NEIGHBORHOOD BUZZ

IN THIS ISSUE

Pat Patterson: Eff ective detective

Malcolm Shell recalls the legendary county detective Pat Patterson; and Marvin West explains why college basketball really is rocket science.

➤ Read both on page 5

VOL. 2 NO. 7 February 17, 2014www.ShopperNewsNow.com | www.facebook.com/ShopperNewsNow

7049 Maynardville Pike 37918

(865) 922-4136

NEWS

news@ShopperNewsNow.com

Sandra Clark | Betsy Pickle

ADVERTISING SALESads@ShopperNewsNow.com

Shannon Carey

Jim Brannon | Tony Cranmore

Brandi Davis | Patty Fecco

Kelle Jolly resetThe “Season of Music” event

at Pellissippi State’s Magno-lia Avenue campus has been rescheduled to 10:45 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, because of snow last week.

Kelle Jolly, local jazz musi-cian, will headline the event. The singer-songwriter’s ap-pearance is part of the campus’ month-long celebration of Black History Month.

The event is free and open to the community.

– Nancy Whittaker

Over 20 years experience

SALES • SERVICE • MAINTENANCE5715 Old Tazewell Pike • 687-2520

“Cantrell’s Cares”

A+ RATINGWITH

We Offer:We Offer:• Complete inspections, maintenance & repairs for all air conditioning & heating equipment

• Money-saving high-effi ciency system upgrades!

• FREE ESTIMATES on new equipment

• FINANCING through TVA Energy Right program

• Maintenance plans available.

Randy Boyd

JOBSWHERE

the

ARE

In a Tennessee Stage Company perfor-

mance of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” in

Maryville, Titania (Suzanne Ankrum) and the

fairies attend to Nick Bottom (Tom Parkhill)

as Helena, Hermia, Demetrius and Lysander

sleep. File photo

By Betty BeanPetSafe founder and CEO Ran-

dy Boyd is a native South Knoxvil-lian and a graduate of Doyle High School. The son of Tom and Dale Boyd, he took his fi rst paying job in 1968, when he was 8 years old.

“I worked for my father for $1 an hour,” he said. “He paid me out of his pocket, so I don’t think he broke any child-labor laws.”

Randy fi nished high school at age 16, entered the University of Ten-nessee and worked

his way to a business degree in three years. He paid his tuition by working on an injection molding machine, again for his dad, and was 19 when he graduated in 1979.

He jokes that he accomplished his warp-speed education not be-cause he was smart, but because he was a penny pincher.

“When I discovered I could take 22 hours for the same price as 18, that’s what I did.”

Randy Boyd dreams big, now employs 650Upon graduation, he went back

to work for his dad, who owned an electric-fencing business. A few years later he struck out on his own and soon expanded into invisible fences for pets. From that beginning, a multimillion-dollar business was born.

PetSafe is a different kind of company with a dif-ferent kind of man-agement philosophy, and the difference is obvious to visitors who walk in the door. Em-ployees, who are called associates, are allowed – even encouraged – to bring their dogs to work. And the boss doesn’t have an offi ce.

Or, as Randy Boyd prefers to describe the work environment at 10427 PetSafe Way, he has a great big offi ce:

“Actually, we only have an open area. I like to tell people that I maintain an offi ce of 6,000-10,000 square feet; however, I do share it with my associates, and I move my desk to a different department every year. Before the state job,

my desk was in the Customer Care area.”

(The state job Boyd mentioned was a yearlong assignment – with-out pay – from Gov. Bill Haslam to

reinvent Tennessee higher education. It began as

the “Drive to 55” proposition to in-crease the number of the state’s col-lege graduates to

55 percent by 2025 and evolved into a plan to offer

high-school graduates two years of community college at no cost. Haslam unveiled Boyd’s plan dur-ing his recent State of the State ad-dress.)

PetSafe’s parent company, Radio Systems Corporation, also owns Invisible Fence Brand (the world’s leading wireless fencing), Sport-DOG Brand (the leader in train-ing equipment for sporting dogs), as well as Premier Pet Products, Drinkwell Pet Fountains and In-notek training products. In all, Boyd estimates that the company produces around 4,600 pet prod-ucts.

Worldwide, Radio Systems has some 650 employees, 350 in Knox County. Additionally, there are 30-40 employees in Virginia, 40-50 in Ohio, 100 in China, 30 in Ireland, 15 in Australia and three in Japan, with offi ces in seven countries. Em-ployees can apply for jobs overseas, Boyd said.

“I always dream big, but (the business has) defi nitely gone in directions that I didn’t expect and directions that I’m very proud and happy about. We have focused less on electronics and more on pets, and I’m happy that we are.

“And the scope of giving back to our community has exceeded any-thing I could have imagined.”

The fi rst step to applying for employment at PetSafe is to pre-pare a resume and go to http://www.petsafe.net/about-us/work-ing-at-petsafe for instructions.

And Boyd has a hint for appli-cants: The Customer Care depart-ment offers important entry-level opportunities with the potential for advancement.

On stagestageParkhill follows ‘accidental’ path

from history to Shakespeare, New Play Festival

Tom Parkhill visits his old stomping

grounds – the area at Ijams Nature

Center near where he played as a

youth and where the Tennessee Stage

Company often used to perform a ver-

sion of “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”

for children. Photo by Betsy Pickle

To page 3

To page 3

y

TTToToToTo pppppagagagagaggeeee 333333333333

By Betsy PickleGrowing up in South Knoxville near what was then

the Ijams family home, Tom Parkhill carved out his own trails in the not-so-urban wilderness.

As an adult, he has carved out a career in the jungle of the acting business – theater, for the most part, but with forays into fi lm.

He is legendary in certain circles for appearing in 1986’s “King Kong Lives,” director John Guillermin’s se-quel to his more successful 1976 “King Kong” remake.

“I was in the movie from the fi rst day of shooting till the last day of shooting,” says Parkhill, who is credited as “Radioman.” “I didn’t do that much in it, but I was there.”

What isn’t as widely known is that while he was shooting in Wilmington, N.C., his hotel neighbor was Ozzy Osbourne, who was in town fi lming a role in the horror fi lm “Trick or Treat.”

“His suite faced the beach,” says Parkhill. “My small room around the corner faced the parking lot. But we were right there, me and Ozzy.”

He says the rock musician-turned-reality star was very neighborly.

“There was a party in his suite every night. He gra-

New Play Festival schedule

The Tennessee Stage Com-pany will present the world premiere of “Tic Toc” by Gayle Greene at Theatre Knoxville Downtown, 319 N. Gay St. Shows are at 8 p.m. March 7, 8, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21 and 22 and 3 p.m. March 9, 16 and 23. Tick-ets are $15 ($12 for students and seniors).

There is no admission charge for other festival events. Staged readings will take place at Theatre Knoxville Down-town. “I Am the Way” by Scott Strahan will be at 2 p.m. Sat-urday, March 15. “Birds on the Bat” by Craig Smith will be at 2 p.m. Saturday, March 22.

The remaining table read-ings are:

■ “Let Them Eat Cupcakes” by Leslie Agron at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, at Farragut Branch Library and 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23, at Lawson McGhee Library.

■ “Found Objects” by Marilyn Barner Anselmi at 10:15 a.m. Saturday, Feb. 22, at Lawson McGhee and 11 a.m. Saturday, March 1, at Bearden Branch Library.

