On Politics

My water problem is bigger than your water problem. Seymour resident Newell Haven addressed the County Commission Monday night regarding long-standing drainage problems in High Chaparral subdivision that have increased due to construction in the area. He also noted that Commissioner Buster Norton has property in the same drainage area. Newell told the commissioners that he had been told repeatedly by Road Commissioner Jonas Smelcer that the water was not a county problem, but that the county had installed ditches and pipes at Norton’s property recently. Smelcer and Norton plan to visit the problem site this week. Commissioners were also addressed by residents in Kodak about their property off Roberts Road and the problems they have had due to junked cars on neighboring property that blocked drainage and have also brought a persistent rodent problem to the homes bordering them. Memory is the first to go? The on-going discussion at County Commission over the county’s senior center continues. County Executive / Mayor Larry Waters has issued a letter to commissioners detailing the series of events that led to the 70/30 split ownership with the City of Sevierville. It hasn’t soothed the ruffled feathers that seem to be flustered. The process appears to have a glitch. Until the minutes of the Budget Committee can be located it is not possible to determine if the resolution was amended before being given to the full commission for its vote. If it was amended by the committee to stipulate sole ownership by the county, the change was not made to the resolution that the full commission approved. How it happened that all five commissioners on the budget committee failed to notice their changes were missing from the printed copy of the resolution distributed in their packet is a question yet to be answered. Start your engines - Motorcyclists are getting some help from State Senator Bill Clabough. Clabough sponsored and passed the senate version of a bill that will allow motorcycle riders to “proceed with due care after stopping at a traffic control signal operated by a vehicle detection system.” The Magnetic Loop Ground Detection system often does not register the presence of a motorcycle as it has substantially less weight and metal content than an automobile. It does not apply to signals on a timing control. Already existing laws govern procedures at an inoperative signal. Now if we can only get some leniency for everyone else when the magnetic system is on the fritz and we end up waiting ten minutes for a green. Kudos – go out to Steve Brenner for sending letters out to remind people of the zoning meeting in Seymour on Tuesday night at the high school. Time in the Big House or the school house-The House unanimously passed a measure by Representative Jamie Hagood (R-Knoxville) this week that would require notification of school principals if a student with a criminal past is placed in that school. The law would require parents, guardians and courts to reveal the criminal record of the student if it involved offenses such as murder, rape, robbery, kidnapping or assault. Juvenile records are sealed and are unreviewable by school administrators; this measure would make the court notify school principals if they have a student convicted of one of these crimes. Hopefully convictions for rape or murder, even for a juvenile, would carry detention sentences lasting long enough to prevent the circumstance from ever happening.