wednes-day – actually Tuesday night – that you might have heard of: “The Hobbit: The
Battle of the Five Armies.” To prepare for the epic con-clusion of Peter Jackson’s epic trilogy based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s epic book, fans are being offered an epic “Hob-bit” marathon on Monday.
The nine-hour program begins with “The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,” followed by “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug” and concluding with “The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies,” a full day be-fore its offi cial opening.
The marathon starts at 1 p.m. at Knoxville Center, Pinnacle, Riviera, Wynn-song, Tinseltown in Oak Ridge and The Forge in Pigeon Forge. It startsat 2 p.m. at Foothills in Maryville. Tickets for the individual movies will not be sold. If you buy tickets on Fandango, you can get a free Nook ebook down load of Tolkien’s book.
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Ernie Roberts knows the Knoxville Nativity Pageant well, having been its assis-tant director for the past four years.
Carol Shane
Nativity Pageant is a local tradition
The Knoxville Nativity Pageant’s players include David McDaniel, Karen Robinette and J.T.
Sharp. The show opens this Saturday afternoon at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. Photo by Leah Berry
Now he’s in the director’s chair.
It’s a big job, overseeing the cast and crew of this enormous annual produc-tion. There are large sets, many costumes – both humble and opulent – hun-dreds of cast members and singers, an orchestra and quite a few animals.
“I get the best view of all from the ‘crow’s nest’ at the top of the coliseum where I can see the entire fl oor and choir,” Roberts says. “I can see how beautiful the in-teraction is among our cast members. Every villager, shepherd, wise man, soldier and angel has the specifi cs of each role in mind and de-velops the character, telling his or her story as the events leading up to the birth of Je-sus unfold.
“I am in awe,” says Rob-erts, “of the ownership that each individual puts into this production.”
During his time with the pageant, Roberts says, “I have gotten to know the cast, musicians, technical folks and board of direc-tors, which allows me to trust in them as each does a phenomenal job. This is defi nitely a wonderful team production.”
One part of that team is the orchestra, led by Mark Hill. Mary Ann Fennell, who is in charge of con-tacting and securing the talented musicians each year, remembers going to
the very first Nativity Pag-eant, held in the courtyard of the Civic Coliseum. “The animals were outside, and it was cold and muddy – probably just like the real thing would have been!” she laughs.
Fennell has played vio-lin in the pageant for many years, and even she is at a loss to count them. When asked if she can name any enjoyable details about the show, she immediately answers, “ev-eryone loves the donkey. But he’s not always a sweetie.”
“The pageant will have many humorous mo-ments, in many cases cour-tesy of the sheep, goats and the infamous donkey,” Rob-erts says. Having animals in the cast, he feels, adds a touch of realism. “The sheep and goats sometimes like to play, and we use an animal
wrangler dressed as a shep-herd to get them on and off stage on time. The don-key, however, is front and center and many times will have a mind of its own.
“The plan is always to get Mary to come in on the donkey with Joseph lead-ing it to the gate. Sometimes the donkey has been known to tell its side of the story with some braying.” There have been times, continues Roberts, when the animal has “stopped in its tracks or begun to make some side steps to force Mary to walk to the gates of the city alongside Joseph.
“We will get Mary to her destination,” he confi rms with a grin, “but each year with each performance, the trip is never a dull moment!”
In addition to fi ne acting and glorious music, each
performance also includes beautiful lighting, says Rob-erts.
“I am always amazed how everything comes together, but then again I have faith and know that the actors and crew will be ready because they love, cherish and be-lieve in what they are doing.”
The Knoxville Nativity Pageant will be presented at 3 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 13, 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 14, and 7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 15, at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. Admission is free. All shows begin in darkness, and audi-ence members are request-ed to come early in order to fi nd seats and get settled. Each performance lasts ap-proximately one hour. Info: www.knoxvillenativity.com or 258-9985.Send story suggestions to news@
shoppernewsnow.com.
