Sewanee Writers’ Conference Begins Its 25th Year

Twelve days of readings and lectures open with poet Claudia Emerson

Celebrating its 25th summer session, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference will run from Tuesday, July 22, through Saturday, Aug. 2, and feature readings, panels and lectures by distinguished faculty and nationally recognized editors, publishers and literary agents.

The conference will begin with a reading by poet Claudia Emerson at 8:15 p.m., Tuesday, July 22. All readings and lectures are free, open to the public and held on the Sewanee campus in the Mary Sue Cushman Room of the Bairnwick Women’s Center. 

Emerson was awarded the 2006 Pulitzer Prize in Poetry for her book “Late Wife: Poems.” She is also the author of the poetry collections “Pharaoh, Pharaoh Pinion,” “An Elegy,” “Figure Studies,” “Secure the Shadow” and a forthcoming collection, “The Opposite House.” Her poems have appeared in the New Yorker, Poetry, the Southern Review, Shenandoah, TriQuarterly, New England Review and other journals. Emerson is the recipient of a Witter Bynner Fellowship from the Library of Congress, the Donald Justice Award for Poetry from the Fellowship of Southern Writers and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the National Endowment for the Arts and the Virginia Commission for the Arts. She is a professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University. 

Other featured readings will be presented by National Book Award winners John Casey (4:15 p.m., Wednesday, July 23) and Alice McDermott (4:15 p.m., Friday, July 25); Pulitzer Prize finalist Christine Schutt (8:15 p.m., Thursday, July 24); and Mildred and Harold Strauss Living Award Winner Diane Johnson (4:15 p.m., Tuesday, July 29).

Additional readings feature award-winning poets B.H. Fairchild (8:15 p.m., Wednesday, July 23), Charles Martin (4:15 p.m., Thursday, July 24), A.E. Stallings (8:15 p.m., Friday, July 25), William Logan (8:15 p.m., Sunday, July 27), Maurice Manning (8:15 p.m., Monday, July 28), Mary Jo Salter (4:15 p.m., Thursday, July 31), Debora Greger (4:15 p.m., Friday, Aug. 1), and founder of the Sewanee Writers’ Conference and Chancellor of the Fellowship of Southern Writers Wyatt Prunty (4:15 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 2); 

Best-selling and critically acclaimed fiction writers Adrianne Harun (4:15 p.m., Saturday, July 26) Steve Yarbrough (8:15 p.m., Saturday, July 26), Randall Kenan (4:15 p.m., Monday, July 28) Allen Wier (4:15 p.m., Wednesday, July 30), Tony Earley (8:15 p.m., Wednesday, July 30) Margot Livesey (8:15 p.m., Friday, Aug. 1) Vice-Chancellor of the Fellowship of Southern Writers Jill McCorkle (8:15 p.m., Saturday, Aug. 2); and 

Acclaimed playwrights Daisy Foote (8:15 p.m., Tuesday, July 29) and Dan O’Brien (8:15 p.m., Thursday, July 31).

Editors from Algonquin Books, the American Scholar, Blackbird, Copper Canyon Press, Grove/Atlantic, Knopf, LSU Press, Measure, the Missouri Review, New Directions, Northwestern University Press, the Oxford American, Poetry and the Weekly Standard will discuss publishing. Agents from Aitken Alexander Associates, Brandt & Hochman Literary Agents, Georges Borchardt Literary Agency, Folio Literary Management, McCormick & Williams, and Renée Zuckerbrot Literary Agency will also discuss their work. A complete Conference schedule can be found on page 11 of this week’s Messenger, or online at <www.sewaneewriters.org/conference/schedule>. Authors’ books are available at the University Book and Supply Store.

Supported by the Walter E. Dakin Memorial Fund established through the estate of the late Tennessee Williams, the Sewanee Writers’ Conference offers instruction and criticism to writers through a series of workshops, readings and craft lectures in poetry, fiction and playwriting. 

Lectures and readings will be held in the Mary Sue Cushman Room of the Bairnwick Women’s Center on Mississippi Avenue, one block south of University Avenue. 

Admission to all public events is free, but space may be limited.

For more information, call 598-1654 or visit the Sewanee Writers’ Conference website at <www.se​waneewriters.org>.

Early Voting Begins; Local Candidates Express Views

The candidates running for Franklin County Commission District 5, seat B, and Franklin County School Board District 5 responded to the Messenger’s questions about the offices for which they are running. Their answers are in this issue of the Messenger, in print and online,  for your consideration. Candidate responses are unedited and published in full. 

