Reader survey:
Would you expect a higher turnout for this year’s municipal election? Remember, in 2005, there were more Council and School Board seats on the ballot, with both contested.
Kenny Bartley — the 15-year old killer in Campbell County’s school shooting — has taken a plea bargain.
[Oak Ridger] Kenneth Bartley Jr. agreed to plead guilty to one count of second-degree murder and two counts of attempted second-degree murder in the 2005 shootings at Campbell County Comprehensive High School.
He was sentenced to 45 years in adult prison.
So, the last year’s worth of psychological evaluations, jury screenings, and various defense motions were really just a scheme to buy time — one last year of childhood in a life forever ruined by one fatal decision: the decision to shoot three high school administrators, instead of just handing over the gun.
The latter would have meant a year’s expulsion from school, and probably charges handled in juvenile court. It might have turned him around.
There were other bad decisions, of course; the decision to take the gun to school to trade for Oxycontin wasn’t too bright, nor was the desire to get Oxycontin to start with. I’m not sure how many years "45 years" really is, though I suspect it’s somewhat less. Maybe probation in 15, 20?
However, I have to express my admiration for Jo Bruce, the widow of slain vice-principal Ken Bruce. She has continued her job in Willowbrook’s family resource center, working with families having difficulty… perhaps averting such a tragedy for someone else. She has become a quiet but tireless crusader for greater school safety. And, she endorsed the plea deal:
Jo Bruce, the widow of the slain administrator, endorsed the plea bargain.
"We did the right thing. We feel like this will help our community start to heal. I think (my husband) Ken would say, job well done," Bruce said.
In her shoes, I doubt I could summon the incredible grace she has displayed.
The weather-guessers predict that tomorrow morning will be the coldest Easter morn of my life, possibly in all of recorded weather history. (No, they’re NOT the same!)
I missed the Maundy Thursday service because of the School Board budget work session; I missed the Good Friday service because HWTFM was ill. Fortunately, our church made the decision to move the Easter sunrise service back into the sanctuary; although I love the traditional outdoor service, I have to admit that it would be tough to sit through with children at 20 degrees or so.
Whether you celebrate salvation, forgiveness, or simply the renewal that comes with Spring, have a Happy Easter. And stay warm.
In his second letter-to-the-editor on the subject, Wal-Mart employee Alan Harris makes some interesting points worth exploring.
• Fact 1: Target and any other yet-to-be-named retailers that would set up shop on the ridge would garner 30 to 40 percent of their sales from existing retailers already collecting sales tax revenues for the city and county coffers at this time. Therefore, this would not increase sales tax revenues. If they were to then double their sales over and above this volume, the sales tax generated would be half of the proposed new sales tax revenues. I would not consider this a significant new sales tax revenue.
If new retailers would garner 30%-40% of their sales from existing retailers in Oak Ridge, then 60%-70% of the sales would be NEW dollars! Those opposed to the project keep asking where the "new" revenue would come from — it’s not that Oak Ridgers would suddenly buy a lot more, but that we — as well as our neighbors who travel through Oak Ridge to shop Knoxville — would spend those dollars here instead of elsewhere.
• Fact 2: These other yet-to-be-named retailers may include former stores in the now basically defunct Oak Ridge Mall. Some of these retailers have moved to other locations, such as Manhattan Place and Jackson Square. Some of these no longer exist in those locations, either. Their demise can not be blamed on exorbitant rent charged by the former Mall owners. The logical deduction then is that they could not survive on the volume of sales that they were producing. Therefore, I submit that the shoppers from Oak Ridge and the surrounding area did not shop there frequently enough for them to survive. Perhaps these stores would still be reluctant to reopen upon this proposed ridge and that’s why they remain unnamed. The developers cannot reveal their identities because they have no serious commitments other than Target. I believe this same problem exists for the current mall developers. No commitments. I personally know of one current retailer in Oak Ridge that sought to relocate in the mall and was told that they were not currently seeking any new tenants. It makes one wonder what the mall owners and developers are really planning.
The City’s list of terms and conditions (which must be met for any financial participation by the City) include a statement that 350,000 of the 400,000 square feet of new retail space must be businesses that are not currently located anywhere in Oak Ridge or Anderson County. That’s 87.5% new retailers that we don’t have anywhere in the county.
• Fact 3: If Target truly wants to come to Oak Ridge, they can afford it on their own and do not need developers or city funds to do so. If available dead stores are not suitable or other available property is not available, they again have the money to buy out people in these suitable locations, and will if they want to be in Oak Ridge badly enough.
