I don't care if we had our first dusting of snow last night...spring is just around the corner and daffodils are coming to South Knoxville. Bob Santore of the South Knoxville Beautification Committee had their first bulb planting day today on James White's Parkway. Bob has been putting this project together for a while. Bob's #1 volunteer (and wife) Barbara explained to the others which way the bulbs go - roots down. It was really rocky and the power augers weren't doing the job. Volunteers switched to shovels.

- posted by KKB Staff @ 10:06 AM

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

I'm very glad I attended the ribbon-cutting for the Market Square/Krutch Park re-opening. Everybody was there. The project turned out real nice and I saw Ashley Capps pick up some trash someone left in the new park. Way to go Ashley! As many of you know, Dr. Paul Kelley has been promoting the idea of a Zero & One Club. Members never litter (the zero) and pledge to pick up one piece of litter every day. Ashley earned his membership today. I spoke with Jim Cortese about the prospects for the City or County hiring a real urban forester and we agreed it is more possible now than in recent years. When I got back to our office at World's Fair Park some tourists from Florida came in. The man said his grandmother used to live in our office at 402 11th Street and he used to stay here in the summers. He talked about going to Market Square every day. I told them about the entertainment going on today and they were going to head over there. Also...the Haslam Neighborhood Services Committee meeting is set for Wednesday, December 10th at 11:30.

- posted by KKB Staff @ 1:49 PM

Thursday, November 20, 2003

Thought it was time for an update to the blog. Some friends have been asking if we are really here. We've been inteviewing applicants for the program coordinator position and have it narrowed down to two very promising candidates. We are trying to do the second interviews Monday. Scott Frith called me today (Scott is the KKB board member who was behind the Halls Tribute Trees project) and said another massive beautification project is on the horizon for Halls. Stay tuned. I spoke with Bill Haslam at the Emporium "Upfitting" last week and he said the neighborhood services transition committee will meet very soon. In the meantime, he announced the city solid waste department would be admininstered by a neighborhood services deparment in the future instead of engineering. This sounds like a good move. Solid waste issues may have been engineering problems in the past but they are definitely quality-of-life issues today and solutions to solid waste problems have a tremendous impact on improving neighborhoods. Earlier this evening John Evans and I met with a group of citizens from Vestal who want to address litter, dumping and waste disposal issues in their neighborhood. They described a variety of problems ranging from littering by residents, dumping by people from Blount County, county residents not subscribing to litter pickup and NEVER taking their trash to the convenience center, and a bunch of other problems. The Keep America Beautiful system approach to community improvement is this: 1) Get the facts, 2) Involve the People, 3) Plan Systematically, 4) Focus on Results, and 5) Provide Positive Reinforcement. Anyway, we are going to follow the process and on Sunday, December 7, at 2:00 p.m. , John Evans and I are meeting with some citizens for a neighborhood tour. This fact finding mission is the first step to a solution. I'm bringing the digital camera so check back for pictures - some of them may NOT be pretty.

- posted by KKB Staff @ 9:52 PM

Tuesday, November 11, 2003

The KKB Youth Advisory Board had their regular monthly meeting and began their research on the environmental impact of automobile ownership. YAB members used the computers at the Fulton High School Library. We selected Fulton because of its central location and the computers are filtered. The results of this research project will be used to create a companion curriculum for a litter ordinance awareness video for new drivers produced by Memphis City Beautiful. The Knox County Schools Driver's Education teachers have already agreed to use the video. The additional material about automobiles and the environment will enhance the litter lesson and reinforce the idea that the automobile has the greater impact on the environment than anything else in the world. The images below show the UAB members at work in the Fulton High library. Three of the YAB schools participated in a campaign sign removal project. After election day, YAB members from West, Fulton and Halls High Schools collected campaign signs from the recent city council elections. Halls won a pizza party by bringing in 451 signs. A total of 626 signs were collected.

- posted by KKB Staff @ 7:05 PM

Friday, November 07, 2003

Today I attended the Tennessee Urban Forestry Council annual state conference in Chattanooga. The conference theme was Storm Water Problems: Urban Forestry Solutions. One session featured a presentation of a study done on the decline Knox County's tree canopy between 1989 and 1999. The study was done by American Forests for the Knox County Storm Water Department. In those 10 years areas with 50% or more tree canopy declined by 2.2%, areas with <20% tree canopy increased by 9.8% and areas with 20-49% tree canopy decreased by 42%. They estimate the storm water retention value of the remaining trees at $1.48 billion (the cost of building structures to accomplish what the trees already do). The also estimate the trees remove 16.5 million pounds of pollutants (nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, carbon monoxide, ozone and many particulates). The images below are from the Urban Ecosystem Analysis for Knox County, Tennessee produced by American Forests. There is a lot more information in the complete report. If you want to learn more use the American Forests link above or contact me by email. TUFC also presented its annual awards and Sam Adams of Cortese Tree Service was named Urban Forester of the Year. Go Sam!

  
- posted by KKB Staff @ 3:43 PM

Thursday, November 06, 2003

The committee planning Earthfest 2004 has just approved holding the event at World's Fair Park in downtown Knoxville on Saturday, April 24, 2004. For the past few years the event has been held at Concord Cove Park in west Knox County. We consider this to be good news. World's Fair Park is more centrally located than Concord Cove Park and should give better access to the event to our neighbors in the east, south and north parts of the community. World's Fair Park also has much better service by public transportation and will be much more accessible for those who wish to walk or bike to the event. For those who drive there should be more options for parking. Finally, World's Fair Park has been beautifully redesigned to accommodate large festivals with open space, seating, electricity and restrooms. Kudos to the Earthfest 2004 planning committee. Here is a picture (from our archives) of KKB's booth at Earthfest 2003 with (l-r) board member Terry Faulkner, UT Professor Charles Faulkner, volunteer Joyce Hausman and former intern Mike Schoenberger.

- posted by KKB Staff @ 5:33 PM

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

The past two days have been somewhat ordinary. We are getting a steady stream of applicants for the program coordinator position and the auditor has been by twice and it looks like our annual audit is finished except for printing. We have our regular board meeting tomorrow and have just finished posting the minutes from the last meeting to our website. If you are interested in that sort of thing, our board meeting minutes from the past 2 and a half years are on the site. Just click on the Keep Knoxville Beautiful button above, click board and staff on the left menu and look for the minutes archive link on the board and staff page.

- posted by KKB Staff @ 1:25 PM

Monday, November 03, 2003

I had a long conversation with Patty Smith this morning. Patty is a long-time downtown resident and was instrumental in getting the central business district "pooper scooper" ordinance passed a few months ago. As you probably know, KKB gave the Onion award to the little triangle park near the intersection of Summit, Gay and Central. I want to clarify that the award was intended for those who do NOT clean up after their dogs and to those who have the power to enforce the new ordinance but choose not to. I anticipate that when the Haslam/Jubran Transition Committee looks at neighborhood services there will be a lot of talking about ordinances and enforcement. This is a chronic issue in litter, dumping and dirty lots because it involves "less serious" crimes that have a tremendous negative impact on quality of life but don't directly harm anyone or damage property. If you have any thoughts on this please share.

- posted by Tom @ 1:52 PM

Sunday, November 02, 2003

The program coordinator position opening is listed in today's News Sentinel and we have already received two resumes by email. Please encourage anyone you know who is looking for a fun, interesting part-time job to send a resume. Use the Keep Knoxville Beautiful link at the top of the page and read "employment opportunity".