Early voting in the Franklin County August elections begins today (Friday), July 18. Voting takes place at the Franklin County Election Commission, 839 Dinah Shore Blvd., in Winchester. The office is open 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday, during early voting. Early voting ends on Saturday, Aug. 2.

Election day is Thursday, Aug. 7. Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. On the ballot will be local elections including the school board, county commission, county mayor, sheriff, area judgeships, as well as party primaries for governor, U.S. Senate and U.S. House of Representatives Fourth District.

For more information contact Margaret Ottley at the Election Commission office at 967-1893.

County Schools Facing Financial Cliff

by Kevin Cummings, Messenger Staff Writer

Franklin County Schools will have a hard time opening for the 2015–16 school year without additional county funding, said Kevin Caroland, chairman of the Franklin County School Board, at the board’s July 14 meeting.

“We’re headed for disaster,” he said. “We can hang our hat and say we hope they come through and fund it, but nobody’s ever seen it on this board.” Officials said the county has not increased school system funding in at least 10 years.

The board approved a budget at its July meeting without an increase in revenue after the county finance committee rejected a proposed budget with a 7-cent property tax increase. 

Most Franklin County commissioners oppose a tax increase. Sue Hill, a county commissioner and member of the finance committee, said that school officials can make deeper cuts, including eliminating jobs in the central office.

“I’m not for a tax increase right now,” she said. “Their fund balance can carry them right now. You have to take into account senior citizens living on social security who can’t afford to pay high taxes. I’m 100 percent for education, but there are things that can be cut.”

School board members said they have made many cuts already.

“I think we’ve bent over backwards and tried to do everything we can do to be good stewards of the money,” said board member Chris Guess. “The cuts that we do from here on out will be detrimental to students, and they will be detrimental to teachers.”

“In this budget [that Hill says] we can cut, you don’t have to run schools buses, you don’t have to do this or that, but at what cost do you do that? I’ve gone about as far as I’m willing to go,” Guess said.

The school system has a $42.4 million budget for 2014–15, of which the state requires at least 3 percent, or almost $1.3 million, be kept in a fund balance for unexpected expenses. 

The school system is spending about $1.8 million from the fund balance this year and officials said if there are no new expenses, there will only be around $650,000 in the fund balance going into 2015–16, far less than the state’s required minimum of 3 percent.

Chris McDonough, Sewanee’s school board representative, said after the meeting that even if the board cuts teacher’s paid insurance from 100 percent to 90 percent and changes Franklin County High School’s class schedule to reduce the number of teachers needed, there will not be enough money to open school in 2015.

“Last year, I talked to a school board chair from another county where they fought their commission and refused to open school without adequate funding—he said at the end of the day, it was a mistake. The job of the board is to run the schools, even with the increasingly paltry amount the commission gives us,” McDonough said. “Given all that, I could not in good conscience vote for the budget.”

The school board approved the budget on Monday by a 6-1 margin with Caroland voting “no” and McDonough abstaining.

In other business at the school board:

The board voted 6-2 to not sell 1,000 acres at the site of the former Franklin County High School for two years in the hopes that the state will fund a college of applied technology on the site. Guess and board member Mike Holmes voted against the measure.

McDonough, Guess and Holmes questioned the effectiveness of an elementary school reading program implemented last school year. Rebecca Sharber, director of schools, said TCAP test results, which are currently embargoed by the state, do not reflect an increase in reading and language arts scores. Sharber said changes will give teachers more flexibility in the reading program and a math program. 

McDonough said when TCAP scores are released, officials should review the reading program.

The board voted unanimously to reverse a previous decision and allow 13 Huntland-area students to ride the bus to Broadview Elementary, South Middle or Franklin County High School for two more years.

For Three New Mountain Shops, the Mantra is Local

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

Frequently when a new business comes to a community, it is the brainchild of corporate numbers crunchers who live thousands of miles away. An entirely different business model inspired the Mountain Goat Market, Amish Hippie and Crescent Café. The owners of these new Monteagle businesses have strong ties to the community.

Mountain Goat Market owners Eric and Spenser Duncan were raised on the Mountain and graduated from Grundy County High School. Before opening the market, Spenser taught at Monteagle Elementary School, and Eric worked as an electrician. They lived just down the street from Richie’s Market, located on the corner of Main and Laurel Lake Road. When Richie’s closed and the building went up for sale, the enterprising young couple—Eric, 29, and Spenser, 23—decided to reinvent the market as a grocery store specializing in organic and natural foods.

The Mountain Goat Market also has a deli offering a vast array of meat and cheeses. The deli’s bread and coffee come from Chattanooga-area vendors, and the Duncans use local produce as much as possible. Deli customers can eat on the spacious front porch or a small inside dining area where a quaint and curious sign reads “Please Do Park Here.” In the 1940s, the building was a Greyhound Bus terminal.

