The tradition continues and is growing.

Arts, entertainment, food in downtown Maryville.

Live music later in the evening at Tomato Head.

Maps of participating businesses are available at Fine Arts Blount ArtSpace Gallery, 301 Church St. E, in downtown Maryville (865-982-0898).

Check it out!

Daily Times reports that Newell Rubbermaid is cutting 200 Blount Co. jobs. WBIR reports that police cars were stationed outside the plant as workers were called to a company meeting for the announcement. According to news reports, employees were told to take the day off.

UPDATE: KNS has reaction from Mayor Cunningham.

UPDATE: Here's the Daily Times full report. Questions: Rep. Overbey is quoted as saying the IDB recruited Rubbermaid. Wonder what incentives they got from local and state government?

Also, there are several remarks about notice. Companies are required to give employees, local government, and the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development 60 days advance notice about layoffs:

WARN offers protection to workers, their families and communities by requiring employers to provide notice 60 days in advance of plant closings, mass layoffs and/or sale of a business. This notice must be provided to affected employees or their representatives (e.g., a labor union); to the state Dislocated Worker Unit; and to the appropriate unit of local government. (See Public Law 100-379, Sec.3.)

The article says layoffs will be complete by September, so I guess that is 60 days. But it appears the first termination could not occur before June 10th in order to comply with the 60 days notice requirement. I wonder if they have filed the appropriate notices, and who did they file them with in the County?

The House conservation subcommittee voted against a ban on mountaintop removal mining.

Tom Humphrey files this report on the House subcommittee vote. Voting against the bill were William Baird, R-Jacksboro; George Fraley, D-Winchester; Joe McCord, R-Maryville; Frank Niceley, R-Strawberry Plains; and John Tidwell, D-New Johnsonville.

Sen. Tommy Kilby, chair of the the Senate environment and conservation committee, has rejected Sen. Raymond Finney's call for a hearing and a vote. More on the Senate action here.

Feds open Alcoa bribery probe

Federal prosecutors have launched an investigation into allegations that Alcoa Inc. and affiliates bribed officials in the Persian Gulf country of Bahrain to secure hundreds of millions of dollars in overpayments.

The U.S. Justice Department asked a judge to halt a federal civil lawsuit against the Pittsburgh-based company that accused Alcoa of bribing the officials through secretive shell companies in Asia and Europe.

[..]

Alcoa conducted a review, he said, but found no evidence of wrongdoing and planned to vigorously defend itself.

The Bahrain government was seeking more than $1 billion in damages in the lawsuit blocked by the DOJ.

So when Nike came calling, offering incentive money if the school would buy their new uniforms, shoes and equipment from Nike, it was an easy decision for the coach.
...
He won't say how much extra stuff the incentive money will buy, only that it will make a difference.

They learn so young how important it is to be influenced by corporate America. Is it any wonder most of our young players have such attitude when they move on to the next phase of their lives?

Ruby Tuesday working to avoid loan defaults

Ruby Tuesday Inc.'s lenders have agreed to give the restaurant chain until next month to amend its loan agreements to avoid default, the company said Wednesday.

"With the completion of our remodeling initiative, our repositioning investments and expenditures, and the temporary suspension of new restaurant openings, our focus is firmly on sales and profits with all excess cash flow being used to reduce debt levels. This should allow us to strengthen our financial position over the coming quarters and then focus on our strategy of returning excess capital to shareholders through dividends and share repurchases," Beall added.

The company, which has 944 company-owned, domestic and international franchised restaurants, warned in January of a possible default on its debt obligations. At the time, Beall described to investment analysts the continuing industry slump and economic downturn, comparing it to a "perfect storm."

It's always sad when a good company goes public and has to focus on "repositioning investments and expenditures" and "reducing debt levels" using "excess cash flow" and "strengthening their financial position" and "returning excess capital to shareholders" instead of just making a good product, food in this case, and providing good service to their customers.

That's what Joe Gallagher says. Commenting on the Children's home controversy, Joe says: "Pure and simple, the developers want the property for commercial use. The Mayor and Chamber (also Economic Development Board), as servants to the developers and bankers -- not the public -- are maneuvering to acquire the property."

He is also critical of the recent sale of the Highway Department property near Hamilton Crossing to the EDB for $3 million, who will in turn sell it to a Knoxville developer. Joe says "I wonder if $3-million is even close to the fair purchase price the County should receive. I believe the property should have been appraised by an independent firm with no ties to Blount County."

