County residents had a lot of questions this week as Lee’s Famous Chicken Recipe, a business that has been operating in Blount County for over 40 years, unexpectedly closed on Monday.

The owners said someone may buy the restaurant and reopen.

What are the odds?

The Tennessee Department of Transportation and City of Alcoa will host a public information meeting seeking input on the Hall Road Corridor Study.

The meeting will be:
Tuesday, July 30, 2024.
From 5-7 p.m.
at the City of Alcoa service Center
725 Universal Street
Alcoa Tn 37701

The meeting will present preliminary traffic and safety findings and seek public input for the corridor.

It will be an open house with a formal presentation starting at 5:30 p.m. The public will have the opportunity to give feedback through mapping exercises after the presentation.

The goal of this project, according to a release from the city of Alcoa, is to address the overall traffic and safety concerns along the 1.9-mile section of Hall Road between Associates Boulevard and the Alcoa/Maryville city limit.

For questions, contact Dakota Gentry by email at dgentry@cityofalcoa-tn.gov, or by phone at 865-380-4829.

A Maryville chef has been accused of shoplifting meat from a Knoxville grocery store to serve at his restaurant, according to court records.
...
On Thursday, Clement Milanzi was taken into custody on a charge of theft of merchandise between $2,500 and $10,000, at the Kroger located on the 9500 block of Northshore Drive in Knoxville, a general sessions docket said.
...
Milanzi then allegedly drove to Joe’s Italian Cuisine in Maryville where he was seen carrying the stolen items into the back door of the restaurant...

detectives discovered that there had been more thefts at an Aldi location, an Ingles store in Lenoir City and a Food City in Maryville

Hard times?

When Blount County and others bid to get a gun manufacturer to move to the pastoral community near Louisville, TN, they apparently promised better roads. However, they did not include the City of Louisville Mayor and Aldermen in the plans. Now that the plans are being made open to Louisville residents and administration, they are not finding the plans acceptable.

A resolution condemning the project, passed unanimously by the Louisville Board of Mayor and Aldermen April 9, claims the road work would negatively impact neighboring residential areas and eliminate access to businesses and the Louisville Post Office.
...
Jeff Muir, director of communications for the Blount Partnership [chamber of commerce?], said the proposed work came from planning for trucks from Smith & Wesson to safely share the road with other traffic, and to accommodate the additional stream of employees.
...
The problem, [Mayor Pugh] said, is Louisville has less than 5,000 residents. That means it doesn’t qualify for its own representation when planning transportation projects like this.

Wow, who knew local residents were not being informed of changes to their community? Hah, TDOT knew. Blount County administrators, City of Alcoa administrators, the county chamber of commerce all probably knew. They all seemed to not care how changes affect local citizens and the smaller communities.

There’s further confusion over who requested the improvements.

So far, nobody's admitting to requesting the changes. The Mayor of Louisville has to request a copy of the TDOT project application.

Jeff Muir, director of communications for the Blount Partnership [chamber of commerce?] Said, "TDOT has ownership of Louisville Road and the department can modify the road as it wishes", which is "part of the deal brokered to bring the firearm manufacturer to Blount County." "No one filed an application for the work, he said."

The previous Louisville Mayor apparently knew about some of these road changes.

The current Louisville Mayor, Ms. Pugh, would "like TDOT to conduct a noise pollution study and wants to know if an environmental impact study has taken place. She’d also like to see estimated traffic counts for the road."

Seems reasonable.

Does it seem like the local governments and chamber of commerce ran right over the small town of Louisville and its residents? I guess they really wanted a gun manufacturer in our midst.

2024 Presidential Preference Primary & Knox County Primary Election

Last Day to Request an Absentee Ballot: Tuesday, February 27, 2024

EARLY VOTING: Wednesday, February 14 to Tuesday, February 27, 2024 (excluding Sundays)

Election Day: Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Sample Ballot - For the Democratic Ballot, go to Page 2, Columns 2 & 3
(I'm certainly glad that Democrats don't have to vote for Presidential Delegates. What a waste of time.)

New voting machines. Hart Intercivic, Verity electronic machines with printed ballot. Blount County is using these same machines for the first time. There is a youtube videos at the Election Commission site showing how the machines can be used.

Blount County Election Commission

Early Voting Locations:

Foothills Mall Monday - Saturday / 10 am - 6 pm
197 Foothills Mall Drive
Maryville, TN 37801

Blount County Public Library Monday - Friday / 11 am - 7 pm
Sharon Lawson Room
508 North Cusick Street
Maryville, TN 37804

Everett Gym Monday - Friday / 11 am - 7 pm
318 South Everett High Road
Maryville, TN 37804

Pellissippi Campus Monday - Friday / 8 am - 4 pm
2731 West Lamar Alexander Parkway
Friendsville, TN 37737

Providence Baptist Church Annex Monday - Friday / 11 am - 7 pm
5766 Sevierville Road
Seymour, TN 37865

The Sunday edition of the Daily Times will now only be online, e-edition.
The Saturday edition of the Daily Times will return to home delivery, printed edition.
The Daily Times will be delivered by the U.S. Postal Service, i.e. no paper delivery persons any more. Thus, your paper may be delivered in the evening, as it will be for us.