The Market is open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., Monday through Saturday. When the Mountain Goat Trail is completed, it will pass directly in front of the store. In conjunction with Monteagle Mountain SummerFest, the Market is hosting local musicians every Friday and Saturday at noon on the porch from Memorial Day through Labor Day.

Amish Hippie owner Marla Sitten’s connection to the mountaintop is through the Nashville music scene. J. D. Oliver, owner of the Smoke House Restaurant and Lodge, hired Sitten to bring music acts to perform at the Smoke House. When Village Wines & Spirits moved to a larger building, Sitten decided the location next to the Smoke House was perfect for a store whose theme found common ground in the peace-love hippie ethic and the simple living Christian ethic of the Amish community.

In addition to hippie-inspired vintage clothing, incense, tobacco accessories, and handmade Cherokee and Navaho jewelry, the Amish Hippie offers goat-milk lotions and soaps, broom and baskets made by members of the Amish community in Ethridge, Tennessee. Sitten’s Amish Hippie brand jam, jellies, and pickles are locally made using local produce when in season.

Customers who want to sit and chat in the book nook located in the center of the store can enjoy Amish Hippie- brand spiced tea, coca mocha and locally made key lime pie. In the future, Sitten hopes to carry Amish furniture and offer a venue for local artists to market their work. The Amish Hippie is open Monday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Crescent Café, an on-site food truck owned and operated by Mooney’s Market and Emporium, takes the concept of using local produce to its logical conclusion. Crescent Café chef Carol Manganaro bases her recipes on what’s available locally and what’s in season. The Café offers fresh-made juice, smoothies, wraps and salads. The Beatrix Potter, a summer smoothie, was inspired by the abundance of local beets, complimented by apples, carrots, celery, lemon and mint.

Café diners can eat outside at picnic tables or in the closed-in back porch. The Café is open Thursday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Crescent Café’s wraps and salads can often be found in the cooler in Mooney’s when the Café is closed.

Located on Highway 41A between Sewanee and Monteagle, Mooney’s is celebrating its second anniversary this summer. 

Owner Joan Thomas said her vision was “to offer products not available on the Mountain to reduce the greenhouse gases caused by automobiles and help save the planet.” Mooney’s is open seven days a week, 10 a.m. to 6 pm. The market specializes in local and organic products, including grains, cereals, snacks, condiments, and produce, as well as gardening and knitting supplies, antiques and art.

Final Weekend for Music Festival

The final weekend of Sewanee Summer Music Festival concludes with a full lineup of events today (Friday), Saturday and Sunday, July 18–20. Most notable are two performances featuring banjo artist and composer Béla Fleck.

On Saturday evening, July 19, at 7:30 p.m., the final concert of the Artist Faculty Series will include a world premiere of a work by Béla Fleck, commissioned by the Sewanee Summer Music Festival. Also on the program are David Lang’s “The Anvil Chorus” and Schumann’s “Piano Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 47.” Tickets are $12 online, $15 at the door.

On Sunday, July 20, the Cumberland Orchestra and Sewanee Symphony will perform their finale concerts in Guerry Auditorium, back-to-back, beginning at 2:30 p.m. The Cumberland Orchestra will perform “McCormick Fanfare” by Karel Butz, Mozart’s “Symphony No. 25” and “Finlandia” by Jean Sibelius. At 3:30 p.m. the Sewanee Symphony will begin its concert with “The Imposter,” featuring Fleck on banjo. Following this will be Rachmaninoff’s “Symphonic Dances.” 

One ticket provides admission to both concerts. Advance online ticket purchase is recommended. The cost is $26 online at <sewaneemusicfestival.org> and $30 at the door. It is suggested to arrive at least 30 minutes before the concert. Latecomers will not be allowed into the performance space, even between movements.

Other events this weekend include two free concerts today (Friday), July 18 in Guerry Garth. Bassoon Zoom VII, at 4 p.m., is an annual event that showcases the talent and humor of the SSMF bassoon studio. Later that evening, a Student Chamber Concert will take place at 7:30 p.m. In both cases, program information will be announced at the concert. In the case of rain, these events will be moved to Guerry Auditorium.

The final Student Chamber Concert of the season at is at 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 19. Also on Saturday is the much-anticipated Festival Brass Concert at 10 p.m. The performance will be in All Saints’ Chapel, allowing the ensembles to take advantage of the unique staging opportunities and acoustic qualities provided by the venue. Both of these concerts are free and open to the public.

