News

 Old News 10 April 2003 to 8 March 2007(pdf)                 Old News 12 April 2007 to 8 Nov. 2012(pdf)

This is the news page. Notes from each general meeting will be added here


14 March 2024 General Meeting


KPD Officer Darel Griffen Central District Executive Officer gave the police report.

It was very good - no crime in the last month to speak of in Colonial village. The utility of

license plate readers around the area was discussed, a very good idea with minimum blow back

from the "Its new I don't like it" crowd.


Tommy Smith CC

The Butterfly lake saga may be ending. The family that owns it have only one surviving member and he may be (just maybe) convinced that the lake should be donated to the association or the city. Time will tell.


Terry - general discussion.

Information on the history of refilling the lake in periods of low or no rain.





12 Oct. 2023 General Meeting

Nobody showed up. Meetings rescheduled in Feb.


14 September 2023 General Meeting


KPD Officer Morgan reports no events except possible domestic violence near Ford Valley Road.

Some cars burglarized near/at Krogers.


Speakers: Terry Childress and Chris Hall presented the new plans for Garry Underwood Park,


Here is Terry’s email on the subject – much better than I could do.


Improvements are coming to Gary Underwood Park and Greenway over the next few years.


As an overview, I'll remind everyone that this grew out of a request for a basketball hoop, which morphed into a sports court at the suggestion of Parks and Recreation. Then when they announced the park was scheduled for a playground upgrade, it was suggested we seek neighborhood input through a survey—that included the students at Mooreland Heights. After COVID delays and the transfer of leadership at the East Tennessee Design Center, and a myriad of complications, surveys were reviewed last fall. A volunteer designer was found for the project. And after meetings with Sheryl Ely, head of Parks and Recreation, the final project was approved.


Attached is a PDF of the design that was presented at our September meeting.


As you may note, these improvements will be done in phases.


The first phase is to restore and re-fence the park for safety measures—preventing park visitors from wandering off onto private properties, allowing the park to be secured at night, and to deter after-hours trespassing. That was one of the top survey requests.


Additional trees will be added as well to provide more shaded seating and walking areas.


The upper portion the park, that the picnic pavilion and playground equipment currently occupy, will be transformed into a dog park, with sections for both large and small dogs. Special screening along the side fence line of the large dog section should preclude those dogs from barking at the residents who live on that side of the park. Also, the pavilion will remain in place.


As for the main field, it is being re-designed to facilitate multiple uses. 


The far end will be designed for soccer play.


The near end, where the bank slopes down to the field is where the sports court will be, designed for half-court basketball, along with a backwall for practicing tennis.


Between the sports court and the soccer field will be the new playground* area, a grass court for volleyball/badminton,  a new picnic pavilion, and event seating.


As for the lower portion of the park, it will provide a 9-hole frisbee/disc golf area.


*You will note that the re-located, newly accessible playground falls under Phase Three of the project. This is because playgrounds are expensive, from the surface covering to the play equipment, and it is going to take time to get this funding in place.


We thank Perry Childress and Chris Hall for their work on this project, and Sheryl Ely of Parks and Recreation for approving this design.


Again, we want to thank our Park Survey committee for their work on this project:


Andrew Fultz

Arturo Cano

Darla Smith

Sammie French

Fonda Allen

Madison Mathenia

Jared Wilkins


We look forward to having a safer, more accessible park for our Colonial Village community.



10 Aug. 2023 General Meeting


KPD Officer Morgan: Nothing to report for last month. Homeless still a problem along Chapman Highway.


Speaker: Dr. Josh Van Pelt: Principal Mooreland Heights School

Dr. Pelt gave a talk on the progress last year in making up the lessened learning due to Covid and other problems. The emphases has been on establishing connections with the families of the students to get them more involved with the school. The diversity of the student body is both an opportunity and a problem. Many of the students are from poor families, Hispanic and immigrants. A large shift in student populations since 2018.

Preschool will been expanded from one room with 20 students to a larger group due to a planned grant. It is hoped that this will improve the Kindergarten experience for these children.

Dr. Van Pelt picked up school supplies donated by the association members for the snew chool year.


Terry made some announcements:

Go Vote!

The September meeting will be discussion of the Gary Underwood playground upgrade. The members of the city design group will be there to discuss the plans in detail.


The attendance was a disappointment, there were only three non board members present.



13 July 2023 General Meeting

KPD - Officer John Morgan brought us up to date on the local “crime” scene. There have been some car break in's , two on Stone Road. Also a rape on Chalmers – it turned out to be morning after regret, according to the officer. Police officers are leaving the Knoxville Police force for other employment and there is a lack of interest in the younger generation in becoming police officers. This could be a long term problem for the police force, the pay is a good as other police forces in the area so the problem may be a generational one.


Speaker: Wes Soward

Mr. Soward is a representative of Urban Wilderness and Parks Development. Knoxville had 1500 acres of parks including some civil war sites, Fort Dickerson. He said that there have been improvements at the Baker Street Pavilion, bathrooms and shade areas. Also some additions will or are being made at Fort Dickerson. A “Greenway Connection” is planned that will cross the Gay Street bridge.


23 June 2023 General Meeting


KPD Several members of KPD were here to present the monthly briefing on the crime situation in Colonial Village. Their presentation: “Low activity last month.” That is good news. There were a few questions from members about something on Magazine Rd. that involved several police cars last month. The final piece of information from KPD was that the local police and the Tennessee Highway Patrol are both working Chapman Highway.


Speakers: Police Chief Noel was scheduled but Mayor Kincannon showed up just before he spoke and made a few remarks.


Mayor Kincannon: “The speed bumps work!” It was her first time over the bumps on Magazine Rd. She said that she came to support the police. There were several officers in addition to Chief Noel. She said that we are having a housing crunch among other reasons because people are moving to Knoxville.


Cheif Noel: Praise for support of Officer Morgan and also Captain Schafer (spelling?) who is in charge of the South Knoxville activities of the KPD. The Chief had little prepared remarks to say. He ask for questions from the members. When ask about the 2nd Amendment and to remark on the continuing shooting nationally he had little defintative to say.


Other Items


A Lady who’s name I did not get, announced a “Block Party” for Colonial Village on June 24th starting at 9AM and lasting till (or after) 9PM.


Terry announced some progress on the Gary Underwood Park playground progress and gave a brief history of the project to add a basket ball hoop to the park play area. It has morphed into a much larger project and will take several years to complete.


Air Quality: Due to fires in Canada the air quality and other factors the air quality has been bad recently. An audience member shared the phone number of the people to call to report problems so they may keep a record of local problems. The number is 865-215-5960.


11 May 2023 General Meeting


KPD – Two officers attended the meeting: John Stevens and A. Stauffer. They are part of the new liaison office detail. Officer Stevens has not been assigned to South Knoxville for a long time unlike Officer Harvey. He was light on details about ‘crime’ in the neighborhood but took various reports and when questioned about an incident on Magazine Rd. the morning of the meeting accessed the information quickly.


The meeting speaker had to cancel out. We met in the picnic area rather than in the regular meeting room in the church, expecting the meeting to be short.


Tommy Smith – Wanted us to show support for Lind burg Forest in their attempt to keep the rehab center from being located in their neighborhood. Also Kern’s will open this fall. A closed school is being rehabilitated as apartments by Galbreath Construction, the school is Griffin School.


Cameron Brooks attended the meeting, he is a candidate for City Council at-large, Seat A and invites us all to cast a vote for him.


The turn out was the lowest I have seen in a long time. We can only go up from here, just three members of the board showed up.




14 April 2023 General Meeting


KPD: Officers Derick Schwartz and Sgt. J. Mosis attended the meeting to bring up up to date on any events in the neighborhood. There were no significant events last month. Officer Schwartz ask for any questions from those attending and was ask about homeless people in the neighborhood. There is a liaison officer for the homeless that checks know sites for the city. Any problems such as theft should be reported to the non emergency line of the police department. Panhandling is illegal and should be reported using regular means (911).


Speaker for the night was Paul James Development Director representing the “Knoxville History Project”. They are currently working on multiple projects, one of which is a history of South Knoxvlle. One interesting fact is that in the mid to late 1800s. South Knoxville used to be called “South America” because access was by ferry boat rather than bridges.

Mr. James showed various photos of early South Knoxville and ask the attends if they could identify some sites that are undocumented. The book will document what went on in South Knoxville. One individual discussed was an “outlaw” that escaped from the city jail and using the Gay Street bridge rode is horse in the direction of Seymour. The history project Web Site is “https://knoxvillehistoryproject.org”


9 March 2023 General Meeting


KPD – No show.


Tommy Smith – New police liaison office created with six officers. We can expect one of the six at meetings. KPD now has more officers reducing the lack of force in the past.

Lindburg Forest – an old school may be converted to a Rehabilitation Center operated by Helen Ross McNab or a Senior Living Center. Didn’t catch more about the options , sorry


Speaker Tom Wellborn of Trees Knoxville. Discussion of the Urban Wilderness and plans for Knoxville tree preservation and new plantings. Several members of the audience ask question about their tree plans and problems. A set of slides of his presentation can be viewed at this link .


The next meeting will be 13th April 2023 – no speaker has be selected yet.



9/8/22 General Meeting



Few people attended the meeting. Possibly because Chief Noel was not able to attend.

Tommy Smith said that he is sponsoring a motion to place Variance Notices on the property they

affect so people affected will be able to see and comment on the action. It is not required now.

Also the Kern's building is still being constructed inside so no painting is being done.

The meeting are being held outside (in the picnic shed) and the sun is setting about the start time

so meeting will not be held until Feb. 23, see you then.





8/11/22 General Meeting


KPD Officer Harvey gave up an update on the current status of the KPD, they have had a pay raise. Still low on officers, recruiting is proceeding. There is an increase in homelessness around South Knoxville again. The new procedure concerning auto accidents was explained as a means of stretching the force given the staffing problems. Filling out the state accident report is needed although there was no information of where to get the form ( internet is my guess).


Speaker Dr. Josh van Pelt – Principal of Mooreland Heights School talked about his approach to the coming school year. There are 21 new staff members this year. A memorable quote about the status quo was “… don’t rise to level of goals but fall to the level of the system”. This was in reference to the problems in any large organization. Avoiding this trap was his goal. He mentioned a book “Atomic Habits” as containing some solutions for the problem. He discussed how the staff is meeting with parents in order to establish some relationships and to identify parents who would be willing to help at the school. The successful achievement of the goals for the students are socialization and education.



Terry announced that at the next meeting ( 9/8/2022) would be a presentation by Brittany Bonner on the use of methods by the police to avoid violent confrontations but to use more social workers when dealing with some issues the police face in there interactions with mental cases.


Note: This month is the 20th Anniversary of the founding of the Colonial Village Neighborhood Association.


June 2022 General Meeting

Meeting was canceled due to unforeseen circumstances.



14 July 2033 General Meeting


No speakers or program was scheduled, but we had a surprise visit by Mayor Kincannon and the new Police Chief Paul Noel. Due to the mundane nature of the meeting there was a very sparse crowd.


KPD Officer Johnson attended to give a short presentation of the “crime” situation in South Knoxville. Nothing of significance happened this month.


Mayor Kincannon said she had been to Nashville to talk with TDOT about plans for the Chapman Highway changes/upgrades, no dates just some plans. She also mentioned that KUB is working on its proposed fiber optic installation, to date in some areas in the city and further out in its service area. No schedule yet for install in South Knoxville. The speeds are expected to be higher than that provided by AT&T other providers were not discussed.


Police Chief Noel introduced himself and said that he and his wife like Knoxville and will enjoy living here. There are no new current problems he finds with KPD that adds to the changes that he will make as the new Chief. There is a shortage of police officers and it will grow as there is a pending retirement surge in the near future.