"IF they want to be in Oak Ridge badly enough." I suppose that could be so… but it’s in our own best interest to give some consideration to our own needs and wants as well — like the need to increase retail sales so that our property taxes don’t skyrocket.
• Fact 4: The restrictive covenant that prevents Target from building on current mall property is standard business procedure and has been for many years. Long-time Oak Ridgers will remember when Treasury Drugs was located in the old Food City strip center on Illinois Avenue and that the White Store located in the old Food City building did not have a pharmacy. As long as Treasury Drugs was located in that strip center there was a covenant that prevented the shopping center owners from leasing to anyone that would consider opening a pharmacy in their store. I am sure that many of you have gone in a store somewhere and wondered why there was no pharmacy, yet all their other stores had a pharmacy. If you had paid attention, there was a Revco or other drug store in that strip center and there was a covenant in their lease that prevented any other pharmacies from being opened in that center.
Just because something is standard practice doesn’t make it beneficial to the City or its residents. It now seems to be standard practice that you have to have a customer loyalty card to get the better price on groceries everywhere except Wal-Mart; that’s clearly advantageous to the merchants, but a pain in the keychain to everyone else.
• Fact 5: The traffic generated on this ridge would be unbearable for those that needed to go to Knoxville for a reason other than shopping. Perhaps they have a doctor’s appointment or a family member that has been taken to an emergency room in a Knoxville hospital and would like to get there as soon as possible. Have you ever been late because of traffic?
Perhaps the gentleman needs a map; there are multiple ways to Knoxville besides going over the hill at Boeing. From Illinois Avenue, I often take Scarboro Road (to Union Valley or Edgemoor Road) if traffic appears to be a problem going over the hill; many folks on the east end just run along the river to Edgemoor to hit either Clinton Highway or Pellissippi Parkway. If you want to cite traffic snarls, take a long, hard look at the extra red light in front of Manhattan Place — the only place I’ve ever seen traffic gridlock in Oak Ridge. And it does gridlock, almost daily.
Look, I understand why Wal-Mart might be worried. Competition makes one try harder, just as the advent of the Oak Ridge Observer made the Oak Ridger a better newspaper. While it might be some extra work for Oak Ridge’s long-running daily, there’s no question that competition fostered improvement, which benefited all of us who read the papers.
It is critical to the economic health of this city to expand our retail base, and this plan is workable. Join the effort today, and let’s make something good happen on June 5!
Predicting the future is always one of the more difficult aspects of governing; we’re fortunate in Oak Ridge (and Oak Ridge Schools) to have some folks on staff who are gifted in that area.
They don’t claim any prophetic talents — no crystal balls, incense, turbans and the like — but they are handy with calculators, formulas, and such. Since the last City Council meeting (which I missed, as it was during Spring Break), the forecast for Crestpointe (should the bond referendum pass) has been revised and refined.
—–Original Message—–
From: Jenkins, Steve
Sent: Thursday, March 29, 2007 2:05 PM
Subject: Latest Crestpointe AnalysisAs a result of discussions at the last City Council meeting, attached is a spreadsheet that incorporates the very latest information on Crestpointe. The changes from the original analysis are as follows:
 1.      The analysis now incorporates the actual borrowing that will be recommended. The amount of that borrowing is $2,500,000 for 15 years @ 4.5%.
2.      The balance of the $10,500,000 or $8,000,000 will be paid from reserves that will be advanced to the economic diversification fund by the debt service fund.
3.      The model includes a contribution by the County of approximately $87,000 annually for the taxes paid to the County by Target. If the County does not contribute to the project, the repayment schedule would be extended by 2 to 3 years.
4.      Property tax collections from the site grow at 3 percent annually, which is conservative based on the City’s tax history for the prior 15 years.
 After incorporating these changes, the results are as follows:
 1.      The property tax collections alone will pay the debt service on the $2,500,000 and replace the $8,000,000 within a 15 year period. This is very important to the project because no sales tax collections will be necessary to retire the debt. In addition, there will be some funds, (approximately $800,000) available in year 14 and 15 for other uses.
2.      Any property tax collections from the site after 15 years will no longer be necessary for the project and the lease agreements can be released. At that point, property taxes will be paid as normal to the City and County and can be used for other purposes.
3.      This analysis shows that any net increase in sales tax collections will provide new revenue to the City, City Schools, and County Schools.
4.      If the City chooses, it could use a portion of the sales tax to retire the debt and/or replace the reserves earlier.
