Lenoir City News

A Lenoir City High School teacher has resigned because of a relationship with an 18-year-old student.

School Superintendent Wayne Miller said teacher Rachel Burkhart acknowledged the inappropriate relationship and resigned Thursday. Burkhart is 25 years old.

Lenoir City Police Chief Don White said the department is not investigating because the student was an adult during the time the allegations cover.

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Source: Loudon County News-Herald 04-28-2008 In a game where pitching reigned, a couple of key offensive plays cost the Panthers during the second round of the Lenoir City Spring Scramble Friday night. via Loudon County News

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By: Mary E. Hinds Source: Loudon County News-Herald 04-28-2008 The Loudon County Budget Committee has voted to recommend a 7-cent hike in the property tax rate for the next fiscal year. Under the proposal the current rate of $1.84 would go up to $1.92 if the recommendation is passed by the full commission. The committee also proposes changing the distribution of funds for county departments. Under the plan, the county general fund would lose 5 pennies from its share of the $1.84 tax rate, going from 70 to 65. This is the fund that finances most county departments. The county school fund would gain 8 pennies, going from 88 to 96. The general debt fund would remain the same at 9.5 pennies and the highway department would receive an extra penny going from 3 to 4 pennies. The solid waste fund would lose a half penny going from 1 penny to 1/2 penny. The general capital projects fund would also lose a half a penny going from 2.5 to 2. The rural debt fund, which is used to fund some school projects and will be instrumental to borrowing funds for the upcoming county school building program, would gain 5 pennies going from 10 to 15. Budget committee member and County Commissioner Don Miller noted that while the budget committee has asked the county school board to slash requests for additional funds from $4.6-million to $1.24-million, putting an additional 8 pennies in the county school fund would raise the amount set aside for schools from $7.4-million to $8.6-million. This is if the proposed tax hike is approved by the full county commission. "Remember we (the county budget committee) are just four members of the commission," Miller said, adding the majority of the commission will have to vote to make the tax increase a reality. "It’s a small increase, but still an increase," he said, adding he feared another property tax rate increase is on the horizon next year to begin funding the extensive county school building program.

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A high lead count in Lenoir City has health officials concerned. According to the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the old Lenoir City Car Works plant could be the cause.

The rail car manufacturer closed in 1985. Trees now fill the 100 acre site, and its entrance on F Street is now locked and blocked by a railroad track.

Recent soil tests showed high amounts of lead on the property. According to TDEC, the lead is associated with slag and foundry sand that was found on the site.

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(Note: Joe Webb tried to post this on the blog. Due to length restrictions he was unable to.)

I would not tell another person how to vote. But the benefit of my experience over 18 months may be useful to some.

A couple years ago I began looking at how County Schools operate. I discovered rampant waste. Everyone is aware of the maintenance issues - especially life safety compliance & the grand jury presentation.

Throughout the process I was struck by the failure of the BOE to supervise the Headlee administration - especially Hemelright in facilities management. The BOE is responsible to hire and supervise the Schools Director. That supervisory role has not be done. The BOE is stacked with what I call "Headlee enablers", whom I want to name.

Bill Marcus, Seat 1A: Not a Headlee enabler. He wanted to buy out Headlee's contract.

Scotty Newman, Seat 1B: Good guy, unafraid to question Headlee's administration and voted to buy out his contract.

Larry Bass, Seat 3: Major Headlee enabler - voted to keep and praised Headlee and Hemelright while his school (Greenback) crumbled, endangering children. Opponent Lisa Russell gathered records on maintenance neglect, working to solve the problem, & refusing to be satisfied with banal platitudes from Headlee's flunkies.

Freddie Gene Walker, Seat 5A: Quintessential hell-raiser - the bravest & best BOE member! He spent a lot of time challenging Headlee's incompetent administration and looks out for the taxpayers & kids. I don't know his opponents, but Headlee's flunkies have been looking for sufficiently malleable candidates to replace him.

June Clinestiver, Seat 5B: Major Headlee enabler. She ever does any critical examination of anything Headlee says or wants. Her opponent, Van Shaver is a former commissioner with a reputation for rocking the boat to protect the people's interests.