Tommy Smith ( our City Council representive) spoke about the Kerns building upgrades an the progress being make. He said there will be some signage changes at the Magazine Road and Stone Road intersection to help in traffic control.


12 May 2022 General Meeting


KPD – Officer Harvey was not able to attend.


Early on it was pointed out that 48 auto accidents have happened in Colonial Village since 2017. This was in reference to the installation of speed bunps.


The subject of the meeting was the survey forms about changes to Garry Underwood Park.

The changes were divided into two sections. Upgrades and changes to the athletic fields and updates to the child play ground area.


The two surveys are available on the WEB site under the “Events” section.


Terry spent considerable time discussing the survey about upgrades to the athletic fields. Each item in the survey was discussed in detail.


Unfortunately a gentleman in the meeting took issue with several points discussed. His behavior became loud and insulting and Terry ask him to leave the meeting, he refused and continued his behavior. Finally I told him to quite down or I would call the police. After a few more interruptions he left.


Behavior of attendees to the meeting have been a problem in the last two meetings. Apparently due to the strong feelings about the subjects under discussion. This problem needs to be addressed but a solution is not obvious to me.




General Meeting 14 April 2022

Meeting was to present the “Speed Humps” for Colonial Village. The meeting was well attended.

The presenters were:


Hayley Howard, Office of Neighborhood Empowerment Assistant Coodinator


Cody Gentry, Traffic & Engineering Project Manager


Zachary Roberts, Traffic Operations Manager


Debbie Sharp, Office of Neighborhood Empowerment Coordinator


Terry presented the history of the project. The procedure for getting speed humps requires several steps. An application to the Office of Neighborhoods for a specific street or streets, which anyone may make. Upon approval, the households of the problematic street are petitioned—regardless if they are owners or renters. As long as they reside at that address, they may sign the petition. The threshold for a traffic study to determine whether speed humps or other traffic calming measures will be employed is 51% of the households. The more households, the better,  but the project only requires 51% since that is a majority. After a traffic study is conducted, a concept plan for speed hump placement is developed. Before it proceeds, it must receive approval from the offices of emergency responders to ensure there is not a problem with response times. When the concept plan has been approved, households that will have a speed hump in front of or beside their home are notified. The plan is then presented to the neighborhood at a community meeting.


Study Results: (Speed limit is 25 mph on all streets but Stone which is posted at 30)


Stone Road: Approved by 55% of the households, avg. 1670 cars per day @ 43 mph

Magazine Road: Approved by 54% of the households, avg. 1271 cars per day @ 38 mph

Colonial Road: Approved by 61% of the households, avg. 890 cars per day @ 39 mph

Arcadia Drive: Approved by 73% of the households, avg. 442 cars per day @ 34 mph

W. Ford Valley Road: Approved by 62% of the households, avg. 505 cars per day @ 43 mph

Oliver Road: Approved by 71% of the households, avg. 573 cars per day @ 36 mph


The speed humps are are fourteen feet in length with a height of about four inches. These devices will not damage your vehicle as long as you are observing the posted speed limits.


When the speed humps are in place, Stone Road’s speed limit will be lowered to 25 mph to bring it in compliance with the rest of the neighborhood. New speed limit signs will be posted within the neighborhood as well as speed hump warning signs. There will be street markings as you approach the humps as well. 


The members of the audience were given two rounds of questions. The first round resulted in many questions about various aspects of the locations and the perceived lack of notification on the part of CVNA. It was pointed out that the individual householders on each of these streets were contacted by the pollsters—who also resided on the street, and given a second visit if they were not home during the first poll. While some of these residents were home, they did not answer the door when the volunteer visited their home. A paper was passed out showing the streets polled and the positive response percentages.


A question as to the effect on people who do not live on the polled streets but travel them for various reasons. Debbie Sharp, Office of Neighborhood Empowerment Coordinator responded that the residents who actually live on these streets where speeding is occurring are given precedence because it’s their lives and property that are at risk due to negligent behavior of an incidental or daily traveler of that road.

A question as to the cost to persons in the form of tax increase, etc. There is a fund specifically allocated for speed humps in the City’s general budget. Everybody shares the pain of a few cents toward the speed humps.


A question as to getting more speed limit signs was responded to by Cody Gentry, Traffic & Engineering Project Manager—and former Colonial Village resident. He indicated that they will look into getting more speed limit signs, along with those that have the speed hump warning on them.


A question about “How do you remove a speed hump” got the answer, “No one has ever asked for one to be removed.”




12 August 2021 – General Meeting


KPD – Officer Harvey: Still some crime on Chapman Highway, see anything in neighborhood call the cops. There is a proposed schedule change for the police force – 12 hour shifts. This will reduce from eight squads to four but will give more police to patrol. Will be able to enforce traffic better.


Tommy Smith – more apartments being built, good thing. Early voting started.


Sheryl Ely City of Knoxville Parks and Recreation

Comments on past meeting about the basketball court addition to local park. She wished to look at the problem from the “whole park” point of view. East TN Design Group has the comments from the last meeting. Suggested another meeting with them after more discussion/comments from neighborhood.

Any design still needs funding approved. This can be a lengthy process. Requested help from us in a survey of the neighborhood. They can print fliers for us.

Discussion from floor:

Suggestion – post sign, announcing a meeting, at the park so users can be aware of plans.

What to do about cars parked after closing hours of the park etc. basic answer call cops.

Repairs and additions to park facilities all in one proposal so funding can be requested for full upgrade.

Sheryl thinks that “usage” is a factor in keeping “crime” down at parks.



8 July 2021 General Meeting


Officer Travis Harvey gave a presentation on crime prevention.

Solicitation Anyone who comes to your door should be

1. Dressed appropriately.

2. Wear an ID of some sort showing the company or organization she works for.

3. Talk to them outside, don’t let them inside – makes you more vulnerable.

4. Play hardball, you don’t need to be polite. If they don’t want to leave threaten to call the police.

General Avoid tempting burglars.

1. Keep lawn mowed – make it look like somebody lives there.

2. Turn outside light on at night. Motion detector lights are good too.

3. Don’t post vacation plans on facebook etc.

4. Solicitors and salesmen will lie!


Homeless – the current area where most of the homeless in South Knoxville hang our is between Woodlawn (Fort Dickerson) and Woodlawn (South Knoxville Public Library). OK to give homeless food but not money.


Tommy Smith updated us on some things. A coffee shop is opening in the old TVA Credit Union location at the Colonial Village Traffic Light. There will be more speed radar display units for Chapman highway soon. There are four officer and four social workers assigned to work with homeless people now. The river walk has a little controversy with an apartment building on the west side of Henley street bridge (going North) and the city. Its a disagreement about the “improvements” the builder agreed to do and the city’s version. The builder has fenced off the portion of the wall on the river side of his building.



06/10/2021 General Metitng


KPD – Officer Harvey ask for questions from the floor. Homeless in Gary Underwood Parks as first ask. Officer Harvey gave everybody the “non emergency number to call to report sightings of homeless people in the park (215-7000). His authority is limited to interviewing the individual(s), checking for outstanding warrants. If there is a “camp” the city will send out cops and social workers to offer help the the folks there. He did not give a timeline for breaking up the encampment.


Tommy Smith – offered a “catch-up” on the subject of the homeless. Camps in parks and woods are now treated with “accountable kindness” the campers are given days to leave. The city has four social workers to use and now has shelters for the homeless for varying periods of time. KARM has shelters for the night and there are some “low barrier” shelters for longer periods. Smith also said that Chapman empty business locations are being filled by some small businesses. Radar speed displays will become a permeate part of Chapman Highway in the near future. An expected traffic study for the Colonial Village area will start in the ‘fall’ in order to catch the school traffic as well as local.


Debby Sharp led a discussion of basketball court planned for Gary Underwood. There was a wide ranging discussion of the various details for the project. Gary Underwood is scheduled to get new playground equipment from the city.


Due to the complex nature of the discussions about the court design I have included Terry’s email on the subject.


There have been some questions from neighbors outside the association regarding the sports court. So, I prepared the following and posted it on NEXTDOOR to share. It's essentially what was discussed last Thursday.


1) WHY A MULTI-USE SPORTS COURT? 


According to Director Ely of Parks and Recreation, these are the types of courts being installed in our parks now because they see more use and have greater popularity than courts designed to accommodate only one sport. Furthermore, per Colonial Village, this design maintains the park's neighborhood-centric purpose and youth-oriented focus. 


2) WHAT'S BEING PROPOSED FOR GARY UNDERWOOD'S COURT? 


Two half-court basketball hoops. Mid-court would accommodate pickle ball and tennis rather than the proposed soccer court, since the adjacent field provides ample opportunity for soccer play and dog frisbee. 


3) WHERE ARE WE AT NOW? 


The gathered petitions for the project have been turned in and are awaiting review and verification. 


4) POINTS OF CONSIDERATION: 


(A) LIGHTING: 


Like all Knoxville parks, Gary Underwood Park and Greenway is open from Dawn to Dusk. Anyone on the grounds after hours is subject to arrest and trespassing charges. Additional lighting will NOT extend the hours of operation. It would, however, discourage trespassing. 


(B) FENCING: 


The debate is whether the sports court should be fenced or not. The pros indicate it would prevent after hours use. The cons being it hampers police and impedes the groundskeeper from locking the court when individuals refuse to leave. 


5) INPUT 


Should this project move forward, there will be a public meeting held for input. 


6) NOTE ON PARK IMPROVEMENTS 


The playground at the park is finally on schedule to be upgraded. We do not have a specific timeline as for when this will begin.




We are Back!

13 May 2021 General Meeting


KPD Officer Harvey brought us up to date on several items.

  • The officer who was shot by a fellow officer during the Austen East school incident has some damage to his leg and may have a long recovery.

  • Homeless increase apparently not related to the COVID-19 breakout.

  • Somebody attempted to break into the Church, fortunately some one “living” at the church was disturbed by noise and ran him off.

  • FLOCK – a license plate reading machine will be installed on Chapman Highway. The intent is to report stolen cars to KPD on detection of the license.


Terry reports that the speeding petitions have been delivered for Stone Road, Arcadia and West Ford Valley. The type of control device maybe a plastic “speed bump” or one made of asphalt.


Speaker: Tommy Smith our City Council Representative


His talk was to bring us up do date on what has happened in the last year and some plans for the future.

  • Twenty eight acres have been added to the William Harley park.

  • The local property values have increased due to the land preservation.

  • “House Knoxville” a project to provide housing to women and homeless children has been started.

  • Four more social workers have been funded for the homeless. A new rule will give 72 hour notice to the homeless camping out on private property and the social workers will meet with then to advise them of the services the city can provide.

  • Vestal community is “barely alive” due to business closing as a result of COVID-19. King Tut is just making it.

  • A plan is in place to build a walking trail from Fort Dickerson Park to Vestal.

  • Twenty five sidewalks have been “prioritized” for South Knoxville, when they will be constructed is open.

  • Tree “mitigation” – builders will be required to plant trees on their projects in South Knoxville or be fined $1000 per missing tree.

  • He would like to start a micro “Payment in lieu of taxes”(PILOT) project for the empty business buildings alongChapman Highway.

In the general question session the question was brought up about the entrance to Sam Duff Park and the “Crystal” building. To widen the entrance would possibly need to destruct the building. Several alternatives was mentioned. No action was planed as yet.


12 March 2020 General Meetihg

KPD was a no show


Speaker - Keep Knoxville Beautiful. Discussion about a variety of topics.

    Litter Pickup

    Adopt a road signs

    Storm Drains -- painting and or paint ( can't read my notes)


Carson Daily and the new City Council Representative Tony Smith were at the meeting


13 Feb. General Meeting


KPD was a no show.


Robby Corman spoke about the Brush Pickup start: 4th April 2020. It will be on Mondays as usual.