We stopped by the local convenience store to get a Krispy Kreme donut and they were all out. Went to another nearby store that usually has them, and no luck there either.

I was starting to wonder where a fellow is supposed to get a donut around here, when the Mrs. suddenly remembered:

RICHY KREME!

Maryville Daily Times: New regional development program launched

The Blount County Chamber of Commerce and five other regional economic development agencies have formed Innovation Valley Inc. to encourage successful regional development and bring more businesses to East Tennessee.

Memphis Business Journal: First Tennessee to downsize Maryville center:

First Tennessee Bank is cutting 28 jobs at its operations center in Maryville, Tenn., according to the state's Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

According to the article, layoffs will begin Feb. 15th. First Tennessee will be closing the operations center and moving into a smaller space.

The Look Rock Bakery and Pizzeria just opened today in the space formerly occupied by the Atlanta Bread Company in Alcoa at 133 Associates Blvd, which is near the SunTrust Bank and the Alcoa Municipal Building.

They don't have a website yet, but they were kind enough to fax a menu which I have attached. The breakfast and lunch menu is similar to the Atlanta Bread offerings but with more variety, and bonus, they have some great sounding pizzas. And beer!

Alcoa agrees to sell packaging and consumer businesses

Alcoa today announced it has agreed to sell its packaging and consumer businesses to New Zealand’s Rank Group Limited for $2.7 billion in cash. The transaction is expected to be completed by the end of the first quarter 2008.

The divisions include:

• Closure Systems International, plastic and aluminum packaging for beverage, food and personal care customers

• Consumer Products, Reynolds Wrap branded and private label foil

• Flexible Packaging, specialized packaging for pharmaceutical, food & beverage, tobacco and industrial markets

• Reynolds Food Packaging, stock and custom products for the foodservice, supermarket, food processor and agricultural markets

Alcoa says "these packaging businesses have approximately 10,000 employees in 22 countries around the world." The sale is seen as a move by Alcoa to focus on its core business.

According to the press release, Alcoa will continue to operate its flat-rolled aluminum sheet division here in Alcoa, TN. Alcoa's rolled sheet division is a leading provider of aluminum for beverage cans and employs about 1800 workers in the area. Alcoa recently announced a $22 million expansion of its recycling operations here.

(Ed. note: We checked the date of the press release and the source, and this is legit.)

Josh Flory at the KNS says GreenBank announced more non-performing loans and their shares were hammered:

Shares of Green Bankshares, the parent company of GreenBank, plunged Thursday after the company revised its fourth quarter earnings estimate and withdrew full-year 2008 guidance because of "credit quality concerns related to the deterioration in residential real estate loans primarily located in its urban markets."

It's gone from their website, but the big, bold, top of the front page headline in today's Maryville Daily Times says "ALCOA makes hostile bid for Alcan".

The problem is, the article is a slice and dice of a May, 2007 Alcoa press release.

According to an Alcoa spokesperson today, "This is old news from back in May. Alcan was already bought by Rio Tinto, and that happened months ago."

Memo to the MDT: If you aren't going to check your facts, at least check the dates on press releases you transcribe onto the front page.

UPDATE: Can't find a correction or explanation in today's (Thursday's) paper. Did anyone else see it? Or is that their story and they're sticking to it?

UPDATE: Looks like this is an exact reprint of a May 2007 AP report.

CORRECTION: Duh. The correction is right there on the front page, in a box that says "Correction: The Daily Times inadvertently published a dated Associated Press story in Wednesday's newspaper about ALCOA. While the information was correct at the time the story was originally issued, Rio Tinto has since purchased Alcan. We apologize for the error." I guess I thought the box went with the story about the Alcoa charity donations and skimmed right over it. My bad. It's a good thing I'm not proofreading the Times. Thanks to FarmerJohn in comments, who has sharper eyes than me.

Alcoa Aluminum is expanding their aluminum can recycling operations here. The new $22 million facility will expand recycling capacity by 50%. According to Alcoa, recycling aluminum saves 95% of the energy needed to make new cans. They expect to recycle more than 14 billion cans this year. The new expansion will be completed sometime in the next 12 to 18 months.