Swanson’s was famous when I was a child for one reason: chicken pot pies. My mother did not buy many meals that were “heat and eat.” She always felt they were too expensive because the serving sizes were so small, and my mother only knew how to cook for an army. Things that came in individual portions, like TV dinners or chicken pot pies, were considered a luxury.
One of the few exceptions was Swanson’s chicken pot pies. She really liked them and would comment about how good the chicken was and how fl aky the crust was. Kids liked them be-cause they were individual
Plate it
Parkside Grill Mystery
Diner
and came in cute little silver bowls that had a multitude of uses after the meal was fi nished.
Today, chicken pot pies are considered comfort food because they bring back memories of home and hearth and warm dinners on cold nights. Restaurants try a variety of ways to pres-ent pot pies, from gourmet pies where the fi lling is
poured over a puff pastry to more traditional renditions with top and bottom crust holding the creamy chicken and veggies inside.
Parkside Grill, 338 N. Pe-ters Road, slips somewhere in the middle and has one of the best chicken pot pies I have ever eaten. There is no bottom crust, but the top crust is fl aky and delicious. And they serve it in a big skillet so that the crust-to-fi lling ratio is spot-on. Noth-ing is worse than coming to
the end of your pot pie and having fi lling left with no crust to sop it up! There is nothing exotic in the Park-side chicken pot pie, just the basics: chicken, creamy and thick broth, onions, corn, celery, carrots and just a few peas, which is a plus for me because I don’t have to pick them out!
So Parkside has avoided all the pitfalls of taking a comfort food and putting it on a restaurant menu. They haven’t tried to glam it up
A delicious puff -pastry crust tops the old-fashioned yummi-
ness of Parkside Grill’s chicken pot pie.
or deconstruct it or make it something it was never intended to be. It is just an old-fashioned, delicious
chicken pot pie.Just like Swanson’s … I
mean Mom … used to make!
8 • DECEMBER 10, 2014 • SOUTH KNOX Shopper news kids
THROUGH SUNDAY, DEC. 14Call for Heska Amuna Synagogue artists,
bakers and crafters to participate in the Sisterhood-sponsored arts, crafts, bake sale fundraiser. Bring priced items to the sale by 9:30 a.m.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 10Chanukah Storytime with Laurie Fisher,
Merry Merry! Santa’s on His Way, 4 p.m., Far-ragut Branch Library, 417 N. Campbell Station Road. Info: 777-1750.
Merry Merry! Santa’s on His Way, 10:45 a.m., Lawson McGhee Library, 500 W. Church Ave. Info: 215-8750.
Sean McCollough Storytime, 11 a.m., Karns Branch Library, 7516 Oak Ridge Highway. Info: 470-8663.
THURSDAY, DEC. 11Joy to the World Luncheon, 10:45 a.m.,
Buddy’s Bearden Banquet Hall, 5806 Kingston Pike. Hosted by Knoxville Christian Women’s Connection. Complimentary child care is by reservation only. Costs: $12 inclusive. Info/reservations: 315-8182 or [email protected].
Knoxville Square Dance, 8 p.m., Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave. Live old-time music and local callers. No experience or partners or special clothing needed. Everyone welcome. Info: www.jubileearts.org.
Historic Ramsey House, 2614 Thorn Grove Pike. Cost: $35. All materials provided. Info/reservations: 546-0745.
Kitten and cat adoption fair, noon-6 p.m., West Town Petsmart adoption center, 214 Morrell Road. Sponsored by Feral Feline Friends of East Tennessee.
Info: www.feralfelinefriends.org.Knoxville author Cinthia Stafford will read
to children, 11 a.m., Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 8029 Kingston Pike. Book signing will follow at noon. Part of the proceeds will go to East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.
