Art appreciation at the Holston Hills Dogwood Arts cocktail party. Photos by Cindy Taylor

By Betsy PickleThere’s a reason Ellen Zavisca

and her colleagues are big on gre-enways.

“People in this country have been hearing for years, decades, that we need to be more physically active,” Zavisca said last week to the Sierra Club’s Harvey Broome Chapter. “And yet if you look at the trends of the per-

cent of the population that’s get-ting no leisure-time physical ac-tivity, it’s pretty fl at. The percent of the population that has regular exercise or does regular organized exercise … is pretty fl at, despite all our exhortations and programs. …

“It’s not just a matter of tell-ing people, ‘Do this; don’t do this.’ We’ve got to create an environ-ment that supports it.”

Zavisca, a senior planner for the Knoxville Regional Transporta-tion Organization, is involved with pedestrian and greenway plan-ning and Safe Routes to Schools. She brought a “bigger picture of greenway planning” to drive home the importance of greenways and encourage club members to be-come active supporters of them.

Lifestyle choices and genetics also play a role in health, but when it comes to exercising, walkers, runners and bicyclists are stymied if they don’t have safe routes,” she said. The danger shows up in the data.

Some 125 ped/cyclist injury crashes result in about eight deaths each year in Knox County. “About 10-12 percent of fatalities statewide involve pedestrians and cyclists.”

The TPO covers Knox and the urbanized areas of Anderson, Blount, Loudon and Sevier coun-ties. Zavisca said there are more

than 100 miles of paved greenway in the region – including roughly 50 miles in Knoxville, 16 in the Alcoa-Maryville corridor, nine in Townsend and nine in Oak Ridge.

Aside from improving health, greenways have been shown to reward individuals and commu-nities fi nancially. Zavisca noted a study in Charlotte, N.C., that found an average increase in home value of $3,200 for homes within roughly a mile of the trails. Re-search in Greenville, S.C., showed that retail sales near a trail region went up.

Planners want to link West Knoxville with Oak Ridge via gre-enways. Another project would connect Knox and Blount coun-ties to Townsend and the Smok-ies. Both will take several phases over many years. County engineer Cindy Pionke has been prioritiz-ing sidewalk investment around schools.

Zavisca says the typical cost for

a mile of greenway is $500,000,but terrain can drive the costs to$3 million per mile.

The city of Knoxville’s Green-way Commission is wrapping upa study of 13 different greenwaycorridors, including priorities andcost estimates. A public meetingwill be held in late May to get in-put. Once the plan is fi nalized,“there is money in the mayor’sbudget to start implementation,”Zavisca said.

Not only is Cumberland Ave-nue undergoing a “road diet,” butalso Central Street – home of theOpen Streets event in May – hashad some work in preparationfor its own diet. It has been re-striped to three lanes, and it willbe landscaped and resurfacedwithin the next couple of years,said Zavisca.

“Both of these corridors are seeing a lot of development andredevelopment, which I think isreally related to the investment.”

(865) 922-4136

NEWS (865) 661-8777

news@ShopperNewsNow.comSandra Clark | Ruth White

ADVERTISING SALES(865) 342-6084

ads@ShopperNewsNow.com

Patty Fecco | Tony Cranmore

Beverly Holland | Amy Lutheran

CIRCULATION(865) 342-6200

shoppercirc@ShopperNewsNow.com

VOL. 4 NO. 16 April 20, 2016www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNow

NORTH / EAST

BUZZ

North Hillsplant sale

The public is invited to the annual plant sale of the North Hills Garden Club from 10-2 Saturday, April 23, at North Hills Park, 2419 Kennington Road.

Residents of historic North Hills donate more than 100 varieties of hardy perennial plants and shrubs harvested from their own gardens. In partnership with a local nurs-ery, the garden club also offers herbs, veggies and blooming annuals. Several of the club’s master gardeners will be onsite to answer questions and give gardening advice.

Snacks such as burger sliders, hot dogs, cookies and cakes will be sold, and there will be a garden shed with gen-tly used items, arts and crafts booths and activities for the kids. Info: North Hills Garden Club on Facebook

Theatre Fultonto host play

Theatre Fulton will present “Bang, Bang You’re Dead,” a play by William Mastrosimone, 7 p.m. Friday, April 22, and 2 p.m. Saturday, April 23, in the school’s Performing Arts Building.

In lieu of admission cost, donations are being accepted for the Zaevion Dobson Schol-arship Fund. Fulton High is located at 2509 N. Broadway. Info: 594-1240.

The Historic Fourth + Gill Neighborhood welcomes all to its 26th anniversary Tour of Homes from 1-6 p.m. Sunday, April 24.

Purchase advance tickets for $10 at fourthandgill.org; Three Rivers Market, 1100 N. Central Street; Bliss, 24 Market Square; or Bliss Home, 29 Market Square and 7240 Kingston Pike. Tickets may be purchased on the tour

day for $12 at the Central United Methodist Church, 201 Third Av-enue, from 1-5 p.m. Youngsters 12 and younger are admitted free.

The Tour of Homes invites guests to stroll through one of Knoxville’s premier historical dis-tricts and to step inside several neighborhood homes, a condo-minium inside the recently reno-vated Brownlow School Lofts and

the prominent Greystone mansion. The tour begins at Central United Methodist Church, an example of Gothic Revival architecture.

Guests can ride a red trolley – with a resident tour guide host – from point to point. In addition, this year’s tour showcases six lo-cal artists whose work will be dis-played on porches throughout the neighborhood.

The tour coincides with the Dogwood Arts Open Gardens and Walking Trails that feature four neighborhood gardens and sev-eral notable trees. Maps (which include addresses for the gardens) for the self-guided tour are located inside the special event mailbox on the west side of Luttrell Street, adjacent to the Brownlow School Lofts.

Tour of Homes is Sunday in Fourth + Gill

Ellen Zavisca

Thinking green(ways) in Knox and beyond

Dogwood Arts program manager for trails and

gardens Vicki Williams Baumgartner and Dog-

wood Arts executive director Tom Cervone

Holston Hills Dogwood kickoff

The Holston Hills Dogwood Arts kickoff cocktail party

and art show at the Holston Hills Country Club was a

celebration of the neighborhood Dogwood Trail’s 60th

year and an opportunity for local artists to shine.

More on page 3.

Peace in the valleyThe school board had one

job at last week’s called meet-ing – to approve next year’s budget.

Members breezed through the blessing of a $453.5 mil-lion general purpose budget, but the fight over the $71.2 million capital improvement plan went the length of the bar and into the street, so to speak. Although the 5-4 out-come was hardly in doubt, as the board majority switched funds into Tracie Sanger’s project.

And Jim McIntyre’s depar-ture won’t heal this rift on the school board.

➤ Read Betty Bean on page 5

Beauty, beauty!“Our board members Mil-

lie Ward and Ann Jarrett are our keepers of the pillars and park,” said Holston Hills Com-munity Club president Clarita Buffaloe. “They work hard to make sure our entrance and park are beautiful.”

➤ Read more on page 3

2 • APRIL 20, 2016 • Shopper news

health & lifestyles

Fred Thomforde is grateful for Dr. Edward Tieng and the staff

at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center. He said of the indi-

vidualized treatment he received after being diagnosed with

prostate cancer, “Early detection made all the diff erence.”

PSA risingred Knoxville attorney makes case for early detection

Retired Knoxville attorney makes case for early detectionIt was a freak accident – Fred

Thomforde of Knoxville had just hooked the ball to the left and down a hill. Upset over the shot, he hopped into his golf cart and sped toward the ball.

But when he pressed the brakes, the cart began sliding on the wet grass. “Like some kind of fool, I stuck my foot out to stop it, and boom! Hit a bump, went up in the air and came down with my groin on the handle,” Thomforde recounted.

While it hurt and caused some bruising to the 70-year-old retired attorney, he didn’t think much about it until later that evening when blood in his urine prompted him to seek medical attention, a decision that not only would change his life but save it as well.

For it was at that visit to his primary care doctor, Dr. Michael Passarello, in 2008, that he was referred to Dr. Edward Tieng, an urologist at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center – a decision that ultimately led to Tieng’s early de-tection of prostate cancer.