5.      Finally, in this analysis, assuming the buildings are constructed, the project downside moves from 10 cents on the tax rate to no negative impact on the property tax rate. The upside is also much better.
This analysis still includes a $60,000,000 net gain in sales tax collections for the City and County, but as stated earlier, any gain in sales tax collections will produce new revenues for the City, City Schools, and County Schools.
This is a very viable project, and one that I truly hope Oak Ridgers will support in the coming referendum. The only remaining question I’m hearing is, “where is the ‘new’ sales tax money coming from?” The answer, very simply, is that the “new” revenue is that which is currently going to Knox County, when our residents (and others who would otherwise shop in Oak Ridge because it’s closer to where they live or work) have to go to Knoxville to buy the items they want and need because of the limited selection here.
It’s not money that isn’t currently being spent, it’s just being spent elsewhere.
If we had someone who could coordinate Oak Ridgers the way Pat Summit coordinates her team, there’s no limit to the things that could happen here. Unfortunately, we don’t listen quite as well as the Lady Vols, with far too many armchair coaches and not enough teamwork.
We can change that, and should.
Today, I methodically finished some work that needed to be done, then struggled the rest of the afternoon through another task I’d been putting off for too long, but the day ended well when AT and the boys found the Time Out Deli unexpectedly closed, and since I’m used to cooking for a small army anyway, they came on by for dinner.
The boys are so precious: MastaG right at the precipice of “tweendom,” Pigpen an easily-pleased little angel. Gamma (master babysitter that she is) scoops him up to cuddle, while Delta goes about showing MastaG that not all girls are girly, and can play in the mud with the best of the boys. “Mud” is putting it politely, as they were digging in the chicken coop again. Next time, I’m going to offer them cash to carry the “mud” from the chicken coop over to the tomato bed in my garden.
Naturally, with the kids in the coop, the chickens wandered all over the yard. Pigpen squealed with glee when the little red hen flew up to the table, ready to scarf up the remains of of their supper.
No matter how challenging any list of tasks, when it closes with friends and family, it’s a good day.
If you don’t know what day it is… well, it’s Sunday. A day of rest. A day to relax, and how better to relax but with a good laugh?
Alpha called this morning to tell me — very excitedly — that Google is offering a free wireless internet beta. Just go go the Google homepage, and click the link.
The alarm went off at 7 this morning, as I wanted to go to the 8:00 service so that I could pick Gamma up (returning from the Orchestra trip to Orlando) a little after 9. So I got up, showered, dressed, and got Delta ready to go, but driving down the turnpike, it seemed too dark. So I looked down at the clock in my car, which read 6:40. My watch said the same.
Hubby’s little prank was to set my clock back an hour, then set the alarm for me (as I rarely set the alarm at all, unless I have a plane to catch). He still claims he didn’t do it intentionally, but RealtorChick’s clock was also set back an hour… so it seems a little suspicious that HWTFM and PunkHP did a little scheming last night at Daco’s place, while we were otherwise occupied.
I also happened across a great shopping site — another of those merchants we’re unlikely to ever see in Oak Ridge — and purchased a new swim cover-up. So, this is the shirt I’ll be modestly covering up in until I can lose the 15 pounds I’ve acquired since quitting smoking. I had one sort of similar when I was pregnant, but I think it got given away with the maternity clothes.
Go ahead and laugh, but HWTFM loves it.
And, the Museum of Hoaxes has a great “Top 100 April Fools Day” list. My favorite:
#7: Alabama Changes the Value of PiThe April 1998 issue of the New Mexicans for Science and Reason newsletter contained an article claiming that the Alabama state legislature had voted to change the value of the mathematical constant pi from 3.14159 to the ‘Biblical value’ of 3.0. Before long the article had made its way onto the internet, and then it rapidly made its way around the world, forwarded by people in their email. It only became apparent how far the article had spread when the Alabama legislature began receiving hundreds of calls from people protesting the legislation. The original article, which was intended as a parody of legislative attempts to circumscribe the teaching of evolution, was written by a physicist named Mark Boslough.
Have fun!
County Commission’s vote not to kick in a little extra support to the Crestpointe project is sort of old news — almost two weeks old now — but Commissioner Whitey Hitchcock’s response in the form of a column yesterday is still fresh.
