NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ

IN THIS ISSUE

Tiny gardensThe Chapman Highway

Garden Club got a tiny peek at gardens, er, a peek at tiny gardens when Sue Hamil-ton came to visit. Hamilton, director of the University

of Tennessee Gardens and a normal-sized person, spoke to the club members about ter-rariums.

➤ See Betsy Pickle’s story on page 3

Hours in the daySharon Davis grew up in

South Knoxville, where she attended Young High School. Thirty years ago, she moved to East Knoxville, where she lives on the Holston River. Her strong feelings and ties to both communities are evident. Da-vis says, “It is a pleasure to give back to the communities that have been so good to me.”

➤ See Nancy Whittaker on page 7

Fear the hatDerek Dooley’s “Fear the

Pants” never quite caught fi re, but there’s potential for John Fugate with “Fear the Hat.”

Manager of Commercial Bank in Fountain City, Fugate was appointed by County Com-mission to fi ll the term of Indya Kincannon until the November election. Three meetings.

➤ See Sandra Clark’s story on page 4

Forgive himI borrow this thought from

my Bible: Forgive him, Father, for he knew not what he doeth.

Good man Mike Hamil-ton wasn’t trying to crucify Tennessee football when he scheduled home-and-homes with Oregon and Oklahoma. He was undoubtedly thinking of national-spotlight intersec-tional games that would fi ll stadiums, sell lots and lots of popcorn and attract big TV for all the world to see.

➤ See Marvin West’s story on page 5

VOL. 2 NO. 36 July 29, 2013www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNow

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SOUTH KNOX

By Betsy PickleFor months, members of the

South Knoxville Alliance have been planning an event called Sat-urday South. You could call it their “fi eld of dreams” – they are hop-ing that now that they have built it, people will come.

This Saturday, South Knoxvil-lians have the chance to come to-gether and play, listen to music, dance, hike together and even shop together. The hub of activi-ties is Ijams Nature Center.

TREK South will lead a hike to Toll Creek and the River Board-walk starting at 10 a.m. Hikers should meet at the turtle sculpture in the Ijams parking lot.

Mayor Madeline Rogero, a South Knoxvillian herself, will offi cially open the event at noon.

The rest of the afternoon will in-clude demos by dance teams and bloodhounds, storytelling, and performances by Ryan Sexton, Heart and Soul and Jamie Cook and the Blue South. There will be booths, activities and food and craft vendors.

Meanwhile, Saturday South will spread throughout South Knox-ville via the K-Town Races, pat-terned loosely after “The Amazing Race.” Teams of two to four people can go to participating businesses to pick up clues for a puzzle. They can earn clues either by doing an activity for a Detour, or by making a small charity donation to get an Express Pass.

The Event Stops and opening times are Borderland Tees (10 a.m.), Disc Exchange (10 a.m.),

Round-Up Restaurant (7 a.m.), Shoney’s (6 a.m.), Stanley’s Green-house (9 a.m.) and The Henley Apartments (10 a.m.), with a spe-cial Pit Stop at Ijams. The format isn’t really a race, but the deadline to turn in completed puzzles is 4:30 p.m. Winners will be chosen by a random drawing from all eli-gible puzzles received.

The guaranteed minimum prize value is $400. Teams must register in advance online at www.saturdaysouth.com. Each team must include one member who is 18 or older.

The last event of the day will be a square dance at 7 p.m. at Can-doro Marble.

Saturday South is about bring-ing the community together for free family fun, says Debra Brad-shaw, SKA’s events chairman.

“We aim for a day that every-one in the community could be involved in, a day where we can all come together and be proud to live in South Knoxville,” she says.

SKA was formed to help South Knoxville survive during the time the Henley Bridge was closed. The bridge is open again, but there’s still work to be done to reinvigo-rate the community and area busi-nesses.

SKA plans to hold Saturday South quarterly for now and K-Town Races monthly.

“If the K-Town Races go over, if it can catch on, I would think ev-ery business in South Knoxville would want to participate,” says Bradshaw. “It’s an event where people can do something fun and make a friend.”

Saturday South aims to pull community together

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By Betsy PickleFast, furious, fun and creative:

All the characteristics that the or-ganizers of Design Slam Knoxville envisioned for their fi rst event came together. And South Knox-ville was the fi rst benefi ciary.

Sponsored by the East Tennes-see Chapter of the United States Green Building Council, Design Slam brought architects, archi-tecture students, engineers, city planners and neighborhood rep-resentatives together Thursday, Aug. 28, at The Standard in the Old City for an evening of com-munity spirit. Teams of four were given the challenge of coming up with ideas to help a neighborhood encourage residents to socialize, exercise and generally become more energized.

The site picked for the fi rst De-sign Slam was the area that melds South Haven and South Wood-

South Haven residents David Bruno and Linda Rust, neighborhood association president, talk with Design Slam

organizer Peter Osickey. Photo by Betsy Pickle

South Haven, South WoodlawnDesign Slam puts spotlight on

To page 3

By Wendy SmithLawyers, it seems, are

slow to talk about judges, even those who are about to leave the bench. But a few brave barristers were willing to share their im-pressions at last week’s Knoxville Bar Associa-tion’s annual Supreme Court Dinner.

City Attorney Charles Swanson was quick with his praise. He described Chancellor Daryl Fansler as “one of the most respon-sible judges in my experi-ence.” Fansler always gave a fair trial without being biased beyond the facts of a case, he said.

Circuit Court Judge Harold Wimberly is an ex-cellent scholar who under-stands the law and enjoyed

the process of applying it, Swanson said.

As a former Knox County Law Director, Circuit Court Judge Dale Workman came to the bench with a broad range of experience. He also brought a sense of hu-manity to the job.

“He empathized with the people before him more than any other judge. He did a great job,” said Swanson.

Steven Lipsey, an attor-ney with Stone & Hinds, served on juries in Wim-berly’s and Workman’s courts. Both did an excel-lent job, he said.

“I learned a lot by sit-ting in the jury box. My service on the juries made me very proud of the legal profession.”

New Tennessee State Supreme Court Justice Jeff Bivins

greets U.S. District Court Judge Pamela Reeves at the Knox-

ville Bar Association’s dinner. Photo by Wendy Smith

Knox Bar salutes outgoing judges

As a practicing credi-tors’ rights lawyer, Lipsey is in bankruptcy court reg-ularly. He describes U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rich-ard Stair as intelligent and

compassionate with “just the right temperament to handle cases for people who are experiencing fi -nancial problems.”

Doug Blaze, dean of the

UT College of Law, said the school was fortunate to have Fansler as an adjunct professor, in spite of how diffi cult it was to schedule teaching time around his hunting schedule.

“He is one of the bright-est, best judges.”

Attorney Anne McKin-ney, known for her hats and musical parodies, recalled portraying Knox County Criminal Court JudgeMary Beth Leibowitz at the East Tennessee Society of Professional Journalists’ Front Page Follies. In spite of McKinney’s jab at the judge’s “less than vogue” wardrobe, Leibowitz hap-pily recalls the event.

“She always says, ‘She played me,’” laughed McK-

Helton reception Former players are invited

to a reception for coach Joel Helton from 6 to 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 12, in the fi eld house at Central High School prior to the football game.

2 • SEPTEMBER 10, 2014 • Shopper news

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A picture perfect hip replacement!As a fi lm editor for television

and fi lms for nearly 25 years, Gian Ganziano of Knoxville, 46, knows his way around digital special ef-fects.

Ganziano is currently the lead editor on the television show “South Park,” plus he has ed-ited the digital special effects for movies like “Titanic,” “Batman Forever,” “Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines” and many others. He commutes to Los Angeles for work, but he and his family call Knoxville home.

Recently, Ganziano was the re-cipient of “special effects” technol-ogy performed in real life at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center. He had a direct anterior hip re-placement with orthopedic sur-geon Dr. Paul Yau.

“Both my parents have had both hips replaced, so I think it’s something genetic. I have a lot of arthritis in my hips. I used to do a lot of hiking, but noticed over the last couple of years I wasn’t able to get out and do as much movement

Direct anterior hip replacement A new approach with great results

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center is among only 15 percent of U.S. hospitals with the staff and facilities available to perform the latest approach in hip replacement surgery, called “Direct Anterior Hip Replacement.”