Dr. Tieng determined Thom-forde’s golf cart injury was not serious but because of the blood in the urine and because Thom-forde had been a smoker, the doc-tor moved cautiously. He ordered

a test to determine the amount of prostate-specifi c antigen (PSA) in Thomforde’s blood. That test came back with a PSA score of .8 nano-grams per milliliter – well within the normal range.

“I think the ‘danger zone’ is something like 2 and above,” Thomforde said of the PSA score. “I never got into the danger zone, but early in 2010, Dr. Tieng said, ‘They are still normal, but these levels are rising.’ He wanted to check it again in three months.”

Three months later, the PSA level was still within the normal range, but Thomforde was asked to return yet again. “I’m still in the normal range,” he said. “I started out at .8 but now I’m at 1.8. So we had a long talk.”

It was during that “talk” that Dr. Tieng recommended Thom-forde undergo a biopsy, a proce-dure in which 12 core samples were removed from the prostate gland by a needle. The biopsied tissue was then sent to a labora-tory and “graded” by a pathologist who assigned it a Gleason score, a scoring system of 2 to 10 used to describe the cells’ appearance. A score of 2 to 4 indicates the cells appear normal, 5 to 7 indicates in-termediate risk of prostate cancer and 8 to 10 indicates an aggressive

form of prostate cancer. Thom-forde’s Gleason score was 7.

“I guess everybody reacts dif-ferently when they hear ‘you have cancer,’ but for me, it came like a blow to the soul,” said Thomforde, who previously had undergone surgery and radiation treatment for a form of cancer called sar-coma a year and a half earlier. “I may have been more mentally pre-pared for this than a lot of people. I don’t think you ever get com-pletely prepared for the news that

you have cancer but I had at least been through it.”

To determine whether Thom-forde’s prostate cancer had spread, Dr. Tieng ordered CT and bone scans. When the imaging indicated that his cancer was con-tained to the prostate, Dr. Tieng presented Thomforde with his op-tions.

“By this time, I had a good re-lationship with Dr. Tieng and had complete confi dence in him – he’s a very likable person but very professional,” said Thomforde.

“He explained to me the various options – there’s radiation treat-ment, hormone treatments, and so forth – and I fi nally said to him, ‘I will defer to your judgment on this’ and he said, ‘If I were you in your particular condition and health, I would recommend sur-gery.’ I didn’t even think about it. I just said, ‘Let’s do it.’”

In an almost 3-hour minimal-ly invasive procedure, Dr. Tieng used Fort Sanders’ da Vinci robot to remove Thomforde’s cancerous prostate gland. The pathologist later confi rmed that Thomforde was cancer-free.

“I was a little uncomfortable the fi rst couple of days or so, and there was a little leakage for a few months but even that wasn’t all that serious. When you con-

sider what the risk was, it waspretty minor.”” said Thomforde.“My body had returned to normalwithin about three months or so.”

“My hospital experience was excellent, my recovery was ex-cellent: Nurses, technicians, lab people, the doctors, the whole ex-perience to me was fi rst rate,” said Thomforde. “My PSA never gotinto the ‘danger zone’ per se butDr. Tieng made a judgment based on his personal history with me. Rather than just keep going with the PSA, he went with the biopsy and it caught the cancer while it was confi ned to the prostate. Early detection made all the difference.”

For more information about Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, please visit fsregional.com.

Jeff E. Flickinger, MD R. Wayne Hatfi eld, MD

Renee Quillin, MD Edward B. Tieng, MD

Urology Specialists of East Tennessee have more than 50 years combined experience treating diseases of the urinary tract system, including:

• Bladder cancer• Kidney cancer• Kidney stones• Prostate cancer• Enlarged prostate• Urinary incontinence• Vasectomy and reversal• Erectile dysfunction

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center

Newland Professional Building2001 Laurel Avenue, Suite 502

Knoxville, TN 37916(865) 331-9000

AlcoaSpringbrook Corporate Center

205 Corporate PlaceAlcoa, TN 37701(865) 331-9050

EXCELLENCE IN UROLOGY

8800-0

977

Prostate cancer is the most common cancer in men in the United States, after skin cancer. It is the second leading cause of death from cancer in men. Most men with prostate cancer are older than 65 years, with the disease occurring more often in African-American men than in white men.

Almost all prostate cancers are adenocarcinomas (cancers that begin in cells that make and release mucus and other fl uids), usu-ally growing very slowly and often with no early symptoms.

Talk to your doctor about your risk of prostate cancer and whether you need screening tests.

Tests to detect (fi nd) prostate cancer: ■ Digital Rectal Exam (DRE) – This is an exam of the rectum.

The doctor or nurse inserts a lubricated, gloved fi nger into the lower part of the rectum to feel the prostate for lumps or anything else that seems unusual.

■ Prostate-Specifi c Antigen (PSA) – This is a test that mea-sures the level of PSA in the blood. PSA is a substance made mostly by the prostate that may be found in an increased amount in the blood of men who have prostate cancer. The level of PSA may also be high in men who have an infection or infl ammation of the prostate or benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH; an enlarged, but noncancerous, prostate).

It is important to remember that your doctor does not neces-sarily think you have cancer if he or she suggests a screening test. Screening tests are given when you have no cancer symptoms. Screening tests may be repeated on a regular basis.

If a screening test result is abnormal, you may need to have more tests done to fi nd out if you have cancer.

– Source: National Cancer Institute

Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center is a regional referral hospital where other facilities

REGIONAL EXCELLENCE.

4400949494949444449449499009-007-0070707--777

Prostate cancer?Early detection may make treatment easier

NORTH/EAST Shopper news • APRIL 20, 2016 • 3 community

“Our board members Millie Ward and Ann Jar-rett are our keepers of the pillars and park,” said Holston Hills Community Club president Clarita Buf-faloe. “They work hard to make sure our entrance and park are beautiful.”

COMMUNITY NOTES

■ Alice Bell Spring Hill Neigh-

borhood Association. Info:

Ronnie Collins, 637-9630.

■ Beaumont Community

Organization. Info: Natasha

Murphy, 936-0139.

■ Belle Morris Community Ac-

tion Group meets 7 p.m. each

second Monday, City View

Baptist Church, 2311 Fine Ave.

Info: bellemorris.com or Rick

Wilen, 524-5008.

■ Chilhowee Park Neighbor-

hood Association meets 6:30

p.m. each last Tuesday, Admin-

Cindy Taylor

Holston Hills Coun-try Club food and bever-age director Jim Disney provided hors d’oeuvres including a whole salmon and fresh fruit. The K-Town 5 performed lively music. Holston Hills resident art-ists were on hand to show and sell their work. More than 150 residents, festival elite and volunteers attend-ed.

Artist Kelly Coffey, gnome whisperer extraor-dinaire, created a special Holston Hills gnome for the event. Artist and Holston Hills Community Club board member Lauren Ad-ams designed the garden fl ags and the cover of the historical Holston Hills cookbook, both available for purchase at the event.

An honorary booth was featured for photography

Attending the Holston Hills Country Club Dogwood Arts kickoff cocktail party are Clarita Buff aloe, Leslie Carnes, Timbs Jones,

Nancy Campbell, Pat Wilson, Vicki Williams Baumgartner, Lloyd King, Alaine McBee, Karen Wooten and Ann Jarrett.

Historic Holston Hills Community Club board members (front) Clarita Buff aloe, Lauren Adams;

(back) Millie Ward, Karen Bacon and Ann Jarrett. Photos by Cindy Taylor

The K-Town 5 keeps the music going.

Patrick Miller debuts his unique K.K. Miller Artisan Lighting.

Historic Holston Hills Community Club president Clarita Buf-

faloe (center) hobnobs with local artists Kelly Coff ey (left) and

Scottie Lynn Baxter.

Local artists Leann Cooper, Wanda Cazaubaun, Shelly Mangold, Andrea Hawkins, Betsy Han-

cock and Lauren Adams.

Berean’s Jacob Johnson works to get the ball

down fi eld against Halls High.

Lee Lawson (#8) of Berean Christian

School uses fancy footwork to handle

the ball against Halls last week. Halls

came out on top in the match, 6-1. Photos by Doug Johnson

Carter drumline places at CIPA championshipsCarter High School Indoor Drumline participated in the CIPA Championships at Western Caro-

lina University on April 3. The group fi nished strong, taking second place at the competition.