The neighborhood cleanup data is the 4th of April 2020.


Candidates for City Council to replace Stephey Welsh were present.

Janice Tucher and Phil Smith one of whom will be selected after interview by the full City Council later this month.


Discussion of building a multiuse playground at the Gary Underwood park was led by Autro Cano. There were both pro and con factions present. The pro faction pointed out that the neighborhood did not have any place close for kids to play basketball. The con faction was concerned about the current number of “drug” deals in the park would increase as would other crime and that the teen age crowd would stay after the official closure of the park, at dusk. Sheryl Ely Director of Parks and Recreation will create a page on the city Web site for votes to be placed. Further discussion will take place at a later time. The construction costs for the site will be placed into the budget next November, if it is approved.



14 November 2019 General Meeting

KPD was a no show.

Speaker Kimberly Smith Local Census Bureau.

Discussion of the importance of a correct census. How it affects local allocation of dollars from the Federal Government. She stressed that the few minutes filling out the census forms determine ten years of future allocation of funds and services from the government. The funding rate amounts to $1000 for each person over the ten year period. Children are affected by the count in areas such as school lunches and aid for families The main thrust of the talk was recuting people to work the census in the months June through August. State wide there are 4398 people needed and there are only 1700 not on the roster. The pay is $15.50 per hour plus mileage at $0.58 (58 cents per mile) and you an make your own hours within reason. There four phases each lasting 4 to 8 weeks.


Specifics about a count are that property taxes can be affected by a low count. Schools receive funding by the counts and the difference given a low count has to be made up by property tax increase. Voting districts are determined by the census based on population totals, you can gain or lose a Representative by the count. There have been some attempts to spread false information about the census by some groups, take any negative information with a grain of salt. More information about the census my be found at “census.gov” and information about jobs during the census in available at “2020census.gov/jobs”


10 October 2019 – General Meeting

Speaker Russ Jensen Director of local “311” call service.

Mr Jensen gave a talk on the origins of our 311 service and some of his history prior to coming to Knoxville. A native of Los Angles he worked in Ambulance Services dispatch in South East Los Angles and in other public service jobs that involved communications. He moved to Tennessee in 2005 to start the 311 service. At that time there were few 311 service organizations mainly in large cities such as New York and Chicago. Our 311 service is located in the city/county building and serves both as “Knoxville’s phone number” as well as answering call for the Municipal Court.

The call center answers a maximum of 1800 calls per day,but the average is 300 calls. Its staff of six operators each has four lines to service. The operators are trained to know all areas of Knoxville so that questions may be quickly answered. The time to answer a call averages 30 seconds. The time that a call takes averages a little over two minutes. The call center is open during normal working hours.

Future expansion planned will have on-line 25/7 service using computerized applications such as “chat bots” .


Another service “211” line handles social services. It is associated with the CAC organization and averages 200 call per day. These calls average a three minute service time.


The 311 service office is equipped with 65” TV sets that display TDOT cameras to check traffic conditions and weather conditions.


12 September - Picnic

    The picnic was canceled due to unexpected events.


8 August 2019 – General Meeting

KPD – Officer Harvey told us about the speed sign on Chapman between Stone Rd. and W. Red Bud.

New install, lets you know if you are speeding. No significant police activity to report for Colonial Village. New police academy graduates one could be assigned to South Knoxville.


Speaker – Zach Brewer stand in for Brandy Self, Zach is the assistant principal of Mooreland Heights School and was there to receive the school supplies that the association members purchased for the school. School started on Monday the 4th. The school is using some federal funds for transportation of children and parents to night events at the school. The new park walkway from the school to the near by park is useful for physical training class. There will be a bi anually Art festival this spring at the school.. The current size of the student body from prekindergarten to the fifth graid is about 320.

Terry announced that: The nest SOUP meeting is the 13th. The CVNA picnic is on the 12th of September and SKNBC is hosting a Summer Suttrey Social at Suttery Park on the 24th from 11-5.



11 July 2019 – General Meeting


KPD no show.


Speakers: Candidates for mayor: Indya Kincannon, Eddie Mannis and Marshall Stair.


Ms. Kincannon spoke first. She started with complementary remarks about South Knoxville. She moved to Knoxville with her husband, a professor at UT in 2001. She was a teacher and has experience as president of the 4th & Gill neighborhood association, school board 2004 to 2014? with three years as chairman and worked from 2015 to 2018 for the current mayor Madeline Rogero resigning to start her campaign for mayor as the current mayor is term limited this cycle. She has and MB in Urban and Regional Planing and has managed an organization with a budget of $400+ million budget and a large number of employees. Later in conversation she is an advocate for education for people who want to enter the trades, this allows them to earn good salary and not be burdened with a large college debt. Her web site is “KincannorForMayor.com”.


Mr. Eddie Mannis spoke next. He grew up in Knoxville and owns the Prestige Cleaners he gave all the remarks that might be expected of a business man. His vision for the city is to continue being a place of a thriving economy and an job growth. Not a fan of property tax increases and most interestingly would like to examine the possibility of having a precinct oriented police force rather than the centralized organization presently used. This is the time to have this discussion because of the funds that are to be spent on St. Mary’s conversation to a police headquarters. Moving the police to the neighborhoods would both allow faster response but allow youth to get to know the police. His web site is “mannisformayor.com”.


Mr. Marshall Stair spoke last. He was born, lived and was educated in Knoxville attending UT Law school. His introduction to politics was first as city councilman. He has seen many changes in Knoxville the most recent was the destruction of Baptist hospital and the start of the development of the South Knoxville Waterfront project. Things he would advocate as mayor are changes the way the homeless are treated by getting help from the state for mental health after the closure of the Lakeway canter. Also fix up the roads, make neighborhoods safer, support school system, provide body cameras for the police and make an Urban Canopy master plan. He considers running for office a “job interview every day”. His web site is “www.marshallstair.com”.


13 June 2019 General Meeting

KPD – Officer Harvey gave a short update on local problems. Homeless people from the city are moving to Garry Underwood park it seems. Officer Harvey is also concerned that they are walking along Chapman Highway and may be hit by traffic. People who live near the park complained that the park is not being locked at night. This is the responsibility of a city contracter, officer Harver said he would speak the them. He also reminded us to be careful about leaving lawn equipment of sight in our yards. Tempting target for thieves. If you can’t avoid leaving the items in sight add some identifying marking so that is they are pawned the item can be identifed.



Speaker: John Lightgood city traffic engineer spoke about two subjects, a sidewalk meeting the city is hosting to plan additional sidewalks around the city. A meeting is planned next Thursday 5-7PM at South Doyle School, if you can’t attend go the the city web site and visit the sidewalks page.

The next project is the planned addition of a “multi modal” trail between Stone Road to South Woodlawn. The project is the result of a grant from the federal? Transportation Department. It will be used by bicycle and pedestrians and will connect to the side walks at Young High allowing walking to the park at North Woodlawn. Portions will use the existing sidewalks from Young High. There will be traffic controls constructed to allow crossing the various streets.


County commissioner Carson Daily the opening of a park on Maryville Pike, didn’t catch the address. Also there is funding by EPA for cleanup of a “brown field” at the old Smokey Mountian Smelter site.

A “Growth Policy Plan” is being worked on for Faragut and Knoxville area. Seems that there are too many developed properties that have caused drainage problems.


9 May 2019 - Picnic, little problem with tables else OK


11 April General Meeting

KPD was a no show

Speaker Jim Hagerman Director City Engineering. First topic – Chapman Highway is not going to be made a two lane highway. This rumor has been around for several days. The bike trail from Stone Road to Woodlawn will not take any lanes on Chapman. It will be on the West side in its own parallel tract.

Next subject was ‘What happened to the Stone Road intersection’ the realignment of the intersection with the apartments on the east side of Chapman. According the Mr. Hagerman a bit of a snafu. The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) said that it would do the job, Chapman is a state highway. Then the city reallocated the funds they had reserved to another project and then TDOT decided that it wouldn’t do the realignment. He suggested that at the Chapman Highway meeting on the 16th the subject be brought up, and that more information would be forth coming in a few days.


Sidewalks – Mr. Hagerman said that Stone Road is number sixty on the sidewalk list in the city’s plan for adding sidewalks. The schedule is fluid and our number can change.


James White Parkway – Mr. Hagerman and Stephanie Welch both had comments about JWP. The city is planning to convert the end of the parkway into a park to join walking trails in South Knoxville. A County Councilman is flacking a restart of the highway project due to a fatal accident on Chapman Highway. This is not likely to happen – James White Parkway project is another TDOT project and it was killed some time ago.


SKNBC – Another SOAP dinner is scheduled for 30th April at 6:30PM at Dara’s Garden.


The association voted on two issues, offering support for the BMX project and to oppose a resurrection of the James White Parkway. Both issues passed and the appropriate actions will be taken by Terry to notify the proper parties.




14 March 2019 General Meeting

KPD – Officer Travis Harvey discussed the recent movement of the homeless from downtown to Vestal. Nine police officer candidates graduated from the Academy and hopefully will pass the examinations and become police officers. We currently have three officers serving in South Knoxville from the Henley Street bridge to the Food City.


Speaker Aleta Daniels – Community Outreach Coordinator for “Keep Knoxville Beautiful” .

She discussed the up coming clean up day. The clean up materials can be picked up at Sam Duff park.

The cleanup will last till Noon, and then there will be a lunch at the park. We will be provided with drop off points for the garbage collected and Keep Knoxville Beautiful will then pick it up for disposal.

She also advocated an “Adopt a Road” activity that they promote. This will be discussed at a later meeting among members.


Eric Johnson of the Vestal community was at the meeting and invited us to a meeting about the homeless to be held in the Vestal center on Wed. 27 March at 5:30PM.


The new treasure Fonda Allen discussed her taking over the duties of the position and the updating of the membership data base, the transfer of the mail box access at the local Post Office and getting access to check signing authority with the bank account. Terry will act as a second signature for the times that a check need to be written and Fonda is not available.


SKNBC – Will host the next SOUP event in April.


Ms Welsh out City Council representative updated us on the medical Condition of Carson Daily the County Council representative who has had a knee replacement. Also the County Mayor has shut down the BMX byke project because of difficulties with the contractor.




14 Feb. 2019 - General Meeting

KPS - No show.


No speaker, a general discussion of association business.

Fonda Allen took over as treasuer of the association replacing Donna Maxwell.

Trash pickup day was set for March 30.





11/Nov. 2018 - General meeting

KPD was a no show.

Speakers for the evening were Eric Green Program Manager for the Smart Meter Project and Eddie Black from KUB. The subject was the plan for installation of "Smart Meters" in South Knoxville, with emphasis on  Colonial Village. The first test of the smart meters was in Fort Sanders area in 2007 - 2008. In July of 2016 a four year rollout started for all of the KUB customers. The meters all many functions to be performed rather than the old mechanical meters which only record power usage. They will allow KUB to determine outages more quickly and rapidly identify the specific areas affected. The customers will have access the the usage information via the KUB web site. The data is very detailed and also will the customer to control the usage and select warning messages when customer set limits are exceeded.

All the products offered by KUB are to be metered with these smart meters, electricity, gas and water. KUB will be able to monitor the usage for each of these items. They can alert the customer when there is a suspected water leak for example.

The meter installation process is performed quickly, you have an outage measured in minutes. There will be letters sent to customers announcing the time the new meters will be installed, not all meters will be replaced at once, electricity, gas and water may be separate install events.

The meters will report to a central site where the data will be collected using local radio transmission from the meter to a local receiver and that data will be sent via a private communications link to a company that processes the data.

The meters are battery powered with a lifetime of twenty years.

There were handouts provided that addressed some of the concerns that a few people have about the use of "radio transmitters" to send the data. You may opt out of using the Smart Meter if you wish.