In this procedure, the surgeon goes through the front (anterior) portion of the hip instead of the side or back. This allows the sur-gery to separate important mus-cles and tendons instead of cutting through them to position a new hip joint implant.

“When I fi rst started doing hip replacement surgery this way, I thought it was just another option to access the joint, but people have done amazingly well with this ap-proach,” said Dr. Paul Yau, an or-

thopedic surgeon with Fort Sand-ers Regional Medical Center.

“With tra-ditional hip replacements, we have to cut muscles or tendons, which pro-longs the r e c o v e r y process and may require limitations on hip motion,” said Yau. “It

is common to hear patients being told not to bend at the hip more than 90 degrees, squat, reach to the fl oor or cross your legs after hip replacement because it would

risk a dislocation. “With the anterior approach,

none of these typical ligaments are cut, which means all of these com-mon activities are safe immedi-ately after surgery,” Yau explained.

The anterior approach does re-quire a specialized surgical table and intraoperative X-rays.

“The specialized table allows for safe leg placement not possible with a traditional surgical table,” said Yau. “This unique table im-proves access to the hip joint and permits the use of intraoperative X-rays to ensure accurate implant position.

“Traditionally, leg length dis-crepancies are a well-known com-plication after total hip replace-ment. The use of live, real-time

imaging during surgery allows the surgeon to make both legs bal-anced and symmetric in length,” he said. “This means the implant will last longer. I no longer say you have to be a certain age to get a hip replacement.”

With the anterior approach, the patient should expect usually one or two nights in the hospital.

“Some people even go home the same day,” said Yau. “People re-cover so much faster it’s unbeliev-able.”

Yau said he began doing the anterior surgery routinely about a year ago and uses it today for about 95 percent of his hip replacement and repair surgeries.

“It does require special facilities and a trained staff, which we have

at Fort Sanders. There are a lot of moving parts to the surgery andthey all need to be coordinated oryou’ll have problems,” he said.

Studies have backed up Yau’sopinion of anterior hip replace-ment.

“You know how progress tends to happen in increments?” he asked. “I want to say this is a giantleap instead of an incremental one in orthopedic surgery. I haven’tseen anything this dramatically improve people’s outcome fromsurgery, ever.”

For more information on direct

anterior hip replacement, call 673-

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as I was used to, and the pain was getting worse,” said Ganziano.

Ganziano said he wanted to use this summer and his few months of downtime to get his right hip replaced.

“My general doctor recom-mended Dr. Yau’s practice, and I got online and looked at the re-views. He had some really good words written about him, and I set up an appointment,” said Gan-ziano.

What Ganziano learned at that appointment is that for about 95 percent of his hip replacement pa-tients, Dr. Yau uses the “anterior” approach, which means he makes an incision in the front (anterior) part of the hip instead of the side or rear.

Entering via this route, Yau can separate the muscles and tendons instead of cutting through them to install the new hip joint. This, in turn, means a quicker recovery (see accompanying article) and fewer complications.

Ganziano stayed just one night

at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center for his hip replacement.

“Fort Sanders was phenom-enal,” he said. “The nurses were great and attentive. The whole staff, from nurses to the physical therapy staff, was great. It’s one of the best hospital experiences I’ve ever had. It was clean. It was apleasant experience from the time I checked in.”

Just hours after surgery, Gan-ziano was up and walking aroundthe hospital. After three weeks ofrecovery and physical therapy, heis now back to work in Los Angeles.

“I’ve compressed six weeks of recovery into three,” said Ganzia-no. “I’m up and walking and I haveno pain whatsoever. If things go the way we’re thinking they will,I’ll come back in December and dothe left hip, but we’ll see.”

For more information on the

Joint Center at Fort Sanders Re-

gional Medical Center,

call 673-FORT or visit our website

at www.fsregional.com.

Risk factors for a broken hipAge

If you are 60 or older, you may be at risk for a hip fracture. As your body ages, the strength and density of your bones may deteriorate. This may leave you vul-nerable to fractures because weak bones may break easily. In addition to bone deterioration, advanced age often brings vision and balance problems as well as other issues that make you more likely to fall.

WeightYour hips support almost

all of the weight of your upper body. Excess weight may wear down your hip cartilage and cause the bones to rub together. This action may destroy healthy bone tissue.

EthnicityIf you are of Asian

or Caucasian descent, you are at a higher risk for osteoporosis than people of other ethnic backgrounds.

GenderIf you are a woman,

your chances of bone fracture in the hip in-crease because you are more susceptible to os-teoporosis than a man.

■ If you have previously had a broken hip, you are at a much greater risk for another hip break.

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The Chapman Highway Garden Club got a tiny peek at gardens, er, a peek at tiny gardens when Sue Hamilton came to visit.

SoKno folks Robert Marlino, Debbie Sharp and Danny Gray hang out at Design Slam.

Design Slam From page 1

lawn, from downtown South Haven to the Urban Wilder-ness trailhead at the land donated by the Wood family. The site includes the outdoor classroom at South-Doyle Middle School (which was spearheaded by the South Woodlawn Neighborhood Association), Baker Creek and the vast parking lot that goes with the former Sevier Heights Baptist Church, now New Birth Knoxville.

“There’s a lot of focus on new buildings,” said Peter Osickey, the local architect and USGBC board mem-ber who organized Design Slam. “We really wanted to focus on existing buildings and how to connect those two neighborhoods and make them better, more liv-able communities.”

Carol Evans of Legacy Parks introduced Osickey to Brian Hann, South Knox-ville resident and past pres-ident of the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club, and Hann introduced Osickey to the South Haven-South

Woodlawn area.The neighborhood as-

sociations of both came up with extensive lists of things that would benefi t the com-munity. The design teams were given info on the site a week ahead, and at Design Slam they had an hour to come up with plans for the area, which they then had fi ve minutes to present to the crowd.

The event was heavily attended by friends of the design teams, but there was also a strong contingent from South Knox.

Robyn McAdoo of South Knoxville was on a team primarily made up of co-workers from BarberMc-Murry Architecture. She was happy to be part of the event.

“I’m a resident of South Knoxville, I love South Knoxville and it’s home to me,” she said.

“It’s a fun event for us to get out and as architects, as designers explore differ-ent ways to go about solving

problems. This is one way that you can get the com-munity involved, you can design and it’s a fun envi-ronment – it’s not anyone taking themselves too seri-ously – and you can get a lot of good input.”

The winning design was decided by the number of purchased tickets put in each team’s jar. (That mon-ey will go to help projects in the South neighborhoods.) The winners got a trophy and bragging rights, and Ben Epperson of the Knox County Health Department was given the ideas.

He will use them along with “community input to guide community-led changes to the neighbor-hood.”

“We won’t be able to dump hundreds of thousands of dollars into streetscapes, but we will be able to make small changes,” Epperson said. “I think it will give us some added momentum to the projects already under-way in the neighborhoods.”

Brian Hann, Knoxville Mayor Madeline Rogero and Carol Evans share thoughts at Design Slam. Photos by Betsy Pickle

Sue Hamilton talks terrariums

with the Chapman Highway

Garden Club. Photo by Betsy Pickle

Tiny gardensall year long

Betsy Pickle

Hamilton, director of the University of Tennes-see Gardens and a normal-sized person, spoke to the club members about ter-rariums. Huge in the 1970s, terrariums are making their way back into vogue now, Hamilton said.

Glass containers of vari-ous sizes and shapes can be used for terrariums and add to their appeal (I grew up with the boring ol’ fi sh-tank terrariums, so this was good news for me). Craft stores usually have a di-verse selection.

If you’ve succumbed to the growing popularity of fairy gardens in recent years, you could already be on your way to starting a terrarium. Fairy-garden plants are great features for terrariums.

When putting a ter-rarium together, decide on the type of theme that you want, botanically speaking, and stick to it. Don’t mix tropical plants and desert plants, for example. Also, remember that terrariums have no drainage, so it’s important to take that into consideration when prepar-ing the layers of a terrarium and deciding whether to keep it open or use a lid.

Hamilton, a faculty member who manages the undergraduate and gradu-ate programs in public horticulture in UT’s De-partment of Plant Sciences,

went over the history of the terrarium. She went back to its roots in Victorian Eng-land, when it began life as a “Wardian case” – nothing to do with the “Edwardian” period. It was named for a botanist named Nathaniel Ward.

