Does anyone know what this article is about? It seems mostly devoid of information.

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.)

Alcoa Police Officer Dek Melton risked his own life to pull a man from a burning vehicle, saving the man's life. The Maryville Daily Times has the full report here. Props to Officer Dek Melton, Alcoa PD hero.

A joke over at KnoxViews about the photo of the corner of Dalton and Darwin led me to this interesting City of Alcoa web page about Alcoa's street name origins. (Many are familiar, but I had to look up Dalton. He was the inventor of atomic theory).

An excerpt:

Credited with the naming of the original City of Alcoa streets are Alcoa’s first city manager, V.J. Hultquist, who was also Alcoa Inc.’s chief engineer in charge of the Alcoa plant construction and Edwin S. Fickes, vice president of Alcoa Inc. at the time. Below is a listing of streets and the origin of their names.

Bell Street – Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), inventor or the telephone.

Bessemer Street – Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898), an English engineer who developed the Bessemer process for manufacture of steel by decarbonization of molten cast iron.

Boyle Street – Robert Boyle (1627-1691), an English natural philosopher known for his discovery that the volume of gas varies inversely as the pressure varies.

Read the full list here, it's quite fascinating.

Coming soon to the old Atlanta Bread location in Alcoa, near Hall Road on Associates Blvd. Saw a sign, nothing else to report.

Hope it's a good replacement. Many of us have really been missing Atlanta Bread.

As expected, the City of Alcoa passed a water restriction ordinance at a special meeting this morning.

The ordinance gives the city the tools to enforce mandatory restrictions on non-essential water use if there is a declared emergency. (At the present time, the city has not declared an emergency.)

Here are the pertinent details on the new ordinance as passed on second reading:

SECTION 1, That when the flow downstream at City of Alcoa withdrawal operations in Little River at Mile 9.7 is 30 cubic feet per second (CFS) or less, appeal to the water customers of the system will be made through the news media for voluntary water conservation.

SECTION 2, When the flow downstream of said withdrawal operations is 25 CFS or less, water supplied to customers of the system shall not be used for non-essential purposes. For this purpose "non-essential purposes'; shall include but not necessarily be limited to filling swimming pools, car washing, car washing facilities, recreational facilities and watering of trees, lawns, gardens and other vegetation.

SECTION 3. When the flow downstream of the withdrawal operations is 23 CFS or less the amount of water consumed by large industrial customers and large non-residential / non-health care commercial customers should be reduced by approximately Five Percent (5%) of their average daily consumption until notice is given that the restriction is no longer in effect.

The ordinance allows for fines from $25 to $50 for each violation, and each day that a violation occurs counts as a separate offense.

The full text of the ordinance is attached here (PDF format).

The Maryville Daily Times reports that the City of Alcoa will hold special emergency meetings to consider a water use restriction ordinance.

The first special meeting on the ordinance will be at 9:30 AM at the Municipal Building. The second meeting will be at 9:45 for a second reading of the ordinance and presumably a vote. We're guessing it will pass.