For more information about any of these events, go to <www. http://sewaneemusicfestival.org>.

Fourth of July Photos Available Online

Dozens of photographs from Sewanee's Fourth of July celebration are now online at http://themountainnow.com/Photos/.

Béla Fleck in Sewanee to Play with SSMF

Banjo virtuoso and composer Béla Fleck will be in Sewanee Wednesday–Sunday, July 16–20, for an exciting series of events during the final week of Sewanee Summer Music Festival. Showcased will be Fleck’s newer works, including the world premiere of a work for banjo and chamber orchestra on July 19 and a performance of his critically acclaimed work, “The Imposter,” with the Sewanee Symphony on July 20. 

Béla Fleck is considered the premiere banjo player in the world. He has collected 15 Grammys and more than 30 nominations in more categories than any other artist. 

At the Artist Faculty Series at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 19, there will be a world premiere of a work for banjo and chamber orchestra . Tickets to this concert in Guerry Auditorium are $12 in advance, $15 at the door. 

The Cumberland Orchestra will perform at 2:30 p.m., Sunday, July 20, with guest conductor Soo Han. Works will include “Finlandia” by Sibelius and Mozart’s “Symphony No. 25 in G Minor.”

Fleck and the Sewanee Symphony will perform at 3:30 p.m., Sunday, July 20. The conductor will be Rossen Milanov, director of Princeton Symphony Orchestra and Sinfónica del Principado de Asturias in Spain. Tickets for both concerts are $26 online and $30 at the door.

In conjunction with Fleck’s visit, at 8:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 16, there will be a showing of the documentary “Béla Fleck: How to Write a Banjo Concerto” at the Sewanee Union Theatre, followed by a question-and-answer session with Fleck. Tickets are $7. Tickets can be purchased online at <www.sewaneemusicfestival.org>. Children age 12 and under are free, but reservations must be made by emailing <ssmf@sewanee.edu> by July 15. Children must be accompanied by a paying adult. Sewanee Summer Music Festival combines a month-long program for advanced music students and a professional concert series. For more information go to <sewaneemusicfestival.org>.

Governor Haslam Comes to Plateau to Announce Major Grants

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Department of Transportation Commissioner John Schroer were on the Mountain on July 8 to announce two transportation alternative grants for Monteagle and Tracy City, connecting downtown districts to trails and making other enhancements. A large crowd, including city officials from Monteagle and Tracy City, friends and community leaders gathered on the breezy morning to welcome the governor and the good news. 

The town of Monteagle was awarded a $216,320 grant for the Pedestrian Corridor Extension Project. The project will install approximately 2,000 feet of 5-foot sidewalks on the east side of Highway 64 beginning at Dubose Street heading south to Elgin Drive. The sidewalk will extend access to the multiuse trail and park in downtown Monteagle. A new pedestrian crosswalk will also be created across Highway 64 at the Monteagle City Ball Park.

Tracy City received a $603,569 grant to fund the Downtown Sidewalk and Mountain Goat Trail Connector Project. The project will provide pedestrian and bicycle enhancements to the historic downtown business district, including a multi-use path and trailhead parking. The grant will also fund a key section of the Mountain Goat Trail, a projected 35-plus mile trail linking Franklin and Grundy Counties. 

“This is a lot of hard work,” Haslam said, “but it is significant to the area. I think this will make people want to live here.”

The transportation alternative grant is made possible through a federally funded program formerly known as transportation enhancement and is administered by the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT).

“The Mountain Goat Trail Alliance is honored to have been asked by the Town of Tracy City to collaborate on this grant proposal,” said Janice Thomas, board president of the MGTA. “Our thanks to Gov. Haslam for coming here to recognize the value of the Mountain Goat Trail to Tracy City, Grundy County and the whole South Cumberland Plateau.”

The Tracy City project will create  a 10-foot wide asphalt trail beginning at Tracy City Elementary School and following the railbed into downtown Tracy City to Altamont Street (Highway 41/150). The project will turn north and follow Altamont Street across Laurel and Colyar Streets and end at Nathurst Street, from which point future projects will reconnect it to the railbed.

“Enhancing transportation options and connections,” Haslam said, “will increase pedestrian and visitor traffic to businesses and recreation areas. Tennessee’s downtowns are the heart of our communities, and improvements like these improve our cities’ and towns’ livability and the quality of life for residents.”

Through these grants, TDOT has funded more than $306 million in non-traditional transportation projects,” Schroer said. “This program has assisted communities all over the state in their efforts to revitalize downtowns, highlight historic areas, provide alternative means of transportation and increase opportunities for economic development,” Schroer said.

