Dear Editor

I am so excited for you and delighted with your paper. I see it as a beacon and a vehicle for Seymour residents to look to and to use as the means to bringing good things to the area. I know Seymour is growing and I am happy that the growth is hidden in the hills and valleys that traverse these lovely foothills. I don't want it to be Farragut or Bearden, but I certainly wouldn't mind if we could lure some Old City or West Knoxville entrepreneurs out this way. What I would give for an Italian Market Grille, or a small Kalamata Pantry. Even a Red Lobster would be a start in the right direction. And some of us might like to have clothes and shoes and home decor that doesn't come from the ubiquitous Wal-Mart's and Home Depots. What do you think? What can we do as a population to convince the restaurant and shop owners that we are real people in Seymour, with expendable income, willing to welcome them to our little burg? What about starting with a poll in a couple issues of your paper to glean some ideas about what our families would like to see here? And wouldn't it be interesting if the Seymour population were able to control the decisions about where new growth should develop and exactly what it should look like? As I said, I certainly wouldn't want Seymour to look like West Knoxville, but I would welcome some of their businesses here with open arms, as long as the developers didn't control the locations, looks and participants. I would also love to be a part of any group interested in steering this community to an interesting, vital future with esthetics and growth bound together inextricably, for the long term. Is there such an animal in Seymour? Sincerely, Pat Morrison