Tabloid Column of December 10, 2006

The role of a tabloid publication in a community is 1) To promote lies. This tabloid owned by E.W. Scripps has and continues to do that with a column called Gossip and Lies. 2) To attempt to create controversy, where controversy doesn't exist. This story in tomorrow's edition of the tabloid fits the bill with Number 2. Enjoy.

County opts to rent new clinic on the east side

Knox County is paying $3,800 a month rent for a new East Knoxville health department clinic in a building that’s valued by the county’s property assessor at $66,800. The rent would purchase the building in 19 months.

The health department closed a county-owned clinic about 3.5 miles east on Asheville Highway in Burlington to facilitate the move. Our request for comment was ignored by the county mayor’s office.

According to the county’s Web site, the new clinic was opened with a ribbon cutting Nov. 28 attended by 100 people and numerous elected officials. It is located at the Hardy Professional Building, which was built by Dr. Walter S.E. Hardy who also served on the county’s legislative body from 1966 until 1980. He died in 1986.

The new clinic’s landlord is the Tennessee Conference of the AME Zion Church Community Development Corp. Records at the city and county tax offices show the property taxes are current at the Hardy Building, but delinquent at the Conference’s headquarters at 2321 Magnolia Ave.

There, city taxes of $7,253.76 are past due, along with $2,843.72 in current taxes, for a total of $10,097. County taxes of $11,329,18 are past due, along with $2,722 in current taxes, for a total of $14,051. The combined tax bill now due is $24,148 (or 6.35 months of rent).

Commissioner Paul Pinkston said he will present a resolution to ensure that property taxes are current before the county enters into a lease or contract with an outside party in the future.

The Rev. David Walker is listed as the agent for the Conference, which also has received money from the city.

Although the new clinic opened to the public on Dec. 4, just in time for flu season, parents wanting to know where to take school-aged children for free FluMist vaccines might have a tough time finding the place, since a Nov. 27 News Sentinel story about the flu immunization program lists the Hardy Clinic address as “Magnolia Avenue.”

The clinic is at 2202 Martin Luther King Avenue in the Five Points community, next door to Walter P. Taylor Homes.

But the News Sentinel probably should be forgiven for the error since the Knox County Health Department Web site lists Magnolia Avenue as the Hardy Clinic address.

The whole address issue is made more curious by an unsigned 11/30 memo from “Administration” to health department employees instructing them not to mention Walter P. Taylor Homes or Five Points when giving directions to the clinic.

“Managers and supervisors, please advise your staff when giving directions to the new Hardy Clinic location, to reference the attached map and use the language given for this location and all other clinic locations listed.

“Please do not reference Walter P. Taylor Homes or Five Points in identifying the location of the Hardy Clinic site; instead, use the directions provided. If someone asks if the clinic is in Five Points or by Walter P. Taylor Homes, please answer this question in the affirmative.”

The author of Knox County’s Web site evidently did not get the memo, because the story there not only mentions the history and correct location of the Hardy Clinic, but boasts that “...the Hardy Professional Building will be the catalyst for community transformation in East Knoxville when it reopens to once again serve the health care needs of the community, thanks to efforts by the Knox County Mayor’s Office, the Knox County Health Department and the Tennessee Conference Community Development.

The Web site lists services that will be provided at the Hardy Clinic, which is just under three miles east of the Knox County Health Department’s main office on Dameron Avenue.

These services include “physical exams for children and adolescents, immunizations, women’s health services, targeted disease management, a communicable disease clinic and health education programs.”

Contact Bean at bbeanster@aol.com

Tabloid Column of December 3, 2006

Commissioner Greg "Lumpy" Lambert in October 2006 was the hero of the tabloid. On December 3, 2006 he becomes it's next negative bias target. Here is the column.

Wrong, wrong, wrong

We’ve had some fun with the “One Man, One Vote” annexation referendum at South Grove shopping center in deep south Knox County, but at the core this is a most serious issue.

Much has happened since our last edition. The fight is over.

Mayor Mike Ragsdale and 12 county commissioners wrote to Law Director John Owings, requesting that he drop the lawsuit to block the annexation. Owings battled for a day, forcing Ragsdale to say “withdraw” rather than “settle,” then he withdrew the suit on Thursday.

Why it’s wrong:

1) Ragsdale and 12 commissioners (hereafter known as the Dirty Dozen) showed they will not fight to enforce the annexation agreement the county made with the city. Knox County paid $7 million and gave the city two seats on The Development Corporation board to establish the boundary. In a Nov. 7 referendum with one voter the agreement was blown to smithereens.

Halls and Powell were drawn outside the city’s urban growth boundary (protected from annexation) when Leo Cooper and Mary Lou Horner sat on county commission. Their successors, Scott Moore and Larry Smith, signed last week’s letter.

Halls and Powell residents are now at risk if just one developer wants to ram the city limits up Maynardville Highway or Clinton Highway to the county line.

2) Ragsdale and the Dirty Dozen said getting along and making nice is more important than protecting the county’s sales tax base. The News Sentinel said Knox County will lose $150,000 a year. Margie Nichols said the city will gain $600,000 a year. Fuzzy math, but whatever the amount they lose, the county didn’t fight to keep it.

3) Ragsdale and the Dirty Dozen have shown total disdain for open meetings. This issue should have been debated and voted on at commission’s Nov. 20 meeting. Instead, the mayor and 12 commissioners skulked around the City County Building in secret, obtaining signatures on the letters to Owings.

South Knox commissioners Larry Clark and Paul Pinkston deserved better from their colleagues than this backroom deal.

4) Ragsdale and the Dirty Dozen gave a healthy Christmas present to South Grove developers Tim Graham and Derry Thompson. With the annexation lawsuit dropped, the developers will receive a check for $1 million from the city on Dec. 31. This will be followed by three annual payments of $333,333, according to Nichols.

By what rationale do we tax some people to give money to others?

I would guess that the average city homeowner pays $1,000 a year in city property taxes. If so, then a thousand of you suckers just paid your taxes for Tim Graham’s first installment. Send a note to Mayor Haslam with your tax payment.

This is wrong, wrong, wrong for many reasons.

Wrong for city police and fire services to be stretched almost to Seymour.

Wrong for the skulking avoidance of open debate.

Wrong for sacrificing the urban growth boundary.

Wrong for subsidizing one development of retail stores when many others are built every day without subsidy.