One handout not address to the Smart Meter was a "white paper" on why KUB did not introduce high speed internet to Knoxville the way Chattanooga did.

More information may be had by visiting the KUB Web site. "kub.org" and searching for the meter project. The search field may not be highlighted on your browser, just click on the magnifying glass icon and enter "meter modernization". This will take you to the details about the project.


11 Oct. 2018 – General Meeting

KPD was a no show.

Speakers for the evening were from Dogwood Arts. Vickie Baumgardner, Dede McCoy Wilkerson and Susan McKinney. The concern voiced was that the Dogwood trail in the neighborhood looks rather shabby. The rerouteing of some parts of the trail to bypass some of the rundown houses was suggested. Some of the houses on Colonial are being remodeled others are still not looking so good. They have never “lost” a trail but that is an option. Various methods to get the attention of the homeowners were discussed.

The URL of the Chapman Highway Trail is: “www.facebook.com/Chapman-Highway-Dogwood-Trail” and the Dogwood Arts is: “www.dogwoodarts.com”


14 Sept. 2018 General Meeting - Fall Picnic - Medium crowd. Officer Harvey was there and Ms Welch out City Council Representative. Weather was hot for September.



9 August 2018 – General Meeting

KPD – Officer Harvey is still in school.

Speaker Ms. Brandy Self, Principle of Moorland Heights School. She attended the session to update the association on the current events at the school and to pickup the school supplies that the association buys for the school at the beginning of each school year . A quick breakdown of the points she made:

  • Fourteen preK students – first class in a while.

  • Kindergarten class is about sixty students – large for the school.

  • New students from local area including Colonial Village. Brandy taught some of their parents.

  • Last year the school had a feed from the space station. Got some student interested in Ham radio.

  • Expanding mentor effort, including some women as well as local men.

  • Angel Tree is ending effort for the school Christmas gifts, the school is looking for a replacement organization.

  • The school iconic “Rocket” was cleaned this summer and looks great.

  • Some teacher turnover, both going out of state and coming into Tennessee.

  • School tech is going well each student has an iPad for use at school.

  • Teacher Night (Monday before school opened) had 400 people in attendance.

  • The total student body is 343 students this year.

  • All students are provided free Breakfast and Lunch this year. Breakfast is in the school room and is like a family time. The students have a “share table” where unwanted food is placed and can be eaten by others, this is good because of the range of ages and the fixed nutrition in each of the meals. Gives the bigger children a chance to have extra.

  • The school librarian not teaches small (5 or 10) classes in doing “research projects”.

  • Ebooks can be checked out to the students iPods, adding to the library assets.

  • New books were bought for the library to replace older books, both replacements for the classics and newer books.

John (our SKNBC representative) reported that the city council gave a talk on the Andrew Jackson building and that the new welcome bags have arrived and will be distributed soon.



 

12 July 2018 - General Meeting

KPD was a no show, Officer Harvey is taking a night course.

Speaker Molly Gilbert on "The Men of Candoro Marble". The history of the local "Pink" marble quarry and the processing of the stone. The Candoro building is a local landmark. It was designed by Charles Barber and the windows and front door was designed by Samuel Yellin who had a studio in Philadelphia Penn. Albert Malani was born in Italy and moved to the United States and was foreman at Candoro for 40 years.

The houses on and near Chapman Highway with marble facades use the marble from Candoro, also the marble was used in the construction of retaining walls and patios locally. Today there is no one who can work on the marble with the skill of the workman in the 40's when the houses were built. Molly says that the marble should be a "selling point" when the houses are sold. Molly is the president of the Candoro Arts & Heritage Center. The Candoro building is available for Weddings and rental for parties. The web site is: www.CandoroMarble.org and the phone is (865) 214-7383.

 

14 June 2018 - General Meeting

KPD was a no show.

Speaker Jennifer Aldridge. Ms Aldridge talked about energy efficiency in the home. Basics mostly, keep devices with a continuous power draw: coffee pots, TV games etc. turned off.

Use a power strip so all units in a given area may be switched off at the strip. The relative efficiency of incandescent, compact florescent lights and LED lamps were compared. The LED lamps are the outstanding winner for long life and low power usage. She gave a LED lamp to all people attending. She also advised to install gasket foam pads in light switches and power receptacles, this is especially valuable in older homes. Adjustable thermostats are also able to conserve on fuel usage. Also changing air filters frequently can help furnace efficiency. Don't close vents if you have a heat pump its better to close off the room not in use by closing the door. Ms Aldridge gave all in attendance a LED light bulb to test.

There was a vote to renew the membership to SKNBC for another year. Good news Fonda Allen agreed to become the treasure for next year.   

 

10 May 2018 - Cookout

    Lots of food and fun.

 

12 April 2018 - General Meeting

KPD Officer Travis Harvey update on South Knoxville. Some car burglaries at apartments where college students stay. Watch out for bogus Lawn Care Services. Large drug bust

at Montgomery Village. Apparently guns and drugs being brought from Texas. Officer Harvey suggests local homicides should decrease.

Speaker Joe Holloway on the Smoky Mountain Rail Road History. The talk was very detailed with pictures. There is much of the same information available on the Web at the

URL "en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoky_Mountain_Railroad" the Wikipedia article has a number of links to further information of the railroad. Mr. Holloway will be publishing a boot on

his research next year. Mr. Holloway mentioned a web site "smokymountainrailroad.net" but I could not find it.


8 March 2018 General Meeting

KPD Officer Travis Harvey update on South Knoxville police activities: Simple thefts from cars along Chapman Highway and some problems with homeless using a local laundromat for shelter from the cold.

Speaker: Sahara Carmen for Keep Knoxville Beautiful. Information about the trash pickup scheduled "rain or shine" on the 17th March. There will be a free lunch after the pickup at the park. Some discussion of the problems of using DUIs for litter pickup. Carson Dailey says that the problem is five judges in Knoxville courts that won't give DUI cases public service as part of their sentence.

Attending the meeting were local Representatives: Carson Dailey County Council, Stephanie Welsh City Council, and Amber Roundtree School Board. Ms Rounhdtree is up for reelection this term. The election is to be held in May, Please remember to Vote!

SKNBC will have Welcome Packages ready soon. Donations from local businesses have been collected.

The Members voted to pursue getting sidewalks for Stone road from Chapman to Magazine road.
 

8 Feb. 2018 - General Meeting

Speaker Ms Stephanie Welsh our City Council Representative. She said that being newly elected she was still learning the job. Her mentors are Carson Daily (County Council) and Amber Roundtree (School Board). She discussed several items about Chapman Highway.

    1. There is a contract for new traffic signals. The existing signals are obsolete.

    2. A traffic commission and a consulting firm working on a Chapman Highway meta  study and are going to have several community meetings for our input in the October of this year.

    3. TDOT has $40 million for traffic safety and operational changes for Chapman Highway.

    4  A bike and pedestrian walkings trail is being planned from the Henley Street Bridge to Lipencott (St.?).

The city codes for Knoxville are 50 years old and a planning commission has been started to update the codes. An example of the old codes: It will not allow mixed business and residential buildings to be built along Chapman, the new code will examine the dual use buildings, like the plan for the Baptist Hospital site which will have commercial on the first floor and living quarters on the top floors. This change could start a revitalization along Chapman. One more police officer will be added to each shift for South Knoxville, we have a low crime rate but our population is growing. The Urban Wilderness project is proceeding with the BMX Corporation building a park near South Doyle School. James White Parkway dead end will be added to the city parks after some improvements. Fort Dickerson park's rear entrance will be updated to make it more attractive.  The subject of the Smokey Mountain Railway Trail was brought up mainly by people who wanted to object to the project running through or near their back yards. Sidewalks on Stone road were discussed, the problem is that it is too expensive to build sidewalks unless they are put in as new construction. Again part of the problem are the city codes as well as the drainage ditch problem.
 

9 Nov 2017 - General Meeting

We had a general discussion meeting the topics were: Butterfly lake status. The one of the Henton brothers has died. Still trying to contact the other one. Next year the city has a "speed bump" project which allows local people to vote to have speed controls put in place on their streets. The association will be involved in making sure the project is publicized in the neighborhood. The problems with the local Krogers was discussed, the manager is going to meet with the SKNBC organization, we are members and will get a report. Also SKNBC will eventually get around to getting more "Welcome Packages" for its members to distribute.

 

12 Oct. 2017 - Picnic

Attendance was just about normal. Had the picnic a moth late due to support problems.

 

14 Sept. 2017 - General Meeting

KPD was a no show.

Speaker Kasey Krouse Urban Forester for the city of Knoxville was the speaker. He developed an Urban Forestry Project for the city. He and a crew of seven maintain all trees in the city. He also responds to calls to the 311 number about trees. Mainly safety related and tree protection. The city has a "Tree Protection Ordnance" this applies to trees in city maintained areas. Also he oversees the Planting contracts for the city.

His recommendation for consulting if you have a tree problem is a "Certified Arborists" a good place to start is "treesaregood.org" a web site that will give you a list of arborists. Tree toping is not recommended because it  causes the tree top to grow faster, also the new growth is likely to be subject to breaking off the tree because of problems with the trunk where the cut is made. Planting trees is a problem because people do it wrong. The correct method is leave the roots close to the top of the soil. That way they get oxygen and water, which they need to grow. If the tree won't stand on its own use a stake to hold it upright until the roots can take hold. A web site run by the city "knoxvilletn.gov/trees" is a good place to go to in selecting the right type of tree and for other information. Mr. Krouse mentioned a "canopy cover" study in Knoxville. Colonial village had 60% cover, other areas had 40% while the typical downtown cover is just 20 to 30%. The best trees to plant near a house are: River Bearch, dogwook, Redbud and the Chinese pastach (spelling?) which has good fall colors.

 

At the picnic there will be some "bear  root" dogwoods given away for planting this fall. Remember the roots grow in the winter. Mr Krouse mentioned that he has had success in growing root systems by planting the tree in gravel and watering it a few minutes each day. This was done by professionals likely not a good project for the average home owner, among other things it has to be transplanted to soil. Remember you can call 311 with questions and there is an on line form that you can fill out if you choose.

 

Terry announced that: Leaf pickup starts on the 5th of November and continues till Feb. also "Speed bumps" are a subject for some of the streets if 50% of the home owners want them, this is sometime in the future. The proposal to contact the owners of Butterfly Lake is still in progress, a letter will be sent to the owners outlining the advantages of giving the lake to the city as a park.

 

 

10 Aug.2017 General Meeting

KPD Officer Travis Harvey reminded us that school was in session and to obey the signals. There has been an up-tick in burglary by forced entry in a near by community, Avenues A & B. Please call if you see young folks in the neighborhood that are not from Colonial Village.  The traffic light at Stone Road is now equipped with a red light camera., too many people are running the light.

Speaker Brandi Self the principle of Mooreland Heights School gave a short presentation about the school. The school now offers after hours Art classes to students. There is a grant expected to be announced soon to enable the students to speak to the International Space Station via Ham radio in the near future, a pass of the station lasts for 11 minutes. She thanked Walmart, First TN bank and Burger King for support of some school activities. Our donations of school supplies will be used to fill some backpacks that will go to kids in the first to fifth grades. She ask us to make people aware that traffic should make a right turn into the school to avoid having to cross the road to get to their cars.

Early voting has started one site is located behind "Old South Highschool" in the recreation center. The last SOUP event was a success $800 was collected for the night. Terry announced that the board will draft a letter for the owners of Butterfly Lake, pointing out the advantages of donating the lake for a city park.

 

13 July 2017 General Meeting

KPD was a no show.

SKNBC will hold a meet and greet for the candidates at Woodlawn Church.

