I couldn't help but notice that several City Council members thought there was something wrong with buying police vehicles from Duncan Motors as long as Mr. Duncan owed the City over Two hundred and thirty thousand bucks, according to the State audit.

Duncan might think about giving the vehicles to the City instead. I figure they just about equal the interest on his debt.

Several Issues have popped up in the comments that deserve their own dedicated discussion. I'll try to list them but feel free to mention your own area of concern.

I told you about the Souvlaki at Misael's Restaurant in Kingston and I admit that's what I had for lunch. Misael has great french fries but I had to go with the salad due to other considerations of the incipient excesses of this season.

That's another way to say I plan to eat to much and I have to pace myself.

As many of you may know, I am a sole practitioner attorney who, after practicing for three years in Knoxville, opened up a law office in Rockwood on September 1, 2007. I am currently looking for a legal assistant.

We will start posting Ray Collet's series on Rockwood Life with today's excerpt. They will be archived here at RoaneViews and will appear about a week behind publication in the Roane County News edition for Rockwood.

(Please remember that this is copywrited material, belongs to Ray, and is used here by permission for all of us to enjoy.)

Rockwood Memories #105

Hello Readers, Two years ago around Thanksgiving, I wrote a column that has been a favorite of most of the readers. For the benefit of the ones who didn't get the "Rockwood Memories" at that time, or don't have a copy of my book, I would like to print it again.

It seems like every time someone tries to do something good for Roane County someone else tries to stop it and usually for no particular reason.

Roanviews posters are giving us some great ideas but you may miss some of them unless you read the comments. We have a tendency to wander off topic somewhat but this is a thoughtful crowd.

Tyler pointed out this link and wondered why we can't get as fired up about building great schools as we do about one Constable with a stick?

It is time once again for the public stargaze night on December 15 at Tamke-Allan Observatory in Midtown. Festivities will begin around 7 p.m. See Link... for directions. As previously stated, this is a great opportunity for all those wanting to learn more about light pollution and the starry nights that Save Roane Starry Skies is trying to preserve. In addition, it is a great educational and exciting experience for kids FOR FREE!!! Hope to see you there!

Gerald Largen mentioned the Utopia Cafe in his column. I knew I shouldn't have told him about it. Now I bet I won't be able to get my regular table at high noon.

Gerald went fairly easy on Kirkham and Duncan, too. Merely called them deadbeats or somethng for not paying what they owe to Harriman for their Pinnacle Pointe development...Plus interest, of course.

Gerald must be feeling nice for the holidays.

Dr. Fields gave the Enviro Board a show.

Update: Why is the Industrial Board against this proposal? It won't cost a dime going forward, saves electricity and money, and it's the neighborly thing to do? There were three letters written by the Industrial Board telling the Commissioners to NOT pass it. I'll post more about these later, but it seems they were making the false argument that using shielded lighting would stop development. What's really up?

Does it concern us that 40 million pounds of nuclear waste may float by Southwest Point, through Kingston, under the I 40 bridge and on up to Oak Ridge for "processing"?

Does 40 Million pounds sound like a bigger pile of nuclear waste than 20,000 tons?

Why can Italy process it's own nuclear waste instead of sending it here?

Just asking...

Save Roane Starry Skies' Astronomy Outreach Chairman will be speaking at the Roane County Environmental Board meeting tonight (Thursday, December 6) beginning at 6:00 p.m. The meeting will be held at the Roane County Courthouse in the County Commission Room. It is expected that Dr. David Fields will be speaking beginning at approximately 6:20 on why Roane County should restrict light emission into the night sky. Please come by to learn more about our mission.

There are good discussions of one or both issues, but I don't know which, on the Roane County News website. They should correct it soon, and I'll say more then.

Suffice it to say that the Jail is NOT an emergency as some proclaim, and there are mixed feelings regarding the Constable situation.

I have mixed feelings myself and the only thing I know for sure is that our current state of legislation leaves way too much room for abuse and needs to be tightened up somehow someway.

Lincoln is backing a bill that is suposed to help renters when their house is sold or the rent is raised too much. Zach thinks it might be a good idea.

Are these two guys both Republicans or Democrats?

I don't think it matters as long as they act like Progressives.

Bruce Cantrell will challenge Lincoln Davis for Congress. Conventional snark is that Bruce will challenge Lincoln(D) from the Left as a Republican.

Early handicappers say Bruce is toast and is running for name recognition.

In another local race, insiders say that if the election were help today, Ken Yeager would win the Senate race against Becky Ruppe. They also point out that it won't be, and say he won't and she will when all is said and done.

Maybe...Maybe not...We'll see.

The Elves at RoaneViews Global Technical Headquarters East have let us know that they've been rerouting some of the steam pipes that power this place.