■ Dogwood Fever at SKNBCThe South Knoxville

Neighborhood and Business Coalition kept the topic of Dogwood alive at its most recent meeting.

Members discussed the 2015 Featured Dogwood Trail – which happens to be Chapman Highway – and ideas to present this month to the Dogwood Trails Advi-sory Committee. Both Lake Forest and Colonial Village neighborhood associations have alterations they’d like to make in the routes of their sections of the trail.

Materials handed out at the meeting included a let-ter from Peggy Tubbs, chair of the Chapman Highway Trail, and Molly Gilbert, as-sistant chair, that encour-aged residents along the trail to start getting ready for next year’s big event. Actions this fall could in-clude fi nishing home-im-provement projects, remov-ing dead wood, pruning invasive vines and planting bulbs, especially daffodils and tulips.

Gilbert attended the meeting to encourage in-put and to emphasize the need for fall preparations. SKNBC members have some ideas about adding streets outside the two main neighborhoods to the trail, or possibly creating a new garden byway.

A petition to encour-age Three Rivers Mar-ket to open a location in South Knoxville is gaining

ground. South Knoxville residents patronize the cur-rent Happy Holler location in large numbers, and many would like to have a branch of the store on this side of the river.

Meanwhile, suggestions to recruit an Aldi grocery store for SoKno were also made.

Janice Tocher of the South Woodlawn Neighbor-hood Association was fa-cilitator for the evening. She told the SKNBC reps that the SWNA board had proposed having a fall gathering of all South Knox neighborhood groups, but when ideas were put forth for a spring event, support seemed to swing to the later date.

Antoinette Fritz of the South Knoxville Alliance brought the group up to speed on Saturday South, which is this weekend and is expected to bring many South Knoxvillians together for a day of free fun.

Raising funds for Alzheimer’sRadio station Q100.3 recently hosted a benefi t concert to raise funds for the Pat Summitt

Foundation. The concert, featuring country music artist Randy Houser, raised $11,000 for

the fi ght against Alzheimer’s disease. Pictured at the charity concert are Q100.3 on-air per-

sonalities Krisha Newport, Danielle and Carina with artist Randy Houser and program di-

rector Mike Hammond. Photo submitted

Knox Bar From page 1

inney.The purpose of the Su-

preme Court Dinner is to honor the Tennessee Su-preme Court and all mem-bers of the local judiciary. Chief Justice Sharon Lee recognized local outgoing judges and welcomed new ones.

She also expressed ap-preciation for her retention, along with Justices Cornelia Clark and Gary Wade. The

bench and bar taught a civ-ics lesson on the indepen-dence of the judicial branch this summer, she said.

She supports Amend-ment 2 to the Tennessee Constitution, which would empower the governor to appoint judges to any state appellate court subject to confi rmation by the General Assembly. After an eight-year term, judges could serve another term if re-

tained by voters.“With Amendment 2,

Tennesseans will have a strong voice in every step of the process.”

Adoption attorney Dawn Coppock, who has spent time in half of the state’s courtrooms, didn’t care to elaborate on any particular judge but offered general praise.

“East Tennessee has an extremely strong trial bench. I enjoy working with them.”

of the bus system in Knox-ville is really good with three core routes having 15-min-ute service and many having 30-minute service. She cited the mayor’s support of public transit. This writer fi rst ap-pointed Rogero to the KAT Board in 2001 when she was a private citizen.

Distler, who likes to hike, says selling public transit in Knoxville is different than in larger cities. She cites customer service as key. She earned a degree in business management from the Uni-versity of Phoenix in 2009.

She added, “I love Knox-ville and think it is a great city.” She complimented Renee Hoyos, KAT Board chair, as “great to work with.” Hoyos’ term as chair expires in a few months, and a new chair will be elected by the existing board.

■ TVA: The White House in late August announced appointments for two of the three vacancies on the TVA Board. They are Virginia “Gina” Lodge of Nashville and Ron Walters of Mem-phis to replace Bill Sansom of Knoxville and Barbara Haskew of Chattanooga, whose terms expired in May. They continue on the board until the end of this year.

Lodge’s husband is a former Democratic state party chair.

W h a t went unre-ported in all the publicity on these two persons was the third vacancy on the board, once held by Neil Mc-

Bride of Oak Ridge, whose term expired in May 2013. It is still vacant. In other words, the oldest vacancy is still unfi lled, which shows the disinterest from the White House in fi lling the position. McBride, who has worked diligently to reclaim his old seat, has encountered a cold wind from Washington. He voted for a Republican to chair TVA, a negative with the White House.

Former U.S. Rep. Lin-coln Davis tried to get the appointment, but he is now a lobbyist, and the Obama White House bars lobbyists from presidential nomina-tions. Billy Stair of Knoxville has been mentioned, too, and is a possibility.

It will be the lame-duck November Senate session before the two nominees will be considered for confi rma-

tion, or they may go over to 2015, especially if the GOP wins control of the Senate. The board will be down to six members then.

Whiteside: Judge Scott Green has set Sept. 15 for the Troy Whiteside trial. If you recall, this is about a homi-cide that occurred almost six years ago and was trans-ferred to the DA in Greene County. Perhaps some prog-ress will occur on this com-ing to a conclusion. It is a sad commentary on the judicial system that this has not gone to trial or been dismissed in over six years. Most media have ignored this situation.

■ Debate: GOP state Senate nominee Rick Briggs has agreed to one debate (date and site not determined) with Demo-crat Cheri Siler. Siler wants more. Briggs had a fund-raiser in Nashville last week sponsored by Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and GOP senators that raised $65,000, accord-ing to Bonnie Brezina, his campaign manager. A Knox-ville fund raiser with Gov. Haslam is set for Oct. 3.

Debates between District 13 state Rep. Gloria Johnson and challenger Eddie Smith have not been set at this time.

4 • SEPTEMBER 10, 2014 • Shopper news

Dawn Distler

government

Last week, the public af-fairs specialist for Knox County Schools announced that some members of the Board of Education might attend Bearden High School’s upcoming “Learn to Curl” session.

This was a surprising an-nouncement for several rea-sons.

First, with few excep-tions, since public schools business is de facto “public” in nature, doesn’t this per-son deserve a more logical job title?

“Information special-ist” may be less elegant, but to the eternally skeptical East Tennessean, “public

LarryVan

Guilder

It’s curling time in Tennessee

affairs specialist” suggests that somewhere within the labyrinthian school hierar-chy lurks a “private affairs specialist” denying us in-formation we have a right to know, like why an employee who hasn’t worked in two years continues to get paid, or where Superintendent McIntyre purchases his ties.

Also, as a child of the South, I assumed a person learned to curl at schools run by Ross the Boss.

Google to the rescue, where I discovered that curling is a sport enjoyed by thousands, some of whom aren’t even Canadians.

You might think of it as shuffl eboard on ice, or ice hockey’s great-great-grand-father. Instead of a puck, curlers use a stone, and hockey sticks are replaced by non-lethal brooms.

Curling is not only an Olympic sport, it’s famed for its displays of good sports-manship.

For example, the winning

team traditionally buys the losers a round of drinks af-ter the game. Alcohol con-sumption is frowned upon at school board meetings, but the winning side could offer RC Cola and Moon Pies in keeping with local customs.

Curlers also apologize for making a lucky shot, and they call their own fouls.

Those traditions might be a hard sell for board members raised on Big Or-ange football, where the ball often takes improb-able bounces, landing, for example, in the lap of Lane Kiffi n or Derek Dooley (un-lucky bounce), or crumpling

Steve Spurrier’s visor (lucky bounce).

And calling your own fouls?

UT receiver: “Mr. Ref-eree, please hand me the mic so I can apologize to my opponents and the fans for that lucky catch. Anyway, I pushed my defender illegal-ly, so you must fl ag me for offensive pass interference. I should also mention that I’m serving RC Cola and Moon Pies after the game.”

Or:Superintendent Mc-

Intyre: “I want to apologize for all the dissension and confusion I’ve sown in the community by using words like obfuscating to explain that I’ve been obfuscat-ing. Some football player cleaned the shelves of RC

Cola, so I’ll be serving Yoo-hoo and Moon Pies.”