A variety of activities, such as the restoration of historic facilities, bike and pedestrian trails, landscaping and other non-traditional transportation projects, are eligible for grant funds under the federal program. 

Additional reporting by Patrick Dean and Rhonda Pilkington

Church Music Conference Begins

Celebrating its 63rd anniversary this year, the Sewanee Church Music Conference begins on Monday, July 14, and will end with an 11 a.m. Festival Eucharist in All Saints’ Chapel on Sunday, July 20. The conference is based at the DuBose Conference Center in Monteagle, where 125 church musicians from all parts of the United States will gather for lectures, rehearsals, classes, fellowship and performances. 

The faculty for the conference this year includes: Peter Richard Conte, choirmaster and organist of St. Clement’s Episcopal Church and grand court organist in Macy’s, Center City, Philadelphia, Pa.; Todd Wilson, director of music and worship at Trinity Cathedral and head of the organ department at the Cleveland Institute of Music, Cleveland, Ohio; and the Rt. Rev. J. Neil Alexander, Dean of the School of Theology, who will serve as conference chaplain and preach at the Sunday Festival Eucharist.

A number of public events will take place in All Saints’ Chapel.On Tuesday, July 14, at 7:30 p.m., Peter Richard Conte and Todd Wilson will present a concert on the magnificent 70-rank Casavant organ in All Saints’ Chapel. This is a unique opportunity to hear two world-class organists perform and see them accompany two classic silent movies, “Big Business” starring Laurel and Hardy, and Charlie Chaplain’s “The Kid.” 

Two church services will feature music provided by the conference musicians: Choral Evensong at 5 p.m., Friday, July 18, and the Festival Eucharist at 11 a.m., Sunday, July 20, in All Saints’ Chapel. University organist and professor of music Robert Delcamp is director of the conference.

County TCAP Scores in Line with State Results

by Kevin Cummings, Messenger Staff Writer

Franklin County students performed very close to their state counterparts on standardized testing, according to the director of schools.

Recently released statewide results show an overall increase in scores on high school end-of-course exams compared to last year and a plateau in TCAP scores for grades 3–8 — within 1 percent of last year.

The state will likely release local scores after the start of the school year, but Franklin County Director of Schools Rebecca Sharber said she has seen the results. Officials can’t give specifics, but the county’s scores closely mirror state increases at the high school level, as well as increases in TCAP math scores, she said.

“I still think we can do better, but we just haven’t seemed to find the right mix of everything to do better,” she said.

Statewide on the TCAP, 51.3 percent of students were proficient or advanced in math, compared to 50.7 percent last year.

Sharber said there were fluctuations in other testing areas compared to the state, but many similarities, including a dip in reading scores. The statewide numbers show 49.5 percent of students were proficient or advanced in reading in 2014, compared to 50.3 percent in 2013.

Chris McDonough, Sewanee’s representative on the Franklin County Board of Education, said he has heard officially and unofficially, that county TCAP scores are down for science and social studies, but up for math. He said he hasn’t seen all the scores, but he is especially interested in the reading scores.

“This year saw the introduction of a new reading program followed with radical fidelity,” he said. “Many seasoned teachers disliked having their lesson plans dictated to them by the program, and I sensed a real loss of morale. My hope is that it was worth it, but at this point I cannot really say.”

Sharber said a significant problem with state standardized testing is it is not in sync with Common Core standards taught in the classroom. 

“…I think teachers are having trouble trying to determine how to not only teach what they’re supposed to teach, but make sure that children are taught on what’s going to be tested because that is kind of a moving target in Tennessee right now,” Sharber said.

This year the state legislature delayed a move to replace the TCAP next school year with a test based on Common Core standards. The state plans to seek bids from test makers and implement a new standardized test for the 2015–16 school year.

Sharber noted that she does not like standardized testing because it favors privileged children, and she has presented an alternate idea to Tennessee Education Commissioner Kevin Huffman and his team. She said she would like to see students take a pre-test at the first of the year and then a post-test at the end of the year to accurately determine what a child has learned.

“They said there’s nothing available like that so they’re not going to take the time to try to find somebody to create it, but I think that would be the fairest way to work with children and I think that would be the fairest way with teachers,” Sharber said.

This year’s TCAP was steeped in controversy after the Department of Education failed to release results in time for report cards. The state granted many school districts, including Franklin County, a waiver to exclude TCAP scores from students’ final grades.

For statewide standardized testing results, go to <www.tn.gov/education>.