■ “A Cocaine Comedy” by Harrison Young at 1:15 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23, at Lawson McGhee and 2 p.m. Saturday, March 1, at Bearden Branch.

– Betsy Pickle

School-board races Betty Bean profiles the 6th

District school-board race; and Jake Mabe looks at David Dewhirst’s plans for a new restaurant complex.

➤ Read both on page 4

2 • FEBRUARY 17, 2014 • Shopper news

health & lifestyles

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

REGIONAL EXCELLENCE.

4400949494949444449449499009-007-0070707--777

Maryville man thankful for ‘gift’ of minimally invasive surgery

Bill Kendall of Maryville, 68, is a retired railroad worker who has spent a fair amount of time on his feet and bending down. At 6 feet, 3 inches tall, that’s a long way down.

“It’s simple physics,” Kendall pointed out. “There’s more leverage placed on the spine when you’re taller.”

Over the years, Kendall developed lower back pain. “I did it to myself through 35 years of railroad work and abuse,” he said.

About four years ago, the pain became signifi cant. “It started slowly, but it got to the point where I had to look where my right foot was, because I lost feeling in it. The pain started in the lower back and radiated down the leg. I began to have a loss of strength and standing was very uncomfortable.”

Kendall tried non-surgical treatments. “The chiropractor helped but it didn’t cure

anything,” Kendall said. “He put things back into alignment, and that was great for a couple of days, but then the pain would start slipping back in.

“Then I tried physical therapy, and I went through rounds of steroids. Nothing was working for good, and it only provided tempo-rary relief,” he said.

“I refused to take pain medication, because that doesn’t cure anything. It only masks the pain.”

At a monthly meeting of retired railroad workers (“We swap lies and stories,” Kendall said), one of his friends shared his own story of a good experience with minimally inva-sive back surgery by Dr. Joel Norman at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center.

So Kendall visited Dr. Norman in Sep-tember 2013. After an MRI test and X-rays, Norman diagnosed Kendall with spondylolis-thesis, a degenerative condition in which one vertebra slips forward on the other, rather than being lined up together.

The slippage in Kendall’s vertebrae had caused some of the fl uid between the ver-tebrae to ooze out and form a cyst that was pushing onto a nerve. This is called a synovial cyst, and it caused the pain radiating down Kendall’s leg.

Spondylolisthesis is a degenerative condi-tion, meaning it only gets worse. Norman rec-ommended surgery to repair the damage.

New year, new program: ‘Covenant presents’ at Strang Center

Once a month, a group of senior adults gathers at the Frank R. Strang Senior Cen-ter in West Knoxville to learn information about a variety of health and lifestyle topics called “Covenant Presents.”

“We have for many years enjoyed a close partnership with the Strang Senior Center,” said Debby Saraceni, Covenant vice president of marketing and physician services. “Our goal with ‘Covenant Presents’ is to expand on an already very solid and successful program that now will include physician speakers not only from Park-west Medical Center, but from the other hospitals and affi li-

ates within Covenant Health.”Covenant Health includes

nine hospitals, employs thou-sands of medical professionals, and is affi liated with more than 1,300 of the region’s elite physi-cians of many different special-ties. The new, expanded program will connect medical profession-als with local seniors to present health and lifestyle topics of in-terest to the group, topics such as medication safety, diabetes education, vision and neurologi-cal conditions. The program’s purpose is to provide valuable health care information, as well as create an opportunity for par-ticipants to have concerns and questions answered.

The presentation schedule for the fi rst and second quar-ters of 2014 includes:

***

Wednesday, Feb. 26Joel Norman, MD Neurosurgeon, Tennessee

Brain and Spine at Fort Sand-ers Regional Medical Center

Presentation: Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery

Wednesday, March 26 Michael P. Bernard, MDInternal Medicine, South-

ern Medical Group Presentation: Pitfalls of

Treatment for Hypertension

Wednesday, April 23Mary E. Dillon, MDMedical Director for the

Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center

Presentation: Stroke Reha-bilitation

Wednesday, June 25Sunil M. John, MDInternal Medicine, Southern

Medical Group of KnoxvillePresentation: Dementia

***

For more information about

“Covenant Presents,” or about

the programs and services of

Covenant Health,

call 865-541-4500.

Dr. Joel E. Norman, of Tennessee Brainand Spine and the Center for Minimally In-

vasive Spine Surgery atFort Sanders Regional,will present at the next “Covenant Presents” program on Wednes-day, Feb. 26. Dr. Nor-man will address the topic of minimally in-vasive spine surgery.

Dr. Norman has ex-tensive expertise in the treatment of surgical disorders of the brain,spine and peripheral nerves. His expertise

includes endoscopic pituitary surgery, im-age-guided stereotactic surgery for intracra-nial disease and minimally invasive imageguided spinal surgery. He also is certifi edfor Gamma Knife procedures used to treat neurosurgical diseases including brain tu-mors and trigeminal neuralgia.

Dr. Joel Norman performs surgery on Bill Kendall on Oct. 1, 2013, at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center.

Joel E. Norman, MDNeurosurgery

Specializing in minimally invasive surgery

Using a minimally invasive technique, Nor-man would realign the two vertebrae and fuse them together so there would be no more slip-ping.

“He said, ‘I think I can give you your life back,’ ” said Kendall. “He was confi dent enough in his abilities and the people working at Fort Sanders, and that gives you confi dence in your surgeon and the staff.”

Kendall had minimally invasive spinal fu-sion surgery at Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center on Oct. 1, 2013.

“After surgery it was miraculous,” said Kendall. “When I woke up, the pain was gone! I had had pain medicine during surgery, and I thought that would wear off, but after two days, I didn’t need pain medicine at all.”

Kendall went home less than 24 hours after surgery and said he would recommend Fort Sanders to anyone facing spinal surgery.

“Everyone was so professional and courte-ous,” he said. “They kept asking, ‘Is there any-thing I can do for you, do you need anything?’ It was great. All the anxiety of going to the hospital was waylaid.”

Even the food was good, he added. “You could tell someone cared about what it looked like, how it was arranged. It was presented in

a healing manner,” he said.Kendall is now working to strengthen his

leg and back muscles. “I’m regaining strength in the leg,” he said.

“I can go seven minutes on the treadmill, and I have no problem with my back. Before, I couldn’t go 30 seconds on a treadmill.”

Kendall said he only wishes he had done the surgery sooner.

“It’s a gift I’ve been given. I just can’t ex-press how grateful and appreciative I am, be-cause I’ve got my life back. I tell everybody, go to Tennessee Brain and Spine and Fort Sand-ers, and get a second opinion.

“They’re great. In my book I made the right decision,” said Kendall. “I’ve gotten my life back. Until you have it you don’t understand how great it is when the pain is gone.”

What is spondylolisthesis?Almost everyone experiences back pain –

especially lower back pain – at some point in life.

For about 5 to 10 percent of people, back pain comes from a condition called spondylo-listhesis. From the Greek words “spondylo,” meaning “spine,” and “listhesis,” meaning “slip,” spondylolisthesis is when one vertebra

slips in relation to another above or below it.The misalignment can press against a nerve

or allow fl uid between the vertebrae to bulgeand cause a painful cyst. In both cases, the pain can radiate from the back down the leg.

“Spondylolisthesis is often missed on ini-tial MRIs,” said Dr. Joel Norman, a neurosur-geon with Tennessee Brain and Spine and theCenter for Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery at Fort Sanders Regional.