MONDAY, DEC. 15Chanukah Storytime with Laurie Fisher, 2:30
p.m., Murphy Branch Library, 2247 Western Ave., L.T. Ross Bldg. Info: 521-7812.
Tennessee Shines: Decembersongs with Wild Po-nies, Amy Speace and Rod Picott plus poet Susan O’Dell Underwood, 7 p.m., Knoxville Visitor Center, 301 S. Gay St. Tickets: $10, free for students with valid ID and chil-dren ages 14 and under. Info/tickets: WDVX.com.
TUESDAY, DEC. 16Merry Merry! Santa’s on His Way, 11 a.m.,
Bearden Branch Library, 100 Golf Club Road. Info: 588-8813.
Merry Merry! Santa’s on His Way, 3 p.m., Karns Branch Library, 417 N. Campbell Station Road. Info: 777-1750.
Winter Wonderland event, 5-7 p.m., Dr. Walter Hardy Park, 2020 Martin Luther King Jr. Ave. Hosted by Five Points Up community group. The event is free and open to anyone who lives, works and plays in the Five Points community.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 17Chanukah Storytime with Laurie Fisher, 11:15
a.m., Cedar Bluff Branch Library, 9045 Cross Park Drive. Info: 470-7033.
International Folk Dancing, 7:30-10 p.m., Clax-ton Community Center, 1150 Edgemoor Road. Spon-sored by the Oak Ridge Folk Dancers. Holiday potluck supper, 6:30 p.m. Info: Paul Taylor, 898-5724 or www.oakridgefolkdancers.org.
by Circle Modern Dance, Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave. Performances: 8 p.m. Thursday; 7 and 9 p.m. Fri-day and Saturday. Reception follows the 9 p.m. Friday show. Bring pillows as seating is limited. Tickets: www.circlemoderndance.com or www.Knoxtix.com.
FRIDAY, DEC. 19Tour de Lights bike ride, 7 p.m., Market Square.
Helmets and headlights required; all ages and skill lev-els welcome. Info: www.knoxtrans.org or 215-6100.
Tennessee Shines: Red Shoes & Rosin and poet Dawn Coppock, 7 p.m., Knoxville Visitor Center, 301 S. Gay St. Tickets: $10, free for students with valid ID and children ages 14 and under. Info/tickets: WDVX.com.
TUESDAY, DEC. 30Family Movie Night: “Frozen,” 3 p.m., Lawson
McGhee Library, 500 W. Church Ave. Info: 215-8750.
WEDNESDAY, DEC. 31New Year’s on the Square, beginning 11 p.m.,
Market Square. Ball drop and fi reworks at midnight. Holidays on Ice skating rink open 1 p.m.-midnight. Info: www.cityofknoxville.org/Christmas.
James Swart reads to Bonny Kate students during a “Cowboy in
the Classroom” session. Photo submitted
By Betsy PickleBonny Kate Elementary
School students were much too young to remember the old fast-food slogan, but you know a bunch of teachers had to be asking, “Where’s the beef?” during the recent Tennessee Agriculture Lit-eracy Week.
Janna Miller Sullivan, director of retail, food ser-vice and youth education for the Tennessee Beef Indus-try Council, arranged for Bonny Kate to participate in the “Cowboy in the Class-room” program. Members of the Collegiate 4-H at the University of Tennessee vis-ited the school each day and read to Bonny Kate’s pre-K through second-graders.
According to the council, Tennessee has 40,000 cat-tle farmers, and cattle are the state’s No. 1 agricultural commodity. “Cowboy in the Classroom” aims to teach youngsters about the im-portance of beef cattle and
help them appreciate what farmers do every day.
James Swart, president of UT’s Collegiate 4-H, came to read as did fellow 4-Hers Hannah Wright, Brigette Passman, secretary Sarah Wingo and social chair Seth Harrison.
“Our students learned more about beef cattle than they ever thought they would want to know,” said librarian Robin Milhollan. “It was a wonderful oppor-tunity for our students to understand a little bit more about agriculture – and what that really means.”