Carter has fi nished in the top three for the last four years. The performance was entitled “Totem”

and was written by CHS alumni Ben McCurry. The totem pole used in the drill was designed and

built by a band parent. CHS band director is Matt McCurry. Photo submitted

Keepers of the pillars and park

artist the late George Wil-lard.

The Holston Hills Dog-wood Trail is an East Knox-

ville gem and the featured trail for 2016.Contact Cindy Taylor at ctaylorsn@gmail.

com

Berean hostsHalls in soccer

istration Building, Knoxville

Zoo. Info: Paul Ruff , 696-6584.

■ Edgewood Park Neighbor-

hood Association meets

7 p.m. each third Tuesday,

Larry Cox Senior Center, 3109

Ocoee Trail. Info: edgewood

park.us.

4 • APRIL 20, 2016 • Shopper news

Wendy Smith

Buy an Unlimited Rides armband at

reg. price ($20) and get $5 off.

Admission is FREE!FOREVER YOUNG AMUSEMENTS PROVIDES:Clean, bright amusement rides and games

Professional, uniformed employees Food and Beverage Concessions

They clean the carnival site after the show and leave the area in better condition than

when they arrived.They have done carnival fundraisers for over 100 Lions Clubs in fi fteen states.

The old Ingles parking lot located at: 7144 Clinton Hwy, Powell, TN

$5 Discount coupons are free from: Computer Depot (all locations), Your Extra Storage (all locations), First Century

Bank of Powell, Cutting Crew of Halls, Enix Jewelers of Halls, Scotty’s Restaurant of Powell, and Humphammers of Powell

$5Off Unlimited Rides!

Bring this ad to the ticket boothNo Exchanges, Refunds, or Rain Checks.

It is with considerable sadness that I report Joshua Dobbs probably won’t win the Heisman Trophy as the fi nest college football play-er in the United States of America.

He is bigger than life as a student athlete at the Uni-versity of Tennessee. He has already generated the most positive headlines since the long-ago days of Peyton Manning.

Dobbs’ studies in aero-space engineering put him in the elite 2 per cent of ath-letic academics. Quick mind and quick feet make him an exceptional quarterback. He is a natural leader, mostly by example, with a touch of log-ic and a dash of dignity rath-er than fl aming adjectives made famous by Al Wilson.

Joshua, under duress, ap-pears unfl appable. He says

Marvin West

No Heisman for Dobbs

he appreciates recognition but does not allow fame to sweep him up, up and away. He credits his parents for the fi rm foundation in his life. He has many times demon-strated an awareness of pri-orities.

There was an interest-ing example in high school, Alpharetta, Ga., a schedule confl ict between band class and physics, one or the other.

He had played the saxo-phone since fourth grade. Gosh how Josh hated to give it up but where he was going, he had to know more about

fensive line is strong and he improves dramatically as a down-the-fi eld passer. He has a problem on his own team. Jalen Hurd will split the vote.

For 80 years we journal-ists have been trying to get Tennessee and Heisman into the same sentence. Close once or twice, but no cigar.

The idea of a trophy for the most outstanding player came out of a 1935 card game and sipping session among gentlemen of distinction at the Downtown Athletic Club in New York City. As the story goes, two favored an award for Ivy League la-crosse. Football won.

No Volunteer has won. Four could have. At least one should have.

There wasn’t much of a race between Princeton tailback Dick Kazmaier and Tennessee tailback Hank Lauricella in 1951. The East-ern bloc was in awe, 1777 to 424, of great Kaz victo-

Einstein’s theory of general relativity, about thermody-namics of black holes and about loop quantum gravity.

Dobbs aced the tests but, contrary to rumor, there were better players. ESPN said there were 20 better in Georgia his senior season. Butch Jones picked a good-enough one.

Alas, no Heisman. The betting line favors Clem-son quarterback DeShaun Watson. The bookmaker says there are several better Heisman prospects in the Southeastern Conference, including running backs Leonard Fournette of LSU, Nick Chubb of Georgia and Bo Scarbrough of Alabama. Ole Miss quarterback Chad Kelly is a better bet. TV likes his colorful past.

Unlikely that Joshua gets the Heisman, even if the of-

If you want to see a bunch of happy pedestrians, visit Cherokee Boulevard on a spring evening. You’ll see them in droves, tripping through the dogwoods, safe on a wide median. It’s one of my favorite exercise spots.

Contrast that with pres-ent-day Cumberland Av-enue. Last week, I strolled down to the Strip from the hospital for lunch. I’ve got my eyes on the prize (an at-tractive, pedestrian-friendly streetscape), but for now, it’s anything but. Torn up side-walks and irritated drivers made for a stressful trek.

It illustrated something I already knew. Walking is a pleasure − if it’s safe. Walking in my sidewalk-free neighborhood is safe because streets are wide and there’s little traffi c. But much of Knoxville and the surrounding county is dif-ferent because we like to

Could creative solutions build more sidewalks?

drive fast and take short-cuts. Our car-centric culture simply doesn’t respect other forms of transportation.

Last week, a group of West Hills residents walked from Wesley Road to West Hills Elementary to illus-trate the need for a sidewalk along Sheffi eld Drive. One kid carried a sign that read, “We need a sidewalk. We want to walk to school.”

Long-time Sheffi eld Drive resident Sandy Robinson participated. Her kids used to walk to school before traffi c became excessive, she said. Now, drivers use the road to avoid Kingston Pike. It was

obvious at 7:30 a.m. that drivers along Sheffi eld were not used to pedestrians.

A few City Council mem-bers showed up to express support, but none could promise a sidewalk.

The city has a prioritiza-tion process that determines who gets sidewalks when. It’s based on a point system. Schools are a big driver, says engineering chief Jim Hagerman. Projects within Parental Responsibility Zones − areas that are too close to schools to be ser-viced by school buses − earn points. Sometimes PRZs overlap, resulting in more points.

Missing links get points. Short links get more. Iso-lated projects don’t get any points.

Areas with a high poten-tial for pedestrian use, like high-density development within a short walk to a gro-

cery store, earn points. Be-ing on a KAT bus route earns points.

Sheffi eld Drive is good example of a legitimate need that doesn’t make it into the top tier, he says.

“It’s frustrating to us. We don’t have the budget or the staff to hand out a lot of side-walks.”

The prioritization process is necessary because side-walks are so expensive − an average of $350 per foot. The cost of purchasing right-of-way and East Tennessee to-pography drive the price up.

“Knoxville is a challeng-ing place.”

Our car-centric culture is at least as challenging as our landscape. But fi nd-ing creative ways to fi nance sidewalks, greenways and bike lanes could mean that our kids don’t grow up as-suming they need to drive everywhere.

Businesses could pur-chase segments of sidewalks that will make it easier for pedestrians to reach them. The city could offer match-ing funds to communities that work together to raise money for sidewalks. Per-

haps citizens could work alongside trained profes-sionals on simple projects.

Walking is fun − and healthy − if it’s safe. Even kids know that. It’s up to us to give them the opportu-nity.

ries over NYU, Navy, Penn, Lafayette, Cornell, Brown, Harvard, Yale and Dart-mouth. Wow, what a run.

John Majors made it close against Paul Hornung of Notre Dame in 1956. The vote was 1066 to 994 for the best man on a 2-8 team over the multi-talented leader of a great team. Incidentally, some thought Syracuse had an even better player but Jim Brown was black.

Tennessee quarterback Heath Shuler fi nished sec-ond in 1993 to Florida State quarterback Charlie Ward. The margin was worse than three to one.

As a former Sunday school teacher and Cumber-land Presbyterian deacon,

I cannot say what I really think about the 1997 elec-tion. I will say that Peyton fi nished second because …

No, I won’t even say that.Others said there was a

backlash because he had a famous father and had long been on a pedestal with his very own silver bowl and spoon. He was just too pol-ished, too good to be true.

Others said Peyton took a hit because the Vols couldn’t beat Florida.

Others said ESPN clearly had an agenda.