Can’t see those scenarios coming about. Besides, with the departure of the athletic Indya Kincannon from the school board, the pickings for a curling team are slim.

Instead of spending time learning the subtleties of curling, board members might concentrate on more urgent matters.

They might start by pushing for a change in the law that ties school funding to the whim of County Com-mission. Tennessee is one of only 11 states that deny school boards authority to set tax rates.

If voters wanted board members schooled in curl-ing they would have import-ed Canadians, eh?

North offi ce: 7049 Maynardville Pike • Knoxville, TN 37918 • (865) 922-4136 • Fax: 922-5275

West offi ce: 10512 Lexington Drive, Suite 500 • Knoxville, TN 37932 • (865) 218-WEST (9378) • Fax: 342-6628

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Derek Dooley’s “Fear the Pants” never quite caught fi re, but there’s potential for John Fugate with “Fear the Hat.”

Dawn Distler, 52, is the new CEO of Knoxville Area Transit. She took over June 1, coming from Nashville where she was general manager of the Nashville Metro Transit. Knoxville represents a step up for her in terms of respon-sibility.

Sandra Clark

VictorAshe

Fear the hat

Manager of Commer-cial Bank in Fountain City, Fugate was appointed by County Commission to fi ll the term of Indya Kincan-non until the November election. Three meetings. He’s said he won’t run for the position, but he has strong convictions about the direction of Knox Coun-ty Schools. And he often wears a hat.

Five minutes into his term, he was attacked by two commissioners. Amy Broyles called his selection Black Wednesday all over again, while Sam McKe nzie alluded to a shadowy “pup-pet master.” Broyles said her

colleagues had disrespected her district, but perhaps they simply disrespected her and her choice for the job, Rick Staples.

If Staples truly is the overwhelming choice of the district, as Broyles said, let him run in November and prove it.

Fugate, meanwhile, just put on his hat and left the meeting.

Days later, he was am-bling toward the Andrew Johnson Building when he noticed a man approaching, also wearing a hat. “I was fi xing to say, ‘Nice hat,’ when he stopped and jumped on me,” Fugate recalls.

“He said if I had come on the school board to cause a problem or raise Cain, then he hoped the business com-munity runs me out of town.

“Who is this man?” Fu-gate wondered. He later learned it was J. Laurens Tullock, president of the Cornerstone Foundation.

Fugate shook off the threat, marched into the board meeting and nomi-nated Mike McMillan as chair.

Distler wants all aboard KAT

She started as a bus driver in Akron, Ohio, her home town. She drove a bus for 10 years and was a union repre-sentative. While she rides the bus regularly now, including meeting this writer at Panera Bread on Cumberland, she owns a car and truck as well.

She lives with her partner in an apartment off Wash-ington Pike and is looking for a house as a permanent residence. She cited the people who work for KAT as a strength of the Knoxville system. About 300 people work for KAT, but Distler is the only city employee, and she reports directly to Mayor Rogero.

Distler says the frequency

Betty Bean

Friday night will be Joel Helton Night at Central High School’s fi rst home football game. It will be Helton’s fi rst offi cial return to Central since November 2010, when he was yanked out of the Roy Acu ff Field-house and banned from the school where he had taught and coached football for 26 years. The initial charge was that he had “intimidated” a girl with a stick and was an-nounced via press release from Superintendent James McIntyre (a deviation from McIntyre’s standard operat-ing procedure).

Helton was early McIntyre victim

The following Monday morning, more than 200 students staged a demon-stration on the street across from school property, chanting, “Bring him back!”

Shortly thereafter, the “investigation” widened, spawning reports that Hel-ton had hit his football players and kept an unsanc-

tioned stash of money to spend as he pleased. Stu-dent athletes told the Shop-per-News they were being pressured to say they’d been hit. Old allegations once deemed too petty to bother with were dredged up and recirculated. McIntyre an-nounced that Helton would never coach in Knox County again.

Weeks stretched into months, and fi nally Helton was reinstated as a teacher and sent to Farragut. In the end, no wrongdoing was found.

During this time, the

mother of the girl whom Helton had allegedly in-timidated contacted the Shopper-News and gave a lengthy interview, saying that her daughter had never been in fear of Helton and had never said she was.

“It was a personality con-fl ict. Nothing more,” the mother said.

She said her daughter had suffered threats of death and bodily harm as a result of the way Knox County Schools handled the situation, and that if the Paul Kelley Academy had not been available to her,

she would not have gradu-ated from high school.

“Her complaint was that she had a personal problem with Coach Helton, and she just wanted out of that class. She said, ‘Mommy, I just want to get out of there so I can graduate.’ All we asked was that she be put on Cen-tral’s Odyssey program so she could be given credit for doing work via computer,” the mother said. “She said, ‘I don’t think I’m going to get along with him, but I don’t want any problems. Let me do this.’”

The mother said her daughter was pressured by central offi ce administra-tors who kept asking the same questions over and

over again, as though they hoped to get answers more to their liking by repetition.

“I just think for whatever reason they had already de-cided that they wanted to go in a different direction than Joel Helton, and they used my daughter to get there,” she said.

Joel Helton was an ear-ly victim of a system that proclaims its support for “community schools” but has a pattern of disrupting communities by remov-ing strong leaders from the schools they serve.

And nobody from the system whose slogan is “Excellence for every child” ever apologized to the girl they used to get Joel Helton.

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Marvin West

I borrow this thought from my Bible: Forgive him, Father, for he knew not what he doeth.

Forgive him, Father

Good man Mike Hamil-ton wasn’t trying to crucify Tennessee football when he scheduled home-and-homes with Oregon and Oklahoma. He was undoubtedly think-ing of national-spotlight intersectional games that would fi ll stadiums, sell lots and lots of popcorn and at-tract big TV for all the world to see.

Even with 20-20 fore-sight, the former athletic di-rector couldn’t have known the Volunteers would jump the track, hit the skids and slide down to four consecu-tive losing seasons. Nothing like that had ever happened. Tennessee was one of the big-gest names in the game, top 10 in total victories. It says so right here in the Vault.

No way could Mike sur-mise what was to come, that by the time it was time to play, Tennessee would no longer belong in big games.

Even in decline, the Vols didn’t surrender. They brave-ly lined up to honor contracts.

The fi rst game against Oregon, Sept. 11, 2010, provided the fi rst clue that

Derek Dooley might not get it. Tennessee jumped ahead 13-3. Lightning and rain blowing sideways delayed the other action for an hour.

The Ducks rallied before intermission. Dooley said the Vols were a little defl at-ed at halftime “because we screwed up those last three minutes.”

They didn’t do very well in the second half. Oregon ended up with 45 consecu-tive points. UT fans, about to miss a bedtime snack and the late news, went early to the exits. Dooley said he was disappointed that his team stopped competing.

The coach spoke of “bad adversity” in the third quar-ter and how his team didn’t handle it.

“Then we couldn’t do anything right. We didn’t tackle well. We didn’t cover kicks. We didn’t run the ball. When you do that and you play a good team, you get embarrassed. And that’s what happened.”

Neyland Stadium and 102,035 fans got the undi-vided attention of Oregon coach Chip Kelly: “That’s an unbelievable environment to play in. I mean, this place is impressive!”

Second in this mis-matched series was Sept. 14 of last season. Eugene, Ore., is an interesting place to visit. There are things to see and hear. The city is beauti-ful. There is a focus on the arts and liberal politics. It is a hub of track and fi eld. Nike

was born there.Alas, there were football

lessons on the agenda. Ore-gon wasn’t much like previ-ous UT foes Austin Peay and Western Kentucky.

Tennessee got the fi rst touchdown. Oregon got the next 59 points and sent in the subs. No kidding, if it wasn’t awful, it could have been. The winners scored touchdowns on seven con-secutive possessions. The losing margin was 45. You must go back to 1910 to fi nd something worse.

Oregon fans taunted visi-tors with chants of “S E C! S E C!”

The next stop in this ad-venture is upon us, in Nor-man, 20 miles south of Okla-homa City. It is a historic place. The Sooners are the prime attraction. They once won 47 consecutive football games. That little streak re-mains the world record.

This Oklahoma team is not THAT good – un less you believe Alabama apolo-gists. They have not fully recovered from dropping the Sugar Bowl past. They recall Trevor Knight com-pleting 32 of 44 for 348 and four touchdowns.