The vertebrae tend to slip back in place when the patient is lying down for the MRI scan. To get a better image, the patient must have X-rays standing up or bending forward and leaning back.

“That way you’ll see the slippage of the bones in there,” said Norman. “Usually the person’s pain is much worse when walking or standing.”

Spondylolisthesis is one of the main rea-sons for spinal fusion surgery, said Norman. At Fort Sanders Regional Medical Center, this surgery can be done with a minimally invasive approach.

Using special imaging and instruments, the surgeon operates through several small incisions instead of one large one. The goal is to reposition the bones so they’re not com-pressing a nerve and to fuse them together, tostabilize the area.

The small incisions mean less blood lossand quicker healing.

“This gets people back on their feet faster and back to regular activity much sooner than a large incision operation does,” said Norman. “After a hospital stay of one to two days, most people return to normal activities within one to four weeks.”

Spondylolisthesis can be caused by an in-jury or a malformation at birth, but is moreoften the result of arthritis and aging.

“The typical patient is 50 to 60 years old,” said Norman. “Spondylolisthesis is a condi-tion causing back pain that I feel confi dent I can fi x with an operation,” he said. “In most cases we’re able to return people to their nor-mal way of living.”

For more information about the Center for

Minimally Invasive Spine Surgery at Fort

Sanders Regional, call 865-541-2835 or visit

fsregional.com/minimallyinvasive.

Shopper news • FEBRUARY 17, 2014 • 3

Mexican Grill & Cantina

Mexican Grill & Cantina4100 Crippen Rd • Halls

$10 ........... $2.00 OFF

$20 ........... $4.00 OFF

$30 ........... $6.00 OFF

ANY PURCHASE

OF:

CateringAvailable!

Birthdays, Graduations,Special Events

Check Out Our Full Bar!Happy Hour All Day, Every Day

• Mixed Drinks • Beer • Wine • Margaritas

4100 Crippen Rd • Halls377-3675 • Fax 377-3805

4409 Chapman Hwy577-8881 • Fax 577-8966Hours: M-Th 11am - 10 pm

F & Sat 11am - 11pm

KIDS EAT FREE Mon-Thurs (1child per adult)mexicanrestaurantknox.com

Mexican Grill & Cantina4100 Crippen Rd • Halls

Excludes alcohol. One coupon per table.

COUPON GOOD FOR DINING IN ONLY. (NOT TAKE OUT). NOT GOOD WITH OTHER SPECIALS.

EXPIRES 3/2/14

2 Chimichanga Lunch

Chicken or Beef

COUPON GOOD FOR DINING IN ONLY. (NOT TAKE OUT). NOT GOOD WITH OTHER SPECIALS.

EXPIRES 3/2/14

Mexican Grill & Cantina4100 Crippen Rd • Halls

Mexican Grill & Cantina4100 Crippen Rd • Halls

COUPON GOOD FOR DINING IN ONLY. (NOT TAKE OUT). NOT GOOD WITH OTHER SPECIALS.

EXPIRES 3/2/14

$10.0011am - 4pm

GIFT CERTIFICATES AVAILABLE

Sunday-Thursday

8:00pm - Close

WINTERSPECIALS!

1/2 OFF APPETIZERSNachos Cancun $4.00Nachos: Beans $2.75

Nachos: Beef & Chicken $3.00Queso Flameado $4.00Cheese Quesadilla $2.75Quesadilla: Chicken or

Beef $3.50

ALL DAY EVERY DAY

WINTER

SPECIALS!

DRINKSMexican Coffee $4.00

Irish Coffee $4.00

Cinnamon Twist Coffee $4.00

Coffee Break $4.00

Coffee Royal $5.00

COUPON GOOD FOR DINING IN ONLY. (NOT TAKE OUT). NOT GOOD WITH OTHER SPECIALS.

EXPIRES 3/2/14

No physician referral necessary. Insurance covers most treatments.

865-588-8229www.premierveinclinics.com.

A Division of Premier Surgical Associates

“No more swollenlegs at work!”

No more pain. No more worry. No more varicose veins.

Premier’s board-certified vascular surgeons restore healthy, great-looking legs, free from varicose and spider veins, usually in about an hour.

No more varicose veins.

Do YOU have varicose veins?In JANUARY and FEBRUARY only, Premier Vein Clinics

is offering FREE vein screenings in Knoxville, Dandrige, Lenoir City, Maryville, Oak Ridge and Sevierville.

Request your FREE screening online at www.premierveinclinics.com.

Building a bridgeand more at I.C. King

“I love work. I could watch it for hours.” – slogan button from the 1980s

In the continuing adven-tures of the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club, work stints seem to outnumber fun events. And yet there’s no shortage of club mem-bers when a workday rolls around – probably because they know that their toil will pay off in trail-riding bliss. chapped faces.

But at the end, with a pizza lunch provided by the Bike Zoo and the promise of good riding days ahead, ev-eryone seemed satisfi ed that it had been a chilly morning well spent.

■ Farewell to BonnySouth Knoxville has lost

another good one. Bonny Flickinger Love, who co-owned Love That BBQ with husband Walt, passed away Jan. 29.

Services were held Jan. 31 and Feb. 1, but a special event was held Sunday, Feb. 9, at the restaurant, 1901 Maryville Pike. Friends

and family came together to remember Bonny Love and her kind and friendly nature.

On her Facebook page, local writer Gay Lyons noted that the Loves were among the fi rst to volunteer to pro-vide food for the “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” project that took place in Knoxville a few years ago.

“Their generosity and warmth had a great impact on all who met them while they were on site – and af-terwards,” Lyons wrote.

Bonny Love’s thoughtful-ness will be her legacy. She is greatly missed by all who knew her.

Dave Miller and Mark Smith use road hoes to carve a trench for a foundational beam.

Randy Farmer, foreground, arranges planks at the correct an-gle as Jay Basile drills screws to hold them together.

The work crew grows as club members make a fi nal push to complete the bridge.

In the parking area at I.C. King Park, Matthew Kellogg mea-sures a beam as Brian Hann prepares to cut at the Appalachian Mountain Bike Club’s workday at the park. Photos by Betsy Pickle

Betsy Pickle

The Feb. 9 mission at I.C. King Park was four-fold: install two sections of supportive concrete pavers, clear a new section of trail and build a bridge across a boggy stretch of trail close to the lake.

Knox County provided the lumber and pavers for the projects at the park. AMBC supplied the labor, much of which was pretty tough stuff. For three hours, more than two dozen men and women lifted, lugged, dug, drilled, cut and sawed their way through the tasks.

There were laughs along the way, along with a few differences of opinion and a little bloodshed (from a tool accident, not an argu-ment). There were prob-ably some sore backs and

Dan Newton hoists a paver to place on the trail.

Randy Boyd From page 1

“We love to have great candidates in the wings to take new positions. Most

of our jobs are things two years ago I wouldn’t have dreamed we would need.

Five years ago, a team of software engineers wasn’t on my radar,” Boyd said.

ciously invited me over a lot. I behaved very modestly and went to bed early.”

That’s the official story. But Parkhill clearly sur-vived, and though he con-tinued to travel for jobs in theater and film, he eventually settled down in Knoxville and became the founding artistic direc-tor of the Tennessee Stage Company.