I'm just happy there is still a local newspaper. I hope they continue to deliver the local news.

Amazon's new facility in Rockford "is three million sq. ft. of boxes, products, and conveyer belts..."

They claim to have "more than 1,000 full-time associates working in this facility..."

It "has the ability to crank out seven million packages a week..."

"The facility houses between four and five thousand robots that help sort, pick and ship these packages."

"The building has five floors with close to 16 miles of conveyer belts and can move up to one million packages a day."

Blount County Mayor Ed Mitchell said, “They’ve been dealing with construction for quiet a few years but the end result is this beautiful building.”

Well, I've seen the building and I can't say it is a beautiful thing. What was beautiful was the golf course that it replaced. Whatever, hopefully it is a good addition to the community.

Blount County government contracted with consultants at S&ME to work on a new comprehensive growth study... the consultants said their goal is to discover community concerns and hopes about the county’s future. ... Sarah Sinatra, principal planner for Inspire Placemaking Collective (previously with S&ME), is overseeing the study for S&ME.

The Blount County Comprehensive Plan 2023 is the overarching, visionary document that guides future growth and development within Blount County. The County is currently updating the Plan to more adeptly address the issues and opportunities facing the community.

We are asking the public to assist the County's planning team in understanding the community preferences and desires for the future.

Open houses for the public to listen and contribute to the future of Blount County:

Monday, August 21, 2023
Time: 4-7 PM
Address:
Heritage High School
3741 E Lamar Alexander Parkway
Maryville, TN 37804

Tuesday, August 22, 2023
Time: 4-7 PM
Address:
William Blount High School
219 County Farm Road
Maryville, TN 37801

On the Blount County Comprehensive Plan 2023 website, you can also:
* Share your ideas on an Interactive Map
* Vote for your Future Vision of Blount County
* Participate in a brief Survey regarding our County

"SONGS BY THE BROOK"

CONCERTS IN THE PARK

AUGUST 17 & 31 & SEPTEMBER 14, 2023
6 - 9 pm
Admission FREE!
Food vendors will be availableon site for food purchases

A free summer concert series held during the months of August and September in Springbrook Park.

The construction of the new Publix in Blount County is finishing up. We are told they will be opening October 10, 2023.

We look forward to Publix opening. Hopefully they'll be beneficial to the Foothills Mall staying open.

"The Blount County Board of Education on Monday, June 19, cut its proposed 2023-24 budget by more than $2.1 million, to meet limits the county commission set last week."

However, "Blount school board approves $4.2 million for Heritage, William Blount artificial turf." And, just an FYI, the project was delayed because the school board originally did not put the project out for bids. The same company got the job, before and after the bid process.

They have $4.2 million for artificial turf but not $2.1 million for the general schools budget. Ah, priorities.

"The City of Alcoa filed a lawsuit Thursday, June 22, against Blount County over how county schools are spending millions of dollars in property taxes."

"The Alcoa Board of Education passed a revised 2023-24 budget on Tuesday, June 20, that cuts staff raises and includes revenue estimates it isn’t banking on."

"The revised budget also increases estimated sales tax revenue by $600,000 from what the school board passed last month, with $421,225 just to cover a state requirement that local funding show a “maintenance of effort” from the previous year.

“We had to add more revenue — that we’re not going to get — to meet maintenance of effort,” ACS Finance Director Tom Shamblin told the board."

Huh. Is that generally accepted accounting principles?

Blount County government and Blount Memorial Hospital having been going at it for months now including lawsuits. Blount Memorial wanted to sell some properties. Blount County says can't without county approval.

"Blount Memorial brought a suit against the county last year, seeking both political independence and the right to sell certain assets in order to secure cash."

Update: Blount County Commission got the State of Tennessee to change a law enabling the county to "contract with hospital operators other than Blount Memorial Inc., which has managed Blount Memorial since the 1940s. The county also contends it owns the hospital and all related assets, a claim hospital leadership vehemently disputes."

"Blount Memorial’s board of directors authorized suing the county government in federal court... "Blount Memorial counsel LaJuana Atkins said that the new law represents a violation of both the state constitution and the U.S. Constitution."

The City of Maryville was making plans to build a hotel on city property only to find out Mayville City Schools owns the property and they don't want to sell.

The City of Alcoa wanted to annex some property. Blount County contested the annexation. Blount County won to some extent when it was determined that some of the property could not be annexed. Then, most recently, someone new purchased said property and decided not to develop it and wants it deannexed.

June, 8, 2023, City of Alcoa water is brown in the Hunt Road area or more. Be careful. City representative said a water line broke. They are working on it. No time as to when it will be fixed. They said no sense in flushing our pipes until they are done and have flushed main pipes. But, they don't know when it will be fixed and don't know how they would inform us as to when it was fixed.

This happened less than a year ago, August 4, 2022.

The water was brown for 6 or so hours.

The City of Alcoa really needs to find a way to inform citizens of utility problems, especially if it is going to happen more frequently.

After 30 years, Glenstone Galleries and Gifts is closing. The building has been sold. No report as to what will be next for the location.

After 50 years in Alcoa, McClurg's Decorating Center (flooring) has closed. An auto repair business will move into the building.