Back in 2005, Joe McCord's dad, Keith McCord wanted to put a lot of condos in near a wetland at Crosscreek, there on Carpenters Grade Road and Sandy Springs.

The Maryville Board of Zoning Appeals turned it down.

Keith McCord sued them.

Meanwhile, Joe McCord puts in some legislation to de-list some 3,000 waterways and it seems a little obvious that this would benefit a development that would disturb a wetland, if a claim can be made that it is a wet-weather wetland.

But in today's paper, there's an article that Joe McCord's Legislation, which he had energetically defended before, has been "watered down" now to just cleaning up the Nolichucky River and another article that Chancellor Forgerty has "set aside" the BZA's decision in Keith McCord's favor for his condo complex. Strangely, this happened Feb. 1st and we are only now hearing about it.

If you want to go see how this series of coincidences play out, there's a meeting tonight:

The Board of Zoning Appeals will meet at 5 p.m. today for a briefing from attorneys about the ruling.

"Concerns raised by citizens relative to traffic is a matter that may be reviewed and considered by the Maryville Regional Planning Commission at the next requested approval phase of the property development ... if permitted by the applicable laws and regulations," the ruling states.

Residents invited to Annual Earth Roundup. The 2nd Annual Earth Roundup will be held on Saturday, April 19th beginning with the Little River Clean up that begins at 10 a.m. and lasts until 2 p.m. Call Keep Blount Beautiful at 681-4809 for more details. Then, beginning at 4 p.m., bring your family to Maryville College for food, activities, and information about a variety of environmental subjects how you can take steps to improve and conserve our most precious resources such as our rivers, air, and electricity. For more information on the entire event call, Cathy Rhodes, Little River Watershed, at 980-2130.

I came across this at the City of Maryville website and thought it worthy enough to post here. Link...

The History Channel is showing the program "Hillbilly : The Real Story" tonight.
If you sometimes have some trouble understanding the old time local folk around here be sure to watch this program 8-10 pm.
It is excellent I hear.

Boy, Commissioner/Planning Commissioner Scott Helton doesn't miss a trick when it comes to helping out the Mayor's biggest contributors: (Link...)

This is like a big ole Christmas present to people who already received ill-advised RAC status. Note the key words "AND existing commercial development." (Emphasis mine.) There's a big difference between clustering commercial only at key intersections on 411S and at existing ad-hoc industrial parks/metal dumps all along the "scenic" highway.

The Planning Commission seemed to reach a consensus on language suggested by the Hunter Interests Growth Study to recommend clustering of commercial sites on U.S. 411 by zoning at key intersections and existing areas of commercial development.

County Commissioner Scott Helton didn’t want the language to just include key intersections.

“I just didn’t want us to be handcuffed down there,” Helton said.

The proposal had generated discussion about what direction was wanted for the development of U.S. 411 South.

“We have a desire not to have a strip mall all the way down the road to the county line,” Planning Commissioner Rick Brownlie said.

Yes, Heaven forbid we should limit ourselves to the recommendations we paid so much for.

No truer words were ever spoken, than by Bob Kidd re: the win of Jerry Cunningham in the primary for Mayor: (Link...)

"Tonight was a vote for pro-growth," said Kidd, who did not seek re-election. "Put that in your paper."

This article really hit me the wrong way (Link...).

No matter what your position on the fluoridation of water is, I doubt you will agree that such an important decision should be made based purely on decree of the Mayor and professional fatigue:

“After the careful consideration of a request from the Blount County Mayor’s Office to reconsider fluoridating the county’s water system, SBCUD felt it was no longer in our best interest to exhaust the time and efforts of our executive staff in another public fight over such a divisive issue.

“We understand that our decision will be disappointing to many of our customers and for that we are very sorry. We regret that we are not able to meet the individual desires of each of customers on both sides of the issue.”

Lemme guess: the Mayor is the one who appoints members of the Utility Board and he made it clear he could replace folks who didn't go his way. Is there a copy of the "request from the Blount County Mayor's office"?