As a result of their hard work, you should see some changes, notably in the way links get posted and some other things. I like the changes.

We appreciate their contributions and will reward them by cutting back on the floggings just a bit, and, If everything works, we may even up their ration of grog for the duration of the season.

There are some problems with this, although I have to admit I'm no fan of this kind of dog...Problems like the fact that the term "Pit Bull" doesn't actually represent any particular breed of dog.

So what exactly would we be banning?

This is an emotional issue that I encourage the City Fathers to think about before they do anything. I don't know if their bark is worse than their bite, but sometimes our local lawmakers can give us a cure worse than the disease.

Ray Collet asks if anybody knows who these fine Rockwood students are? Call it the Class of 195(?).

(Click the little one to see the Big one)

I was looking for the TVA conservation recommendations on lighting and ran across this little jewel of governmental mis-speak in the TVA Risk Assessment report.

Public health exposures, cancer: Maximum lifetime cancer probabilities for all TVA fossil plants were on the order of 3 in 1,000,000 or less. EPA’s acceptable range of excess lifetime cancer risk for the general population is 1 in 10,000 to 1 in 1,000,000. TVA concluded that air TRI emissions do not represent a cancer risk to the public.

So TVA emissions pose a cancer risk to the general public of somewhere above 3 times the EPA's threshhold of causing cancer in 1 out of every million people and then says there's no problem?

Think about this when you drive by those big stacks at the Kingston Steam Plant. (It should be called the Kingston Fossil Fuel plant anyway.)

I read that as TVA gets to kill 18 people in Tennessee as a cost of doing business. It's a gamble TVA takes with your life.

Feeling lucky?

A couple of us were chatting about feeders and birds and we think there are more birds at feeders earlier this year for some reason. Several folks are seeing red breasted nuthatches for the first time. We usually have them but not in the numbers we have this year.

It's been a strange year with the late freeze and no acorns to speak of, but how does that affect the birds?

And we have nearly no ladybugs, and usually they are a serious pest by now.

What's up?

My Mama told me that people are thought of by what we accomplish and who we hang around with. Well, the folks here at RoaneViews are hanging around with some really good smart people, who know the difference between an idea and a slogan.

Randy, at TennViews, has gathered up some of the week's most thoughtful posts from other Tennessee progressives and put them in one spot for a lazy Sunday surf.

We're proud to be on the list.

This debate on cable choice is raging nationwide and affects everyone...Especially the folks that the cable companies refuse to serve, which is a large portion of Roane County.

This time the debate on what cable companies provide will be voted on by your Congressman. Do you think your best interests will be served?

If you don't look for it, you won't notice it but there is a really nice slideshow with sound posted at RCN.

Dave Doonan does great work.

Unfortunately, when you look at these men's faces you know there is an uncalculated cost of war that those of us who've never faced it can never really know.

And we can never ever repay them what we owe.

Saturday, December 1st (tomorrow) beginning at 7:00 p.m. will be a great opportunity to all who would like to see the starry skies that we are trying to recover & protect. All are welcome to come to Tamke-Allan Observatory in Midtown. The link for directions is Link.... Please visit for a great learning experience!

Cute kids and a chick with really nice thighs in a tutu...What's not to like? (That "nutcracker" thing? It's not what you think)

Presented by Arts in Motion Dance Studio

The Nutcracker has become a Roane County tradition you do not want to miss. RSCC Theatre. Dec 1, 7 pm; Dec 2, 2 pm.

Tickets are $15 and available only in advance...Call 376-0295.

A new group of concerned homeowners, business owners, educators, students, clergy and others who live or work in Roane County has formed Save Roane Starry Skies.

The mission of this citizens’ group is to recover and preserve the beauty of the starry night skies in Roane County. By encouraging responsible outdoor lighting for security, energy conservation, and aesthetics, they want to pass along the heritage of beautiful night skies to their children before this heritage is lost to light pollution.

Yep! We knew it. An RCN letter says that Consolidated Schools would be bad for the football teams.

And cause gangs...and school violence...and increase the dropout rate...and so on, and the solution is...

Well, sort of. Roane County may not have a liability due to McFarland's actions because the harassee did not actually receive a paycheck from the County. The suit could be reinstated within 90 days with a new filing.

Tommy continues to act the gentleman in all this by maligning the lady's reputation.

Link

Pinnacle Pointe seems to be going well, so why don't developers pay Harriman what the State says they owe?

The RCN Editor thinks powerful and well connected people ought to pay their bills just like the rest of us.

The bad press alone ought to make somebody get out the check book.

Everything that happens along the Tennessee River flows right into our drinking water intake pipes here in Roane County. Here's a great series from WBIR (with a few friends of mine in cameo roles) that should really get us thinking.

Our River