SUD Considers Project to Recycle Wastewater

by Leslie Lytle, Messenger Staff Writer

At the July 8 meeting of the Board of Commissioners of the Sewanee Utility District of Franklin and Marion Counties, the board discussed SUD’s role and the utility’s priorities in a pilot wetlands for recycling wastewater, a project being undertaken jointly by the University of the South and the University of Georgia. The board also reviewed the audit by Bean, Rhoton and Kelley, PLLC, and discussed water theft as a possible source of water loss.

During the 2012–13 academic year, University of the South students collaborated with student researchers from the University of Georgia to conduct a feasibility study for a pilot wetlands to recycle wastewater. The universities recently received a grant to construct a pilot wetlands in one of SUD’s wastewater treatment spray fields.

SUD Board Chair Cliff Huffman expressed concern that the grant proposal did not address reclaiming the area following completion of the project and did not address SUD’s concern with aesthetics and the appearance of the wetland’s site. SUD Commissioner Ken Smith suggested SUD should perhaps receive some income from the grant since SUD Manager Ben Beavers would be involved in coordinating the project.

Beavers said SUD’s requirements for the project would need to be clearly stated in the proposal that goes out for bids. Scott Torreano, University of the South professor of forestry and geology, will interface with contractors and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). TDEC has approved the pilot. SUD will request a letter of agreement from TDEC to protect SUD from liability for any violations in TDEC regulations.

The recycled water will be discharged into the SUD lagoons, not into SUD’s drinking water supply lakes. Beavers said the initial plan was to make the pilot “scaleable,” a design that could be expanded from the experimental stage to actual implementation, another important consideration in the final bid proposal. Beavers will attend the meeting set for July 18 at the University of the South to discuss implementation of the wetlands project.

Beavers said the audit conducted by Bean, Rhoton and Kelley, PLLC, found only two minor issues. Some customer tax-exempt certificates were not up-to-date; to rectify the situation, SUD sent a letter to all tax-exempt customers asking them to verify their tax-exempt status. SUD was also cited for one instance of failing to make a bank deposit within the three-day required period during a holiday when the deposit did not post until the next business day. SUD now makes deposits daily.

In discussing the audit, Beavers said he used the national average of 2.5 percent for “unauthorized consumption,” treated water stolen from hydrants or other sources. Beavers acknowledges that  unauthorized consumption might be a factor in SUD’s high unaccounted-for water loss, the difference between water treated at the plant and water registered as sold on customer meters, currently 26 percent. Beavers said in the past he apprehended a paving company taking water from a hydrant, as well as several other offenders. SUD has no way of knowing a theft is occurring unless someone contacts the utility. To secure all SUD’s hydrants would cost $400,000. Likewise, the cost of prosecuting offenders would beprohibitive, Beavers said.

In the financial report, Beavers cited a slight downward trend in water and sewer sales. The board discussed the possibility of the decrease in sales necessitating a rate increase in the future.

The next meeting of the SUD board is scheduled for August 26.

Council Votes to Increase Municipal Fee for Sewanee Leases

by Leslie Lytle Messenger Staff Writer


At the June 30 meeting, the Sewanee Community Council approved increasing the municipal service fee paid by all leaseholders to generate $10,000 to $20,000 in funds to be used by the Community Council for municipal improvements. The fee increase is for a trial two-year period.

A committee charged with investigating ways to encourage active participation in the council drafted the proposal. The committee was comprised of council representatives John Flynn, Theresa Shackelford and Pam Byerly, University community relations liaison Barbara Schlichting and University provost John Swallow.

Council representative John Flynn said the proposal addresses the complaint that the Council has no power.

The fee increase would be based on home value according to the Franklin County tax assessment. For example, to generate $10,000 of revenue, the owner of a home valued at $300,000 would see a fee increase of $56, said John Swallow, provost of the University. The average leasehold fee increase would be $22 annually. 

Council representative David Coe took issue with the proposal saying non-leaseholders would benefit from the municipal improvements and not share in the cost. Council representative Theresa Shackelford countered that individuals could make contributions to projects that interested them. Flynn said that community organizations could also make contributions.

A visitor suggested the municipal service fee increase for community improvements would be more meaningful if the University matched the funds raised by the fee increase. Swallow said the University contribution would depend on the project.

Coe said the proposal needed to be brought publicly to the community for discussion before a vote. Council representative Pat Kelley agreed. Flynn argued that as an elected body the council was empowered to make decisions regarding the constituents they represented.

The council voted 12 to 2 in favor of the proposal; Coe and Kelley voted against the proposal.
Vice-Chancellor John McCardell said, “This is not a step the University is taking lightly.” At the August 25 meeting, the council will determine the amount of revenue to be raised and the exact percentage of the fee increase.