In related news, Alcoa is introducing a new fuel efficient locomotive, "Big Orange", for transporting ingot. According to Alcoa, the new train has 25% more horsepower, uses 35% less fuel, and cuts down on 85% of air pollutants. A second train will arrive in 2008.

I guess this is old news. After all, Vulcan's giant hole off Court St. in Maryville severed Duncan Branch creek over 10 years ago now. It is still sad to me, though, and to those who grew up in the area and played in the creek as children.

Duncan Branch was a spring-fed creek that is found on maps that date back over 100 years. It flowed year-round with clear, clean water. Then Vulcan expanded the quarry right over the stream bed, and now the creek flows into the hole.

The picture below was taken during Vulcan's open house on 9/11/07 (complete with free BBQ). The quality isn't very good; the light was fading and it was taken through the tinted windows of a moving bus. Still, if you look carefully you can make out the little waterfall (see circle, and close-up view). That's what's left of Duncan Branch, flowing into the hole.

Keep in mind that this picture was taken during one of the worst droughts in recorded history. A few years ago I questioned a quarry representative on the lack of water in the creek, and his response was "Sometimes springs dry up." Right.

Unfortunately, TDEC has been of no help (which is really no wonder, since the state mining regulations were written by mining consultants). Their position is that they can only regulate water pollution. The complete elimination of water apparently is not their concern.

Vulcan uses the water that flows into the quarry for their own purposes, for processing rock and dust control. If there is any excess, they pump it into what used to be Duncan Branch creek.

I'm afraid rock quarries don't make very good neighbors. Some free BBQ every few years does not compensate for the blasting, constant truck traffic, clouds of dust, incessant noise, hideous eyesores, and destruction of the environment.

It's only anecdotal evidence, but Blount County seems to be benefiting from biker tourism.

We were over at the new Ruby Tuesday on Alcoa Highway this past Friday evening. We were sitting at the bar with three couples who had flown in from California (Monterey area) to go ride in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and the "Dragon" on US129.

They seemed like really nice folks. We chatted a bit with one guy, and he said they flew in, were staying at a local motel (they walked to Ruby Tuesday), and were renting motorcycles locally.

I mentioned that I hoped they were renting bikes with stock pipes and mufflers. He said he hoped so too (he rides a BMW, which is probably quieter than my car). He noted that Harleys were the only kind of motorcycles they could rent locally, and he was a little surprised by that.

Maybe there's a business opportunity there for Honda and/or other dealers?

I told them about the stepped up enforcement, and suggested they should be careful because there are lots of crazies up there.

Anyway, they seemed like responsible folks who should be welcomed, along with their tourist dollars. It would be good if we could attract more bikers like these. Maybe the local bike shops could help promote more of that and less of this.

The Daily Times is now charging to view those archived articles we have all grown to know and love. Will $2.95 an article save the way local politics are handled?

According to this link Link... the Daily Times is owned by the Horvitz Newspapers Inc.

They also own The Peninsula Daily News. You will notice that our local Daily and this Daily out in Washington have very similar websites. Link...

There is a difference since Port Angles readers still have free access to the archived articles.

So, here we are. They want us to shut up and go away. Y'all think we should do that?

We have heard a lot about ties between Commissioner Lewis, the Sheriff, and American Fidelity/Green Bank. In fact, if you follow local news and issues, American Fidelity comes up quite a lot (remember the Sports Complex?). So I got a chuckle when the spouse brought me a little fold-over envelope from the County Clerk's office after buying tags for a car. It seems to be what the receipt comes in, because it is only 4x2. One side of the envelope has the Realty III Logo, phone number, address, and website (I think this is owned by Darrell Tipton, occasional candidate for various offices and recently added to the Public Building Authority by County Mayor Jerry Cunningham). The other side says "Compliments of American Fidelity Bank" and has the logo and phone number. On the inside, it says "Roy Crawford Jr., Blount County Clerk, yada yada yada."

Given all the money that the county keeps in American Fidelity Bank, I'm hoping these little gems were free to the county! Pretty good advertising; but how much is too much when it comes to the county gov't advancing the interests of business? Would other banks and realty companies have liked for every vehicle owner in the county to have been exposed to *their* names and logos? (Or maybe this is a cyclical thing and companies take turns?)

What are your thoughts?