The vote was 1,815-1,543. I have trouble remembering who won, Charles what’s-his-name.If you want to tell Marvin West what you

think, his e-mail address is westwest6@

netzero.com

Rocio Huet and Charlie Burchett check out “The Politician”

by artist Preston Farabow during this year’s Artitude fund-

raiser. Photo by Sara Barrett

Shopper news • APRIL 20, 2016 • 5 government

VictorAshe

The school board had one job at last week’s called meeting – to approve next year’s budget.

Members breezed through the blessing of a $453.5 mil-lion general purpose budget, but the fi ght over the $71.2 million capital improvement plan went the length of the bar and into the street, so to speak, although the outcome – a 5-4 vote to reroute $6.5 million that Superintendent James McIntyre and his staff had earmarked for other pur-poses to renovate Inskip El-ementary School – was never truly in doubt.

Five-four votes are noth-ing unusual on this deeply divided and utterly predict-able body.

Board chair Doug Har-ris generally lines up with Karen Carson, Lynne Fu-gate, Gloria Deatheridge and Tracie Sanger to smack down the minority – Patti Bounds, Terry Hill, Mike McMillan and Amber Rountree. Common wis-dom was that support for McIntyre was the grand divide between the pro-McIntyre majority and the anti-McIntyre minority,

Betty Bean

Wrangling will survive McIntyre’s departure

but McIntyre’s announced resignation and July depar-ture date have done little to bring the factions together.

Last week’s meeting was rancorous because of the big dollars involved, and be-cause the balance of power is going to shift in Septem-ber when Harris, Carson and Sanger depart and new members, two of whom are former teachers, are seated.

The battle began March 23 when McIntyre present-ed his 2017 FY budget rec-ommendations, including $3 million for a new cafete-ria for Powell High School, which has been struggling with feeding 1,400 students in a facility built for slight-ly more than 200. Sanger made an emotional plea to fi nd money to renovate ag-ing, overcrowded Inskip, where 85 percent of the stu-dents live below the poverty line. Carson asked McIntyre to come up with a way to

fund the Inskip renovation, although the board did not vote to ask him to do so.

McIntyre complied, and presented two capital im-provement options at the April 13 meeting – his origi-nal proposal and one that stripped $3 million from Powell and sucked up sys-tem-wide funds including $400,000 from a contin-gency fund for foundation stabilization, $500,000 from security upgrades, $100,000 from school ac-cessibility funds and $2.5 million from physical plant upgrades, mainly roof and HVAC, for a total of $6.5 million redirected to Inskip renovation.

Bounds, who represents Powell, branded the new op-tion as the work of “the good ol’ girl system.” She asked maintenance and opera-tions head Jim French his opinion of putting off roof repairs. He said it would be “devastating.”

The other side took great umbrage at Bounds’ re-marks, and Sanger made the motion to approve the Inskip option. She, Harris and Carson seized on the

fact that the principals’ of-fi ces at Powell were to be relocated to make room for the expanded cafeteria; they said they wanted the money to go to student ser-vices, not administration (ignoring the description of the Inskip renovations that includes a new administra-tive offi ce suite).

Harris suggested that fi xing up Inskip might help with the civil rights lawsuit that was fi led as a result of last year’s vote to reject the superintendent’s bud-get proposal and build new middle schools on the out-skirts of the county (failing to acknowledge that he was an architect of the plan).

Eighth District repre-sentative Mike McMillan’s observation that, come September, the new board could undo the present board’s decisions were not well received, and Carson reminded him that his dis-trict has been the benefi cia-ry of budget circumventions for Gibbs Middle and Carter Elementary schools.

Clearly, saying good-bye to McIntyre is not going to bring peace to this valley.

West Hills residents should not and probably will not accept delay on get-ting their sidewalk built for Sheffi eld Drive from Wesley Road to Vanosdale. With Vice Mayor Duane Grieve as well as two potential mayoral candi-dates, George Wallace and Marshall Stair, supporting the effort, they can achieve results.

If necessary they can amend the city bud-get. It is a signifi cant safety issue. While Mayor Madeline Rogero did not at-tend the walk in West Hills, she is smart enough to know this issue could have traction and may agree to adding it to her budget on her own.

Former Vice Mayor Nick Pavlis said he is “hopeful the mayor will fi nd money to fund this needed project in this upcoming budget.” Stair said he was impressed by the number of people with children who showed up at 6:45 on a cold morn-ing to walk the route.

“The effort was well done and impacted families turned out,” Stair added.

Initial costs mentioned are $1.2 million for less than one mile and is a Cadillac version of the true cost. This is the talk of a city employee wanting to kill the project instead of a serious estimate of the real cost. Sandy Robinson, a longtime Sheffi eld Drive resident, is helping spear-head the sidewalk effort.

Stair is attending a train-ing session thru MPC in Atlanta on walkability on April 26-28. It is sponsored by the National Association of Chronic Disease Direc-tors and he is part of a 6-member delegation from the Knoxville area.

■ Mayor Rogero’s 5th city budget message will be 11:45 a.m. Wednesday, April 27, at the Knoxville Zoo. The public is invited as it is an open meeting. A light lunch will be served.

■ The announcement that the former Farragut Hotel will be back welcom-ing guests in a year as Hyatt Place, a part of the Hyatt collection, is good news for Knoxville.

Hyatt Place is in the third tier of Hyatt hotels in terms of amenities, but still a Hyatt. Hyatt was last in Knoxville when the current downtown Marriott was a Hyatt. Knoxville and Knox County benefi ts with several well-established chains of hotels here such as Hilton, Marriott, Crowne Plaza and Hyatt.

Chances good for West Hills sidewalk

■ It is nothing short of incredible that an indicted state representa-tive has no Democratic or

Republican opposition. That is Joe Armstrong who is scheduled to go to trial for income

tax evasion on Aug. 2, just two days before the Aug. 4 primaries.

Normally such a situa-tion would draw a line of candidates a football fi eld long seeking the position. Armstrong does face inde-pendent opposition from former state Rep. Pete Drew in November. Drew most recently lost to Stair for City Council.

Armstrong is still personally popular with his colleagues and in his district. He has not been treated as a social pariah like the GOP’s Jeremy Dur-ham has for allegations of sexual harassment. Person-ally, I like Armstrong and hope he is innocent of the charges against him.

However, if he is found guilty then the failure of either party to have a single candidate means Arm-strong will be re-elected but the full House would refuse to seat him as a convicted felon. This would trigger the Knox County Commis-sion appointing a successor for 100 days followed by a special primary and general election. Those elections will cost taxpayers over $140,000 for both.

Of course, Armstrong could resign his party’s nomination and allow the Democratic Party to ap-point a new nominee by convention to face Drew. The GOP would be left off the ballot as no candidate qualifi ed. The district is roughly 40 percent African-American. The GOP could still recruit a candidate thru the write-in process in the Aug. 4 primary.

■ Former state Rep. Bob Booker, newspaper columnist and fi rst Afri-can-American from Knox County to serve in the state House of Representatives, turned 81 on April 14. He is a well-known historian of Knoxville’s African-Ameri-can history.

Sandra Clark

Beth Harwell

Pushing buttons for party faithful

Luttrell Mayor Johnny Merritt

with his daughter, Hannah,

an architecture student at UT.

“She’s living my dream,” said

the mayor, a contractor. “She

will be drawing plans while

I’m reading them.”

House Speaker Beth Har-well got a big endorsement for a possible race for gover-nor. It might have made the long drive to Maynardville worth it.

Harwell spoke April 16 at the Lincoln/Reagan Din-ner at Union County High School.

State Sen. Frank Niceley, running for re-election without op-p o s i t i o n , said he and H a r w e l l came to the Legislature in 1988.

In the House, he

said, 99 people think they should be Speaker. Harwell won election as Speaker in 2012, the fi rst woman to hold the post.

“When the Democrats were in control, they raised some tax every year. ... Since 2012, we’ve not raised taxes at all, ... and we’ve got a bil-lion dollar surplus. ...

“She’s not made up her mind (about running for governor), but I’ve made up my mind. If she runs, I’ll back her,” Niceley said.

Harwell got three stand-ing ovations from the GOP faithful, including some from Knox County: state Rep. Harry Brooks, Jack and Joyce Huddleston, and Ted and Carla Hatfi eld.

David Allan Coe sang that a good country song needs the words “mama and trains and trucks and pris-on and getting drunk.”