Nancy Paule, Seat 7: Major Headlee enabler. No critical analysis of anything Headlee says or wants. I once spoke with her about enormous waste in the IT department. She praised the IT manager (Jill Pierce) who resigned after my findings became public. I don't know her opponent, Craig Simon, but its difficult to imagine he could be as useless.

Headlee didn't get County Schools in this state all by himself. He has been aided and enabled over the years by a negligent BOE.

Joe Webb

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County Commissioner Don Miller hosted a seminar Thursday, April 17th, on what he called "Loudon County Finance 101" for citizens who had questions about the county budget.

Miller distributed six handouts to better explain parts of the county budget. One was about the financial implications of the county school building program. Other topics were historical data on county school budgets, how much the county spends per student in comparison to other counties, the county school’s 2008-09 funding request, the 2008-09 overall county budget and a comparison of 2007-08 expenditures versus 2008-09 budget requests.

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By: David Klein Source: Loudon County News-Herald 04-23-2008 A 23-year-old Lenoir City man accepted a plea agreement Monday and will begin serving a prison sentence for his part in the 2007 shooting death of an 18-year-old in Loudon County. Steven A. Bridges was sentenced to 15 years in prison for second-degree murder in the death of Stephen Booth of Lenoir City. Bridges’ attorney, Bruce Poston, had worked out a plea agreement with District Attorney General Russell Johnson in which Bridges waived his right to a trial and accepted a guilty plea at the Loudon County Courthouse. The victim was found with a gunshot wound at the Yarberry Peninsula Recreational Area Sept. 26, 2007, and Bridges was arrested two days later, according to police reports. Two other people, Jessica N. Ward, 22, of Loudon, and Jonathan V. Hurst, 20, of Knoxville, were arrested as well. Sheriff Tim Guider said officials believe Ward lured Booth to the campground early that morning. When Booth and Ward arrived, an alleged robbery attempt by the three suspects led to a struggle in which Booth sustained blunt force injuries before receiving a single, fatal gunshot wound to the back of his head, reports showed. The incident took place between 3:30 a.m. and 5 a.m.; a camper found Booth’s body around 8 a.m., officers reported. Booth had been arrested before on drug charges, records show. However, officials said no drugs or drug paraphernalia were found at the scene. Supporters for both Booth and Bridges were present at the Loudon County Courthouse for Monday’s sentencing. Booth’s family and friends wore T-shirts with a picture and a poem honoring his memory. The two groups sat across from each other and had to leave the courtroom one group at a time following the hearing to avoid confrontation.

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County Commissioner, seat 2B: Austin Shaver (R), Willian Jenkins (D)

Assessor of Property: Chuck Jenkins (R), running unopposed

Loudon County School Board (nonpartisan):

Seat 1A: Bill Marcus (incumbent), challenged by Wendy Baustian

Seat 1B: Scott Newman (incumbent), unopposed

Seat 3: Larry Bass (incumbent), challenged by Lisa Russell

Seat 5A: Freddie Gene Walker (incumbent), challenged by Gary Ubbins and Chris Clabough

Seat 5B: June Clinestiver (incumbent), challenged by Van Shaver

Seat 7: Nancy Paule (incumbent), challenged by Craig Simon

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According to the Secretary of State's website, two Democrats have picked up petitions for the U.S. House seat currently held by Congressman John Duncan:

David Ryan Hancock, of Maryville

Bob Scott, of Knoxville

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Remember when Lenoir City passed its budget for this fiscal year? Mayor Matt Brookshire boasted: "For the fifth straight year we have a truly balanced budget." But politicians sometimes speak a different language than the rest of us.

Lenoir City Council voted Monday to incur debt up to $10-million for several public work projects including a new city and fire hall, flood mitigation, line flow improvements, fire hydrants, improvement of the storm water system and other water projects.

This was what could be called "a truly balanced budget on paper". That's when you delete necessary spending items to make it look balanced. (The city has known about the needed fire plug repairs since Jan, 2005.)

The city did the same thing on the previous fiscal year's budget - balancing it by removing a new garbage truck from it, then buying the truck anyway.

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