While undeniably controversial, the South Blount Utility Board's decision NOT to fluoridate was entirely defensible. There is plenty of evidence to the potential dangers. Not to mention that years of committee/community work had gone into making and evaluating the decision. Then all efforts were undone by a single megalomaniac who can't leave anything up to the people responsible for it?

Perhaps the Mayor never saw this video, from a state legislator who has such items as these on his curriculum vitae:

Fellow, American Academy of Family Physicians
Tennessee Academy of Family Physicians
American Medical Association
Tennessee Medical Association
Lewis County Medical Examiner
Lewis County Health Council

While the Mayor is out and about making decrees, perhaps he will also decree that all families in the South Blount Utility District receive the warning that baby formula should NOT be prepared with the new fluoridated water and that these families must now invest in bottled water or ready-to-eat formula? This is according to the American Dental Association: (Link...). Oh, and while they still promote fluoride in the water the CDC agrees with this assertion that infants are receiving too much and goes on to say that 33% of children in the U.S. have very mild to mild fluorosis and that they've recently discovered this effect is on the permanent teeth as well: (Link...)

It now appears that the amount of the fluoride contained in the water used for mixing infant formula may influence a child’s risk for developing enamel fluorosis, particularly if the child’s sole source of nutrition is from reconstituted infant formula.

Maybe I'm oversimplifying, but it seems to me it is far easier to provide annual fluoride treatments (and virtually all toothpastes on the market are fluoridated) to the underprivileged than it is to provide bottled water or ready-mix formula to the underprivileged.

When I was a kid, a hundred years ago, they actually gave out fluoride treatments to kids who qualified at school. Don't they still do that?

In all the bruhaha about Harmony Properties, we Blount Countians have largely overlooked a threat at least as great to our signature Chilhowee Mountain view: Look Rock Estates.

Here's a real estate article (I noted it was paid for by the developers, Tom White and Joe Mathis) in the Knoxville News Sentinel from November 7th: (Link...)

What they are selling are "crest view" lots. Meaning, in a Wear's Valley-esque manner, they clear off the very top of the ridge of the mountain so the homeowner can have a full view looking off each direction. And we get a full view of the homeowner throughout the rest of the valley, and most likely, all the way to town. (Link...)

And what are they using to put some urgency in their marketing?

“There are no other residential developments in this area with lots this big that have views from both sides of the mountain,” says White. “We’ve been seeing a trend toward regulations limiting mountaintop development, so with private mountain land drying up, this could be the last chance to build on something like this.”

You think?

In other words, hurry up folks, and help us ruin the mountain before Blount County comes to its senses!

Photos of the place: (Link...)
Another sales article about the place - very reassuring that all lots can be additionally subdivided: (Link...)

Planning Commissioner Rick Brownlie, a really terrific guy and one of the bright spots on our planning commission, has initiated a very neat search utilizing the Daily Times: Link...

They want to base their study on one conducted recently from Sevier County (shudder): Link...

“To begin protecting these important resources, one must first identify specific publicly accessible places from which the views of these hillside and ridges are enjoyed. Such places normally include scenic highways, walking trails, scenic lookouts, parks, historic sites and buildings, and canoe and kayak routes.”

So, what views are important to you? Take a few moments and e-mail your thoughts to editor@thedailytimes.com or mail them to Scenic Views, The Daily Times, P.O. Box 9740, Maryville, TN 37803. The suggestions will be provided to the Planning Commission for informational purposes. A top 10 list of most suggested views will be also be published in The Daily Times.

I guess they include these instructions to save "Overlook at Montvale" the ole Ruby Tuesday treatment:

If you have strong feelings about any individual developments in Blount County, feel free to write a letter to the editor.

Just reading the words "Sevier County" in the context of "conservation" makes my blood pressure shoot up:

A guiding principle of the Sevier County study, which can be found online at Link..., was that hillside development should not be completely prohibited. One of the most important recommendations is the principle that all development should be secondary to the surroundings.

I support what they are trying to accomplish. Let's have our own "contest" in parallel. Who wants to start?