Well, a good Republican speech requires “God and fl ag and life and veterans and Ronald Reagan.”

Harwell pushed most of those buttons, adding quotes from Thomas Jef-ferson and George Wash-ington. She also managed to casually mention her hus-band, her daughter and her church.

What she didn’t do (sad-ly) was inspire us to get up every morning trying to elect her as governor.

One woman in the room emailed: “Beth Harwell did a wonderful job last night, don’t you think? I was glad to see strong female pres-ence at this year’s dinner.”

But another said, “Well, you can’t exactly call (the dinner) rousing.”

Here’s some unsolicited advice for House Speaker Harwell, a good woman whom I would like to sup-port for governor:

■ Risk losing. Bring votes on Insure Tennessee and expelling Jeremy Dur-ham. Appointing yet an-other study committee and moving Jeremy across the street show tepid leader-ship; playing not to lose.

■ Do homework. If you’re visiting Union Coun-ty, know something about the state projects under-

way there. Sure, it’s hectic in Nashville as the session winds down. But just glance out the car window on Hwy. 33. Those yellow graders weren’t seen much in East Tennessee until Bill Haslam got elected governor.

Talk about the economic impact – the growth of jobs and retail in Maynardville when Hwy. 33 is four-laned from the interstate.

Look at Union County High School. Talk about the kids here, their achievement and opportunities. We are just mildly interested that Tennessee scored in the top half of test scores in fourth grade math (at No. 25).

Challenge us. Repub-licans are not greedy aris-tocrats obsessed with tax cuts – at least, not the ones I know. Republicans are op-timistic, excited about capi-talism and eager to share.

Whether it’s reading to a kid after school or donat-ing money to build a park, Republicans stand ready to help make things better.

To quote an old friend:

“Whatever else history may say about me when I’m gone, I hope it will record that I appealed to your best hopes, not your worst fears.”

– Ronald Reagan

“The United States re-mains the last best hope for a mankind plagued by tyranny and deprivation. America is no stronger than its people – and that means you and me.

“Well, I believe in you,

and I believe that if we work together, then one day we will say, ‘We fought the good fi ght. We fi nished the race. We kept the faith.’

“And to our children and our children’s children, we can say, ‘We did all that could be done in the brief time that was given us here on earth.’”

– Ronald Reagan

GOSSIP AND LIES ■ Donald Trump spends two

hours a day on his hair; Bernie

Sanders’ barber is the wind,

per Saturday Night Live.

■ Diane Ravitch says we could

stop excessive testing in

schools by requiring legisla-

tors and policymakers to take

the tests they mandate – and

publishing their scores. “This

would prove the value of the

tests. Why shouldn’t they all

be able to pass the 8th grade

math test?”

Armstrong

6 • APRIL 20, 2016 • NORTH/EAST Shopper news business

MONDAYS THROUGH APRIL 25

QED Experimental Comedy Lab, 7:30-9:30 p.m., The Pilot Light, 106 E. Jackson Ave. Free comedy show blending stand-up, improv, sketch and other performance styles. Donations accepted.

THROUGH FRIDAY, SEPT. 16

Online registration open for the Marine Mud Run, to be held Saturday, Sept. 17. Individual waves, 8 a.m.; team waves, 11:30 a.m. Course: 3 miles of off-road running, which entails some obstacles, hills and mud pits. Registration deadline: Friday, Sept. 16, or until total registrants reaches 3150. Info/registration: knoxmud.org.

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20

Computer Workshops: Excel, 2-4:15 p.m.,

Burlington Branch, 4614 Asheville Highway. Requires “Word Basics” or equivalent skills. Info/registration: 525-5431.

“Grieving: fi nding the new normal,” 2:30-3:30 p.m., Humana Guidance Center, 640 Plaza, 4438 Western Ave. Free and open to the public. Info: 329-8892, TTY: 711.

“Harry Potter and the Nineteenth-Century Dream-Child,” 5 p.m., UT Medical Center’s Health Information Center Conference Room, 1924 Alcoa Highway. Presented by guest speaker Dr. Amy Billone as part of the “Harry Potter’s World: Renaissance Science, Magic and Medicine” exhibit. Exhibit on display through May 21. Info: 305-9525.

International Folk Dance Class, 7:30-10 p.m., Claxton Community Center, 1150 Edgemoor Road, Clinton. Info: Paul Taylor, 898-5724; oakridgefolkdancers.org; on Facebook.

Wheels on the Bus Storytime, 10:30-11:30 a.m., Burlington Branch Library, 4614 Asheville Highway. Presented by Anne Victoria of the Knox Area Transit system. Info: 525-5431.

THURSDAY, APRIL 21

Computer Workshop: Introducing the Computer, 10:30 a.m.-12:45 p.m., Halls Branch Library, 4518 E. Emory Road. Preregistration required. Info/registration: 922-2552.

Plainview 7th District Neighborhood Watch meeting, 7 p.m., Plainview Community Center. Info: 992-5212.

Writing a resume to get the interview – interviewing to get the job, 4 p.m., Murphy Branch Library, 2247 Western Ave., LT Ross Bldg. Info: 521-7812.

FRIDAY-SATURDAY, APRIL 22-23

Friends Mini Used Book Sale, 10 a.m.-5 p.m., Halls Branch Library, 4518 E. Emory Road. Info: knoxfriends.org.

SATURDAY, APRIL 23

Cruise Against Cancer, 6 a.m.-midnight, Lowe’s Home Improvement, 120 Epley Road, Newport. Rain or shine. Featuring music, T-shirts, a bake sale, games, a benefi t auction and more. Info: 548-6152 or on Facebook.

Fourth Saturday jam session, 7 p.m., Old Rush Strong School in Sharps Chapel. Featuring bluegrass, country and gospel music. Pickers, dancers and spectators welcome.

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.

Send items to news@ShopperNewsNow.com

ShoppernewseVents

cuisine from four parts of the world: Asian, Spanish, Italian and French. And based on last year’s fi rst Food Gala, the teams will be serving some memorable dishes.

The teams’ offerings will be judged by a trio of local Celebrity Chefs: Author and Chef Barbara Tenney; Rob-ert Allen, the executive chef of Citico’s Restaurant and Club at Windriver in Tellico Lake; and Andre Nowading from Whole Foods.

Call Rotarian Keith Bryson for tickets at 865-719-4582.

■ It’s Kentucky Derby Day on Saturday, May 7, when the thoroughbreds break from the gates in the 142nd Derby at Churchill Downs and that’s also the day for the second annual Rotary Club of Knoxville’s Jockeys & Juleps from 3-7 p.m. at the historic South-ern Railway Station.

Tickets are $100 and in-

clude all of the festivities. There will be “Red Carpet Arrivals,” live music be-tween the races, a ladies’ Fancy Hat Contest, a gentle-man’s Bowtie Contest, pic-tures with a thoroughbred, a cornhole tournament, a si-lent auction, Derby-inspired Hors d’oeurves and live mu-sic by Hillbilly Jedi.

You’ll also be able to watching the Derby on a 15-foot projection screen.

For tickets, call 865-523-8252.

■ An invitation: TheRotary Club of Knoxville is inviting all Rotarians on Tuesday, May 31, at the Marriott Hotel for its noon meeting to hear Gov. Bill Haslam speak. It will be helpful to let the club know if you plan to attend. Email Elaine McCullouch ar kxro-tary@bellsouth.net or call 865-523-8252.Tom King is a retired newspaper editor, a

Rotarian for 28 years and past president

of the Rotary Club of Farragut. He can be

reached at tking535@gmail.com

Rotary International’s motto of “Service Above Self” is more than just a motto – it’s a way of life for Rotarians. And the key word is “service.” The phrase was fi rst mentioned in 1911 at Rotary’s second convention in Portland, ORE. In 1989 Rotary’s Council on Legislation es-tablished “Service Above Self” as the principal motto of Rotary because it best conveys the philosophy of unselfi sh volunteer service.

Rotary’s seven clubs are all involved in service proj-ects – both locally and inter-nationally. Projects require fi nancial support and our clubs’ fundraisers through-out the year are a big part of how it all happens.