Knoxville SOUP is asking for volunteers to help with the next meeting, two weeks from this meeting.

Carson Dailey said that there are bills before the County Council: A bill to have the school system repay some funds to the county. He doesn't like it expectiing that they will ask the county for money next year to replace what they pay. Another bill is to limit heavy equipment noise. Also, Karns development is close, no real information.

The candidates invited to the meeting all gave a short introductory speech. In order of their appearance ( selected by lot);

Stephanie Welch gave a short biography and then addressed her agenda which is to proceed  in the direction that Knoxville has been heading for the last 8 years. She thinks that the Knoxville schools are good and would to like to make sure that they stay that way. She has been active in the community and appears to be well "networked". Her web site is "vote4welch.com" suggest you visit for more details.

Rebecca Parr gave her biography and then said that she was running a "grass roots" campaign. She wants to address the opoid crisis, shortage of affordable housing, create more jobs with a living wage and more.

Her web site is "www.VoteRebeccaParr.com"  suggest giving it a look for more information.

Greg Knox a software developer, South Knoxville 6th generation  native! He wants to make the future more efficient by implication using computers. Wants more moderate income housing and to address the Opid crisis.  His web site address is: "https://knox.vote". He is using the new extensions recently allowed by W3.

Andrew Wilson is a young man from Illinois who wanted to live in Tennessee. He is a "Utility Forester" and works for KUB among others. He sees "big business" overrunning "mom and pop" stores as South Knoxville grows. He has investigated the problem with refurbishing the store fronts on real estate facing Chapman Highway. There are far too many regulation that the city has in its codes. He would like to work to remove the more unnecessary and unwise ones to allow more unoccupied stores along Chapman to be placed into service rather than setting empty. He suggests that the trails around South Knoxville that can be used by bikers  would allow the opening of bike shops both sales and rentals. He also mentioned the creation of "Community" gardens to bring people together. On parks he would like money spent keeping up the existing parks before creating new ones. His web site is "winsonforKnoxville.com" check it out for further information.

 

8 June 2017 - General Meeting

KPD was a no show.

A vote was held to remain a member of SKNBC. John Capps will join Kim as a Representative.

Speaker was Officers  Bemder and Mason from Knoxville Animal control. Officer Bender gave an informative and well delivered description of the services and rules for the animal control. Some of the rules are: Four animals per household(fish don't count). There can be up to six chickens (with permit) plus the four animals and one pig. How the pigs get counted separately was not explained. The city passed the chicken ordnance some time ago, the permit is needed and they (the chickens) cannot disturb the neighbors by running loose or making noise. Dogs cannot bark more than 30 minutes or longer. Officer Bender said that a citation would be issued to the owner. The in my experience the animal control dispatcher will try to talk you into speaking to your neighbor before they come out to issue the citation. If the dog is barking after midnight don't hesitate to call the police, You can have them do a safety check because of the barking dog. The costs involved for the owner will vary, but in general there are $200 court costs plus a $50 fine. For animal cruelty the penalties can be much greater, up to one year in jail and getting on the state register of cruel owners. If you dog ever ends up on the pound, take it to the veterinarian immediately! The shelter can have a number of communicable diseases that can be fatal if not treated. Parvo and distemper are just two. The phone number of animal control is 215-6839.

SKNBC is having a candidate "forum" a Candora Marble on 1 August.
 

13 April 2017 - General Meeting

Officer Travis Harvey of KPD gave his usual presentation of crime in South Knoxville. (I hope not much I missed out on the first of the meeting.)

Speaker Janice Toucher of Woodlawn Neighborhood Association. Woodlawn Association has become a registered Wild Like Habitat. Janice described the process by which an individual or a community group could apply for and receive this designation. You must have an area that offers the following: Food for animals, Tree with Seeds for animals, Water, Shelter Shrubs and other items. The size of the neighborhood will determine how many households must meet these requirements. DOW chemical gives grants for some activities. The National Wildlife Foundation has a conference call facility for remote meeting. Also Butterfly Kits are available to start to preserve the Monarch by planting "Milk Weed" it seems that they lay eggs on the plant. Native plants are considered "ground cover' for the project. The Woodlawn Association has a "log" of their activities that is on line for viewing. A web site for finding the natives plants etc. is KnoxvilleTN.gov/wildlife

Terry gave a lecture about Cats refuting some of the assertions by some news articles about the house cat being responsible for the killing of many of the birds. According to Terry only the old, sick and malformed birds are slow enough to be caught by a cat. Cats do catch rats and other pests.

Janice told us about the next meeting of SOUP the micro fund raising organization that holds a dinner where prospective fund recipients give their pitches, the audience selects the best proposal.

Carson Daily (County Commission Member for out district) talked about the resent tax hike, its supposed to be revenue neutral.

We need a volenteer for the SKNBC meetings. Andrew Wilson a candidate for City Council announced a function on May 6th at 11Am to 5PM that has vendors music etc. there will be a "seed share" if you are interested in old flowers and vegetables. You might want to check his Web site for more information.

4 March 2017 - General Meeting

Speaker was Sahara Carmen from Keep Knoxville Beautiful. Ms Carmen talked about the cleanup scheduled for March 28th. Joe Touchton will pickup supplies at Sam Duff and bring them to the church parking lot for out cleanup at 9:45 AM. Those who pickup trash till be served lunch by Keep Knoxville Beautiful at noon also you will receive a free T shirt (with long sleeves) if there is rain the rain date will not serve lunch.

Terry announced the problems with the Web site, and the costs. Also the Neighborhood Conference scheduled for the weekend. We entered a T shirt design in the design contest. The shirts have been printed and we bill wear them for the trash pickup. The ducks on Butterfly Lake were "rescued" by an outfit in the Carolinas called the "Caraloina Waterfowl Rescue". The general opinion was that it was not necessary to rescue out ducks. They had been called when the lake had gone dry. Kim reported on the SKNBC meeting: new welcome bags are being ordered. Carson Dailey County Council reported that a new apartment complex is being constructed behind the Waffle House, that the "Safety Center" has been approved and shelter for pregnant ladies that are drug addicted to get them "clean" for the birth of the child.

Andrew Wilson a candidate for City Council introduced himself to the meeting.

Intersting note - TV crews are shooting some sort of TV series at locations around town, there was a shoot on Sarvis Drive recently.

 

 

 9 Feb. 2017 - General Meeting

KPD Officer Harvey reports that the Police Academy class started Dec 17,2016. The new officers will bring the police department closer to its authorized strength. Somebody broke into a construction trailer around 2AM no date mentioned, the method was to use an acetylene torch to open the locks!

Cameron Dailey County Commissioner dropped by the meeting, he announced that there will be no tax increases, people convicted of DUI and public service can no longer be used to pick up trash ( by law) he is attempting to reestablish the old rules about using these people to pick up trash. A Soap meeting is scheduled for the 23rd at Dara's garden.

Joe Touchton reported the latest on getting Butterfly Lake into the city park system, he needs to talk to the owners brothers about the advantages of not owning the lake.

Terry has researched the fish record catches in Butterfly lake from  1961 to 1988 and gave everybody a list. Terry also reported on the response to the re zoning letters we sent out to people that could change the current zoning of their property, the owners of property on Stone Road didn't want to change and there was no response from the Colonial Dr. property. This could be because of the death of the owner and the heirs may not have the estate settled yet.

A vote was taken to reestablish the "Colonialvillage.org" web site address. It was lost due to a (claimed) sanfu in payment. The plan is to research a good ISP and the site to their domain control. The current provider is not receiving good reviews on the inter net for just this sort of behavior.

 

10 Nov. 2016 - General Meeting

KPD was a no show.

Ms. Makenzie Read Public Service Coordinator in the Public Service Department spoke about the new garbage cans to be issued. ALSO - RECYCLE changes start in Jan. of 2017. You can no longer put glass into the recycle bins. It can be taken to several recycle dropoff points. The closest one to our area is Goodwill at W. Moody Ave - 225 W. Moody Ave. You can put it into the regular garbage I guess. A new Grey Card will be left at the end of your driveway in December. Start using it on the first pickup in January of 2017. You will not be allowed to have any other garbage in cans or bags, just the new cart. The contents of the cart will be picked up by an automatic "arm" operated by a single driver in the garbage truck. See the Web site "http://www.knoxvilletn.gov/recycling" for all the information needed. Ms. Read stated that bulk pickup would be picked up by a separate truck one or more days after the standard pickup day. If it is not picked up within  a reasonable time, call 311 to arrange pickup. I always call when I put bulk pickup out, that way they have no excuses to let it set curb side for a week. In the case where you need more garbage capacity than one 90 gallon can can provide, you can call and get another card for a one time fee. Now to the existential  question - How do you put a garbage can in the garbage? If you don't have a friend or relative that needs another storage bin or container for cattle feed, you can place the empty can next to the new can and it will be picked up. Don't do this until the system is stable, say after a couple of months.

The membership was ask to vote on the rezoning of two pieces of property, the city would like to rezone these sites from commercial to residential use R-1. The MPC has to be requested to do this by the owner. We can contact the owner to make her aware of the city's desire. The vote passed. The two proprieties are at: 117,119 Stone Rd. and the lot behind Olivers Auto Care on Colonial just before the Colonial Village sign.

Joe Touchton gave a brief presentation of a plan to get Butterfly Lake into the Legacy Park system and off the hands of the current owners. Currently the lake is a "lot" attached to the house owned by three gentlemen that are sons of Mrs. Wallschmitt the deceased owner. Joe thinks that the owners once apprised of the legal risk of owning a body of water and the increased value to the property by having it filled at all times, they could be persuaded to donate it to the parks system, in turn the parks system will undertake to replenish the water in the summer droughts. This looks like a win/win situation for all. The association voted to allow Joe to go ahead with the project.

13 Oct. 2016 - General Meeting

KPD Officer Travis Harvey said that the crime rate in South Knoxville was low for the month. With the holidays coming he advised caution about items in cars and to keep an eye on your lawn ornaments.

Officer Harvey has been part of a prostitution "sting" operation which netted several people, not in South Knoxville.

Speaker H. Edward Black Senior vice President Corporate Services at KUB gave a talk about the installation of digital meters for electricity, gas and water. The project AMI Smart Meters is planned to be complete around 2019. The meters use radio communication to send data to KUB via a communication link provider. Eighteen towers have been built to network the meters. The project will start with downtown because the coverage there is expected to be good. The plan is to install 50,000 meters each in year one and two, then install 150,000 meters each in years three and four. Colonial Village is expected to be installed in the 2018,2019 years and there may be a requirement to install "repeaters" in some areas due to signal coverage. The new meters have a digital display that replaces the old analog displays on the electric and gas meters. The customer will have access to the meter data on an hourly basis via the Internet. The meters will allow KUB to determine outages without the delay now experiences. The customer may opt out of the new meters and keep the old meter. During the installation process there will be a very brief interruption of the service. If you have damage to the current meter mount due to any factors installation of a new meter mount can prolong the process by a bit. There will be no charge for the installation or for the change out of the meter mount, if needed.

Kim reported on the SKNBC meeting: Jim Hageman presented the need for another study of Chapman Highway at a joint meeting of SKNBC and the South Knoxville Alliance. This months meeting will be a joint meeting with the Old Servier Heights Association.

8 Sept. 2016 - Cookout - You should have come!

11 Aug. 2016 - General Meeting

Speaker - Ms Brandy Self - Principle of Moorland Heights School. The new principle started at Moorland Heights years ago as an assistant principle and now has returned as principle. All is going well and she has new teachers on staff. The school is still a "Title 1" school and as such has received a grant of $250,000. The grant has allowed the hiring of new teaching assistants and some tech purchases. The school has 350 students and each student has an I Pad computer for her/his use at school. Ms. Self stressed that there was an emphasis on art as well as technology. Each year they have a play or musical produced by the students. This years event will be musical. She encouraged people to volunteer for various duties that involve interaction with the students, examples are math and reading tutoring and small tasks normally done by the teaching assistants.