This e-mail was sent to me today by a friend who lives off Louisville Road in Alcoa.

Hi everyone,
My daughter in law Amber went to Walmart tonight to get some bread and some milk when she came out to get in her car a man grabbed her by her arm . This was about 10:30 she screamed real loud for him to let go and he did and ran, I told her he was probably looking for a purse with money but she rarely carries one and didn't tonight, but that is a good time to grab a woman's purse when we are getting in our cars. If he had wanted her he would have just pushed her on in the car. Please be extra careful out there there are alot of scum-buckets out there and then alot of people hurting for money just watch your step.

Everyone is shopping this time of year so be alert!

Now that I'm done grimacing over Mayor Cunningham's choice of words in describing bloggers, I thought I'd take a moment to acknowledge the Daily Times' amazingly extensive coverage of the attack on their journalistic ethics and on the cultural bias of their star reporter/business editor, Mr. Laney (is he Latino?), at the Support Rally for Judge Young. (Link...)

I've been reading the DT off and on for a very long time and would never have believed you if you told me yesterday they would cover that, considering the content was as much about them as it was the good Judge. Noone can claim that the DT did a half-ass job on reporting that little party. One wonders if Mayor Cunningham anticipated that they would tape his whole spiel and post it on the web? Humorously, this included the Mayor's description of the furniture burned for heat by one of the parties in the "ongoing litigation," which he said they never would do. So, noone can claim the reporter got anything wrong, left anything out, or spun it due to his cultural biases this time. I am sure the Mayor, Mr. Overbey, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Finney, and Sheriff Berrong are thrilled with the excellence in reporting.

Kudos to Mark Boxley.

P.S. I came across this blogger's remarks in support of the DT also. It seems he has some history in Blount County: (Link...) If you find more, or just feel like throwing some love over toward the DT today, feel free to post on this thread.

Tomorrow's 5:30 meeting of the Planning Commission includes in its agenda a section on Long Range Planning. Three really important items stand out:

Here are the links to the supporting documents, the first being the agenda:

a - agenda for November 20, 2007
b - memo on amendments to subdivision regulations public h…
c - memo on rezoning public hearing for 11-20-07
d - memo on plat reviews for 11-20-07 _minus attachments_
e - memo on long range agenda items for 11-20-07 _minus en…

Might be a good meeting to attend, if you are interested in better understanding the process of how regulations are created. (And if your turkey is thawed.)

The county commission will vote on a measure to adopt design and lighting standards within the Zoning Regulations at their meeting tomorrow night at 7 p.m. You can find the proposed changes on the agenda here, starting on page 77: Link... I'll also paste them below.

What do you think of them? I'd especially like to hear the opinions of those of you who keep up with the Dark Skies Initiative and those of you who drive Hwy 411S. Are these regulations sufficient? Are they too much? Are they just right?

The Daily Times reports Link... that 6 schools are now on the list of those that are "Intolerably Overcrowded." They began making this annual report several years back after a conversation with the Planning Commission about how planning for residential development should be coordinated with available infrastructure. At the time, the Planning Commission was willing to limit residential development in those school districts to minor subdivisions (those having under 5 houses per subdivision).

Of course, that went by the wayside shortly after last year's report came out and the Planning Commission disagreed with the school board's direction in solving the overcrowding problems. Link...

How do YOU think the Planning Commission should use the information from the schools? Should they just ignore it? Should they reinstitute the 4-lot limit in those districts until the school building program can catch up? If not that, then what should planning around school availability look like?

Couldn't make the reception Friday night to support Wendy Pitts Reeves? Here's another chance. The next Ethics Committee Meeting is tonight. Here's the full agenda, printed below and a link to make things easier to forward: Link... See "New Business" to find reference to Reeves, Proffitt, and Lewis.

AGENDA
Ethics Committee
Monday, October 29, 2007, 6:00 p.m.
Room 315, Blount County Courthouse
Members: Betsy Cunningham; Brenda Flowers; Ron French; Joe McCulley; and Wendy Pitts Reeves - Chair.