The committee charged with ad- dressing council participation also recommended three changes to the constitution: reducing the residency requirement for council members from four years to two years; formalizing the expectation that council members attend meetings; the stipulation that all terms, including terms of council representatives elected this November, end in 2016. Swallow said ending all terms in 2016 would put all council representatives on equal footing if other changes such as redistricting are implemented. The council will vote on the constitutional amendments at the August meeting.

In addition to redrawing district boundaries so council representation more accurately reflects the number of residents in each district, the council is considering increasing the membership to include at-large representatives.

Following up on a suggestion made by student representative Caitlin-Jean Juricic, council representative Annie Armour proposed minutes from meetings of community groups like the Civic Association, the Business Alliance and the Community Center be made public. Kiki Beavers, web manager for the Sewanee Mountain Messenger, will ask community groups to send her their minutes and post them on the Messenger’s partner web- site <TheMountainNow.com>.

Based on consultation with the Sewanee Business Alliance, Shackelford proposed a slightly raised (painted) crosswalk in the vicinity of Angel Park. Police Chief Marie Eldridge said street-side parking and speeding posed hazards for pedestrians. Other solutions considered included speed bumps and ripple strips (slight ridges in the pavement) which frequently lead to complaints about noise. The Council voted to approve the proposal.

Eldridge will forward the request to the Franklin County Highway Department. The Highway Department will determine the exact location of the crosswalk and bear the cost.

For the coming academic year, the council will meet on Aug., 25, Oct. 13, and Dec. 1 in 2014 and on Feb. 23, April 27, and June 22 in 2015. 

TDOT Approves Mountain Goat Trail for Monteagle-Sewanee Segment

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) and the Town of Monteagle have approved the contract for construction of Phase II of the Mountain Goat Trail between Monteagle and Sewanee. Construction is due to begin by August 1st.

Monteagle Mayor Marilyn Campbell Rodman said, “My thanks first to God, and then to those who began this project eight years ago—April Alvarez, Clayton Rogers and Iva Michelle Russell—as well as those who’ve carried the project forward. I’d also like to thank Lisa Dunn and TDOT for their help.”

“After a great deal of hard work by many, many people, Phase II of the Mountain Goat Trail is about to become a reality,” said Janice Thomas, board president of the Mountain Goat Trail Alliance (MGTA). “We are so grateful to the mayor and aldermen of Monteagle for making this happen,” she said.
The three-mile Phase II section of the trail will extend from the Dollar General store in Monteagle west to the current terminus of the trail on Highway 156 in Sewanee. It will create a five-mile walking and biking path linking the towns of Monteagle and Sewanee.

The Phase II project is being funded by a TDOT Transportation Enhancement grant. The MGTA funded five years of engineering and development costs totaling more than $140,000 with the help of many individuals and private foundations. At the June 30 Monteagle City Council meeting, MGTA board members presented the Town of Monteagle with a check for $85,843.68 toward construction costs for the project.

Local contractor Blevins Enterprise of Grundy County submitted the winning bidof $640,179.69 for the project. The Mountain Goat Trail is a rail-to-trail community outdoor recreation project to convert an abandoned rail- road right-of-way into a multi-use recreational corridor between Grundy and Franklin counties on the Cumberland Plateau in Middle Tennessee. When finished, the trail will be 35–40 miles in length, climbing from Cowan onto the Cumberland Plateau and passing through the towns of Sewanee, Monteagle, Tracy City, Coalmont, Gruetli-Laager and Palmer.

For more information go to <www.mountaingoattrail.org>. 

Editors Discuss Nonfiction

The Sewanee School of Letters is hosting “Stranger Than Fiction: Editor Panel on Nonfiction Writing,” at 4:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 9, in Gailor Audi torium. A reception will follow.

National Geographic writer and Virginia Quarterly Review contributing editor Neil Shea will lead a conversation on nonfiction publishing with editors Paul Reyes of the Virginia Quarterly Review, Leigh Anne Couch of the Sewanee Review and Bruce Falconer of the American Scholar.

Shea is a veteran journalist whose work—published in such venues as the Providence Journal, Foreign Policy, the Atlantic Monthly, the Christian Science Monitor and the American Scholar—literally spans the globe, often covering military or environmental issues. Shea has been embedded with U.S. troops in Iraq and interviewed a Taliban commander in Afghanistan; he has explored Mexico’s crystal cave, visited Madagascar’s remote stone forest and reported on shrinking sea ice in the Arctic sea. He has won gold and silver Lowell Thomas Awards for stories on Ethiopia and Cuba, and has been a finalist for the National Magazine Award and the Overseas Press Club Award. Shea has taught courses in journalism and nonfiction writing at Boston University and at Furman University.

