Greenback News Archives

U.S. Senator Bob Corker will hold a town hall meeting in the Loudon High School Auditorium on Wednesday, September 2 at 4:00 PM.

The stated purpose is to speak with citizens and community leaders about health care reform and the economic challenges facing our state and country. The event is open to the public.

Tennesseans seeking more information about the event should contact Senator Corker's Knoxville field office (Topix prohibits posting phone numbers on either news boards or blogs).

At Thursday's Loudon County Commission's budget committee meeting the vote was to accept the school board's proposed budget of $793,000.00 in new operating expenses for the 2009-2010 school year.

The budget includes $430,000.00 for text books and the rest is for new employees and raises. If the budget committee's recommendation is passed by the full commission, it would effectively kill the planned multi-million dollar building program currently under way.

After a lengthy discussion, member Don Miller made a motion to send the budget back to the school board to include the same funding as last year without the requested $793,000.00 in new operating expenses. Miller's motion failed for lack of a second.

Harold Duff then motioned to fund the full request of the school board, seconded by Chris Park. Voting in favor were Duff, Park, David Meers and county mayor Doyle Arp (committee chairman). Miller was the lone no vote.

The committee's recommendation will now go to the full commission for a vote. Due to legal fund sharing requirements, Lenoir City schools get around 30% of Loudon County schools funding. This means that the commission will need to increase funding to the schools by more than a million dollars in order to achieve the county school's request.

If the budget passes the full commission there would be no money left to fund the school building program unless the commission votes for a large property tax increase.

A man who pleaded guilty last month to second-degree murder in connection with what a prosecutor called a "drug deal gone bad'' received an effective 15-year sentence Friday.

Stanley Brown, 37, of Nashville admitted to:

1. Shooting 27-year-old Tommy Morrell once in the head with a .38-caliber handgun, killing him, on Oct. 7, 2007;

2. Shooting Charles Ward, 39, in the arm and shoulder;

3. Stealing Morrell's 1987 Oldsmobile Cutlass.

The shootings occurred inside a Moses Lane home in Roane County's Midtown community.

Do you remember the Open Records lawsuit filed against Mayor Doyle Arp by three plaintiffs?

In his ruling, Ninth Judicial District Chancellor Frank Williams ruled that the county government was entitled to charge resident Pat Hunter for the labor associated with producing copies of public records.

In a letter to Farragut resident Lamar Orr, the Office of Open Records Counsel (OORC) has inferred that Chancellor Williams’ ruling lacked any legal basis, and indicated that the OORC is inclined to disregard the ruling.

A link to the entire letter accompanies this article.

Open Records Specialist Elisha D. Hodge says the following:

The Office is also aware of a Chancery Court ruling from Loudon County that upheld a copying policy that charges for the labor associated with producing requested records…"

Ms. Hodge then shows her inclination to disregard that ruling in these words:

....while respecting the Loudon County Chancellor’s ruling, this Office is compelled to rely upon the opinions issued by the higher courts of this State as well as the actually statutory language adopted by the General Assembly relative to what can be charged when producing copies."

In explaining this inclination, Ms. Hodge then writes the following:

It is important to note that this Office was unable to discern the basis upon which the Chancellor was relying in rendering his opinion due to the fact that he cited no case law or statutory authority when the ruling was made." (Emphasis added)

Thus, it now appears that we have an opinion from the Office of Open Records Counsel that Chancellor Frank Williams’ opinion could have been (or could still be) overturned on appeal.

With Congressional primaries less than one year away, it’s time for "franked mailings" to increase.

Franked mail is that privilege members of Congress confer upon themselves of being able to mass-mail reelection literature throughout their districts – and U.S. taxpayers are conferred the privilege of paying for it.

As reported here previously, Congressman John J. Duncan (R-Knoxville) has requested $178 million, earmarked for 35 projects in his congressional district. If approved, this will be a 1,019 percent increase over the $15.9 million he is reported to have spent the previous year on local earmarks.

During the last presidential election, GOP nominee John McCain promised to “make them famous” – stating that he would make sure everyone knew who the members of congress are who run up federal budget deficits via massive spending in their home districts.

Thus far, Senator McCain has shown no inclination to make Mr. Duncan “famous” for his willingness to jump on the Obamabucks bandwagon. (McCain probably has just as much ability to do this as a U.S. Senator as he would have had as President. Why he has not come through is anybody’s guess. If it’s the right thing for a President to do, then it’s also the right thing for a U.S. Senator to do).

Mr. Duncan’s most recent "franked mail" assault on his district came in the last few weeks. In a newsletter entitled Washington Report, Mr. Duncan complains that:

At a time when most families are having to tighten their belts and be more careful in their spending, the Congress keeps giving big increases to every department. In fact, this Congress is the biggest spending one I have ever been in."

Conspicuously absent from this newsletter was any mention of Mr. Duncan's own 1,019 percent increase in earmarks for his own district, and any attempt to explain how it is "different" when he does it. Perhaps that will be included in another franked-mail blitz during the coming year.

Anyone wishing to contact Mr. Duncan’s office can visit this e-mail link: http://www.house.gov/duncan/contactform_zipcheck.shtml

Anyone wishing to study Mr. Duncan’s earmark requests can do so at the link accompanying this article.

by Van Shaver, BOE member

The good news, the Loudon County Board Of Education finally adopted a budget for the 2009-2010 school year. The bad news, the budget adds another $793,000.00 to the operating budget.

For months the board has been wrangling with the budget process. At Thursday's board meeting the budget passed surprisingly quickly with very little discussion. Director Honeycutt presented his proposed budget which included several options for reductions. Only $59,000.00 of those options was included in the budget.

Board member Larry Proaps made the motion to accept the director's proposal which included an across the board 2% raise for all employees. His motion was seconded by Craig Simon.

The motion passed by only one vote with Proaps, Simon, Leroy Tate, Scott Newman, Bill Marcus and Gary Ubben voting in favor. Board members Lisa Russell, Bobby Johnson Jr. and I voted against the budget. Steve Harrelson was absent.

The total budget is nearly $38,000,000.00.

Getting the budget passed by the board was only the first hurdle. The budget will now go to the full commission where it could be approved or rejected.

The large increase in the operating budget would also have a major impact on the proposed building program by reducing the available funds for the debt service if commission accepts it,

Because of limitations in space and staff, principals in county schools reserve the right to deny enrollment to students who live inside the city limits of Lenoir City, according to Assistant Director of Loudon County Schools Jason Vance.

After launching a new school year and starting classes Monday, Greenback School students and teachers were back home Tuesday.

Loudon County emergency responders evacuated everyone within a 1/2-mile radius of Greenback School over a concern of a leaking propane tank.

At Monday evening's meeting of the Loudon County Commission, Greenback representative Bob Franke moved to allow the county to continue to take animals from Blount County until they complete a new shelter.