1. Call To Order.
2. Roll Call.
3. Approval of Minutes of October 2, 2007.
4. Public input on items on the agenda.
5. Old business:
a) Discussion/Possible Action Regarding the Ethics Policies and Procedures and the Committee.
i.) Report from Betsy Cunningham on theMake Up of the Committee.
ii.) Review of Changes in the Ethics Policy and Procedures.
iii.) Report from Betsy Cunningham regarding Open Records and Confidentiality.
b) Discussion and update Regarding Conflict of Interest Statement Form.
c) Discussion/Possible Action Regarding Procedures for Filing Complaints.
i.) Review of form letters for complainants and defendants.
ii.) Review of changes on the Ethics Violation Complaint Form.
d.) Discussion/Possible Action Regarding Employee Communication and Training Concerning Ethics
Policy.
6. New Business:
a) Discussion/Possible Action Regarding CTAS Opinion Concerning Health Care Providers
Concerning Commissioner Proffitt and Commissioner Wendy Pitts Reeves.
b) Discussion/Possible Action Regarding Attorney General Opinion Concerning Commissioner Mike
Lewis.
c) Other.
7. Next Meeting.
8. Public input on items not on the agenda.
9. Adjournment.

I'm forwarding this on; I know you all love coffee and a good cause!

The next 24 hours is crucial to the local initiative "World's Biggest Blog Party.": Connecting the Globe for Good. Over the previous weeks we've compiled a long list of charities, sponsors, and bloggers who are going to raise awareness and raise money for some great causes. Some of these are local, like in the instance of Feed Your Faith and the Blount Habitat for Humanity. A good many others are national and international.

It kicked off tonight (Friday night) with some belly dancing, entertainment, food, and interviews at Capital Coffee.

BlogTalkRadio.com is graciously hosting our shows, which will be archived at blogtalkradio.com/wbbp. We are in the process of compiling an interview schedule that highlights our charities and the wonderful people behind them.

We'd like to invite everyone to come on by the Captital Coffee House in downtown Maryville tomorrow.

How you can help:

COME ON BY!!! Hang out with us, blog with us, bring your laptop, camp out, keep us company, bring munchies, etc.

Donate to a charity.

Blog about it!

Like I said, this is 24 HOURS. You can sign up for a time slot on wbbp.spruz.com ...click on "calendar". Or, just come on and hang out (laptop preferred...or else someone will loan you access...whatever..just come!). Drop by, don't feel like you have to stay long.

TDOT has scheduled a public meeting for Thursday, October 25, from 5-8pm in the Heritage High School Auditorium.

At this meeting TDOT will present the ‘Purpose and Need’ for the PPE as well as ‘initial alternatives.’ The public will have opportunities to comment on the Purpose and Need and the alternatives. Written comments can be sent to TDOT for 21 days after the Oct. 25 meeting.

Starting at 5:15 PM (EDT), TDOT will make a formal presentation on the status of the project. The presentation will describe the work completed since the Scoping Meetings in June 2006, the purpose and need statement for the project, and initial alternatives identified for the project.

Following the formal presentation, from 6:00 to 7:00 PM, citizens will be afforded an opportunity to work with TDOT officials in smaller groups and share their ideas on alternatives to be considered. Representatives of TDOT will be available to assist with the exchange of ideas and to provide information on the purpose and need of the project.

The workshop will conclude with a full group discussion and question and answer session between 7:00 and 8:00 PM.

Here's the link: (Link...)

If I were John Loope, I would find the report of the Louisville City Atty/Ethics officer very unsatisfactory. Here's the full text:(Link...) Page 8 of the pdf (numbered page 6 in the document) says basically that all the allegations were dismissed as untrue in the report just because the accuser didn't provide all the evidence. Could it be possible that accuser expected the person tasked with investigating the complaint to uncover and examine the evidence? I mean, when I think of an "investigator," I envision someone in a trenchcoat who can get to the bottom of a matter. Not some attorney who says he took it upon himself to write a report and then declares the conclusion at the beginning. The attorney further says something like: "That [meaning that the accuser didn't provide all the evidence], in and of itself, should end the investigation and result in a finding of no ethical violations. However, since the investigation has the further function of allowing the accused persons to have their say and exonerate their names if there are no facts, I am continuing with the investigation."