TSC is beloved for put-ting on Shakespeare on the Square each summer on Market Square. But its win-ter tradition is the New Play Festival. Gayle Greene’s “Tic Toc” is this year’s featured production and will have its world premiere with a March 7-23 run at Theatre Knoxville Downtown.

Table readings of other new plays will take place at various Knox County librar-ies Feb. 18-March 1, and staged readings will be held March 15 and 22 at Theatre Knoxville Downtown.

TSC’s fi rst production in November 1989 was “The Foreigner,” the award-win-ning 1984 play by Larry Shue. Its second production in De-cember 1989 was a world pre-miere of a new play.

“Developing and produc-ing new plays was always one of the absolute tenets of the idea for the company,” says Parkhill. “In the fi rst few years we did four world premieres. In ’95, we start-ed what we called the New Play Festival, but that was just because we couldn’t produce a new play, so we did some readings. For two or three years, we did read-ings and discussions with the authors.”

In 1998, the company once again produced a world premiere, combining it with the series of readings it had been doing, and the current form of the New Play Festi-val was established.

Parkhill’s career – as an actor, director, producer

and artistic director (not to mention stage manager, designer and technician) – isn’t what he expected when he entered the University of Tennessee as a history ma-jor with plans to become a teacher. He had done some plays at South High School, but acting in college was “accidental.”

“I never really pursued an acting job,” he says. “I got acting offers from compa-nies to come and work, and so I took them because I needed a job, and it was bet-ter than working in a res-taurant or bagging grocer-ies – the jobs you do when you’re in college.”

While still in school, he co-founded a theater in Galveston, Texas, and though he fi nished his de-gree, his fate was sealed.

“The upshot really was that pretty soon I was stuck,” he says with a grin. “I had no skills; there was nothing else I could do.”

On stage From page 1

2013) burned the two best buildings and left us with the three worst,” Dewhirst said. “It’s a pretty neat street that has long been neglected and blighted. This will glue and connect Fourth and Gill and the old (North Knox-ville) neighborhoods to downtown Knoxville.”

He adds that he is “pretty confi dent we can fi nd a cou-ple of folks” to open a desti-nation restaurant, “if we can get people to believe that it’s going to be great.”

He says he is “very confi -dent” the residential space will succeed, “but restau-rant/retail is the hard part. We just believe with the right blend of persuasion of the right folks at the right time we can draw a very

4 • FEBRUARY 17, 2014 • Shopper news government

VictorAshe

Betty Bean

Sandra Clark

JakeMabe

The 6th District for both school board and county commission stretches from Amherst to Hardin Valley, from Karns to Nor-wood and Pleasant Ridge, swooping up to Ball Camp and Byington-Solway and Karns.

These disparate commu-nities are bound together in a newly confi gured dis-trict, previously repre-sented by Cindy Buttry and Thomas Deakins, who were squeezed out when district lines were redrawn. But-try bowed out in 2012, and Deakins will not stand for reelection this year.

Across Knox County, the defi ning issue of 2014 will be schools Superintendent James McIntyre, who has come to represent the con-troversial aspects of educa-tion reform, including Com-mon Core State Standards and the nonstop teacher evaluations that accompany them.

McIntyre turned up the heat in December by forc-ing a vote on a contract ex-

tension for himself, despite widespread teacher unrest. He won, 8-1, but created se-rious political problems for his supporters.

He also created a clear-cut litmus question for school-board candidates:

Would you have voted to extend McIntyre’s contract?

Here’s what the candi-dates say:

Brad Buchanan would have voted no.

Terry Hill would have made a motion to postpone the vote for 120 days to give McIntyre a chance to show that he’s listening to teach-ers. If her motion failed, she says, she would have voted no.

Sandra Rowcliffe would have been a resounding yes vote, based on her state-ments in support of Mc-

Intyre at public meetings.Tamara Shepherd would

not only have voted no on the contract extension, but also would support Mc-Intyre’s removal, based on her detailed contributions to a local blog.

Aaron Hennen has de-cided to withdraw from the race and support Shepherd.

Buchanan, an IT profes-sional and a former high-school business-education teacher, has a master’s de-gree, is married to a teacher and has four school-aged children. He has deep mis-givings about McIntyre’s methods and will have strong support from teach-ers in the district and across the county.

Hill was a school social worker with 30 years’ ex-perience in Knox County Schools who was a supervi-sor when she retired. She is deeply involved in the push to get Hardin Valley a mid-dle school.

Rowcliffe, president of the Knox County Council PTA, has been one of Mc-

Intyre’s most vocal support-ers.

Shepherd was an accoun-tant who made the decision to become a stay-at-home mom and get involved in the public-school education of her two children, becoming one of Knox County’s most knowledgeable (and proba-bly most annoying, to those on her bad list) citizens on school matters.

Hennen is a master’s degree-level high-school band director who plans to get his doctorate in the near future.

He says he researched all the candidates and fi nds Shepherd’s views to be the most straightforward and best informed of the bunch.

The push to build a Har-din Valley Middle School will likely be the biggest is-sue not named McIntyre in District 6.

Noon on Thursday, Feb. 20, is the deadline to turn in nominating petitions. Noon on Thursday, Feb. 27, is the deadline for candidates to withdraw.

Rogero to off er

budget optionsRecently, Mayor Rogero

held a budget retreat with City Council at the Con-vention Center, outlining budget issues as her staff saw them.

She said she would pres-ent a 6 percent cut in one city budget and another budget that would fund the increase for the city pen-sions, cost-of-living raises and infrastructure projects. The second budget would entail a city property-tax increase, but the mayor was silent on the specifi c amount.

What is interesting here is Rogero is working to have the council advise her on what to do as opposed to advocating the exact plan she favors. In this way she can share more of the responsibility with council if it becomes a tax hike.

Having proposed several tax hikes and a few tax cuts myself as mayor, including a referendum submitted to the voters in 1988, I felt the mayor should lead when it came to revenues. Part of leadership is persuading City Council and citizens to support the mayor’s recom-mendation.

Mayor Rogero has been forceful in advocating the no-build alternative to the James White Parkway exten-sion in South Knox, to her credit. She was forceful in advocating a pension-change charter amendment in 2012. She can do it here, too.

How did the mayor ar-rive at a 6 percent cut for one budget as opposed to a 4 percent or 2 percent cut?

The budget documents refer to cost-of-living raises, but the truth is dif-ferent. The 2.5 percent pay adjustment is more than the cost of living. It is an employee pay raise. Per-haps a 2.5 percent pay raise as required by ordinance is justifi ed, but it is not truth in advertising to call it a cost-of-living adjustment.

Mayor Rogero will pres-ent her budget on April 24 to City Council.

There is $60 million in the city’s fund balance, which has grown by $40 million in the past 10 years. It will be hard to explain why city residents must pay more property taxes with such a large fund balance.

It will require 20 to 22 cents on the property-tax rate to fund these pay raises and additional pension costs, plus some infra-structure improvements. Of course, this could be reduced if some money was taken from the fund bal-ance, which is not unusual.

It is becoming clearer to this writer that the mayor may recommend a prop-erty-tax hike, hoping that a majority of council will have bought into it. That remains to be seen.

However, it is surprising that the mayor and council have not allowed city voters to consider more immediate changes to the city pension plan to reduce the need for such huge transfers.