The Crimson Tide does not wish that on any SEC brother, even Tennessee.

Maybe it won’t happen. Perhaps the Vols are better than I think. By next year, when Oklahoma returns the visit, let us hope Tennessee will be really ready.Marvin West invites reader reaction. His

address is westwest6@netzero.com.

1890 must have been a very busy year for the Bau-mann Brothers Architects as they were supervising construction of two man-sions in opposite ends of Knox County at the same time: Parkview, the Col. James C. Crawford mansion in Fountain City, and West-wood, the John and Adelia Armstrong Lutz mansion on Kingston Pike. In addition, they had contracts for the Borches Block on Gay Street and for the Lenoir City Land Company offi ce.

Westwood has recently experienced extensive res-toration, and its second fl oor has become the head-quarters for Knox Heritage thanks to a generous chal-lenge grant from Lindsay Young’s Aslan Foundation.

One of the so-called “Three Sisters” on Kingston Pike, it joins Crescent Bend (Federal-style) and Bleak House (Italianate–style) in representing the principal architectural styles of the 19th entury. Drury P. Arm-strong (1799-1856), his son Robert H. Armstrong (1825-1896) and Robert’s daugh-ter, Ann Adelia Armstrong Lutz, built the three homes in 1834, 1858 and 1890 re-spectively.

Drury Armstrong’s origi-nal Crescent Bend farm, named for the majestic bend in the Tennessee River that it overlooks, started with 600 acres of land on the north side of the river, and within a few years he ac-quired another 300 acres on the south side.

In a highlight of the so-cial events of 1886, John E. Lutz (1854-1920) and Adelia Armstrong were married on Feb. 10 at the Second Presbyterian Church. The land on which Westwood was built was a wedding gift from her parents.

John Edwin Lutz had been raised in Rogersville but was already prominent in business in Knoxville as

senior partner of the J.E. Lutz and Co. shoe and hat store. He later would be-come president of a general insurance company by the same name with offi ces on Gay Street.

The young couple lived at Bleak House for a time while Adelia worked with the Baumann Brothers on the plans for Westwood, the unique 10-room Queen Anne Victorian-style home they would occupy in 1890.

Adelia Armstrong was born to Robert Houston and Louise Franklin Arm-strong on June 25, 1859, at the home of her Franklin grandparents in Jefferson County, Tenn. She attended the East Tennessee Female Institute, where she was a classmate of philanthropist Mary Boyce Temple. Then she attended two fi nish-ing schools, Miss Pegram’s Southern Home School in Baltimore and Mary Bald-win College in Staunton, Va., where she majored in art. To add to her art edu-cation, she enrolled at the prestigious Corcoran Gal-lery in Washington, D.C., and later at the Pennsylva-nia Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.

After touring France and other parts of Europe, she returned to Knoxville and taught art at her studio in the Kern Building on Market Square. She was involved with the Knoxville Art Club (1899-1902) and the Nichol-son Art League (1906-1925). Her association with others in the art league such as El-eanor Swan Audigier, Cath-erine Wiley, Lloyd Branson, Joseph Knaffl , George Bar-ber and Hugh Tyler kept her intense interest in art alive.

Her painting, “Moth-erless,” depicting two or-phaned girls, was exhibited at Nashville’s Tennessee Centennial Exposition in 1897 and then at St. Mary’s Hospital until 1992. Lutz and several other Nichol-

HISTORY AND MYSTERIES | Dr. Jim Tumblin

Adelia Armstrong Lutz:Early Knoxville artist

(1859-1931)

Historic Westwood

Since its dedication and ribbon-cutting in April, the historic Westwood Mansion has been open to the public two days a week. Westwood joins Cres-cent Bend and Bleak House, the other two museum houses built by Drury P. Armstrong and his family on Kingston Pike. Known as the “Three Sisters,” all have been beauti-fully restored.

It is noted for the unique artist’s studio built with a cathedral ceiling and massive skylight for artist Ade-lia Armstrong Lutz. It also features a grand staircase with ornate pediments, many el-egant Atkin mantels and its serpentine brick privacy wall.

Westwood at 3425 Kingston Pike is open for tours from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays and Thursdays. Free parking is available adjoining the house at the Laurel Church of Christ. Info: 523-8008.

Adelia Armstrong Lutz. Her natural talent and early art education enabled Adelia Lutz to be-

come one of the area’s most famous artists. Knox County Two Centuries Photograph Project, McClung Historical Collection

Westwood (1890). This Baumann Brothers-designed, 10-room mansion was the last of the “Three

Sisters” to be built on Drury P. Armstrong’s extensive acreage on Kingston Pike. Photo submitted

son Art League members exhibited at the Richmond Art Club exposition in 1902. She helped organize the art displays at Knoxville’s Ap-palachian Expositions in 1910 and 1911 and was on the executive board of the Art Department of the Na-tional Conservation Exposi-tion in 1913.

Westwood was designed to provide an ideal working environment for the talent-ed artist. A spacious library-studio on the eastern side of the house closely resembles

a cathedral with its domed skylight. However, she nev-er enjoyed painting there with its often too bright lighting. Over the years that room became her library and the gallery for display of her still-life, landscape and portrait paintings. She then painted and taught her stu-dents in the cheerful break-fast room, which had more favorable northern light.

Many of her portraits fea-tured her beautiful daugh-ter, Louise, and her favor-ite fl ower, hollyhock, was a

frequent still-life subject. A few paintings were histori-cally inspired. Many of her works are in the collections of the Knoxville Museum of Art, the East Tennessee History Center and the Ten-nessee State Museum.

She continued to paint throughout her life while managing a great house and garden, participating in fre-quent religious and social events, serving on various commissions and raising her active family.

A lifetime member of Sec-

ond Presbyterian Church, Adelia Armstrong Lutz passed away at age 72 on Nov. 17, 1931, at Westwood. After services at her home, conducted by Dr. Clifford Barbour, she was interred at New Gray Cemetery but was later reinterred at Highland Memorial Cemetery. She was survived by her chil-dren, Louise (Mrs. Victor D.) Holloway and Edwin R. Lutz, and three grandchil-dren.

6 • SEPTEMBER 10, 2014 • SOUTH KNOX Shopper news kids

MILESTONE

Hagy completes Air Assault School

Matthew T. Hagy, an Army Reserve Offi cers’ Training Corps (ROTC) ca-det at East Tennessee State University, has graduated from the U.S. Army Air As-sault School and earned the honor of wearing the Air Assault Badge.

The 10-day course of in-struction focuses on combat assault operations involving hands-on, performance-oriented Army warfare operations associated with helicopters.

Hagy, a 2011 graduate of Gibbs High School, is the son of Sandra M. Hagy of Corryton and grandson of Harry B. Wease of Jones-borough, Tenn.

By Betsy PickleMount Olive Elementary

School has already named its fi rst Staff Member of the Month.

Kelly Farr, who is start-ing his 10th year at Mount Olive, was described as “a superb teacher who chal-lenges his students daily with high expectations and helps them to succeed.”

Farr is the leader of the ARTS360 program and a Lead Teacher for staff eval-uations. He trains and over-sees the Safety Patrol pro-

gram. He is also “a valuable member” of the Leadership Team, according to princi-pal Paula Brown.

Selection criteria include attitude, leadership, desire for students to achieve and succeed, effective commu-nication, and willingness to give support beyond defi ned duties and responsibilities.

Farr received gift cards and a basket of supplies from the Mount Olive El-ementary School PTA, a bouquet of fl owers from McLemore Florist and a re-

By Betsy PickleIt’s been a long time since one of the

perks of teaching was having the “whole summer” off.

But Beth Blevins, principal at South-Doyle Middle School, found a way to make working during the summer feel like win-ning for her teachers.

At the end of the 2013-14 school year, Blevins gave her staff a challenge. She pledged to provide additional technology for the classroom to any teacher who com-pleted multiple days of training during the summer on Project-Based Learning and Canvas. The “rewards” would be funded through a combination of Title 1, Race to

the Top and other grant monies.Blevins is leading the school on “a Prob-

lem-Based, Tech-Integrated Journey this year,” so the reward fi t perfectly with her vision.

