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presstalk 671-TALK
- Thu, Jun, 16, 2005
• I do believe that all this talk about silt in streams in Farragut is a politically contrived fiasco to halt commercial development in Farragut. To abscond land, privately held land, for political gain — and is based solely on opinion with no scientific basis. May I say that silt from the WWPS and industrial pollutants are more likely the real culprits of the deplorable conditions of our waterways than someone’s backyard spring. Do the politicians of Farragut want to look into the real issues? Please discuss. And I just have one other question: When’s the last time you couldn’t eat a fish ’cause it had clay silt in it?
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• I am calling about this town of Farragut and the town ordinance. I was driving on Campbell Station Road [recently] and there were some garage sale signs at 10 a.m. in the morning. So, we had workers from the town of Farragut yanking up people’s garage sale signs who couldn’t have been out there more than two hours. Now, I realize that this is a high-falutin’ area now, but a lot of us have lived here for a long time and there’s a lot of older people in this area who like to go to garage sales; and a lot of us younger people that just need to get rid of junk. So, having a garage sale is a good thing. The individuals that I spoke with — there were two workers on the town of Farragut picking up garage sale signs, and I said to them, “why don’t you leave us alone?” They tell us, “it’s the town ordinance, we cannot have garage sale signs.” That is absolutely ludicrous. Now I could see if the signs had been up there a week, or even three days, but if you’re having a garage sale on Friday and Saturday, why can the town of Farragut not let stuff alone and let people have garage sales? I do not understand where these people think they get off being so holier than thou and not allowing people to put a freaking sign up for a garage sale.
• This is in reference to the ZIP Code for Farragut. I called the number listed on the paper, and they said, “we are very welcome to use Farragut because the mail will come to Farragut whether it was to Farragut or Knoxville,” as long as we use the new ZIP Code [37934]. And by the way, did you know that that post office over there across from our [town hall] is not Farragut, it’s Knoxville, because it’s 37922. But they said that our mayor [W. Edward Ford III] asked for a ZIP Code for Farragut. He didn’t specify he wanted it to say Farragut, I guess.
• I’m calling about the water buffer in the town of Farragut. I personally have lived in this town since the town of Farragut existed. We own property on a creek, have just built a home, and I do not understand why they think they need 50 feet on either side of this buffer. In Knox County and Knoxville City, they have 25 feet. They expect us to just pretty much turn our land over to them, 50 feet on either side of this stream. And I have to continue to maintain it. Now if they’re going to come in and act like they’re some big hotshots, and they’re going to lay down all these laws and stuff from people, mind you, who most of ’em have never grown up here. This isn’t their home, they’ve moved here. You know, you guys need to just stand back and take a breath, because a lot of people who live here, this has been their home, and we don’t need you guys coming in and telling us what we need to do. If there is a problem with water quality, maybe you guys should look at all the industry that’s going in and around Turkey Creek for that reason. It’s not the homeowners’ fault that it’s all backed up. We haven’t done anything to this water system. If you think you need to come in and tell us what we can and cannot do with our property that we purchased with our money, then you’ve got another thing coming. I think you’re all crazy.
• I’m responding to the non-request forms for teachers at the [Farragut] Primary School. There was a [presstalk] in last week from a former educator, and I think that’s great and that the teachers go through rigorous training. Everybody in a profession usually does. However, I have a mother volunteering for three years at that school, and when you are outside in a hallway and you can hear teachers screaming through the door at children, you know what — I don’t want my child to have that teacher, to be a student in her classroom. There are great teachers down there, but there are a few that are not good teachers. And because teachers can get tenured, once you have a teacher in there that’s not good, then you know what, it’s real hard to get them out, I’m sure. We don’t want a screamer. My children get that at home, and we don’t want it at school. And for parents who never volunteer, you know, and are never there to observe and just go off on what their sons say, that’s one thing, but those of us parents that are there and involved, we know what constitutes good teaching and not. You can tell when you first meet a person if they’re there for a paycheck or if they’re there for the children. This past year, we had a teacher who was only there for the paycheck. She’s nearing retirement, couldn’t have cared less what was going on in her classroom. So, anybody that ever asks me about her, yeah, I’m going to tell ’em what kind of experience we had and what I observed from being there in the classroom.
• This is in regard to the Turkey Creek flow into the town of Farragut. I think that since we do have this Turkey Creek flowing through the town, that everyone, no matter where it comes from, needs to take responsibility. It does impact the view of the town when you go by and the water’s standing there and it’s green and brown and very dirty looking and filthy. I think that it’s just another environmental thing that we can’t blame on someone else, but if it’s in our town, I think we need to step up to the plate and take care of what we can take care of. If parts of it can be fixed in other places, then maybe a group of people need to get together and talk about it. Just like cleaning up the litter: It may come from people from other parts of the town that throw it in our town, but I think that it’s our responsibility to clean it up. If you’re taking walks or bike rides or whatever and you see trash, I think that we should take it upon ourselves to make the town as beautiful as possible.
• This is about the schools, and it is wonderful that we are going to get a new high school. I was looking at my son’s album the other day, his yearbook, and noticed an overview picture from the air taken of Farragut High School, and it seems like why don’t they add a couple of more stories to the current school? They could also add onto the back of the school, that is that horrible hill that’s all muddy that goes out to Campbell Station Road, where there also needs to be a left-turn light for people turning into the school in the morning. It’s horrible that they have to sit there for so long. But [concerning the building issue] I just don’t understand — either that or build another school in Farragut. But it seems like that would be really a neat way to do it, is to go up instead of out.
• For two weeks [during a recent stretch] the streetlights have been off on Kingston Pike from BB&T bank east to the Weigel’s. Makes it a little difficult driving that stretch of Kingston Pike. And it appears the reason for that is because of the upcoming construction at the site where Concord Produce was. I don’t feel like the public should be inconvenienced because a private enterprise is going to put up a new shopping center. They should have to shoulder the expense to have those lights turned on and off by the utility folks every day and not inconvenience the public.
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