Whitey is one of my two County Commissioners, and the only one to vote against it. Following is the note I sent to him today:
Dr. Hitchcock,
I was out of town for Spring Break when I read, with considerable dismay, that you were among the three Oak Ridge Commissioners who voted against redirecting roughly $97k/year in potential property taxes on the proposed Target site. I agree that it is my own fault for not conveying my opinion to you in advance of the vote, as you were very responsive to me on the issue of the sessions court move. Given your involvement in education, I mistakenly believed that my input was unnecessary – it seemed silly to think that you could be opposed, given the low risk and high potential benefit.
As a member of the Oak Ridge Board of Education who has been very involved in school finance issues for several years, I fully understand the breakdown in distribution of local tax dollars for education between the three school systems in the County; this project would be beneficial to all of us.  That the County schools receive roughly twice as much as Oak Ridge schools is simply a matter of pupil population. But, following the County’s successful vote to supersede our sales tax rate last year, you must also know that Oak Ridge is in dire need of replacing not only the sales tax revenue lost to the County, but also the sales tax revenues that have declined in real dollars over the past several years.
I also know (as I strongly suspect that you do) that a Commission vote in favor of this tax redirection would have had absolutely no impact on whether or not the citizens would be able to vote on the matter in a referendum; that question is predicated solely upon the number of valid signatures on the petition. In contrast, the Commission’s “no†vote does lessen the likelihood that the referendum will succeed. Many people question why Oak Ridge should bear all of the risk, while the County recognizes the greatest benefit.
Should Commission have voted in favor of this proposal but the referendum be defeated in June, it would be a moot issue. You would not have usurped any citizen’s choice in the matter.
We, in Oak Ridge, are more heavily reliant on property taxes to fund education (via allocations from the City General fund, as well as from Anderson County) than any other school system in the region. For us to prosper in terms of retail development is of critical importance, but it also helps our counterparts in Clinton and Anderson County, whose schools are not suffering an embarrassment of riches, either.
I respectfully ask that you publicly commit to voting in favor of this request before the start of early voting on May 16, in order to mitigate the harm already caused.
Sincerely,
[Netmom], District 6
Unlike Whitey, neither Shuey nor Creasey have given any public explanation that I know of. If anyone’s heard from them, I’d love to hear their explanation.
The five largest school systems in the state have joined forces to lobby (threaten, cajole, bribe, etc.) the State Legislature for a funding mechanism more favorable to the biggest metro areas. From yesterday’s Commercial Appeal:
“State funding is not equitable to the larger school systems,” [Shelby Co. Superintendent Bobby] Webb said.
Because sizable school districts are left to depend more on local taxes and less on state money than smaller ones, he said the school board has joined ranks with five of the state’s largest school districts under the Coalition of Large School Systems (CLASS) to fight for better funding.
During the meeting, the board agreed to pay $25,000 to CLASS to hire a lobbyist.
Of course, the very reason that the biggest cities have to depend more on local taxes is because the structure of Tennessee’s funding for education is based so heavily upon the sales tax (where the cities collect sales taxes from surrounding areas with much less retail), and because their overall tax bases — property as well as sales — are so much larger in proportion to others.
That was the basis for the successful rural schools lawsuits that resulted in the creation the BEP (Basic Education Program) more than two decades ago, and the chancellor who declared the case closed just last year openly stated that major changes to the BEP would be grounds to reopen the suits.
Assuming that each of the five school systems (Knox Co., Hamilton Co., Metro Nashville, Memphis, and Shelby Co.) ponied up the same amount, they’ve got $125,000 for a lobbyist now. My guess is that should buy some pretty hefty effort.
It’s very discouraging to me that they would spend their time and resources on fighting for a bigger share of a too-small pie, when the rest of us are working toward adequate funding for ALL Tennessee students. Ending the squabbling over crumbs will probably require an approach such as proposed by Comptroller John Morgan, where the State takes on a larger share of education funding (while still allowing local augmentation, rather than requiring a local match for the bare minimum).
Wouldn’t it be far better to actually spend our resources on educating children than on decades-long legal battles? The lawyers have enough already; the kids don’t.
Now that the School Board has received the Superintendent’s proposed budget, there are several meeting dates scheduled that may be of interest to those following the process. Also, this year, the proposed budget will be available online (I didn’t find it posted yet, but it will be), so that the public may follow along through the line-by-line reading and better understand what we’re working with.
This is, in my view, a tremendous improvement over years past.
Meeting Dates:
It’s likely that there may be an additional meeting or work session scheduled between April 5 and 12, if substantial changes are needed. Also, this schools budget is based upon the Governor’s proposed education funding measures; if those are not adopted, then the budget will have to be revised.
Now’s the time to speak up, Oak Ridge. Waiting until Council’s second reading is too late.