More than 20 teachers accepted Blevins’ challenge and praised the combination of personalized learning and new technology. They say the training will help them help South-Doyle reach its goal of becoming a personalized learning environment.

According to South-Doyle’s new TPaCK (tech) coach Rachel Simmons, a personal-ized learning environment focuses on the needs of individual students with projects that tailor how information is presented,

how quickly the lesson moves and how students show mastery at each step of the learning process.

Technology is a big part of that.“Technology-driven communication

opens up students’ abilities to connect with teachers, peers and experts to create a community of collaborators,” said Patrick Whitecotton, a teacher who piloted a 1:1 classroom for eighth-grade social studies last year.

Students in Whitecotton’s 1:1 class showed gains on the social studies TCAP assessment. South-Doyle expects to repli-cate the positive results and student atti-tudes in several subjects this year.

Technology can motivate and engage students who otherwise don’t feel connect-ed to learning.

“PBL allows students the opportunity to express their thinking in ways that are out-side the box and not just on a worksheet,” said English teacher Honey Lewis.

Simmons will provide support to teach-ers committed to using technology in the classroom.

“The amount of energy and excitement about technology and Project-Based Learn-ing is overwhelmingly positive,” Simmons says. “Their excitement is contagious, and several other teachers are already looking to sign up for training next summer.”

Coupon-book kickoff Theresa Watson fi res up students at South Knoxville Elementary School’s kickoff for the Original

Knox County Schools Coupon Book. Watson and principal Tanna Nicely both wore camo to go

with the theme and graphics for this year’s campaign, Coupon Commander, which runs through

Sept. 22. With about 150 students, SKES has set a goal of selling 400 books; students sold 405

last year. “Our top seller has moved,” said Watson. “That’s why we’re conservative this year.” Photo by Betsy Pickle

South-Doyle Middle School teachers focus on using technology to the fullest.

Mount Olive Staff Member

of the Month Kelly Farr,

right, with his daughter,

Veda, who just started

kindergarten at the school. Photos submitted

New faculty and staff at Mount

Olive Elementary are, standing,

Gloria Scheberle, Farah Fishmoore,

Ericka Pirtle, Lauren Miller, Cynthia

Thornburg; seated, Kristin Ozmon,

Janet Gass and Jackie-Rose Davis.

Summer training puts SDMS teachers on road to personalized learning

Mount Olive recognizes Farr

served parking spot at the school’s front door.

Mount Olive has eight new staff members this school year. They are kin-dergarten teacher Lau-ren Miller; second-grade teacher Jackie-Rose Davis;

fourth-grade teachers Glo-ria Scheberle and Cynthia Thornburg; resource teach-er Ericka Pirtle; instruc-tional assistant Farah Fish-moore; school nurse Janet Gass; and custodian Kristin Ozmon.

UT NOTES ■ UT Humanities Center Lecture Series, 4 p.m. Friday, Sept.

12, Lindsay Young Auditorium in Hodges Library, 1015 Vol-

unteer Blvd., UT campus. “Get Paid To Read Old Books! How

To Apply for and Win Fellowships at Independent Research

Libraries” by Paul Erickson, director of academic programs

at the American Antiquarian Society. Free and open to the

public.

Fulton led the state in scoring while rolling un-beaten to the Class 3A state championship last season. For an encore, the goal ap-pears to be to lead the cos-mos.

With better than 80 points in each of its fi rst two games, Fulton enters Friday’s visit to Farragut averaging a state-best 74.3 points per game. The Fal-cons calmed down a little bit with a 56-6 win at rival Austin-East last week.

The compelling aspect of a pace well ahead of last season’s state-record 57.5 points per outing is Fulton posted the wins over Powell (83-3) and Bearden (84-0) with second- and third-team players doing a lot of the scoring and a running clock for much of the game. That says depth, meaning the Falcons could keep this up for quite a while.

Farragut is no cupcake. The Class 6A Admirals tast-ed victory for the fi rst time this season with a win at Lenoir City last week. Win-ning has a way of righting the ship, and, after last year, Farragut is motivated.

Last season: Fulton (15-0), Farragut (6-5)

Last meeting: 2013 – Fulton 55, Farragut 13.

The offenses: The Fal-cons run a little bit of every-thing. Depends on the op-ponent. The Admirals run the more physical spread option.

The defenses: Fulton 3-4, Farragut 33 stack

The Breakdown: There

Stefan Cooper

Where no football team has gone before:Fulton travels to Farragut on

astronomical scoring pace

aren’t many teams with a 6-foot, 275-pound All-State fullback. There are fewer still with one who can run like Fulton’s D.J. Campbell. He also plays linebacker.

The Falcons lost quite a bit from last year’s score-board busters. With wide-out K.J. Roper, quarterback Adam Diggs, receiver K.J. Williams, Campbell and the cast of thousands Fulton’s depth would suggest, looks like they’ll make do this season.

Farragut has a giant-sized offensive line. Nathan Gilliam highlights a front fi ve with more than enough heft to move a defense around. Tanner Thomas, a junior, ran for better than 1,500 yards and 12 touch-downs a year ago. Keep-ing the ball away from the Fulton offense as much as possible is wise course of action.

Why this one in-trigues: Farragut will provide incontrovertible evidence of whether what Fulton is doing to score-boards across the state is le-gitimate. It’s hard to believe the Falcons, or any team, for that matter, can continue to score like that.

Or can they?

Shopper news • SEPTEMBER 10, 2014 • 7 business

McCoy recognized for volunteer hoursAARP Services Inc., a for-profi t subsidiary of

AARP, has recognized Blake McCoy for his more than 50 hours of volunteer service. He not only serves on the John T. O’Connor Center advisory board but also volunteers and supports numerous senior citizen organizations in Knoxville and the surrounding counties. McCoy is the Founder and CEO of Independent Insurance Consultants, an independent insurance fi rm that assists senior citizens with their insurance and fi nancial needs.

She’s everywhere! She must be related to the Ener-gizer Bunny. Most South and East Knoxvillians I talk to for any length of time men-tion her. This week, I de-cided it was time to catch up with this amazing woman.

Nancy Whittaker Sharon Davis spends time giv-

ing back to South and East

Knoxville. Photos by Nancy Whittaker

State Farm agent Mike Da-

vis shares his enthusiasm for

the growth around the East

Towne area with members of

the ETABPA.

Not enough hours in the day

Sharon Davis grew up in South Knoxville, where she attended Young High School. Thirty years ago, she moved to East Knox-ville, where she lives on the Holston River. Her strong feelings and ties to both communities are evident. Davis says, “It is a pleasure to give back to the com-munities that have been so good to me.”

Davis describes herself as a Realtor, a neighborhood advocate, a South Knoxville property investor and a lover of home projects. She has been with Hammon-tree Real Estate for 20-plus years, and she specializes in

residential listings in South and East Knoxville. In ad-dition, she and her hus-band own rental property in South Knoxville.

Community involvement is what Davis loves. I met her when the East Towne Business and Professional Association was fi rst form-ing. Davis and City Council-man Nick Della Volpe saw a need for an organization where merchants, retail-ers, employees, property owners and neighborhood associations in the East Towne corridor area could come together. They knew there would be strength in

tive of the area. It is now a “sweet little park” that the neighborhood enjoys.

Davis also serves on the board for the South Knox-ville Alliance. Their current project, Second Saturday South, is a new event that will be held next on Sept. 13 at Ijams Nature Center. No surprise, Davis will be working at this event. Da-vis also says she had the honor of just completing eight years of service on the board of Freedom Christian Academy.

Davis’ passion in her “free time” is her fl ower garden. She was given four hosta plants to “get started.” She now has over 200 plants. She also loves to walk out her door and down to her pontoon boat to fl oat on the Holston River. Whether she is at work, volunteering or enjoying herself at home, she gives 100 percent.

East Towne area boomsState Farm agent Mike

Davis was the main speak-er at the East Towne Area Business and Professional Association meeting on Sept. 3. Davis has owned his Millertown Pike agency for the past seven years. He previously worked for State Farm in their claims de-partment.

Davis shared his enthusi-asm concerning the growth and development in the East Towne area. He described himself as a “cheerleader” for the area and added he has a strong vision for the future. Davis said the busi-ness owners have benefi ted from the current growth. However, he feels the next decade’s growth will be even more amazing.