Rotarians raise money to support an array of proj-ects – college scholarships; donating books to elemen-tary school libraries; Free Flu Shot Saturday; reading pro-grams; clean water projects

here and abroad; local parks; elementary school cleanups as part of World Rotary Day; tickets for underprivileged youth to see and participate in theater, opera and sym-phony performances and a host of many others.

Two of our clubs have major fundraisers coming up to support their projects and you’re invited.

The Rotary Club of Far-ragut will have its second annual International Food Gala on Saturday, April 23, at the UT Visitors Center on Neyland Drive. Tickets are $75. The Gala will begin at 5 p.m. Teams from the Pellis-sippi State Community Col-lege’s Culinary Arts Insti-tute program will be serving

UT students to host bike rallyStudents in a service-

learning class at UT Knox-ville, Haslam College of Business, will host the Tour de Knox bike rally from 2 to 4:15 p.m. Sunday, April 24, beginning at UT Parking Lot 9, located at the corner of Phillip Fulmer Way and Peyton Manning Pass.

Proceeds from the rally benefi t Knoxville’s Legacy Parks Foundation, which works to expand parks, create trails and increase access to rivers in East Tennessee. The cost to par-ticipate is $15 for adults and $10 for UT students. It is free for children 12 and under.

Billed as a “scavenger hunt on wheels,” partici-pants will receive a map of locations where they can receive tickets to win prizes supplied by local businesses

and organizations. The locations are scat-

tered around campus and nearby greenways, includ-ing the Bearden area and Cherokee Farm. The farther the location is from the ral-ly’s starting point, the more tickets a participant can re-ceive.

Prizes will include bicy-cles, helmets, pumps, bike computers and clothing. Partners this year include Echelon Bicycles in Farra-gut, REI and Kickstand, a local bike collective.

“Free bikes and helmets will be provided by UT’s Outdoor Program, Lega-cy Parks and Kickstand,” Cadotte said. “You don’t even need a bike to join the rally.”

Participants can register online or at 1 p.m. the day of the event.

By Sara BarrettAward-winning actor

Kiefer Sutherland has a country music album com-ing out in June.

You read that right.The same man who gave

us unforgettable characters in The Lost Boys, Flatliners, 24, Young Guns and many, many more movies will re-

lease a handful of tracks he wrote himself.

The project began as a couple of songs Sutherland penned with the hopes of sending to BMI or Sony Mu-sic for other artists to per-form. He never considered himself a singer but says he’s been writing songs off and on since he was about 15.

The album, “Down in a Hole,” will be released in June, but you can hear Sutherland’s music in per-son when he plays The In-ternational, 940 Blackstock Avenue, 8 p.m. Friday, April 29. Tickets are $17 and doors open at 7 p.m.

Sutherland says his live show gives him a chance to

share anecdotes with fansregarding what inspired hislyrics, and some of thoseanecdotes relate to his act-ing career.

“This album is the closestthing I’ve ever had to a jour-nal. This is not a character.This is me.”

Info: internationalknox.com

Kiefer Sutherland to sing in Knoxville

By Carol Z. ShaneThis year’s crowd at EarthFest down at

the World’s Fair Park on Saturday couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful day to cele-brate and raise awareness about our planet.

The free, zero-waste (yes, it can be done) event featured music from bands How About Never, Deadbeat Scoundrels, 3 Mile Smile and Natty’s Common Root as well as a scavenger hunt, crafts for kids, a Goodwill pop-up clothing shop, a free tree and shrub giveaway sponsored by the town of Farra-gut Stormwater Matters program, a Medic blood drive, a fuel-effi cient car showcase and a tiny home demonstration.

This year’s theme was “Small is Beauti-ful,” with emphasis on “keeping it in the

community,” according to Cat Wilt, an or-ganizers of the event, now in its 17th year. Large costumed characters strode the grounds. A red crayfi sh partnered with a gigantic walking pile of plastic bags made a point: plastic garbage is dangerous to aquatic life. Also spotted were a giant tree and mushroom.

Sponsors included WBIR TV, Knox Re-cycles, 90.3 The Rock, city of Knoxville, Rothchild Event Rentals, Americorps, East Tennessee Clean Fuels, Ijams Nature Park, KUB, WUOT radio, University of Tennes-see, Eagle Distributing, Allen Sign and Whole Foods Market.

It was a success. “We have had a lovely crowd all day long,” said Wilt.

Holding their free trees courtesy of the town of Farragut

Stormwater Matters program, Sammy Anderson, 13, and Tyren

Brabson, almost 8, learn how garbage harms aquatic life from

a crayfi sh played by Ben Duhamel and a pile of garbage bags,

played by Carrie Lykines. Photos by Carol Z. Shane

A popular guest was “Spoon”

the pig, demonstrating here

that he can obey a “sit” com-

mand. Photo by Cat Wilt

Young Fabian Garcia, 6, buddies up to giant mushroom Becca

Bratcher and garbage-bag-and-fabric tree Christine Doka, who

says that Americorps helps to make and update the EarthFest

costumes. Garcia is the son of Heather Patty and Jesse Garcia.

A great day for EarthFest

Two Rotary fundraisers this weekend

Tom King

Buds Gun Shop & Range will host its fi rst-ever Pre-

cision Rifl e Event April 22-24 at 2270 Two Rivers Road just off Win-fi eld Dunn Parkway in Sevierville. Profession-al shooters

from the Precision Rifl e Se-ries (PRS) will do product demonstrations, conduct a free seminar and meet with shooting enthusiasts.

The Precision Rifl e Event will also feature represen-

Jim Gilliland

Buds to host precision rifl e eventtatives from Masterpiece Arms (MPA) and U.S. Op-tics Academy. Drawings and giveaways will take place throughout the three-day event and muzzle brakes, scope bases, T-shirts and free training passes will be raffl ed.

Professional shooters who are scheduled to at-tend include Phil Cashin, Jim Gilliland and Trinity Brown. The free seminar will begin Saturday, April 23, at 2 p.m. The seminar covers selecting a precision rifl e, rifl e setup and a Q&A session with experts. Info: BudsGunShopTN.com

Let’s just blame it on Victor Ashe. Arguably, his election to the state House in 1968

at age 23 was the fi rst won by door-knocking. Knock on the most doors and you’ll win. That later brought us Stacey Campfi eld.

Prior to the landmark Baker v. Carr decision by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1962, states paid little attention to proportional representation. In fact, the litigant from Tennessee, Charles Baker, said the Legislature hadn’t redistricted since 1901. This led directly to Reynolds v. Sims in 1964 and to “one per-son, one vote.”

It was a straight line to 1968 and Victor. Prior to the ’60s, legislators were selected by po-

litical bosses with an eye toward geographic balance and a nod toward playing well with others (i.e. po-litical bosses). Rural areas were overrepresented to the detriment of cities. That was not optimal, and it brought us some less than memorable legislators.

But look at today. Lawmakers approved a $35 billion budget last week with hardly any debate, at least open debate. Included was more than $1.7 bil-lion for higher education. Yet we heard more debate on the $500,000 being spent on the Offi ce of Diver-sity than on the other $1,699,500,000.

And so it goes, department after department, dollar after dollar. Guess we’ve got too many legisla-tors whose brains have been baked from knocking on doors in the sun.

business notesSandra Clarksclark426@aol.com

What’s wrong in Nashville?

NORTH/EAST Shopper news • APRIL 20, 2016 • 7 faith

SENIOR NOTES ■ Carter Senior Center

9040 Asheville Highway932-2939Monday-Friday8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Off erings include:

card games; exercise

programs; arts and crafts;

movie matinee each Friday;

Senior Meals, noon each

Wednesday.

Register for: Lunch

Bunch: Aubrey’s, noon

Monday, April 25. IPad/

Tablet class, 2 p.m. Tuesday,

April 26. Veterans Services,

11:30 a.m. Wednesday, April

27; registration: 215-5645.

Italian potluck, 11:30 a.m.

Wednesday, April 27.

■ Corryton Senior Center

9331 Davis Drive688-5882knoxcounty.org/seniorsMonday-FridayHours vary

Off erings include: exer-

cise classes; cross-stitch, card

games; dominoes, crochet,

quilting, billiards; Senior

Meals, 11 a.m. each Friday.

Register for: Main

Munch Potluck, 11:30 a.m.