Donna Maxwell announced that the dues letters will be mailed to the entire community rather than just the membership data base this year.

Kim announced that SKNBC had a speaker from Keep Knoxville Beautiful and they have an on line survey at their web site "keepknoxvillebeatuiful.org" that folks are invited to fill out. They are also looking for volunteers for  their trash pickup day.

Terry announced that at the next General Meeting she would bring up for discussion the possibility of interaction with the owner of Butterfly Lake to attempt to arrange to give it to the city or to other organization.
 

14 July 2016 - General Meeting

KPD Officer Travis Harvey discussed the recent spate of petty theft around the neighborhood. Several unlocked cars have been ransacked and people have had lawn ornaments stolen. There is a individual that is being monitored by the police although he may not be related to anything. Officer Harvey wants you to call 911 if you see anything out of the ordinary. There will be stepped up patrol of the neighborhood.

There were two candidates for the County Council at the meeting. Mr. Carson Dailey[CarsonDailey.com) and Mr. David Payne speaking for Brandon Hamilton(VoteJamesHamilton.com). The speeches can boiled down to: Carson - raised in the neighborhood, knows South Knoxville goes to the local Church of God ( where we meet) and would serve as an experienced member on the council. Hamilton - young, quickly making a name for himself, knows the technological challenges facing the area and will be new/fresh blood on the council.

Danny Grey from SKNBC gave a short presentation on the Police Advisory & Review Committee (PARC). Mr. Clarence L. Vaughn III is the executive Director (PH 215-3869) and would welcome call about concerns about your interactions with the police.

9 June 2016 - General Meeting

 Sorry, missed the meeting.


12 May 2016 - Picnic

Turn out was a little light. General good time had by all.

14 April 2016 - General Meeting

KPD Officer Travis Harvey cautioned about some "midnight strollers" in the neighborhood. They can be planning a break in, call the police if you find one on your property. Also its time to start yard work, be sure that your tool are taken in after working on your yard. Tools left out overnight are likely to be stolen.

Speaker - Officer A. Watson (who was a substitute for the announced speaker) spoke about general safety concerns. Pan Handlers "be nice" they are people that have First Amendment rights and that have issues in their lives. Don't give them money! She also told us that there is a site "Raids on Line" (there is a link on our front page) would allow you to check for crimes in any neighborhood using the internet. A question from the audience about the heroin vs opiates received a no comment as to the connection between the two and the current drug problems. It was agreed that Mental Illness was an unaddressed  problem in the country in relation to homelessness. She told us that we should plan when going out and park you car were you can leave easily and quickly if necessary. It is also not a bad idea to tell someone where you plan to go and for how long. She also address the issue of yard work. If you are working in the back don't leave the garage door open and lock the front door. If you have unwelcome callers you don't have to answer the door. The telephone can be ignored also.

SKNBC - Iams nature center is having an Urban Wilderness program on the 19th at 6PM. It would be educational to attend. The speaker will talk about the dollar impact of the trails in South Knoxville.
 

10 March 2016 - General Meeting

KPD Officer Travis Harvey presented the local policing items. There was a problem on Mayflower, a kid got into his grandmother's drugs the police were called to take care of the situation. The breakin last month of a elderly lady on Live Oak appears to have been the result of a mistake in the house address by the person who broke in. Its vacation time and if you plan to be gone awhile you can call the police non-emergency number (215-7000) and ask them to do a "property check" while you are gone.

Terry announced two zoning changes that the city wants to make; there is property on Stone Road that is zoned industrial, they want it make it residential (R1) like the rest of Colonial Village also there is a vacant lot between the auto shop at the corner of Chapman and Colonial and the next street - Easton Rd. that needs to be changed to R1. More discussion will take place at the next meeting. The new bylaws were passed by vote.

The speaker David Massey of the office of Neighborhoods talked to us about how to make the organization more attractive to current and new members. There were several handouts that outline plans, surveys and general ideas for a healthy organization. CVNA is one of the older organizations and has as its coverage area one of the largest plots of single family homes in Knoxville. He was ask to address the issues we face with the aging of the organization. The Neighborhood Development Organization has a list of guest speakers that we can call on for meetings. The issue of more signs announcing meetings was addressed. We have signs with the old Web site address. They will be altered and passed out to interested parties.
 

2 Feb. 2016 - General Meeting

KPD Officer Travis Harvey presented the "crime statistics" for CV. There were two break ins on Live Oak, the police were called by an alert neighbor around 2:00AM. There was a "hot pursuit" on West Red Bud the guy got lost and was caught. KPD now has undercover cops working in South Knoxville. Watch out for an old dark color Ford pickup truck with a loud engine. It was driving slowly around the neighborhood and likely up to no good. Call the police if you see it.

Terry presented the revised By Laws for discussion. They will be voted on at the next meeting. A discussion led by Donna Maxwell on increasing the participation in the association by home owners in CV. A census of the homes was suggested by Donna and plans for a summer census were discussed. It would involve a form the fill out for each home, and interaction with the people living there. There was some concern about proper credentials for the people who conduct the census, that will be worked out by a group later along with a letter of introduction. A press release will be prepared by 1 April and published in early May. A booth for the 'Vestival' was suggested but Terry says that SKNBC already has on that we can work at.

Kim Pieratt gave a recap of SKNBC activity for the month. For the year they hosted a pool party and candidates forum. Kim suggested that South Knoxville may be getting shorted by TDOT because we killed off the James White Parkway extension while discussing Chapman Highway improvements. There is a plan to extend bike trails from the Henley Street Bridge to Stone Road in the works.

 

12 Nov. 2015 - General Meeting. Speaker: Ms. Willa Essie of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA).

KPD officer Travis Harvey told us the there is the expected increase in car burglary this season. If you see any activity call the police. Take care of your portable electronics when stored in your car, cover or put in the glove compartment or other place where it will be out of sight.

Ms Essie gave a talk about the Community Supported Agriculture project that she is promoting. The basic premise is to provide a means to buy fresh food from local farms. The fee to join the CO-OP is $25 and if you join after the first of the first of the year there will be a $7 fee for delivery of the food you buy from the co-op. Ms. Essie has an extensive list of farms that provide produce , milk and eggs as well as people who bake artisan bread, make handmade granola, pasta (she brought some to the meeting and it looked delicious). Also you can get cheese, turkey and pork products from one of the farms. A shopping list is emailed every Wednesday, orders are made by 4:00:PM the following Friday and deliveries are made on Monday. Each order will be sent a return  email that lists the cost and an estimate for the delivery time. Payment is expected on delivery, by cash, check or credit card. Items that are refrigerated will be delivered in coolers. All meats will be frozen (an USDA requirement). This sounds like a good way to get fresh food and local items like bread and pasta without having to go to market square or to the road side stands.

8 October 2015 - General Meeting. Speaker Bradley Reeves from the Tennessee Archive of Moving Images and Sound (TAMIS). Bradley gave us a lecture on the history of the organization and then showed a movie of various films that are archived by TAMIS. These included some film taken in 1915 by Jim Thompson in Black and White of Knoxville, some film of the early life of the people living in the Smoky Mountains, and some scenics  from the old Magee Tyson airport when it was on Sutherland Avenue. A Ford Trimotor is shown having its engines started by hand and the takeoff, it was a commercial flight I presume. There was film of the Cas Walker show and several of the performers that later went on to be famous in there respective fields.

Some of the movie archives are available on line by going to the public library site and following the links.

10 Sept. 2015 - General Meeting. Picnic held, attendance good but not large. Terry announced that Dona Maxwell will take over the position of

treasure from Chip who is moving to Holston Hills.

13 August 2015 - General Meeting

KPD - missing.

Speaker was Dr. Roy Miller principal of Mooreland Heights School. Dr. Miller is retiring from the school system and taking a job with the Johnson University with whom he has had a teaching relationship for

some time. He discussed his 12 years at Mooreland Heights and his relationship with CVNA from 2004 to the present. He thanked the staff at the school for their work. Saying that the school "felt like home".

He outlined some of the changes at the school over the twelve years of his association with it. Obtaining funding for various projects: serving free breakfast and lunch to students, funding for Assistant Instructors for

each grade and Ipads for all students The association gives the school supplies each year in August. Dr. Miller was very appreciative of the supplies.

SKNBC - had a meet and greet for the local candidates on the 27th.

Cake and soft drinks was served for Dr. Miller and the attendees.

 

9 July 2015 - General Meeting

KPD - missed the meeting. Speaker was Dawn Michelle Foster Deputy Director Office of Redevelopment. She discussed the redevelopment of the Baptist hospital site, Suttree Landing Park,

Rivers Edge and the pedestrian bridge over the river from South Knoxville river front to UT at the stadium.

Baptist Hospital - the site is in the late stages of cleanup after the demolition and the plan is still to build apartments on the site. There will be 300 rentals with two, three and four bedrooms. There will be parking on the river side of

the street and also at the old parking garage for the hospital. Baptist Eye Institute will remain where it is. Some of the south west end of the street will be developed as retail. Across Chapman the student housing will be built later.
There will be bike lanes from the Gay St. bridge to the student housing. The river walk will be built between the apartments and the river. Access to the river walk from the street and from the parking garage will be provided to the

public. The existing cross walk from the parking garage and the Baptist Office building will remain.

Suttree Landing construction has begun and the cost ($3.4 million from the feds and $3.2 from the city) have been budgeted. The park will be ADA accessible. The boat house/meeting room/kitchen has been reposition.

Rivers Edge - luxury apartment development has begun construction. The utilities are being moved underground and is causing some traffic problems.

The pedestrian bridge to the UT campus has been designed and will be about 1700 feet long from South Knoxville to where it will connect to the UT campus at Neyland Stadium. The cost $30 million will be partially funded

by the federal department of transportation ($24 million) the city will have to find the remainder.

As an aside the Fort Dickerson entrance has been realigned and is open to the public.

David Williams a candidate for City Council "at Large" Seat 6 was at the meeting and introduced himself. Chip announced that the membership dues are due in August, and ask for volunteers for a committee to

plan a Family Event at Gary Underwood park for next year. The event is planned to be on the 2 July (Saturday) preceding the fourth.

11 June 2015 - General Meeting

KPD Officer Travis Harvey gave an update on local police activity. Slight increase in property stolen from yards, (garden gnomes, lawn mowers etc.). KPD got a call about an unknown white male knocking on doors in the neighborhood, no good description - didn't find him.

Speakers - Erin Bell of the Mayors Office of Sustainability and Louise Gorenflo representing KUB.

Ms Bell gave a presentation on the sustainability efforts in the city. The previous mayors: Haslem, Brown and now Rogero have all had programs. Haslem's effort was funded by the feds. The current effort is funded by the city. The work is in four areas: Energy Conservation, Quality of Life, Carbon Dioxide reduction and Urban agriculture.

    * Energy Conservation will be good for the city and perhaps induce businesses to relocate to the city

    * Quality of Life addresses things like bike trails, nature trails etc.

    * Carbon Dioxide reduction is part of a plan to reduce the CO2 from the 2005 levels by 20% by 2030. Currently it is on schedule to meet those goals.

        . Also the installation of photo voltaic (PV) generation on the Jacob building (funded by a third party, but paying a fee to the city) and the planned

          installation of PV generation panel on the school buildings also third party funded are planned.

    * Urban Agriculture activities are to introduce community gardens on spaces in Knoxville. One impediment to this is a city ordnance that lots with no dwelling cannot have

      sheds or city water installed. The office of sustainability is currently working with the City Council to have this corrected.