For example, why should current retirees such as I re-ceive a 3 percent annual pay raise on our pension when current working city em-ployees receive a 2.5 percent pay raise? Retirees should have their pension adjusted only to offset infl ation.

The 2012 Rogero-backed pension charter amend-ment failed to solve current pension fi nancial issues as was pointed out at the time. It dealt with issues 15 years off. Council members Grieve and Stair voted no on the Rogero charter change.

Other cities are moving to reduce these escalating costs. Knoxville should do the same.

■ The fi re that basically destroyed what remained of the McClung Warehouses was incredibly unfortunate for the mayor’s plans to salvage these historic build-ings. Her well-intended plans collapsed in the fi re. The city now owns vacant land at a cost of $1.45 mil-lion plus demolition of what remains there. It is appro-priate to investigate what caused the fi re.

Were adequate secu-rity measures in place to prevent vandalism? Will the city’s self-insurance cover any of the loss? What can the market bring the city when it sells the vacant land?

The mayor, in my view, should not be faulted in her attempt to preserve. Many wish she would make the same commitment to residents of Fort Sanders in their continuing battle with Covenant Health and UT.

■ Mark your calen-dar for 5:30 p.m. Wednes-day, March 5, to hear former U.S. Ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter speak at UT’s Baker Center.

McIntyre is focus of 6th District slugfest

Dewhirst

David Dewhirst is devel-oping property at 301 and

309 North Central St. and 219-223 West Depot Ave. adjacent to the South-ern Railway Depot into a combina-tion resi-

dential and retail center that will also include what Dewhirst calls a “destina-tion restaurant.”

The city of Knoxville’s Industrial Development Board voted to give Dew-hirst’s Depot Development LLC a 12-year Payment In-Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) on the property at its annual meeting last week.

The estimated tax benefi t is $738,000-plus. The ap-plication fee is $4,000, and closing fees are $37,000. Dewhirst owned fi ve his-toric buildings, which were built from 1894 to 1919.

“The fi re there (in March

Dewhirst developing Depot propertyunique startup restaurant.

“If we can (help) the fi rst folks to be successful, it will be magic, we think.”

■ County notesKnox County Commis-

sion will hold its work ses-sion at 2 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, because of the Presi-dents’ Day holiday today (Monday, Feb. 17).

Items for discussion in-clude:

■ A resolution approv-ing a contract in the amount of $1,343,670 with K&F Construction Inc. for the Austin-East High School stadium replacement.

■ A resolution approv-ing a utility easement agreement of $150 with the Knoxville Utilities Board (KUB) for a permanent util-ity easement and temporary construction easement on county-owned property at 4258 Ivy Ave. to upgrade overhead facilities at no cost to Knox County.

■ A resolution request-ing the Public Building Au-

thority and the Knox County Department of Information Technology to perform an analysis of the Main and Small Assembly Rooms and recommend updates to technology in those rooms, including an electronic vot-ing tracking system.

■ A resolution express-ing support of the End of Forced Annexation in Ten-nessee Act, which will abol-ish annexation by ordinance at the initiative of a munici-pality.

■ An ordinance to pro-tect an employee’s right to speak openly and freely on any issue involving Knox County government, its agencies, boards or its elect-ed or appointed offi cials so long as such speech does not violate the laws of slander and libel.

Commissioners will also discuss the Joint Educa-tion Committee and, pre-sumably, commission’s re-cent joint workshop with the Knox County school board.

Every day, media outlets get multiple press releases from Sen. Lamar Alexander, a man who seems to be run-ning against himself.

Last Wednesday, for ex-ample, came Alexander’s ex-planation for voting against the debt-limit increase. He’s against big government.

Later the same day came a bizarre release from Alexan-

der and Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper “demanding action” from the federal agency that regulates air traffi c (FAA) to

protect musical instruments from damage in fl ight.

“We don’t expect our air-lines to carry a tune, but we do expect them to carry our precious instruments safe-ly,” Rep. Cooper said. “Any damaged guitar is a tragedy. As a banjo player, I believe the same is true of banjos.”

Alexander, a piano play-er, had no quote about his

instrument, but he was in-sistent that the federal gov-ernment get regulations in place to fi x this problem.

Big government? Small government?

With Alexander it seems to vary by time of day. Let’s send the senator some Tums and hope he calms down.

After all, the election is not until November.

Alexander confuses with confl icting messages

Five Medication-Free Strategies to Help Prevent Heart Disease

Tuesday, February 25 NoonTurkey Creek Medical Center Johnson Conference Center 10820 Parkside Drive

Lunch included. Space is limited. Call 1-855-TENNOVA (836-6682) by February 24 to register.

Featured SpeakerRachel Bowman, M.D.

While heart disease may be one of the leading causes of death, that doesn’t mean you can’t take steps

now to help reduce your risk. Although you can’t control all of your risk factors, like family history, there

are some key heart disease prevention steps that you can take. Join Dr. Bowman as she presents five

strategies to preventing heart disease.

Tennova.com

1-855-836-6682Member of the medical staff

Shopper news • FEBRUARY 17, 2014 • 5

Find us online at www.budgetblinds.com

(865) 909-9900Not valid with other discounts.

Expires 3-14-14

Call today foryour FREE In-Home

Consultation

Plantation ShuttersFaux / Wood Blinds

DrapesCellular ShadesRoman ShadesRoller ShadesWoven Woods

Valances & Cornices

35% Off Entire Order

®

FREEESTIMATES!

Hunter Douglas • Springs Window Fashions • Norman Shutters • ID Drapes

Signature Series Window Treatments are backed by our Exclusive “Five-Year, No-Questions-Asked” Warranty.

Family-Owned.No Commissioned

Sales People.

35% OffBudget Blinds Exclusive

Signature Series Window Coverings

Expires 3-14-14

®

Keep out the cold!Sophisticated & ENERGY SAVING!

Call us about energy-effi cient

window coverings

What is your property worth? Call today for a free market analysis!There is no obligation for this service, but

we do hope that should you decide to sell, you will remember us.

Pamela Hammontree 865-573-01454 firms to serve your real estate needs.

Marvin West

This is basketball rocket science 101. Please set aside a block of time to study and analyze.

Synopsis 1: Most teams can win when everything they throw toward the goal falls in.

Synopsis 2: Good teams win even when they don’t shoot well.

Premise: Tennessee is not a good team.

Any day now, coach Cu-onzo Martin expects to fi nd

the solution. He thinks in-consistency is the primary problem.

He has told the Volun-teers that even if their shots aren’t falling, they must remain committed to the other elements of the game, give good effort, run and jump, defend as if your life depends on it, fi ght for re-bounds, value each posses-sion, protect the ball.

Doing all that is just a matter of focus, effort, in-tensity, toughness. That sounds very simple, but it must be quite complicated. Why else would a mature team fail to get it?

These Vols are madden-ing. Some games (at home against Florida) they play with passion. Other times

they are hard to watch.Some nights they come

charging out of the gate as if to strangle opponents, 10-0 jump start, bang, you’re fi n-ished.

Other nights, they come strolling along on their way to a picnic and get slower as they go. They lose to Texas A&M.

Either way, high octane or just coasting, the coach can’t explain it.

“Your guess is as good as mine,” he said.

That is scary.Martin is not big on fl ame-

throwing pep talks, spiced with colorful adjectives. He thinks all players should show up ready to play. He was. He thinks the desire to win should be built in. There

are so few games guaranteed, just four seasons, to do the best you can to make marvel-ous memories.