Kindergartners Keaton Nave, Walter Gould and Benson Brang said they liked learning the “ABCs” of agriculture.
First-grader Dara El-lis was happy to have some questions answered.
“I wanted to learn about the cows, bull riding and what it means,” she said.
By Betsy PickleOK, Mooreland Heights,
get ready to hear some noise!
Groundbreaking should begin soon on the much-anticipated addition to Mooreland Heights Elemen-tary School. Both the Knox County Board of Education and Knox County Commis-sion approved a construc-tion contract with Custom Crafted Construction for $1,045,250 in November.
At press time, Doug Dill-ingham, KCS supervisor of facilities management, said the law department had told him that the contract was in Mayor Tim Burchett’s offi ce awaiting his signature.
“As soon as he signs it and gets it back to them, we’ll be ready to go,” said Dilling-ham. “Hopefully within the next day or two, we will be able to break ground.”
The design by Architects Weeks Ambrose McDonald
Inc. includes six new class-rooms and four offi ces. The school is also getting three “alternates” – additional re-strooms, an upgrade to the electrical system and addi-tional parking – and a new playground close to Martin Mill Pike.
The contractor submitted a timeline of 150 workdays, “which is very, very aggres-sive,” said Dillingham. But since that means fi nishing around the end of May or the fi rst of June, there’s wig-gle room in the schedule if it needs to go longer due to in-clement weather this winter or spring.
“We would like to have it available when the children come back to school in Au-gust 2015,” Dillingham said.
As for the impact during class time, “We try to mini-mize that as much as possi-ble,” he said. “The new addi-tion will be on the end of the existing building, so we can
■ South of the River Demo-crats (9th District) meets
6:30 p.m. each third Monday,
S. Knoxville Community Cen-
ter, 522 Maryville Pike. Info:
Jim Sessions, jim.sessions@
comcast.net or 573-0655.
■ South Haven Neighborhood Association meets 10 a.m.
each third Saturday, Hillcrest
UMC, 1615 Price Ave. Info: Pat
Harmon, 591-3958.
■ South Woodlawn Neigh-borhood Association. Info:
Shelley Conklin, 686-6789.
somewhat isolate it from the educational process.
“Our No. 1 concern is the safety and welfare of our children, so we take every step possible to assure that at all times.”
Dillingham said work will stop during TCAPs, and principal Roy Miller will be advised on the noise levels for each day.
“What I try to tell the staff at the school, we’re go-ing to be building an addi-tion while you’re trying to teach kids, so there are go-ing to be some days that are going to be pretty bad, and then there are going to be some days that will be worse than that. But at the end of the day, everybody’s going to be h appy.”
Shopper news • DECEMBER 10, 2014 • 9 business
Nancy Whittaker
Murphy-Boutwell
Megan Murphy-Boutwell has a background in food
s e r v i c e and safety. While work-ing for Bush B r o t h e r s , she also w o r k e d part time as an in-dependent Mary Kay
consultant. After some seri-ous soul-searching, Megan made the decision to quit her job and jump into her Mary Kay career full time.
Megan says, “I believe in Mary Kay’s philosophy. You should be able to fully live your life by putting faith fi rst, family second and career third. My priori-ties were out of order.” She decided the best way to live the life she wanted was to become her own boss.
In the past year, Megan has worked her way up to independent sales director and rose to the top 3 percent in the company. She is fol-lowing her passion for help-ing people and describes herself as a “coach, mentor and cheerleader.”
Changing one’s fi nancial structure is one reason to start your own Mary Kay business. However, Megan says a bonus is making new friends. Also, young moms enjoy the opportunity to get out of the house for a while.