More information on sustainability can be found at the Web site "www.cityofknoxville.org/sustainability. Ms Gill can be reached at
Erin Gill, Director
egill@cityofknoxville.org
City County Building
Phone: 865-215-4430

Ms Louise Gorenflo spoke about the "Score" project. A scheme to reduce the energy consumption by changes to your home, such as added insulation. The web site is "www.2eScore.com".

An energy audit can be had by paying a fee of $75 or by having some work done such as a check of your HVAC system and getting a credit applied to the audit. Another part of the energy conversation is to reduce the number of homes that have to have help paying their heading bills. TVA has given several million dollars to a fund to improve the energy efficiency of homes of people who have an income below some threshold and use electricity for heating and cooling. This project will require an energy audit and that local contractors perform the work. Estimates are that about six hundred homes could be fixed up in this effort. There was some discussion about slum landlords and how induce them to participate  in the program.

The organization's membership in SKNBC was renewed and a new representative was found to replace Terry.

KAT is considerating extending some of its routes. A meeting will be held at the City/County building in the main assembly hall at 3PM 25th June 2015.

 

14 May 2015 - Picnic - Had a good crowd!

9 April 2015 General Meeting

KPD Officer Travis Harvey came by to bring us up to date on the local crime situation. One break on Magazine Rd. but nothing else this month. Reports of some homeless people around Moorland Heights School are being investigated.

Laura Coats of Knoxville Transport Organization ("IBikeKnox.com") gave a talk on biking safety. The reason for biking are: exercise, economical and environmentally friendly. The

local roads do not have bike paths marked, but a bicycle has the same rights as a car. That means that you can take up an entire lane if necessary. I would recommend the web site for more information.

Mary Touchton reported that the trash pickup netted only 16 bags of trash. We had over 90 the first year!  

Terry gave the SKNBC report - Turns out that the meeting room at the Flanagan Homes is so popular that they plan to start charging a small fee for its use, so that the residents will have more time to schedule it for their use.

Bonnie Edwards told us the the nest SOUP  meeting will be at Iams Nature Center at 6PM to 9PM on the 16th of May.

12 March 2015 - General Meeting

No speaker. Discussion of the clean up day. The Dogwood trail road painting. Peggy Tubbs had a handout about the Dogwood Festival. It will be emailed to the members

of the list serve.

Clean up is on 21 March (Saturday) at 9AP, meet at the church parking lot.

12 Feb. 2015 - No Notes.

xx Nov 2014 - No notes.

9 Oct. 2014 - General Meeting

The speaker was Ed Shouse - Knox County Trustee. The subject Real Estate Tax Relief for the Elderly. There are three ways of getting some relief on your taxes:

Elderly & Disabled with limited income (less than $28270), Disabled Veteran & Widower of Veteran (requires total and permanent disability rating from a service related injury),

the third alternative is a "Tax Freeze" for incomes less than $37,980. Each option requires some documentation of income or disability, and is renewed each year.

Peggy Tubbs and Ann Graff were at the meeting to tell us that the new Dogwood Trail route had been approved, with small changes, by the Dogwood Trail Board. Next stop is the

Traffic and Engineering Section of the city government.

11 Sept. 2014 - Picnic

The picnic was a success. There were maps of the proposed new Dogwood Trail route. Ways to spruce up the neighbourhood for the spring trail opening and list of the houses on the trail

were on display. Letters will be sent to all of the occupants and the owners of the houses on the trail.

14 August 2014 - General Meeting

Missed the meeting - speaker was Dr. Roy Miller principle of Mooreland Heights School. The association gives school supplies at this meeting to the school. The attendance was good.
 

10 July 20144 - General Meeting

KPD didn't show up for the meeting. Likely a local problem.

The speaker for the session was Mr. Robert Moyers Code Enforcement Section Manager for the Public Service Division of Knoxville. The Public Service Department is the one that collects brush/leaves every two weeks.

The function of Mr Moyers branch is to over see the violation of city codes controlling things like dirty/ overgrown lots, houses in disrepair and disabled autos/trucks. A violation for having your grass more than 12 inches high (if reported) will result in a notice giving you 10 days to mow it, if you don't comply the city will cut the grass and bill you about $250. They put a lien on your property if payment is not made. Vehicle violations are cars/trucks etc. with at least two problems that prevent them from being driven, flat tires - broken windows etc., a notice is placed on the vehicle and if it is not moved or repaired it is then towed. Mr. Moyers said that there are two to three thousands building inspections cases each year, and 60 to 70 houses are demolished. The group that does this work is a very stable work force some having fifteen to sixteen years of service with the city. They know the city, they try to inspect all the city streets every two weeks for "solid waste" violations. Things like trash, old appliances that have not been picked up. Buildings that are determined to be unsafe will take four to six months to go through the process of permitting before they are torn down, in case of danger (fire damage etc.) the process can be quicker. A house deemed "unfit for human habitation" will take longer to process and is very expensive to tear down, it is a last resort because the cost. It is preferred that the building be rehabilitated to pass the codes. There were a number of questions from the audience and suggestions for property in the neighborhood that needs to be inspected, high grass is the major problem with dilapidated and structurally deficient buildings last, but there were two or three.         

 

12 June 2014 - General Meeting

KPD Officer Travis Harvey reported that the KPD officer shot is doing well and will be OK. He handed out literature about the "Citizens Police Academy" and recommended attendance as an informative experience. He says that Chapman Highway traffic is bad and getting worse. Could it be vacation traffic? Terry gave the SKNBC report. We renewed our membership and Joe Touchton was elected as a second representative to SKNBC. They have sent a letter to the mayor recommending that a second grocery story be encouraged to setup in South Knoxville Vestal/Woodlawn area to give Krogers some competition. MPC is currently reviewing the definitions for R1 housing rental. The issue is the number of people that can occupy a rental unit under three definitions of groups -  Family tow adults and N kids) , Unrelated Individuals (three adults maximum) and Functional family( complicated but sounds like a 60s commune). Also under discussion is the "Group House" at 8 or fewer persons with disabilities, and the running of a small day care facility - four or fewer kids. Terry will keep us posted. The speaker for the next meeting will be someone from City Codes.

 

8 May 2014 - Spring Cook Out

The cookout was held with a modest turnout. During the cookout a vote was held to accept the changes to the by-laws. Also members of the new

executive committee were voted on. Members are: Terry Caruthers, Chip Barry, Joe Harrison, Joe Touchton, Arturo Cano and Gary Keith.

 

10 April 2014 - General Meeting - No speaker.

KPD Officer Travis Harvey reported on local KPD actions with the South Knoxville community. "Nothing major" was the opening comment. KPD is watching the panhandlers in the Kroger parking lot. Interviewing, warning and arresting if needed. The recent events "car jacking" in the Kroger parking lot generated some questions. Officer Harvey could not answer some because on the "ongoing investigation" standard police procedure. (Check this mornings [10 April 2014] News Sentinel for the latest).

Officer Harvey ask us to consider attending the conference on "Bullying" to be held on 17th April. See the web site "http://www.cityofknoxville.org/Press_Releases/Content/2014/0307.asp" for more information.

During the meeting we discussed changes to the by-laws. There were several people volunteered for the steering committee. Bobbie Edwards, Gary Keith, Terry, Chip and I. A draft of the changes to the by-laws has been sent to the list serve for all the members to view, the vote will be at the picnic next month. Speaking of the picnic.

I ask for some volunteers to help with the setup and tear down and got a couple of guys to help with the tables etc.  We hope we can use the churches grill. May have to ask somebody in the membership to bring theirs if that fails.  Chip will be away in may so he can't bring his.Bobbie Edwards donated a decorated coffee mug for a door prize. It was won by Arturo Cano a first time attendee - he will also help at the picnic.  

 

13 Mar. 2014 - General Meeting - No speaker.

KPD Officer Travis Harvey reported on the last months "crime" situation. Some car break ins, an increase drug activity - KPD condemned two houses for drug activity. However there was no increase in our area, except for a couple of neighbor disputes. Questions from the audience about the "panhandlers" in the Kroger parking lot. Unless they are aggressive the police can do nothing. Just say no and walk away. Terry ask Officer Harvey to address the meeting on "bullying" that is being held  the web address

is http://www.cityofknoxville.org/Press_Releases/Content/2014/0307.asp. The Knoxville Police Department is sponsoring a special town hall meeting "Take a Stand Against Bullying" on Thursday, April 17 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the auditorium of South College - West located at 400 Goody's Lane.

General Discussion: There was a general discussion of new projects that the Association could take on for the coming year. Dilapidated houses in the neighborhood, get codes to enforce more aggressively.  There was a suggestion to invite codes to a meeting, they haven't been in several years. If we identify several houses they will "walk around" with us to observe the homes, not part of the meeting. Another project was the cleanup of a cemetery at Magazine Road near one of the intersections. It is called the Magazine  road cemetery in recent mapping. Sharon Webb has a map reproduction from 1885 that refers to it as the "Woodlawn" cemetery. At the moment the plans are not firm but could include a cleanup and possibly a marker giving some history of the place. A third possible project is to identify in the neighborhood elderly or disabled people and offer to do simple home owner task for them ( on request) simple things like trimming shrubs or changing a light bulb can a great help for someone who can't use a ladder etc.

The neighborhood clean up is scheduled for 5 April 2014, meet at 9AM at the church parking lot. If you can't make the cleanup day contact Mary Touchton mrymrgn@mindspring.com and get a section to do when you can. The dumpster will be located on the road leading up to the Gary Underwood park. It will be there for a couple of days after the 5th.
 

 

13 Feb. 2014 - General Meeting - Bad weather meeting canceled.

 

9 Jan 2014 - General Meeting - Bad weather meeting canceled,

 

14 Nov. 2013 General Meeting

KPD didn't have a representative at the meeting. The meeting was a general "were do we go from here" gathering.

Paula Gumpman our president resigned at the board meeting last week. Her reasons were that she had not be able to increase attendance at the meeting and other goals she had set for herself as well as pressing responsibilities at work. Various ideas were discussed about changes to the organization. They ranged from changing the frequency we meet from monthly to quarterly, having a "pot luck" meeting with the proposed new schedule, having a "network" membership drive - where each member brings two new people.Another suggestion was a door to door visit with information about the association and a "what in it for you" pitch.  Various reasons were given for the lack of attendance at the general meetings:

    1. Young people are too busy unless there is a problem in the neighborhood.

    2. Seniors don't like to drive at night.

    3. The community has an increasing number of seniors, leaking to a decline in attendance.

    4. Membership typicality falls with time.

New projects were discussed to give a reason for the association. There were two suggestions: A History of Colonial Village to be published for locals. A cleanup and documentation of a grave yard off Magazine Road. We will continue to support Moorland Heights School. It was decided to wait until the January meeting to decide on projects.

 

 

10 Oct, 2013  General Meeting

Officer Travis Harvey of KPD gave the police report for the month, nothing happened in Colonial Village.

Speaker: Sgt. Brian Bush Patrol Supervisor gave a review of the work KPD has done in the last year and plans for the future.

The department has and will continue to send a specific officer to our meetings. This allows the officer to be familiar with our problems and to address specific issues from meeting to meeting. Officer Bush warned about vacant houses, ones that may be on the market or not occupied for other reasons, be on the lookout for people at these houses, copper thieves are still at work over Knoxville.

Crime on the Green-ways is being addressed by police on bicycles and it is working out very well. The big news for the future is that the police department is changing cruisers, the Ford they use is not being made any more and they are changing to the Dodge Charger. It has several features that they need in a cruiser. The car is one of several that were tested for replacement of the Ford Crown Victoria.

The holidays are coming and he reminded us to keep valuable items out of our cars and the doors locked to prevent thefts.

Some statistics from last year are:

    15,000 arrests department wide.