This may be the most talent Cuonzo Martin ever has in his coaching ca-reer. That it would fall so far below expectations is confusing. Was the fore-cast f lawed? Southeastern Conference contender. No more of that hand-wring-ing NCAA bubble stuff. No more excuses.

We thought Antonio Bar-ton was the answer at point guard. He isn’t. We thought Jeronne Maymon had over-come injuries and ailments and would be what he once was. He is a gladiator, but he’s lost some quickness and explosion.

Jarnell Stokes is a double-double. We thought he had developed a jump shot. Not yet. We were certain Robert Hubbs III, fi ve-star recruit, would make a big difference. There are brilliant freshmen all across America. Didn’t happen here.

Some games, Jordan McRae is the best offensive player in the league and one of the best in the country. Go-ing 1-for-15 is inexplicable.

Darius Thompson is often a precise system engineer. Alas, he doesn’t shoot and can’t guard good guards. Others have that problem.

Armani Moore is a hustle guy. Some games, he has been used as the fast fuse to ignite listless teammates. Strangely enough, some

games he doesn’t play.Nobody said Tennessee

was a championship team. Syracuse has better players. So do 10 or 15 other teams. Two play in the Southeast-ern Conference.

Nobody is saying this sea-son is over. There is still a way to break into the tournament, but it will require a change. Even if shooting forever fl uc-tuates, everything else must become dependable.

This is the frantic time of year. If this veteran team does not get it together, Ten-nessee basketball will need life support – and a mask for empty seats at Thomp-son-Boling. That is not good. Old, black curtains are so ugly.Marvin West invites reader reaction. His address is westwest6@netzero.com

Basketball must be part rocket science

An intricate part of any community is local law en-forcement. The Concord/Farragut communities had the best of the best in Con-stable W.O. “Pat” Patterson.

I talked to his son Bud re-cently, and the conversation eventually got around to his father. Bud was a class-mate at Farragut High and enjoyed a long career with Delta Airlines. After retire-ment, he compiled a family history that could easily be turned into a novel about the legendary law-enforce-ment offi cer who had a rep-utation of being “untouch-able” in dealing with crime in Knox County. Bud lent me the book only on condi-tion that I would guard it with my life.

I knew Pat Patterson as someone who always at-tended Farragut sporting events and was at ease talk-ing to a teenager who just wanted to get a better view of his revolver. During Pat’s long career, he served as a U.S. marshal, a county de-tective in several adminis-trations and as a constable duly elected by the people.

In the early 1950s, mod-ern crime-detection tech-

Malcolm Shell

The eff ective detective: Pat Patterson

niques, such as examining DNA and browsing exten-sive computer databases, were still decades into the future. The effective detec-tive had to rely on observa-tion skills and the ability to establish and maintain a large network of informants to feed credible informa-tion. Pat Patterson excelled in both areas. While he was dealing with people whom society might not consider model citizens, he always treated everyone – even convicted felons – with re-spect and dignity.

Many of the cases Pat handled involved serious felonies, including homi-cides, armed robbery and auto-theft rings. Other cases were not so serious. Those I found to be amusing and even almost comical.

One involved a bootleg-ger who built a modern-style home without any

interior walls and had in-stalled several stills heated by propane gas. Casually driving through the neigh-borhood, Pat wondered why a new house would have heat waves wafting out the chim-ney in midsummer. A closer inspection revealed the true purpose of the new home.

Another crime involved the rustling of a family milk cow, which the young rus-tler planned to sell to get “spending money.” Slick de-tective work turned up the rustler with the stolen mer-chandise in tow. Bessie was returned to her owner.

Perhaps one of the most unusual cases involved a young, soon-to-be-married groom who lacked the es-sentials needed to set up housekeeping. Now, in most cases, the bride is thrown several showers to acquire basic household needs. In the absence of such events, the groom decided to take matters into his own hands. He itemized everything needed to set up housekeep-ing and burglarized several homes, taking only the es-sential items.

But he did get one break. He was let out of jail long

enough to get married, but he was unable to talk the authorities into extending his freedom long enough to include a honeymoon. He had to wait several months for that.

Another case was the artifi cial fl owers purloined from a local cemetery. Pat cracked this case rather quickly. The fl owers were returned to their gravesites. It was not clear what the thieves planned to do with the stolen merchandise, nor was there much information on the outcome of the case or their punishment. Per-haps they just had to agree

to maintain the cemetery for a time.

The true genius of Pat’s record became known for the fi rst time when he re-tired. Hal Clement, who was Knox County Attorney Gen-eral in the 1940s and 1950s, said Pat solved more crimi-nal cases during his career than the rest of the Knox County Sheriff’s Offi ce com-bined. Former Knox County Sheriff Archie Weaver said Pat’s fi ne work was the pri-mary reason there were no unsolved homicides during his administration.

Forty years after his re-tirement, Pat’s name is still

known in law-enforcement circles. Pat’s grandson, TBI agent Mark Irwin, noted that as late as 2010, Pat’s record for number of crimes solved was only recently broken.

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s mythical sleuth Sherlock Holmes used logic and meticulous observation to solve crimes. But Pat Pat-terson, our beloved consta-ble, was no myth. He was a modern-day Sherlock who used the same methods to solve crimes without the benefi t of today’s modern crime-detection technol-ogy.

Dan Berry: A lifelong learnerBy Carol Zinavage

Dan Berry, who retired as WUOT’s program director in 2010, started collecting re-cords of vocalists as a ninth-grader in Dearborn, Mich.

“I was cast as Curly in a junior high school produc-tion of ‘Oklahoma!,’ ” he re-members. “I fi gured that I needed to hear what a real singer sounded like, so I borrowed a Caruso record from my neighbor. I liked what I heard and began slowly accumulating com-mercial operatic recordings and tapes of live material.”

From his own purchases, along with records given to him by individuals and distributors, that collection grew and grew.

“I haven’t counted, but I probably have 8,000 to 10,000 78s, 45s, LPs and CDs, and perhaps as many tapes and CDs of live per-formances. The only thing I don’t collect is cylinders, and that’s just lack of op-portunity. The collection occupies a large room in the lower level of our house.”

Berry is a virtual ency-clopedia, not only of oper-atic recordings, but also of recording techniques and the products used to cap-ture them. Among his col-lection are some real rari-ties, including classical 45s from the late 1930s.

Conceived as an im-provement over 78s, they predated the long-playing record (LP) by 10 years but didn’t really catch on. “The Depression hit, and no one had money for records.”

Anyone who tuned in to WUOT from the early ’80s on will instantly recognize Berry’s beautiful baritone speaking voice. He was host of the Morning Concert for all those years.

In retirement, he now plays records for his dog, Buddy, and says, “he usually just leaves the room.”

Berry comes from a mu-sical family. His parents were both singers and music teachers; two brothers are musicians; and his daughter Becca teaches vocal music at South-Doyle High School.

His own training was in vocal performance, foreign languages and conducting at the University of Michigan. After graduating, he head-ed to Germany to pursue a singing career but wasn’t able to fi nd work in an opera house. He returned to the U.S. and settled in Milwau-kee, where he eventually be-came a radio announcer.

He met his wife, Nancy, while in Wisconsin. They count 39 happy years to-gether.

In 1983, he accepted a job as announcer at WUOT.