Couch is the managing editor of the Sewanee Review. Her poems have appeared in the Western Hu- manities Review, Shenandoah, Salmagundi, Gulf Coast Review, Cincinnati Review,Carolina Quarterly and other journals. Her chapbook, “Green and Helpless,” was published by Finishing Line Press, and her first book, “Houses Fly Away,” was winner of the Zone 3 Press First Book Award. She lives in Sewanee with the writer Kevin Wilson and their sons, Griff and Patch.

Reyes is the deputy editor of the Virginia Quarterly Review (VQR) and is the author of “Exiles in Eden: Life Among the Ruins of Florida’s Great Recession” (2010). “Opportunity Knocks,” his essay about the Miami organization Take Back the Land published in the Fall 2009 issue of VQR, was a finalist for a Harry Chapin Media Award. Another essay about the housing crisis in Florida was a finalist for the National Magazine Award for Feature Writing. He is married to photographer and designer Ellen Reyes.

Falconer is the senior editor of the American Scholar, a national, general- interest magazine based in Washing- ton, D.C., where he assigns and edits nonfiction features and book reviews. He was previously a staff writer at Mother Jones and, for six years, an editor at the Atlantic. At the Scholar, he has worked with a broad range of accomplished writers.

As a writer, his work has taken him around the world—to Switzerland, where he wrote about the phenomenon of “suicide tourism”; to the re- mote Canadian archipelago of Haida Gwaii, site of the largest and most controversial “geoengineering” experiment in history; and to Chile, where he pieced together the story of Colonia Dignidad, a German religious commune that, in the 1970s, tortured and murdered political dissidents for Augusto Pinochet. 

Explore the Memorial CrossTrails

The Sewanee Herbarium is sponsoring a hike of the trails adjacent to the War Memorial Cross. The group will take short forays in the most interesting directions, as well as talk about the trees and other plants near the Cross itself.

Meet at the Cross (at the end of Tennessee Avenue) at 4 p.m., Wednesday, July 9, to join Yolande Gottfried on this moderate one-hour walk.

The War Memorial Cross was built in 1922 as a memorial to all who died in World War I. Since then, its scope has been expanded to honor the students and citizens of Sewanee who also served in our nation’s armed forces during World War II, the Vietnam War, the Korean War and Desert Storm.

The Sewanee Herbarium is involved in education, research and conservation.
It acquires and maintains a collection of pressed plant specimens with emphasis on the flora of the Sewanee Domain and adjacent counties.

For more information go to < http://lal.sewanee.edu/herbarium>. 

"Hike to a Concert” at Lake Cheston

The Sewanee Summer Music Festival’s Hike to a Concert will be held at a beloved Sewanee landmark, Lake Cheston, on Friday, July 11. The event begins at 6 p.m.

The community is invited to bring walking shoes for strolling, or a picnic basket and blanket to experience the concert from a single vantage point. Hike to a Concert is an annual event held by the Sewanee Summer Music Festival that aims to provide “a unique and fascinating experience, fusing the acoustics of an orchestra with the natural mountain setting.” Signs will guide guests to the best picnic spots and strolling paths. Limited parking is available at the picnic area.

SSMF encourages people to walk or carpool and save nearby parking for those with limited mobility. Pets are welcome, but as there may be young children present, the Festival requests that any pets be on leashes and good around people. Insect spray is recommended.

In the event of a rain-out, the Hike event will take place on Saturday, July 12, and information will be posted at <sewaneemusicfestival.org>. Other SSMF concerts this week include: The Artist Faculty Series at 7:30 p.m., Saturday, July 5. Selections will include “Souvenir de Florence, Op. 70,” by Tchaikovsky.
At 2:30 p.m., Sunday, July 6, the Cumberland Orchestra will perform. Octavio Mas Arocas will be the conductor. Following this, the Sewanee Sym- phony will perform at 3:30 p.m. The concert will include the overture to Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” and selections from Prokofiev’s “Ro- meo and Juliet.” Mark Russell Smith is the conductor.

The Artist Faculty Series will re- turn at 7:30 p.m., Wednesday, July 9. All events are in Guerry Auditorium. 

Candidate Forum

Candidates running for election in the Franklin County General Election will be answering questions at a Franklin County Candidate Night, 6 p.m., Monday, July 14, at the Franklin County Annex Community Room. The event is sponsored by the Tims Ford Council. Expected to participate are candidates for county mayor, county sheriff and circuit court judge.

The Franklin County Annex building is located at 839 Dinah Shore Blvd., Winchester.