So he says right at the beginning of the report that the only purpose of the report is to give the accused their say and that the conclusion has already been made based on lack of evidence PROVIDED BY THE ACCUSER. Not that I'm saying the lack of evidence provided automatically means the accused are guilty, either. But if I were going to be exonnerated in something, I'd hope it was a more ringing endorsement than this.

I'm glad the police investigators don't operate that way.

Hey, folks-

I'd like to invite all of you to join me for a Constituents' Coffee to be held next Tuesday, September 18, from 6:30 to 8:00 p.m. at Montvale Elementary. Click here for more info.

Hope you can come!

~Wendy

Wendy Pitts Reeves, L.C.S.W.
Blount County Commissioner, District 4

AGENDA-BLOUNT COUNTY BOARD OF ZONING APPEALS

September 13, 2007 meeting, 6pm at the Blount County
Courthouse in room 433.
Roll Call and Approval of Minutes:
Appeals:
1. None.
Special Exception:
1. Charlene Teffeteller’s special exception request for a multifamily development on Wildwood Road across from Mackenzie Place. Tax map 37, parcel 46.01
Variance:
1. David Creasman’s request for a 10 feet front setback variance for his property at 6519 Old Walland HWY. Tax map 83, parcel 30.08.

Each September a new Chairman is picked. Or re-picked. Dr. Ramsey has been the chair for the last 5 years, if memory serves. Before that, Steve Samples was the Commission Chair for a really long time.

Given that there seems to be some consensus on this site that things aren't going quite as we would like them to in Blount County gov't, how important do you think this position is? Should we keep our fingers crossed that Bob Ramsey gets the job again, or are there others who could somehow influence some positive change?

Who would you ask YOUR commissioners to vote for for Commission Chair?

To refresh you on the options, here is a link to the commission: (Link...).

Note: This vote will take place at the September 20th meeting.

Checking out the committee agendas usually gives you a pretty good idea of the sorts of things that are going to be coming up in the main monthly commission meeting. Here are the links to both of those:

* Intergovernmental Committee Agenda for September 11, 07 (Link...)
* Public Services Committee Agenda for September 11, 07 (Link...)

The Commissioners tend to discuss things more openly in this setting as these meetings are not as formal. If you are looking to become more proactively involved in our local political process, a good way to start is to plan to attend these 2 evenings of meetings with the commission and then the planning commission meeting each month.

The agenda for the main commission meeting (third Thursday of the month) is usually not available until the Thursday or Friday prior to the meeting, but is always worth looking over. Hey, the commission's business is your business.

We have heard a lot about ties between Commissioner Lewis, the Sheriff, and American Fidelity/Green Bank. In fact, if you follow local news and issues, American Fidelity comes up quite a lot (remember the Sports Complex?). So I got a chuckle when the spouse brought me a little fold-over envelope from the County Clerk's office after buying tags for a car. It seems to be what the receipt comes in, because it is only 4x2. One side of the envelope has the Realty III Logo, phone number, address, and website (I think this is owned by Darrell Tipton, occasional candidate for various offices and recently added to the Public Building Authority by County Mayor Jerry Cunningham). The other side says "Compliments of American Fidelity Bank" and has the logo and phone number. On the inside, it says "Roy Crawford Jr., Blount County Clerk, yada yada yada."

Given all the money that the county keeps in American Fidelity Bank, I'm hoping these little gems were free to the county! Pretty good advertising; but how much is too much when it comes to the county gov't advancing the interests of business? Would other banks and realty companies have liked for every vehicle owner in the county to have been exposed to *their* names and logos? (Or maybe this is a cyclical thing and companies take turns?)

What are your thoughts?