He still enjoys singing and performs occasionally in recitals, at local churches and with Knoxville Opera. On April 25 and 26, he’ll perform with Westminster Presbyterian’s Westminster Players in “A Night with Gil-bert and Sullivan.”

He teaches music appreci-ation at Pellissippi State and also enjoys walking in Lake-shore Park with Buddy. He and Nancy have taken sev-eral cruises. And their fi rst grandchild is on the way.

“But you could say I’m spending my retirement learning,” he says.

“I fi nd myself losing hours in a day, and I real-ized that I’m just reading: music history, biography, history in general, political thought, fi ction.

“I can very easily amuse myself all day by just sit-ting in this room,” he ad-mits, as he gestures to his cozy retreat, all four walls crammed with the results of his lifelong love of music.

Collector Dan Berry poses with some of his 10,000 recordings.

6 • FEBRUARY 17, 2014 • Shopper news kids

RuthWhite

Betsy Pickle

Space donated by:

Aladdin (Seth Cannon) and Jasmine (Rachel McFarling) take a magic carpet ride. Photos by Ruth White

Aladdin (Seth Cannon) is transformed into Prince Ali by the Genie (Elizabeth Mitchell).

The Sultan (Devon Huff ) and Iago (Emma Washam) plot to take down the prince.

Holston’s ‘Aladdin’ great entertainmentHolston Middle School

choral students spent weeks rehearsing, and their hard work paid off. The produc-tion of “Aladdin Jr.” proved to be a musical success for the group, directed by Na-talee Beeler Elkins and cho-reographed by Daniel Line-berger.

During the Saturday matinée, Elizabeth Mitchell played the Genie and was as humorous as Robin Wil-liams in the movie version. Mitchell put a little 2014 spin on her character, which brought the house to laugh-ter many times.

When Aladdin found the lamp and the Genie ap-peared, she described life saying, “It could have only been worse if Justin Bieber

were my neighbor.”Later Princess Jasmine

was introduced to PrinceAli, and when given nochoice in her life, she fl edthe room. Genie replied,“She took off faster thanPaula Deen’s sponsors.”

Bravo to Elkins, Line-berger and cast for the high-ly entertaining performanceof “Aladdin.”

On the eve of Snow-mageddon last week, South-Doyle High School band di-rector Steve Taylor made his pitch to South-Doyle Middle School parents about en-couraging their 8th-grade offspring to stick with band as they enter high school.

Actually, Taylor made several pitches – before and after each song in the short program of familiar Scots-Irish tunes performed by the combined high school and 8th-grade band.

“The friendships they form are like no other,” Tay-lor said. He described the

The few, the proud … the South-Doyle Band

Members of the combined band rise for applause from the audience.

Sid Warren, alto saxophon-ist, was chosen for the All State band, which will per-form in April, as well as the All East Jazz Clinic, which was held a few weeks ago.

Members of the South-Doyle High School band selected for All State East are: sophomore Jo-seph Goyeau, trumpet; junior Zac Morgan, fl ute; seniors Matthew Art, trumpet, Sid Warren, alto saxophone, and Chance Shields, trombone; sophomore Bobby Dunning, clarinet; and junior Drew White, percussion.

Band directors Terri Hogan (SDMS), Steve Taylor (SDHS) and Steve Rodgers (assistant at both schools) are all smiles after the concert. Photos by Betsy Pickle

band members as ambas-sadors for the school and talked about the esteem in which they are held.

He also stressed the im-portance of having the stu-dents attend the two-week band camp that starts July 21. It’s hard work that pays off, he said.

And at the end of each long day, the kids will stink, he promised.

Taylor’s lighthearted re-cruitment spiel found fer-tile ground among the 8th-grade musicians.

Saxophonist Jacob Hens-ley said Taylor’s description and the experience of work-ing with the high-schoolers made him want to continue with band. He was pleased with the concert.

“I think it went really well.”

Eighth-grader Chandler DeArmand was one-third of the trombone trio that

played the National Anthem at the start of the concert. He has a precedent for be-ing in the high-school band.

“My dad played band as he was growing up, and I want-ed to do what he did,” he said. His father, Scott DeArmand, made the All State band as a student at Doyle.

During the concert, Tay-lor introduced the seven South-Doyle High students who were selected for the All State East band. One of them, Sid Warren, also made All State this year and will travel to Memphis in April for the All State clinic

and concert.Warren echoed Taylor’s

message about the impor-tance of attending band camp.

“I didn’t really feel … motivated to start playing a whole lot and pushing my-self until I got to high school because of band camp and how exciting of an experi-ence it is,” said the two-time All State and three-time All State East honoree. “It’s great, honestly.”

Warren had no family connections to music.

“In 6th grade, I had to choose an elective. I thought

band would be really cool.“I decided to go for it, and

it’s turned out to work out pretty well so far.”

Warren is leaning toward attending the University of Tennessee and studying music there.

“I hope to incorporate it into my career somehow,” he said.

SELLERS!Spring is just around the corner. Now is the time to list your property.First-time buyers, stop renting and use that tax refund to get into your own home.

Call Rita Neubert, I can help!

6410 Asheville Highway • Knoxville • 865-919-4141

Serving buyers and sellers in Knoxville, surrounding counties and across the state

Wee Care ShoppeWee Care ShoppeChildren’s Resale Shop

2537 Chapman Highway573-4218

All Winter ClothesAll Winter Clotheswith coupon5050 OffOff%%

Exp. 2/28/14

Shopper news • FEBRUARY 17, 2014 • 7 business

SERVICE GUIDE

And we’re blabbing it to everyone.It’s your business.

ADVERTISE YOUR BUSINESSin our Service Guide.

Ads start at $10.00 per week!

AAAAD SSSS

218-9378

ROOFINGRE-ROOFS • REPAIRS • METAL

WINDOWS • SIDING24 Hr. Emergency Service

Will work with your insurance companyInsured, licensed & bonded • Locally owned & operated

Member BBB since 2000FREE ESTIMATES!

524-5888exthomesolutions.com

EVERY SECOND COUNTS. HEART ATTACWHEN YOU’RE HAVING A

Chest Pain Center Physicians Regional Medical Center Tennova Heart Institute 900 East Oak Hill AvenueKnoxville, TN 37917

For details or to take our heart quiz, go to Tennova.com.

To find a heart specialist, call 1-855-836-6682.

THE CHEST PAIN CENTER AT PHYSICIANS REGIONAL MEDICAL CENTER

During a heart attack, every moment is critical. The Chest Pain Center at Physicians Regional Medical Center is the first and only Accredited

Chest Pain Center in East Tennessee—combining expert care with

innovative technology. By helping patients get treatment fast, we have

a better chance of limiting or avoiding permanent heart damage. We

know hearts, and we know what it takes to bring you up-to-the-minute,

premium cardiac care.

Tennova.com

1-855-836-6682Members of the medical staff

By Heather Beck Students at February’s

fi rst African Jazz Cafe ses-sion at Pellissippi State Com-munity College’s Magnolia Avenue Campus learned about life in Liberia fi rst-hand.

At last week’s event, Fri-day, Feb. 14, attendees were to hear the life experiences of two Magnolia Avenue students: Esperance Wizeye and Celine Uwamahoro, na-tives of Burundi and Congo-Kinshasa, respectively.

“The students will share information about their na-tive culture, language, dress and foods,” said Rosalyn Tillman, dean of the Mag-nolia Avenue Campus.