Breakfast sponsor was Megan Murphy-Boutwell, an independent sales direc-tor with Mary Kay Cosmet-ics. Different ways to shop were shared – especially how employers and hus-bands look like “heroes” with her help. She can be reached at 313-6399.

New ETABPA president Justin Sterling invites ev-eryone to attend the next meeting at 8 a.m. Wednes-day, Oct. 1, at New Harvest Park Community Center.

numbers. The success of the group proves both Davis and Della Volpe are in tune with the needs of their com-munity.

Davis has also been in-volved with Town Hall East for almost 20 years. She is extremely proud of the cleanup and development of the area next to the Bur-lington Library. Davis says Thomas “Tank” Strickland Park was a cooperative ef-fort of state, city, county and environmental agencies. She says the way the parcel looked was not representa-

Dr. Hartline achieves milestoneRandal Hartline, M.D.,

obstetrician/gynecologist, recently performed his 300th robotic-assisted women’s health surgery at Tennova Healthcare’s Physicians Regional Medical Center. Robotic-assisted surgery is a type of minimally invasive surgery during which the surgeon uses miniaturized surgical instruments that fi t through quarter-size incisions. Other benefi ts of minimally invasive surgery include less scarring, faster recoveries and shorter hospital stays.

‘Center of Excellence’ in women’s health surgeryThe American Institute of Minimally Invasive Surgery

(AIMIS) recently named Physicians Regional Medical

Center a Center of Excellence in Women’s Health Sur-

gery. The distinction recognizes the health system’s

continued commitment to off er women the latest

minimally invasive procedures, including robotic-

assisted hysterectomies. Pictured are Joe Lee, as-

sistant chief nursing executive; Suzanne Beauregard,

chief nursing executive; Dr. Marcella Greene, general

surgeon; Dr. Bob Barnett, medical director of AIMIS

Center of Excellence program; Charlene Minefi eld,

surgical clinical leader; and Dr. Lowell McCauley,

obstetrician/gynecologist. Photo submitted

By Sandra ClarkNorth Knoxville Rotary members are

not just a bunch of older white guys who work in Fountain City, although that is the business base. Last week three new mem-bers introduced themselves. Two had found the club through Facebook.

Nathan French wears ear rings and a T-shirt. He runs a print-ing company in Catskill, N.Y., working via the In-ternet from his home in Maryville. He and his wife moved here in July to be near his aging parents. Her parents live in North Caro-lina and the couple seem to be settling in.

Joining Rotary is a way to “reach out of ourselves and into the com-munity,” he says. French served six years in the U.S. Navy and maintains contact with colleagues by selling military and tactical equipment online.

What three words describe him? He says “Christian, patriot and entrepreneur.”

Ellen Davis is an ac-countant with Brown, Brown and Associates who just moved to Pigeon Forge. She grew up in Michigan with self-employed par-ents who taught her to work hard from an early age. She’s managed a mobile home parts department

and worked as a hair stylist for seven years before practicing accountancy.

“Make it happen,” is her life motto. She contacted several organizations about membership and said North Knoxville Ro-tary was the one that called back.

Jeremy Cook, a senior vice president of Pinnacle Bank, grew up in Middlesboro, Ky.

He will manage the Pinna-cle branch now under con-struction on Emory Road at Dry Gap Pike. His three descriptors are: “Family, friendship and fun.”

Cook said he likes Ro-tary because of its na-tional project to end polio and also because of Jerry Griffey, veteran member

of the North Knox club. Cook and hi s wife have two daughters, and he’s active with the Boy Scouts Chehote District. “I do not wear brown shorts and red socks,” he said. “I raise money for them.”

Free Flu Shot Saturday: Rotary vol-unteers will help with the event 8 a.m. to noon (while supplies last) Sept. 27 at six locations: Austin-East, Carter, Farragut, Halls and West high schools and South-Doyle Middle School. Donations will be ac-cepted with proceeds to benefi t the Empty Stocking Fund.

Golf Tournament: David Dooley is co-ordinating the North Knoxville Rotary Golf Tournament to benefi t the Cerebral Palsy Housing Corporation.

Rotary is eclectic bunch

Most would agree there are not enough women in the state Legislature, and some would say there aren’t enough Democrats. So why in Memphis did three good female Democrats tear into each other in a district that’s liable to be won by George Flinn, a physician who’s willing to spend whatever it takes to get elected to some-thing. (Flinn fi nished third to Joe Carr and Lamar Al-exander in the August U.S. Senate Primary.)

Writing in the Memphis Daily News, Bill Dries says Flinn has secured the GOP nomination for the Senate District 30 seat left vacant when Jim Kyle took offi ce as a Chancery Court judge. Seeking the Democratic nomination were Sara Kyle (Jim Kyle’s wife and the niece of former Gov. Frank Clement and former state Sen. Annabelle Clement O’Brien; she also won state-wide election to the old Pub-lic Service Commission), along with former state Rep. Carol Chumney and former state Sen. Beverly Marrero. (Note: This selection was set to be made Sept. 8, after our press time.)

If Flinn wins in Novem-ber he would likely join Dr. Richard Briggs in the Sen-ate. Two new Republican senators, both physicians, could align with Gov. Bill Haslam to expand Medic-aid. Of course, the Demo-cratic nominees would support the expansion, but Democrats are mostly ir-relevant in today’s General

Memphis, Knox races will impact Medicaid expansion

Sandra Clark

Assembly. Voters are left to fi nd the least nutty Repub-licans.

■ NotesCharter Communica-

tions will be all-digital by year’s end, bringing more than 200 high defi nition channels to Farragut and Tellico Village customers among others. Removing analog signals will improve Internet speeds and picture quality, said CEO Tom Rut-ledge. “We’ve invested more than $2 billion in our fi ber-rich network to make that happen.” Info: 11517 Kings-ton Pike, weekdays 8 a.m.-6 p.m., Saturdays 9 a.m.-1 p.m., www.charter.com/digitalnow or 1-888-GET-CHARTER (1-888-438-2427).

Tom+Chee is opening a grilled cheese and tomato soup re staurant in Knox-ville. The chain started as a tent store next to an ice rink and was made famous on the TV show “Shark Tank.” Info: www.tomandchee.com.

■ Quotable“Life is not a matter of

holding good cards, but of playing a poor hand well.”

– Robert Louis Stevenson

Real estate market trends slowerNews From The Register Of Deeds

By Sherry WittAfter a very good perfor-

mance in July, the lo-cal real es-tate market experienced a slight d o w n t u r n in August. The last full month of summer

produced 922 property transfers in Knox County, well short of the 1,065 re-corded in July. In 2013, the county saw 950 parcels change hands during Au-gust.

The total value of prop-

erty sold was also down by some $75 million from Ju-ly’s $292 million. In August, $217.2 million worth of real property was transferred in Knox County. That is about $45 million short of last Au-gust’s output.

Coming off a two-month surge, mortgage lending also experienced a slow-down in August with just over $275 million loaned, compared to $347 million in July.

The August total was far below the fi gure of $403 million borrowed in mort-gages and refi nances during August 2013.

The most notable land

transaction of the month was the sale of a medical facility located at 10810 Parkside Drive in the Tur-key Creek complex, for $23,250,000. The largest mortgage loan recorded was an assumption agreement involving the same parcel on Parkside Drive in the amount of $13.2 million.

I would be remiss if I did not tell each of you how much I appreciate the op-portunity to serve another term as your Register of Deeds. It is indeed a privi-lege to continue doing the job I love in such a great community as Knox County. Thank you and God bless!

Sherry Witt

By Bonny C. MillardMorris Creative Group founder and

owner Chuck Morris encouraged area busi-ness leaders to fi nd ways to utilize social media in their corporate marketing plans because customers have changed their ways of do-ing business.

“We’re all in a dig-ital world now. We can’t deny it,” Mor-ris said. “We can’t put our heads in the

sand. We just have to embrace it.”Morris, a member of the Rotary Club

of Knoxville, spoke to the group recently about the increased use of the Internet and social media by consumers.

In the United States, 206.2 million people are web users, and the fast growing population segment is women who are 50-plus years old. People spend more time on smartphones than watching TV.