With more than seven years’ experience, Megan says she has learned how to make husbands look like heroes when it comes to gift-giving. She also of-fers executive shopping for business owners and bosses who want special gifts for their employees. She enjoys customizing gifts and offers all price levels for every age group. Free gift wrapping, free shipping and free gifts
By Nancy WhittakerJustin Sterling, president
of the East Towne Business Alliance, welcomed mem-bers, guests, several politi-cians and local residents to the Dec. 3 meeting.
Keith Edmonds with Clayton Bank and Trust treated everyone to a deli-cious breakfast of Richy Kreme Donuts. Edmonds spoke about the importance of giving back to the com-munity.
“Community involve-ment is most important,” he said, announcing that Clay-ton Bank was recently rated the No. 1 community bank in East Tennessee.
Knox County law director Bud Armstrong delivered an informative and entertain-ing talk. Armstrong spoke primarily about education, economics and legal issues that affect groups such as the ETBA.
Jack Neely’s book details
the history of the Tennessee
Theatre. It will be available in
January. Photo by Bonny C. Millard Hancock Neely
By Bonny C. MillardTennessee Theatre Exec-
utive Director Becky Han-cock and local historian and writer Jack Neely offered a glimpse inside Neely’s most recent book, due out in Jan-uary, that documents the history of the theater.
The theater celebrated its 86th anniversary in Oc-tober.
Hancock and Neely shared details and photographs of the theatre’s history at the Rotary Club of Knoxville. As the theatre approached its 85th anni-versary in 2013, the board of directors of the Historic Tennessee Theatre Founda-tion wanted something spe-cial to commemorate the milestone.
The result is Neely’s book, “The Tennessee The-atre: A Grand Entertain-ment Palace.” Hancock said the book won’t be out in time for Christmas, but people can preorder it.
Hancock showed some old photos of the construc-tion of the theater from November 1927, when the builders broke ground. It opened in October 1928.
The building, which has seen ups and downs over
the years, was renovated in 2005 and now serves as a performing arts center.
Neely told stories about legendary performers who appeared at the theatre, many times for standing-room-only crowds.
“This project was es-pecially gratifying to me,”
Neely said. “Like a lot of people, I grew up at the Tennessee The-atre.”
In the course of writing the book,
Knoxville’s historian dug through records, pho-tographs, news accounts and other documentation to bring the theatre’s history to life. The theatre offered performances that catered to many tastes, most of them family oriented, but occasionally a risqué act that opened late at night. The Ziegfeld Follies, Helen Hayes, the legendary Glenn Miller and Desi Arnaz all made appearances. Tom Mix performed with several live horses on the stage, a show that Neely was able to verify.
“It’s really fascinating to research these things,” he said.
Info: www.tennesseetheatre.com/.
Neely pens book on the Tennessee Theatre
By Sherry WittWhile real estate sales
experienced a typical s l o w d o w n in Novem-ber, a spike in mortgage lending and r e f i n a n c -ing led to a healthy m o n t h
overall. An aggregate $313 million was loaned against real estate in Knox County. That bested last November by nearly $80 million and easily surpassed October’s $288 million.
Mortgage type loans in Knox County lagged during the fi rst half of 2014, but the market has been play-ing catch-up since the end of summer. Mortgage lend-ing had been nearly $1 bil-lion behind the 2013 pace, but that defi cit has been cut recently.
Property sales showed 735 transfers in Novem-
ber, compared to 889 in October. Some 809 parcels changed hands last Novem-ber. The total value of prop-erty sold for the month was $173.8 million, about $34 million short of the October aggregate but only slightly behind last November.
The largest property transfer of the month in-volved parcels located in the 6700 block of Clinton Highway, comprising much of the development known as Northwest Crossing. The property sold to DFG-Knoxville for $15.5 mil-lion. The largest mortgage transaction was the fi nanc-ing of multiple properties in the Fort Sanders area near White Avenue and 17th Street for $46.4 million.
I sincerely hope each of you enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with friends, family and loved ones, and from all of us at the Regis-ter’s offi ce I want to wish you and yours a very Merry Christmas.