Wizeye has been in the United States since 2005, and Uwamahoro immigrat-ed in 2011.

African Jazz Cafe takes place at the Magnolia Av-

enue Campus 9-11 a.m. each Friday in February in honor of Black History Month. Each session focuses on an African country, introduc-ing students to the culture and history.

“Sometimes we fi nd speakers who are natives of the country to come speak,” said Tillman, “and other times we fi nd artwork and other goods, like coffee or tea, for our students to ex-perience.”

On Feb. 7, Pellissippi State students heard from Kay Ware, a native of Liberia who now resides in Knox-ville. She brought in quilts and traditional Liberian folk art for display. The group also tasted lemongrass tea, a traditional Liberian drink.

The campus is at 1610 E. Magnolia Ave. Info: www.pstcc.edu/magnolia or (865) 329-3100.

Kay Ware, right, brought foods, crafts and other items from her native Liberia during a presentation Feb. 7 at the Magnolia Av-enue Campus of Pellissippi State Community College.

Cafe sessions bring African infl uence to students

News from Pellissippi State - MagnoliaBusinessby

Nicky D.

Cultivating mind and bodyThe Taoist Tai Chi

SocietySmack dab in the middle

of Happy Holler, at 1205 N. Central Ave., sits a building that once fl ickered “talkies” as Joy Theatre back in the 1920s and now serves as the Knoxville branch center of the Taoist Tai Chi Society (TTCS).

TTCS is an international group dedicated to bring-ing the benefi ts of tai chi to everyone interested in improving their health and fl exibility. There and else-

where in Knoxville (and in some 28 countries around the globe) TTCS teaches students a 108-move set that focuses on fl exibility and balance, and which is generally viewed as a tool to improve mind and body.

The tai chi set is taught at two levels: a 14-week be-

ginner course, where one learns the basic set moves a few each week, and later a continuing class that helps one refi ne the nuances of the moves and focus on improv-ing one’s overall set, by add-ing greater “sits” and stretch-es that subtly work upon the spine and inner spaces of your body, circulating what centuries-old Chinese medi-cine and folk-lore term “chi,” the inner life force.

But you don’t have to get all woo-woo about it. Tai chi is for everyone. Better bal-ance and limber muscles and tendons, a more fl exible spine, are good things re-gardless of age or level of fi t-ness. Our bodies are made for movement.

Think of tai chi as a way to tune your engine, some-thing from which any ve-hicle, regardless of mileage or horsepower, can benefi t.

By requiring concentra-tion (focusing your “inten-tion”), the art subtly helps keep your mind on the pres-ent moment as you do the set, instead of the normal racing Western brain, end-lessly leaping to a million chores, tunes and detours. That’s also a good thing.

As a practical matter, tai chi seems to appeal to the, uh, more mature individual, who is no longer leaping over nets or rounding the bases. Nonetheless, it is helpful and healthful at any age.

Classes last about an hour, and the activity is a group one, where everyone is learning and doing the set together. It has that commu-nal feel to it. You soon learn that your mistakes are mere-ly steps toward later success. The website (www.Taoist.org) says “each step in the training is intended to help the mind return to stillness, clarity and wisdom, and the body to a balanced, relaxed and healthy state.”

The Knoxville branch started in a church meet-ing hall nearly 20 years ago, when the Oak Ridge branch sent several of its instruc-tors each week to share what they had learned.

Teaching is about shar-ing. Instructors are unpaid volunteers. Monthly fees are modest and are lowered or waived as necessary.

Info: Jenny Arthur, Susan Benner or others, 546-9222, or Knoxville.tn@taoist.org/.

Nancy Whittaker

Munchie alertfor Tuesday

Calling all foodies to a free preview of Taste of Knoxville Restaurant Week. The event is 5-6:30 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 18, at the Emporium Center, 100 S. Gay St.

The full roster of more than 30 participating res-taurants will be announced, and several will provide complimentary samples of what guests can expect from the fourth annual Knoxville Restaurant Week March 2-7. The promotion enables diners to eat a three-course meal at a special fi xed price of $25 or $35 at participat-ing local restaurants.

Last year, Restaurant Week raised more than $49,000, which provid-ed meals for more than 147,000 needy East Ten-nesseans through Second Harvest Food Bank. Since its launch in 2011, the pro-motion has helped pro-vide meals to more than 250,000 East Tennesseans. Info: www.knoxvillerestau-rantweek.com/.

■ Y-12 FCU names top employeeDustin Brackins of Sey-

mour was recognized as Employee of the Year for Y-12 Federal Credit Union at a dinner in January. He was nominated for his self-less act of rescuing a woman trapped in her car. The car later caught fi re. Brack-ins said he was in the right place at the right time and said anyone would have done the same thing.

Brackins is a mortgage un-derwriter based in the Oak Ridge offi ce. He attended Tusculum College and earned his MBA in December 2013.

■ Tennova off ers O-arm imagingSpinal surgery specialists

at the Center for Advanced

Orthopedics at Physicians Regional Medical Center are the fi rst in Knoxville to use state-of-the-art surgical equipment from Medtronic that lets them visualize anat-omy in 3D during surgery.

This advancement can re-duce the need for repeat sur-geries and, for many patients, it also may mean smaller in-cisions, faster recovery times and improved results.

The Medtronic O-arm Intra-operative Imaging System and the StealthSta-tion Surgical Navigation System bring together 3D imaging during surgery and a GPS-like navigation tech-nology that allows surgeons to see the exact placement of the surgical instruments throughout the procedure.

■ Double-hung windows workshopAll are invited to a work-

shop by Ethiel Garlington on ways to restore double-hung wood windows. The trip is worth the price of admis-sion (free) to see work Pres-ervation Union County has done on the old Oak Grove School in Sharps Chapel.

The workshop is 1-4 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 19, weather permitting. Those interested should call Bon-nie Peters at 687-3842 for directions and so she can notify attendees if the event is canceled.

Garlington is the director of preservation fi eld services for Knox Heritage and the East Tennessee Preserva-tion Alliance. In that role, he serves 16 counties in the re-gion and works with volun-teers to save historic places.

■ Credit union plans regional center ORNL Federal Credit

Union will open a new re-gional center at Northshore Town Center in West Knox County and remodel its cor-porate headquarters while relocating its main branch in Oak Ridge to an adjacent lot. The Northshore facility will include a new “branch of the future,” slated for completion in 2016.

Columnist Nick Della Volpe, front left, and friends perform tai chi in a parade. The Mayfi eld cow looks on.

8 • FEBRUARY 17, 2014 • Shopper news

• Complete inspections, maintenance & repairs for all air conditioning & heating equipment

• Money-saving high- effi ciency system upgrades!

• FREE ESTIMATES on new equipment• FINANCING through TVA Energy Right program

We Offer:We Offer:

• Maintenance plans available.

Complete IndoorComplete Indoor

COMFORTCOMFORTwithwith

specializing in keeping your home comfortable year-round

LASTS AND LASTS AND LASTS.™

Heating & Air Conditioning

A+ RATINGWITHSALES • SERVICE • MAINTENANCESALES • SERVICE • MAINTENANCE

5715 Old Tazewell Pike • 687-25205715 Old Tazewell Pike • 687-2520Over 20 years experienceOver 20 years experience

“Cantrell’s Cares”“Cantrell’s Cares”