Thursday, September 28, 2006

The Environmental Achievement Awards judges met today and reviewed the nominees.  They selected on winner each in the categories: individual, organization and business.  The judges for the 2006 Environmental Achievement Awards were Meredith Leahy, Community Program Manager, Knoxville Recycling Coalition, Dirk Pohlmann, with Shaw Environmental and Infrastructure, Inc., Rodney Rockett, Knox County Greenwaste Facility Coordinator and Ted Tyree, KUB Green Power Program Coordinator.

- posted by KKB Staff at 3:30 PM

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

The annual meeting of the judges of the Orchids & Onions Awards program took place today at the office of Keep Knoxville Beautiful.  Judges met privately for about 3 hours to review images and descriptions of nominated properties.  They were asked to select 2 winners for each of the major geographic areas of Knox County and they are sworn to secrecy until the awards banquet on October 10th.  The independent panel of were Doug Berry of Blue Ridge Development, Christina Benzansos-Pint an architect with The Lewis Group, Mike Carberry, with the Metropolitan Planning Commission, Charles Faulkner, Retired UT Anthropology Professor, David Watson, Exec Dir of the Community Design Center of East Tennessee and Polly Doka, neighborhood activist.

- posted by KKB Staff at 5:30 PM

Saturday, September 23, 2006

KKB had an information tent at the Pellissippi State Community College annual balloon fest Friday and Saturday.  Stephanie and Jill worked the event on Friday evening and said there was a good turnout.  The event was rained out Saturday and Tom worked with Rodney Rockett and John Homa to take down the tents and remove the tables and educational material without drowning.

- posted by KKB Staff at 3:30 PM

Tuesday, September 19, 2006

The Lenoir City Utilities Board (click on policies, then tree trimming policy) had earlier announced that it had taken ownership of a high-powered electrical transmission line previously owned and maintained by TVA.  The line is in the Farragut area of Knox County and LCUB plans to replace the aging line.   The right of way for the power line includes part of the Farragut greenway and is adjacent to a significant number of homes.   Initially a large number of large and small trees were marked for removal in a path 50 feet on either side of the line.  LCUB officials initially maintained that this was for safety reasons to assure that no vegetation come in contact with the lines.  Many homeowners and users of the greenway strongly objected to this approach asserting that TVA never cut this much of the right-of-way to maintain line safety.  Later, LCUB admitted that the 50 ft. clearance is needed for the heavy equipment, especially cranes, that will be used in the line replacement construction job.  In a public meeting (see photos below) at Farragut Town Hall, LCUB assured homeowners that they will meet with everyone individually and come to some understanding about the work that will be done and explain what, if anything, LCUB can do to mitigate the removal of the trees.  Keep Knoxville Beautiful had received a number of calls from homeowners, greenway users and tree conservationists about this issue.

- posted by KKB Staff at 10:00 PM

Thursday, September 14, 2006

KKB board member and co-chair of the 2006 Orchids & Onions Awards Gary Drinnen and executive director Tom Salter reviewed some of the nominated properties on the north side and took pictures for the judges slide show.  Most of the nominees look great and this awards program promises to be one of the best ever.

- posted by KKB Staff at 4:30 PM

Monday, September 11, 2006

The 5th Anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks on the U.S. was commemorated in Knoxville with a very moving ceremony this morning in front of the City County Building.  Mayors Ragsdale and Haslam are pictured below speaking to a crowd of several hundred.

- posted by KKB Staff at 10:00 AM

- posted by KKB Staff at 11:30 AM

Thursday, September 7, 2006

We had the regular monthly meeting of the KKB board today at the Knoxville Coca Cola training room. 

- posted by KKB Staff at 2:15 PM

Saturday, September 2, 2006

The University of Tennessee kicked off its 2006 football season today with a home game against California.  Something new for this year is the Make Orange Green promotion to encourage UT students and fans to recycle outside the game - especially during tailgate parties.  The Good Sports Always Recycle program has been going on for years and this is a logical and appropriate addition to that effort.  Credit goes to Sara Surak, UTK Recycling Coordinator and KKB Board member for leading the Make Orange Green promotion.  KKB's Stephanie Hood and Jillian Gilbert helped make everything go smoothly along with several other AmeriCorps members and UT student volunteers.  All of the temporary trash containers for this year's home football games have the new state anti-litter logo StopLitter imprinted on them.

- posted by KKB Staff at 8:45 PM