According to an article in the Daily Times (Link...) by Rick Laney on Wednesday, 8/29, our local housing market was in a "free fall". But by Friday, there was some sort of weird cross between an advertisement and editorial right there on page 3 painting quite a different picture. It wasn't marked as an ad, but didn't look like the usual news article either. Very confusing. Did anyone else notice it?

With plunging real estate prices and sales being the top of the news nationally, you would expect Blount County's market to follow the trend at least somewhat.

So which is it? And what's up with the DT?? Can't make up their minds? Or maybe too much pressure from the local powerbase: realtors and developers. I guess realtors DO place a lot of ads in the course of business. I'd like to think the paper would print the facts, though, and that those facts wouldn't change with the winds of outside pressure.

This is a sad state of affairs and, so far, no one is listening. Except for, of course, the residents of the mobile home park being subjected to the loud noises of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle owners.

What I find fascinating is McSpadden, the owner of the mobile home park (trailer park as written in the paper), is trying to get assistance from the City of Maryville and Blount County to alleviate the problem. Kudos to Mr. McSpadden.

According to The Maryville Daily Times,

...a loud public address system and music, smells and the “toxic” smoke from the recent burnout the Harley dealership sponsored.
...McSpadden said. “I had one lady come out during the event and she thought her house was on fire. The whole house smelled liked burning rubber ... her clothing and everything.”
...Some residents are elderly, some already have respiration a problems and some have young children. They don’t need this. The more people that are there, the higher the noise. It’s getting worse every weekend.”
... noise is not only on weekends but through the week. He told council sometimes he has to get up to go to work at 4:30 a.m. after being kept awake by motorcycles being revved up until 1 and 2 a.m.

McSpadden said “sometimes people can’t even hear their TVs in their houses.”

How did this happen? How is it the City/County governments did not consider the surrounding area when approving the dealership in the first place, then allowing loud, obnoxious parties nearly every weekend? Why can't/don't those governing Blount County/Maryville think before they act? Haven't they heard of zoning? Haven't they heard of noise ordinances? Apparently they've heard about them, they are just not sure what to do about them.

Check out some cool photos of the VW graveyard on 411s in Greenback over at KnoxViews.

Hana, a new Japanese restaurant and sushi bar, opens Saturday, Aug. 18th. They are located at 501 N. Cusick St., across from the Blount Co. Public Library. The menu features authentic Japanese sushi, sashimi, tempura, and more.

The Maryville Farmers' Market is going strong at its new location at the city parking lot downtown on the east end of Broadway. We picked up some tomatoes, green and red peppers, a watermelon, and some honey. Click read more for more photos...

Click image for larger view...

Speaking of the Farmer's Market, here's a photo from last year.

Speaking of the sales tax holiday this weekend, the new Circuit City in Alcoa is set to open Saturday.

Some merchandise is eligible for the sales tax exemption (specifically computers costing less than $1500), so it's a chance to save a few bucks.

The stores at the new Hamilton Crossing Plaza will help offset Alcoa's estimated $450,000 loss of sales tax revenues to the new Super Wal*Mart out on 411 S.

The liquor stores that should be opening soon will help, too.

A while back the Maryville Daily Times updated their website with some nice cosmetic improvements.

Now I wish they would add RSS feeds, at least for local news articles.

What we have now over there in the News-O-Rama column is a hack based on a Google News search turned into a dynamic RSS feed. It's ugly at best, and incomplete with incorrect headlines at worst.

It's not rocket science, or at least it shouldn't be if they have the right back end software.

If they need help, I recommend they get in touch with the guy who setup this website for a smaller local community newspaper. It's got all the latest bells and whistles, it's slick, and it's based on the latest state-of-the-art open source (and free) content management system.

According to Blount Today, Blount County Commission, the Board of Education, and the Public Building Authority are having a workshop on Aug. 8th to settle some differences:

...issues have been raised about the cost of PBA services and allocation of costs among projects, division of responsibilities between the mayor’s budget staff and the PBA, the necessity of written contracts between the PBA and the county and payment for PBA services.

I have to agree with Blount County Mayor Jerry Cunningham, who is quoted in the article as saying there should be a written contract. There's too much money involved and too many important projects to be left to verbal agreements and memory that tends to get fuzzy over time.

Apparently there's no such thing as too much.

And I thought this was bad. Let's hope Blount County is never quite this "successful".