Thursday, April 21; includes

“The Beat” class presented

by Jamie Price of Macs

Pharmacy.

■ Larry Cox Senior

Center

3109 Ocoee Trail546-1700Monday-FridayHours vary

Off erings include:

exercise programs; bingo;

arts and crafts classes.

■ John T. O’Connor

Senior Center

611 Winona St.523-1135knoxseniors.org/oconnor.htmlMonday-Friday8 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Off erings include: Card

games, billiards, senior

fi tness, computer classes,

bingo, blood pressure

checks 10:30-11:30 a.m.

Monday-Friday. Singing

Seniors Spring Concert, 10

a.m. Tuesday, April 26.

Earth Day is two days away. It is a day for us to pause, look around, and give thanks for this one and only home we have – so far, at least. And I, personally, am not ready to set off on a journey to Mars to check out the neighborhood.

So, I want us to take care of this little blue orb. God put us in charge of it, appointed us as gardeners and left it up to us.

As one wise man put it to me, “We should not foul the nest.” That means we should use our resources carefully, not be wasteful, and not be careless with what we throw away.

I get really irritated when I see cans thrown out on the highway. I am saddened when I see trees cut down for no apparent reason. I have been known to take recyclables out of other peoples’ trash.

And God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God called the dry land Earth, and the waters that were gathered together he called Seas. And God saw that it was good.

(Genesis 1: 9-10 NRSV)We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors,

we borrow it from our children.(Native American proverb)

This little blue orb

CrossCurrents

LynnPitts

All it takes is caring enough to leave a better world to our children.

God made the world in six days fl at,

On the seventh, He said, “I’ll rest.”

So he let the thing into orbit swing,

To give it a dry run test.

A billion years went by, then He

Took a look at the whirling blob;

His spirits fell, as He shrugged, “Ah well,

It was only a six-day job.”

– E.Y. Harburg

FAITH NOTES ■ First Comforter Church,

5516 Old Tazewell Pike, hosts

MAPS (Mothers At Prayer Ser-

vice) noon each Friday. Info:

Edna Hensley, 771-7788.

■ Trentville and Pleasant Hill

UMC will host a Spring Tea

2:30 p.m. Sunday, April 24, at

Trentville UMC, 9215 Straw-

berry Plains Pike. Donations

welcome. Proceeds go to

Children’s Ministries.

By Carol Z. ShaneWhen Ken and Wendy

Heintz’s 7-month-old son Oliver began having con-stant seizures, he was giv-en a grim prognosis. He was put on medication to bring the seizures under control, but the Heintzes were told that Oliver could never expect to live nor-mally and that he would basically be, says Wendy, “a vegetable.”

Now 7 and in the second grade at Ritta Elementary, Oliver has certainly beaten the odds. His seizures have been under control for four years, and he is medication-free.

“He walks and talks, though we sometimes have trouble understanding him,” says Wendy. Though he is in a special education class, he takes one regular class “and does all the art, music and gym classes.” Ken, who is a systems engi-neer, and Wendy call Oliver their “little miracle baby.”

As parents of a special-needs child, they face daily challenges. An instructor for Ritta’s computer lab class, Wendy is able to stay close to Oliver and also his little brother, Owen, 6, born

MU2 Gregory Lopes swaps

stories with resident Jack

Kramer (U.S. Navy).

“It’s always such an honor

to play for veterans. Wheth-

er they retired two years

ago or 40 years ago, they

always have such good

stories to tell,” said Lopes.

Ken and Wendy Heintz with their sons, Owen and OliverPhoto submitted

U.S. Navy Band members MU2 Jason Lucker on trumpet and

MU2 Gregory Lopes on trombone serenade the residents of

Ben Atchley State Veterans Home in Karns. Photos by Nancy An-derson

J.W. West (USAF) meets U.S. Navy Band trombonist MU3 Michael Bookman. “It’s an honor to

meet you, sir. Thank you for your service,” said Bookman.

Nick Patty (U.S. Navy) said he

particularly enjoyed the tune

“I’m Popeye the Sailor Man.”

‘Fearfully and wonderfully made’

healthy. But a roller-coaster of emotions, including grief and anxiety, are always with her.

She thought maybe some other moms might be in the same boat. “I have been part of a group that meets at First Baptist Powell,” she says. Two FBP mem-

bers, Carla Jones and Darla Armstrong, themselves spe-cial-needs parents, began “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made,” a support group for moms of special-needs chil-dren, named for a passage in the biblical Psalms. The group was very helpful.

“But I live in East Knox-

ville,” says Wendy, who is a member of Union Baptist Church on Washington Pike. With all of her demands as a parent, the long drive to Powell was a problem. “God just said, ‘you need to start this here at your church.’”

So she did.On its website, Union

Baptist Church has a new link to the group, which will have its fi rst meeting in May. “I’ll just kind of be di-recting it,” says Wendy, who is trying to get the word out. “We’re sending cards home with CDC (Comprehensive Development Classrooms) families and handing them out at Oliver’s occupational therapist’s offi ce.

“If you don’t have any friends who have spe-cial-needs kids, it’s hard to find support,” Wendy says. “This is just a place for moms to meet, to have someone else walk through it with them.”

“Fearfully and Wonder-fully Made – a new growth group for moms of special-needs or critically ill chil-dren,” will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 10, at Union Baptist Church, 6701 Washington Pike. Info: dis-coverunion.org or 687-4500

Navy Band visists Veterans

By Ruth WhiteThe Heiskell senior group

met in April at the new Community Center in Pow-ell, and there was a lot going on for those in attendance.

Nadean Meredith with Commercial Bank shared plans for the bank’s travel club, the Golden Presiden-tial Club. Want to know more about the club?

It is hosting a picnic at Robertson Haymaker Farms in Speedwell on Saturday, May 21. Sign up to attend by May 1 by contacting Mer-edith at 606-248-4584 (Mid-dlesboro branch). Upcoming

activities include dinner on the Titanic’s third deck secret dining room on June 21; cel-ebration at Halls Commercial Bank on Thursday, June 30, in celebration of Indepen-dence Day; Niagara Falls trip in September and a nostalgic escape to Cumberland Coun-ty Playhouse to see “A Christ-mas Story” in December just to name a few.

Upcoming events for the Heiskell seniors include a bingo marathon, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday, April 21; senior luncheon featuring a Derby Days theme, Thursday, May 12; Veterans Services

representative at the center, 10:30-11:30 a.m. Tuesday, May 17; Community Open House 1-3 p.m. Saturday, May 21, and an ice cream so-cial at the center, 12:30 p.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, May 26.

The group meets each month on the second Thursday. The program be-gins at 11 a.m. with lunch to follow.

The lunch for this month’s meeting was provided by Mynatt Funeral Home, which also gave out gift bags, and music/entertainment was provided by the Grace Tones from Grace Baptist Church.

Sarah Stooksbury plays the hammer dulcimer with the Grace

Tones.

Events galore fi ll seniors’ calendars

By Cindy Taylor Jon Knowles says he felt

drawn to Haiti after the dev-astating earthquake there in 2011. His compassion for those affected led him to found Medic Samaritan. As executive director of the nonprofi t ministry, Knowles oversees the operations and staff both domestically and internationally. This in-cludes traveling to the coun-try four to six times a year.

Knowles has 15 years’ ex-perience in emergency ser-vices. He is currently a criti-

cal care fl ight paramedic with UT LifeStar. His back-ground gives him valuable insight into the necessity for easy access to health care in foreign countries.

“The lack of health ac-cess for individuals in the most rural communities and their full-time depen-dence on foreign entities for assistance was the found-ing principle behind our current mission concept,” said Knowles. “We wanted to create a ministry that fo-cused on empowering and

A heart for Haiti sustaining these communi-ties as it pertained to physi-cal health care while grow-ing and fostering spiritual health through discipline.”

Knowles has been mar-ried to wife Amy for 11 years. They have an ad-opted daughter from Haiti, Sheelove. Amy is a nursing professor at King Univer-sity and serves as a nursing outreach coordinator for the ministry.

A three-part, Christ-centered grassroots effort, Medic Samaritan focuses on access to shelter, educa-tion and clean water.

