Jerry Cunningham from the article cited by mello:

The commission and I don’t want to put the Children’s Home out of business, but we don’t want it encompassing a 15-county area. Other counties need to provide services for people in their own counties.

Yes, Jerry, and we have also asked for the third time, amended as of this past Friday, that your Circuit Court judge allow a county other than Blount to provide judicial services in a very controversial case that is not in your county's primary jurisdiction. I am eagerly awaiting your rationale given the curious view italicized above.

Thomas F. Mabry
P. O. Box 52385
Knoxville, TN 37950

Fax 1-888-215-3119
Phone 1-865-671-0598

(link...)

Commission Vice Chairman Steve Samples said he believes using funds from the hotel/motel tax would be easier to implement than trying to use any portion of the sales tax.

Back down to commission vice chair. This is the same reporter. Is he confused or being told different things? Because current developments would tell us having Mayor in your title (deserved or not) comes with certain communication privileges.

Right Daily Times?.., or are you allowed to say?

The Mayor's letter isn't about any settlement. It is about Winner Take All.

Elmore did provide a copy of Cunningham’s proposal to The Daily Times. The terms of the settlement would lead to the reduction of the number of directors from 15 to nine and would ensure the county mayor made future appointments to the board.

The Charter Amendment was pretty much only about increasing the number of dirctors to 15! Could Samples really believe this issue is better off in the Bully's office than in the Commission just voting to repair the Children's Home charter?

This really is nothing but a transparent land grab. Looking around at commercial/retail development around the 9.1 acres in question, I fully expect to see the "Children's Campus" shuttled off to the back of some industrial park in short order and replaced by some sporting goods store.

Wake up, Samples! You don't want to be part of this.

"I think it would be a good idea."
-Mahatma Gandhi, when asked what he thought of Western civilization

The commission and I don’t want to put the Children’s Home out of business, but we don’t want it encompassing a 15-county area. Other counties need to provide services for people in their own counties.

Point 1: Since when does Boss Hogg speak for the Commission? If I were a Commissioner, I'd think twice about letting this man drag my name into the spin.

Point 2: This comment is coming from the same man who's hide was saved when his friend, Loudon County Mayor Doyle Arp, chose to take a more expansive view and help out another county. The hypocrisy is astounding.

Point 3: Anyone who has ANY experience with kids and the state mental health system knows that DHS/DCS places kids all over East Tennessee, almost always out of sheer necessity. The reasons are complex, but then, JC should know that. (hmmmm.... did the Boss ever work with kids in state custody? How about their families? Don't remember seeing that in his resume'.)

Point 4: Forget that last point. JC doesn't give a flyin' flip about kids, or anyone else in Blount County for that matter, so that point is irrelevant.

The next time a newly-18 year old from an abusive family, who's been in state custody for 2-3 years, has no where to go, and little or no skills at finding a job, paying rent, living as an adult on his or her own, is turned out on Blount County's streets because they've aged out of the system, the next time (and it happens every day) one of these kids flounders and ends up as a 'stray', doing whatever it takes, or worse, allowing themselves to be mistreated in order to find a place to live...

Well, we should send those kids to Jerry's farm in Walland. Clearly he's an expert on children's mental health and will know JUST what to do.

This hundred-year-old Blount County treasure was just beginning to find new life, and was poised to offer a service that anyone with any sense or expertise knows is desperately needed... until our own George W. moved into the Blount County Courthouse and decided to invade a few countries of his own.