Technological advances are shaping the rapid change: cheap computers and mo-bile phones, low-cost broadband access and open-source software such as Linux or WordPress.

Ten years ago, websites were more like electronic brochures, but today’s customers want to have a way to interact online with the company and its website, he said. Thir-ty-four percent of web users believe compa-nies should have a web presence.

“People aren’t buying the same way they used to,” he said.

Marketing has changed from a prod-uct and consumer focus to a values-driven emphasis, he said. Customers are collaborating with companies in real time online. As an example of

their infl uence, Morris cited consum-er backlash on Facebook when Gap tried

to change its logo. The company had to re-vert to its original logo.

The top online marketing efforts are email (86 percent), social media (72 per-cent) and search engine optimization (70 percent). Thirty years ago, Americans were exposed to 2,000 ads per day, and now it is 5,000 ads per day. Digital ad space rev-enue is expected to reach $137.5 billion in this year.

Rotary Club of Knoxville meets at noon on Tuesdays at the Marriott Hotel, Hill Av-enue. Info: http://www.morriscreative.com

Chuck Morris

Embrace the digital world, says Morris Creative founder

Nathan French

Ellen Davis

Jeremy Cook

8 • SEPTEMBER 10, 2014 • SOUTH KNOX Shopper news

THROUGH TUESDAY, SEPT. 30Featured artists at Parkside Open Door Gallery,

Fountain City Art Center, 213 Hotel Ave., are Karen Fe-rency of Sequoyah Hills and Fountain City artist Adam Rowe. Ferency creates wheel-thrown pottery and Rowe will be showing his laser-cut cards. Info/hours: 357-7624 or 357-2787.

WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 10East Tennessee English – A Brown Bag Lecture

with Paul Reed, noon, East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay St. Info: 215-8801.

Deadline for nominations for the East Tennessee Preservation Alliance 2014 Preservation Awards. Awards to be presented Thursday Nov. 6. Info/nomination form: http://knoxheritage.org/etpa/east-tennessee-preservation-awards/.

THURSDAY, SEPT. 11Cruise Night, 6-9 p.m., 6215 Riverview Crossing

Drive in front of old Food Lion at Asheville Highway. All makes, models, years and clubs welcome. No charge. Door prizes.

Traditional Appalachian Dance, 8 p.m., Laurel Theater, 1538 Laurel Ave. Hosted by the Knoxville Square Dance. Live old-time music by the Hellgram-mites. Admission: $7. Info: 522-5851 or info@jubilee-arts.org.

Hero’s Breakfast Honoring 9-11, 7:30-9:3- a.m., Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 West-ern Ave. Breakfast served to all current and retired law enforcement and fi re department members. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

Free movie and popcorn, 11:15 a.m., Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Movie: “Grudge Match” with Robert De Niro, Sylvester Stal-lone. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

Queen for a Day/Spa Day Take Me Away Lun-cheon, 10:45 a.m., Buddy’s Bearden Banquet Hall, 5806 Kingston Pike. Complimentary child care by res-ervation only. Cost: $12 inclusive. Info/reservations: 315-8182 or knoxvillechristianwomen@gmail.com.

First Lutheran Church 55 Alive group meet-ing, noon, church meeting room, 1207 N. Broadway. Luncheon: $8 per person; reservation required. Speak-er: Edie Wadsworth. Public invited. Info/reservation: 524-0366.

Knox County Veterans Services Outreach, 11 a.m.-noon, Frank R. Strang Senior Center, 109 Lovell Heights Road. Provides one-on-one assistance to vet-erans and family members. Info: 215-5645, veterans@knoxcounty.org.

THURSDAYS, SEPT. 11, 18, 25, OCT. 2ACT-UP: Adult Acting and Theatre Classes,

6-8 p.m., Broadway Academy of Performing Arts, 706 N. Broadway St. Ages 16 and up. Fee: $35 or $15 for individual class. Covers acting basics, movement/stage combat and auditioning techniques. Info: 546-4280 or carolyn@tennesseestage.com.

FRIDAY, SEPT. 12AARP Driver Safety class, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., Ameri-

can Red Cross, 6921 Middlebrook Pike. Info/to register: Carolyn Rambo, 584-9964.

Friends Mini Used Book Sale: Bearden, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Bearden Branch Library, 100 Golf Club Road. Info: 588-8813.

“The Taste of Turkey Creek,” 6:30-9:30 p.m., Pinnacle at Turkey Creek parking lot. Benefi ts The Pat Summitt Foundation. Includes: food and drink samples from many Turkey Creek restaurants, silent auction, live entertainment by the Chillbillies. Info/tickets: 675-0120, www.PinnacleAtTurkeyCreek.com.

Knit or crochet hats for the homeless, 12:30-1:45 p.m., Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. All supplies and patterns provided. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

SATURDAY, SEPT. 13The Second Saturday Concerts at The Cove:

Off the Record, 6-8 p.m., The Cove at Concord Park, 11808 S. Northshore Drive. Free. Info: www.knoxcounty.org or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Knox-County-Parks-Rec/55197043075.

“Experience our Cherokee Heritage” tour with Native American Expert Randy McGinnis. Offered by Cades Cove Heritage Tours. Reservations limited. Cost: $100 per person. Info/reservations: Don Alexander, 448-8838.

“Cupcakes in the Park” cupcake festival, 11 a.m.-3 p.m., Krutch Park Extension. Benefi ts Helen Ross McNabb Center. Info/to register for competition: www.cupcakesinthepark.com.

Introductory Internet Genealogy, 1 p.m., East Tennessee History Center, 601 S. Gay St. Bring birth-dates and birth places of parents and grandparents.

Preregistration and a valid email address required. Info/ to register: 215-8809.

“Miracle of the Monarch,” 10:30-11:30 a.m., Far-ragut Branch Library, 417 N. Campbell Station Road. Free and open to the public. Info: 777-1750.

Saturday Stories and Songs: Laurie Fisher, 11 a.m., Cedar Bluff Branch Library, 9045 Cross Park Drive. Info: 470-7033.

Life 101: Free Classes for Teens, 2 p.m., Lawson McGhee Library, 500 W. Church Ave. Topic: “Car Main-tenance for Teens.” Instructor: Don Lindsey, Tennessee Public Affairs Director, AAA. Info: Bess, 215-8754.

Second Saturday Marketplace, 10 a.m.-4 p.m., Tea & Treasures, 4104 W. Martin Mill Pike. Vendor booths, arts & crafts, antiques, plants, books, food and music.

Free concert by the Oak Ridge Community Orchestra, 2 p.m., the Sanctuary of the First Baptist Church of Oak Ridge, 1101 Oak Ridge Turnpike. Admission free/ donations appreciated. Info: www.OakRidgeCommunityOrchestra.com.

Preservation Network meeting, 10 a.m., Historic Westwood, 3457 Kingston Pike. Free workshops. Info: Hollie Cook, 523-8008 or hcook@knoxheritage.org

SATURDAY-SUNDAY, SEPT. 13-14Country Market fundraiser, 10 a.m.-4 p.m.

Saturday and 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Sunday, Historic Ramsey House, 2614 Thorn Grove Pike. Vendors, food, plants, music. Admission: $5 per person; children under 10 free; house tours: $5. Info: judy@ramsehouse.org; kathy@ramseyhouse.org; 546-0745.

SUNDAY, SEPT. 14“Stories in Every Jar,” free storytelling by

members of the Smoky Mt. Storytellers, 3-5 p.m., Back Porch, 805 Parkway, Gatlinburg. Info: 429-1783 or www.smokymountaintellers.org.

MONDAY, SEPT. 15Free Day of Putt-Putt, noon-9 p.m., Putt-Putt Golf

& Games, in the West End Center in Farragut. Info: Lau-ren Cox, lauren.cox@townoffarragut.org or 966-7057.

Deadline to get tickets for Sevier Soiree, a fund-raising event to benefi t Marble Springs State Historic Site, 1220 West Governor John Sevier Highway. Tick-ets: $50 per person. Available: www.marblesprings.net; on-site; by mail to P.O. Box 20195, Knoxville, TN 37940.

MONDAY-TUESDAY, SEPT. 15-16AARP Driver Safety class, 1-5 p.m., First UMC,

804 Montvale Station Road, Maryville. Info/to register: Carolyn Rambo at 584-9964.

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