According to an article in the Daily Times (Link...) by Rick Laney on Wednesday, 8/29, our local housing market was in a "free fall". But by Friday, there was some sort of weird cross between an advertisement and editorial right there on page 3 painting quite a different picture. It wasn't marked as an ad, but didn't look like the usual news article either. Very confusing. Did anyone else notice it?

With plunging real estate prices and sales being the top of the news nationally, you would expect Blount County's market to follow the trend at least somewhat.

So which is it? And what's up with the DT?? Can't make up their minds? Or maybe too much pressure from the local powerbase: realtors and developers. I guess realtors DO place a lot of ads in the course of business. I'd like to think the paper would print the facts, though, and that those facts wouldn't change with the winds of outside pressure.

Given that the School System eats up around 60% of the Blount County budget, a pretty momentous event will be taking place tonight at 7 p.m. in the Blount County School Central Office on Grandview Drive. There will be a School Board Meeting and each September, they choose a new chairman. Here are the school board members: Link....

The possibilities are many. Any one of the current board members could theoretically be elected.

The current chairman is Mike Treadway, who works for an architectural firm and serves on the joint construction committee, amongst other committees. He could be selected to serve another year.

And while school board seats are non-partisan by state law, former chairman of the Blount County Republican party John Davis could be selected. He's also a retired teacher and administrator.

Or Charles Finley, retired teacher and administrator.

Or Don McNelly, who holds a doctorate in education and was a professor in the school of education at UT.

Or Chris Cantrell, formerly of the Sheriff's department.

Or Booty Miller, retired teacher and administrator (although not likely, since he already served in this capacity and was passed over when his term expired a couple of years ago).

Or Rob Webb, who works for Rural Metro.

These meetings are always worth attending, given their huge impact on our tax rate.

If you would like to help, please print out this flyer, share it with friends and post it at all the places you frequent: (Link...)

Saturday, September 29th, 2007, 6:30 p.m.: Free Annual Benefit Concert at The Shed at Smoky Mountain Harley-Davidson (Link...) for Save Chilhowee Mountain. Note: H-D is allowing SCM to use The Shed for free to help with the cause!

Price: FREE -- Donations of $10 (or more) greatly appreciated! All proceeds of this event will go to Save Chilhowee Mountain. (Link...)

Here are the bands coming so far, donating their time:

Cherohala: Link...
Sisters of the Silver Stage: Link...
Scott McMahan: Link...
The Bearded: Link...

With guest artists:
Trisha Gene Brady, and Rob McNurlin

Check out Link... for more info.

Link... is a new resource for families in Blount County. We have events, message boards, advice, school news and more!

Maryville High School - To Expand or Not To Expand

How many people in Maryville are aware that Maryville High School is considering expanding at its current location using Eminent Domain to consume as many as 30 homes/properties in its neighborhood?

How many people in Maryville are aware that smaller schools are actually better for our kids? MHS has a current population of roughly 1500 students. If they expand they will create a facility to accomodate upwards of 2000 students. This is far from an ideal environment for our children as drop out rates and violence increase and participation, emotional well-being and parental involvement DEcrease. Please check out this great article: Link... . Yes, there are benefits to larger schools such as more extra curricular programs and a more "state-of-the-art" facility, but is this worth the expense in quality of education and student well being? As the large high schools are failing all over the country, there is a national movement back to smaller, community based schools. Funding is available through government and private institutions such as the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation.

Link...

Aside from this, MHS resides in a very old and established neighborhood. This neighborhood is sandwiched between two historic districts and could be considered historic itself. Lamar Alexander grew up in this neighborhood. Many families will be displaced and the integrity of the neighborhood will be destroyed. Traffic is already a heavy burden here making roads questionably safe for kids to travel to and from school. Expansion will only make this worse.

Please - LET'S PRESERVE THE INTEGRITY OF MARYVILLE. Let's stop a Mega-Highschool from being created in our community. Let's stop destruction of historic neighborhoods. Please contact your elected officials and school board members and tell them you want preservation, not destruction, in your Maryville.