This may have already been discussed on Roane Views, but I wanted to get the word out about the TN Scenic Protection Act, SB 577, a bill to prevent the coal industry from blasting off TN's Mountain ridgelines.

A last minute amendment to the bill was made a few days ago which keeps the status quo and does nothing to protect TN's mountains. The passage of the orginial bill is still possible & I hope you will read more about it and let your voice be heard if you want to see the legislation pass.

You can find out more here:

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Thanks! Kara Foster

What should be the top five roads projects in Roane County right now? What road projects would benefit the entire county the most? Explain the need please.

While we were busy trying to beat back bad Food Safety Acts by Congress and their Agri-business allies, a new bil HR2749 alipped in, has been voted out of committee and is headed for a full vote soon. Once again, this bill targets the solution (to food contamination) small farmers and farmer's markets, and not the problem, industrial agriculture and factory-like CAFOs (Confined Animal Feed Operations)
A provision in this new bill would make me a "food processing facility" if I baked a loaf of bread or canned a jar of tomatoes and sold it to one of our customers. Registration for a food processing facility is pegged at $500 for 2010. Chump change for industry, a crippling expense for a small family farm.

Help save your local food grower and processor, i.e. Amish bakeries, sorghum growers, County Fair preserves, etc.

Please go to this link and voice your opinion.

Thank you.

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Dear Senator Yager,

If you believe that your brief, standard form reply makes me feel
heard about my concerns, you are more out of touch than I had
imagined. I doubt that you respond that way to your lobbyist friends
from the coal industry.

Due to your current mental distance from our community, you may be
unawares that there is a profound political shift taking place in your
district. People are beginning to pay attention to what the
politicians are doing and saying as a result of the catastrophic TVA
environmental disaster that has affected our County. And senator, a
lot of them don't like what they see and hear coming from you.

In the past, you have been elected because you were a known quantity
who, although lacking in environmental awareness and ideological
substance, was considered a GOB and therefore somewhat harmless.
However, change is now shifting the landscape under your feet, but how
would you know, since you seem to operate under a lot of false
assumptions?

In conclusion, let me assure you that a wake up call is coming your
way, and if you continue to be asleep at the wheel as you have been
since this TVA disaster, you're liable to find yourself having to get
a new day job.

Sincerely,

Leaf Myczack, a Roane County Farmer

For the past week or so, TVA police have been at the intersection of Swan Pond Rd and Roane State Hwy in the morning and evening. It appeared that it was to help the construction traffic go in and out more easily. Well, starting Monday morning (2/16/09) the Kingston police are there. WHY?
That is not in the Kingston City limits, although they do lust for that area. I can see that TVA may not have enforcement powers on the highway, but it makes no sense for Kingston to post themselves there. I would think if a law enforcement presence was needed, it would be the RCSO's jurisdiction.

Bloomberg Worldwide reports that the Fed seems prepared to lower the interest rate to close to zero {0.5%} later on today and use its own balance sheet as a key tool for monetary policy.

Did you know that the City of Harriman already has a Pit Bull Ban? How did this get by without us knowing it? Did I sleep through April?

How are they enforcing it? Not very well! There were several Pit Bulls among the crowd at the Labor day celebrations.

Once again, as for many years, our home is dark for the holidays. No colorful lights adorn our abode to express our bounteous holiday spirit. Why? Are we modern-day Scrooges, trying to say "Humbug" to our neighbors? Or is there another reason?

Smaller and distributed instead of big and centrally controlled are usually better for a lot of reasons: freedom, choice, scalability, security. Historically, concentrations of people and power are not always beneficial and are often very difficult to break up.