Mortgage lending surge drives November markets
Witt
News from Offi ce of Register of Deeds
Debbie Bell, administra-tor of UT Day Surgery, has received the Certifi ed Ad-ministrator Surgery Center (CASC) credential.
Bell began her career with UT Medical Center in 1991 as a nurse manager in the Endoscopy and Short Stay Nursing Unit. She later served as director for spe-cial projects at the medical center including the startup of an outpatient healthcare facility and network devel-opment, where she served
as a physician liaison re-sponsible for referral de-
velopment with refer-ring physi-cians and f a c i l i t i e s throughout the East T e n n e s -see service area. In 2008, she
was named as administra-tor of UT Day Surgery.
Debbie Bell
Debbie Bell earns surgery management credential
Fountain City resident Michelle Ironside Henry
has penned “My Anchor Holds,” an inspiration-al account of her bat-tle against Stage IV c o lor e c t a l cancer.
H e n r y chronicles her four-year journey from diagnosis to restoration of health, in-cluding journal entries made during her illness and present-day refl ections on those passages written while in the throes of tests
and treatment.Henry is a writer with
Moxley Carmichael public relations fi rm and executive director of Executive Wom-en’s Association.
She will sign books from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday, Dec. 13, at Advanced Con-cepts II, 4852 Harvest Mill Way in Fountain City and is scheduling book sign-ings and speaking engage-ments.
“My Anchor Holds” is published by WestBow Press, a division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan. Info: www.Michel leIronsideHenr y.com/.
Henry
Michelle Henry’s book details cancer battle
Bud Armstrong speaks to the East Towne Business Alliance. Photo by Nancy Whittaker
Knox law director shares vision with ETBA
With ties to East Knox-ville, Armstrong was help-ful in explaining some is-sues he feels people don’t really understand. “Knox County government doesn’t
have a school system,” said Armstrong. “The state con-stitution states it belongs to the state Legislature. Local people are elected to admin-ister the state’s schools.
“Compared to years ago, education is different. Ev-erything is different,” he said. His analysis of the ex-tent to which technical jobs have changed helped lis-teners understand why the success rate is low on many automated jobs.
Armstrong is proud of what his offi ce has accom-plished. The settlement rate for lawsuits has dropped from $1.8 million to less than $200,000. “We don’t settle very many cases un-less it is in the best interest of Knox County. I am kind of like your watchdog,” said Armstrong.
Armstrong shared sev-eral tips on making a busi-ness successful. He closed by stating, “The dreams are yours to capture.”
The group will meet next at 8 a.m. Wednesday, Jan. 7, at New Harvest Park Com-munity Center.
Murphy-Boutwell is coach, mentor, cheerleader
with purchases are bonuses.A fun 12 days of Christ-
mas promotion is plannedDec. 12-23. A differentproduct will be discountedeach day. Just text “12 days”to 865-313-6399 and opt in.You will automatically get atext each morning with thespecial of the day.
Mary Kay also offersmen’s skin-care products.Many of them are fragrancefree, and Megan says theseare hugely popular with hermale clients. Her teenageclients enjoy learning aboutskin care and how to prop-erly use the color line for theyounger generation.
Megan says she usesMary Kay from head to toe.“I couldn’t sell a product Idon’t believe in. I stand be-hind my products becauseMary Kay stands behindme.”
Megan is currently book-ing her popular “New Year– New You” makeoversfor January. She explains,“Women give of themselvesso much this time of year.We need to be pamperedand rejuvenated in a relax-ing atmosphere.”
Megan welcomes anyonewho doesn’t currently havea Mary Kay consultant tocontact her. She has her own“store” where all productsare kept in stock. Internetshopping is available 24/7.Just go to www.marykay.com/mmurphy07 andplace your order. You canalso contact Megan at 865-313-6399 or email her atm mu r phy07@m a r yk ay.com/.