    Solved 45.94% of (sorry didn't catch the category), the state wide rate is 33%

    They had 187,000 calls last year for the 100 officers in our district (North,South & East).

Interviews for some types of crimes (car theft for instance) where there is no evidence to be gathered can now be done "on-line".

Red light cameras reduce collision (T bone) at intersections and so are a success. Joe Touchton ask about speed announcement boards that are placed at the side of the road, they cause some reduction in speeding but the effect is not permanent. Terry ask about leaving K9's in the police cars. Officer Bush assured her that the dogs had either fans or the air conditioning running in the cars. The dogs are very valuable and are treated as such. The South Knoxville Police Headquarters are now at 4450 Walker Blvd.

When ask how CVNA could help Officer Bush ask that we keep the police representative (Officer Travis Harvey) informed. Use 311 and Codes as resources but not to hesitate to call 911. A question from a member about remaining anonymous was answered 'yes,but' there can be problems in prosecution of the crime if the reporting party remains anonymous.

SKNBC - Terry reported that the "meet and greet" turnout was small, all the candidates were there. The League of Women Voters are having another "meet and greet" on the 14th at 7PM.

The next meeting will be a discussing about Colonial Village and CVNA and the future of the organization. Please attend.

       

 

12 September 2012 - Cookout

    All most rained out. The Knoxville Fire Department demonstrated how to use a file extinguisher.

    The picnic crowd was smaller than usual, due to the weather I expect.
 

8 August 2013 - General meeting
Here are the notes on the meeting - thanks to Terry Caruthers.
We didn't have a speaker scheduled for this meeting.

Collected the school supplies.

Collected dues.

Talked about the upcoming picnic and the fire dept. demonstrating fire extinguisher use.

SKNBC had Molly Gilbert speak on South Knoxville being the featured trail in 2015 and her plan to have it branded as the "Pink Marble Trail" because many of our houses and retaining walls feature pink marble scrap from our quarries. She's urging people to plant pink dogwoods,  flowers, and bushes.

SKNBC is also planning to meet with representatives from KCDC to discuss how they vet and monitor those in their housing.

On August 13 at 5:30, Mayor Rogero and her department staff will host a meeting to meet with South Knoxville residents at the Woodlawn Christian Church. [This is the church on the corner of Woodlawn and Young High Pike, east of the post office.]

City Council has postponed their clarification of animal limits in the city [4 dogs or cats per household ] and formed a task force to study it and other aspects of the current animal ordinances, including spay / neuter.  Terry Caruthers then educated attendees on why limit laws do not work and the other alternatives that are available.

311 was discussed and how they can assist in resolving problems and issues. Also stressed was getting the service number so you may follow-up on these calls.

11 July 2013 - General Meeting

KPD Reports - Officer Travis Harvey told us that a house on Davenport Road that sold drugs has been closed down, somebody in our neighborhood gave the police a tip. There have been several break ins on Seiverville Pile,  mainly electronic items left in view from windows. Here in Colonial Village we have had no crime this month.

Speakers were: Bob Whetsel Director of ReDevelopment and Dawn Michelle Foster Deputy Director of ReDevelopment for the city of Knoxville. Mr Whetsel gave a presentation on the waterfront project.

    .EPA has given a grant to clean up some "brown" sites.

    .Design work is being done for the pedestrian bridge over the river from the waterfront to UT. It is not         funded as yet.

    .Riverwalk has been extended ( over a brown field site) completion in early August.

    .Suttree Landing design is finished and work will start in 2014 with completion in 2016.

Ms Foster presented the plan for the "realignment" of the entrance to Fort Dickerson and WoodLawn and showed a drawing of the proposed new entrance. Also there is work on the final approval of an "Luxury" apartment complex near Island Home.

Both gave there impressions of the current status of the Baptist Hospital site sale and redevelopment plan.

    .The office tower next to the Gay Street bridge will remain, perhaps still occupied by Tenova.

    .The hospital will be torn down (perhaps as early as this October) and two large apartment buildings will     be built on the site.

    .Next to the east side Henley Street bridge is proposed a hotel, but the developer is having second            thoughts about the feasibility of that part of the project.

    .On the west side of the Henley Street bridge apartments for UT students will be built.

Terry gave a report on the SKNBC activities this month. South Woodlawn got themselves certified as a neighborhood "wildlife habitat". Interesting bit of history, the three year period for unpaid taxes before the property is foreclosed goes back to Daniel Boon who sued about his property being foreclosed during a long "trip".  Somebody from codes has volunteered to make a "sweep" though Colonial Village for violations but would like help from the neighborhood to correct stuff found on the property of the elderly.

    .

13 June 2013 - General Meeting

We did not have a scheduled speaker for this meeting. KPD Officer Travis Harvey gave a summary of local "crime", none. Some problems with gangs in Ft Dickerson park, likely a result of relocation of people from other public housing projects to Montgomery Village.

Again Officer Harvey advised to call the police is you see any suspicious activity.

General Discussion: We need to have some questions for the Mayors meeting scheduled for later this summer, one suggestion is about KAT service.

Paula has setup a "Facebook" page for the association. It can be found with a Google search "Facebook Colonial Village Knoxville".

We need some photos for the page, anybody want to contribute?

Some elderly people are afraid to answer their door. How to fix this was discussed: "Peep Hole" installation was one answer.

Why we don't have more people that attend the regular meeting was a topic. Perhaps we need more events that kids can attend was suggested. A questionnaire was suggested to go out with the dues notices next month.


9 May 2012 - Cookout

The May cookout was held at the church, the weather was perfect. We had a fairly light turnout,

you should have come by - you missed some good food.
 

11 April 2013 General Meeting
KPD Officer Harvey says that there have been a series of Coin Laundry break-in along Chapman. Also the traffic calming patrol is out in force. Its spring so watch out for motorcycles.
Speaker - Grant Rosenberg VP of Housing for Knoxville Leadership Foundation spoke about the status of Flenniken Landing the housing for the homeless that cause so much controversy last year. The facility is now in operation with a low vacancy rate and a stable population.
The Knoxville Leadership Foundations role is to connect resources with needs. As part of that mission they mentor children of parents who are jailed or otherwise not able to be with their children. They consult with other helping organizations. Their "Operation Backyard" does minor repair (roofs and painting) to homes of the elderly and disabled to allow people to "age in place". In cooperation with another organization (Neighborhood Housing ) they build low cost homes and help people obtain loans to buy them.
SKNBC - No meeting this month.
Neighbourhood Conference - The meeting in Knoxville had 32 sessions Paula Gumpman, Chip Barry and Terry Caruthers volunteered to help out at the event. Five hundred people from around town attended.
Molly Gilbert of Lake Forest Home Owners Association gave a short talk on the Dogwood trail. We will be the featured trail in two years. Its time to plant "pink". She would like to associate the flower beds and the "pink" Tennessee marble quarried at the Candora  Marble Company (years ago). Many of the houses along Chapman have facades built of the remains left over from the operations that provided marble for places like the New Your Public Library and many buildings in Washington DC.

14 March 2013 General Meeting
Thanks to Terry Caruthers for taking these notes.
KPD
Officer Harvey reported that the police department is doing community outreach in the area schools -- meeting teachers and principals, layouts of the buildings, etc.
 
There was a few car break-ins at the apartments behind Burger King at Chapman and Lippincott.
They will be running more radar on Chapman Hwy and in the neighbourhood.

Allison Testers from Keep Knoxville Beautiful : brought supplies for the April 13th litter pickup ...gloves,  trash bags, litter pickers.

Talked about their Green Mile Program. Annual membership is $25. You receive a pedometer, a litter picker,  and a journal to keep track of your steps. You will keep track as you walk the neighbourhood picking up litter. For each milestone you reach, you report and receive a reward. For example, after 5 miles you get a T-shirt. The program is self-paced and you may pick your rewards from several options.

You may also register your dog for participation to receive special Green Paw rewards.
To enroll, visit KeepKnoxvilleBeautiful.org

For more info:
GreenMilesKKB@Gmail.com
Or call: 865-521-6957

Our annual litter pickup will be:
Saturday.  April 13 @ 9:00 am
Meet in the church parking lot.

SKNBC:

Met with City Councilman Nick Pavlis and County Commissioner Mike Brown to discuss our various neighborhood organizations and their purposes.

Urban Wilderness Trade District represents the South Knoxville businesses.

South Knoxville Foundation represents the South Waterfront and development issues.

South Knoxville Resident Advisory Board represents low and moderate income residents in the City and County.

Council of Involved Neighborhoods represents and empowers neighborhoods citywide to speak with a single voice on issues.

Neighborhood Advisory Council is under the Office of Neighborhoods and members are selected by the City to serve and provide advice and feedback on City programs and policies.

South Knoxville Neighborhood and Business Coalition is an umbrella group of participating City neighborhood associations and the Urban Arts and Wilderness Trade District whose appointed members support and promote South Knoxville.

We (SKNBC) hope to meet with all of the members of these groups to see what issues we may be able to work together on in the future.

Our next meeting will be on April 11.
     
14 Feb. 2013 General Meeting
Speaker Kristine Qualis Region 1 Project Supervisor to discuss the Henley Street bridge project.
KPD Officer Travis said there was an increase in home burglary in College Homes because of the new school year. Also because
its near spring time, watch out for theft of lawn tools, don't leave your lawn mower out unattended.

Ms. Qualis started her talk with a history of the bridge from its original construction. Built as a means of handling the traffic
generated by the opening of the Great Smokey Mountains Park. The daily traffic before the current repairs started was 38,813
cars per day crossing the bridge. Minor repairs were done to the bridge in 1971, 1987, 1991 and in 2004. Major work in 2005 termed
the "smart fix" was also done. The current work contract was started on 3 Jan. 2011 and due for completion at mid year, the new
problems with the piers will cause the work to be extended until 28 Feb 2014. The piers that are damaged will be rebuilt to look
the same from the outside but have an internal structural pier that is tied to the outer one by metal bars. There is a web site
www.tn.gov/henley that has current information on the project.

SDNBC reports that the alignment of the Ft. Dickerson entrance and Woodlawn will be completed in September.
Reminder: buy your coupon books from Mooreland Heights School, they use the money for supplies for the students.
Bonnie Edwards announced that Tea and Treasures will only be open on Friday and Saturday from now on.

10 Jan. 1013 General Meeting
Speaker Dr. Roy Miller Principal Moreland Heights School. Dr. Miller gave us a description of the changes that have taken place in the last ten years under his leadership.

  • •.The school has received $3,000000 in grants and funding in the last ten year. 

  • •.New windows, HVAC have been installed. 

  • •.A Art Class room has been built. 

  • •.The teaching staff has been changed over to new teachers with  five to six year at the school. 

  • •.The hardwood floors of the building have been refinished, the building was built when hardwood was used. 

  • •.The gym has had a complete make over. 

  • •.A new Roof has been installed. 

  • •.Hot water is now available all over the school, the original has hot water only in the cafeteria. 

  • •.The school meets the new standards set out by the state. 

  • •.Students who do not speak English as a first language are sent to Moreland Heights for training. 

  • •.Dr. Miller emphasized a "Student Council" as an important tool in his leadership style. 

  • •.The school is in the top 5% in the TCAP schools in the state. 

  • •.Computer labs and other high tech tools are in use at the school. 

  • •.Not all is work, the playground has been improved also. 

The success in getting grant money for the school does not buy everyday supplies. The use of "Coupon Books"
as a money raising tool is extremely important. Please remember this the next time a student comes to your door with a coupon book for sale. The population at the school is: Special Education 10%, African American 18%, Asian , Spanish are about 10%, and Caucasians represent the remainder. There about 340 students this year.
An interesting item about the school activities a morning TV program with announcements for the students is produced by the students and is shown in each class room and streamed over the Internet each morning at 7:50AM. If you want to see the show go to the school web site.