Medic Samaritan has

completed seven Samaritan Homes projects with sev-eral more in the works. Con-struction will begin soon on a community church in a mountainous village which is inaccessible by vehicle; all building supplies and mate-rials will be carried by teams of laborers for approximate-ly fi ve miles along steep ter-rain.

Construction on a com-munity-based mission home is also planned. The home will feature free accommo-dations for Haitian mission-aries and medical teams, a multi-purpose venue for clinics, continuing medi-

cal education seminars and discipleship training for the staff. The center will also serve as the Medic Samari-tan headquarters for Haiti.

Scouting for feasible lo-

cations for a second com-munity water well proj-ect is underway. Knowles says they hope to have this completed in the fall. Info: medicsamaritan.org

Story So Far: South Orange River’s mid-dle school soccer team of boys, who know nothing about the sport, play their fi rst game.

The Buckingham team was coming down the fi eld toward our goal. To my eyes, they looked like a herd of stampeding blue buf-faloes. As for our guys — the ones in the red and yellow — they were doing one of four things:

Standing around. Running the wrong way. Backing up, furiously. Falling down. Or, actually, fi ve things, because some peo-ple did a combination of two of the above, like Fenwick, who backed up and fell down.

Or Radosh, who ran the wrong way, real-ized he was doing it, stood still as he tried to fi gure out the right way, and then got tangled in his own feet and then fell down.

Anyway, you know how it is in history — battles and things — wars can truly be lost at the fi rst shot. I understand that person-ally. I was at such a battle.

Playing in front of me was Saltz, my spe-cial buddy. We not only grew up together, we lived near each other. Defended each other. Loved each other. So when he saw that advancing line of Buckingham blues attacking, attacking me, he actually did something.

First, he turned red in the face. A great red blotch. Then he started to charge the blue line. Now, un-like me, Saltz is a big guy. With his T-shirt fl apping all over the place, his arms fl apping other places, his longish hair fl apping in the remaining places, he really charged. What a sight!

For just a moment, the blue line hesitated. I mean Saltz is a big guy. And the red face, the fl apping, and so on ...

Meanwhile, the ball was squirting forward.

Saltz, I saw, was aiming right for it. My stomach, which had been traveling somewhere in the region of my throat, began to go right. I could see that Saltz was about to send that ball a billion miles in the other direction. Except . . . he missed.

Which is to say, he charged like a mad-man, cocked his leg, or whatever you do with your leg, kicked, missed and kept right on going. He went, in fact, past all the Buck-ingham players before he realized what had happened.

And what had happened was that there was nothing between me and the charging herd of blue Buckinghams. The white ball was coming right at me. I should know: I saw it trickle past me into the net.

It was only fi fteen seconds into the game. But, to tell the truth, that fi rst few seconds was typical. Final score:

BUCKINGHAM: 32 SOUTH ORANGE RIVER: 0

Or, in case you hadn’t noticed, we lost our fi rst game, badly.

We were on our way. Down with further to go.

We got back on the bus feeling stupid. It wasn’t just that we lost, but we lost by being so amazingly bad. Beyond belief. It had stopped being fun about two seconds into the game. Maybe one second. It wasn’t even a question of how good they were. We stank.

We were the fi rst team to get back to the bus.

“Well,” said the bus driver with lots of good cheer, “how’d you guys do?”

“Lost,” said someone.“But close, I bet,” said the driver.“Distant,” came the reply.“Well, next time.” The driver just couldn’t

drop his insistent cheerfulness.Then it was Mr. Lester’s turn. “Gentle-

men,” he said, taking a quick look over his shoulder to make sure we were still alone, “I want to tell you how proud I am of you. You didn’t give in.”

“I bet he loves hang gliding over the Grand Canyon with one wing,” whispered Saltz into my ear.

“You kept up your spirits,” continued Mr. Lester.

“Nothing else to keep up,” said Radosh.“You showed courage and character.”“What about talent?” called out Eliscue.“Or skill?” Root offered.Mr. Lester pressed on. “Each week, from

experience and practice, you’ll get better. I know you will. You have nothing to be ashamed about. Their coach told me he was impressed.”

“With what?” asked Fenwick.Mr. Lester said nothing.“Mr. Lester,” Hays called out. “How

come, by the end of the game, they only had four men on the fi eld? Is that legal?”

“Sportsmanship,” Mr. Lester murmured, and quickly sat down.

“If they really wanted to give us a chance,” Saltz said to me, “they should have gotten all their players off the fi eld. Those four guys scored fi ve goals.”

“What makes you think, if they had none, we would have scored any?” asked Radosh.

No one answered.Our other teams came on the bus. One

team had won. They were crazy happy. The other team had tied. They were just dumb happy. Naturally, they wanted to know what happened to us. It was Hays who told them.

They refused to believe it. “No, really? What was the score? Tell it straight.” Things like that. After a while, they had to believe. And they were amazed. Stunned. In awe. For a bit, anyway.

Then quickly it became joke time. Like, “Maybe if you hadn’t shown up, they would have scored less.” There was some logic to that.

It got so bad the coaches made them shut up and our team kept its distance.

By the time we got back to school, we, at least, were into our usual kind of stuff: dis-cussing school gossip, homework, a special trip that was being planned. The big thing was that tomorrow we were each going to fi nd out who our partners were for our his-tory projects. We kept talking about who we wanted to work with and who we didn’t. The deal was, we were going to draw names out of a hat.

I mean, we had lost. Who cared? There were better things to think about.

Fortunately, when we got back to school, we had to rush for our buses, so there wasn’t much teasing.

That night, at dinner, my ma asked, as she usually did, how my day was.

“Great,” I said.“Anything interesting?” Dad wanted to

know.“In history,” I said, “we’re starting on

American Indians. We’re going to do proj-ects and we get to work with someone.”

“Who are you with?”“Don’t know yet,” I said, but to be honest,

I couldn’t wait to get to school the next day to fi nd out.

(To be continued.)

CHAPTER THREE: Our fi rst game is history – as in historic

“a breakfast serials story”S.O.R. Losers Written by Avi and Illustrated by Timothy Bush

By Ruth WhiteCarter High softball

player Alexis Proffi tt signed to play ball at Cleve-land State next sea-son.

T h e Hornet ’s c a t c h -er has played for

two years and feels that she learned a great deal from Ryan Burkhart and the team.

Alexis has stepped up to become a leader on the young team her senior year. Burkhart said that Alexis is “a great compet-itor who knows the game

and plays hard.” He be-lieves that her good lead-ership skills will help her be successful in college.

Alexis plans to study health science while at Cleveland State and hopes to continue to grow in softball so she can play ball at a four-year school in the future.

She likes CSCC’s great coaching staff and atmo-sphere.

Celebrating at the signing with Alexis were her parents, Thad and Misty Proffitt, sister Bayley, aunt Laura Mc-Cloud, grandparents Teddy and Kathy Mc-Cloud, friends and team-mates.

8 • APRIL 20, 2016 • NORTH/EAST Shopper news

Proffi tt

kids

RuthWhite

Proffi tt signs with Cleveland State

Exploring engineering at Whittle

Whittle Springs Middle School hosted a family en-gagement night that fea-tured some great hands-on science activities for stu-dents to explore alongside their parents.

University of Tennessee students, working with the CURENT program, helped in booths where participants built paper towers, moved cars with solar power, used prosthetic hands made from spoons and more.

The National Parks host-ed a booth that featured ani-mal pelts that students could touch.

The school will host a so-cial studies night, Tuesday, May 17, where students re-search historical fi gures and create colorful and imagina-tive displays to share their fi ndings.

Whittle Springs student Delores Francisco cre-

ates a prosthetic hand using plastic utensils

and rubber bands, attempting to pick up small

objects with her creation.

Raven Chambers uses tape and newspaper to create a three-

foot paper tower. The objective of the project is for the tower

to stand for fi ve seconds in front of a fan. Photos by R. White

Kayla Banks and Josiah Libby race cars using light to power the

vehicles. UT student Jermaine Chears (center) serves as guide

for the event.

Text copyright © 2012 Avi. Illustrations copyright © 2012 Timothy Bush. Reprinted by permission of Breakfast Serials, Inc., www.breakfastserials.com. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, displayed, used or distributed without the express written permission of the copyright holder.