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Don Jacobs from News Sentinel and Barry Henderson from Metro Pulse attended. Jeff Welch, Mike Conger and Renee Davis from MPC/TPO were present, along with Bill Lyons, Sr. Director of Economic Development for the City of Knoxville. Jeannie Dulaney, Kathy Hamilton and David Kitts from Leadership Knoxville served as meeting facilitators. Del Truitt and Glenn Malone from TDOT also participated. City Councilman Chris Woodhall, Co-Chair of the Task Force, opened the meeting at approximately 4:30 PM. Knoxville Mayor Bill Haslam was first on the agenda, providing a welcome and challenge for the group. He asked that while everyone may bring a bias into the process, to be committed to finding the best answer, not just individual answers. He stressed the importance of feedback and input from everyone.
Knox County Commissioner Larry Clark reminded the group of the original plans to conduct a Chapman Highway Corridor Study, and the benefits of including the impact of James White Parkway Alternatives as part of the study. He outlined the Chapman Highway issues that will addressed, including land use, zoning, safety and beautification, and encouraged the group to focus on making South Knoxville a better place.
Del Truitt, Coordinator of Local Government and MPO Relations for Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) was on hand to represent TDOT Commissioner Gerald Nicely. Mr. Truitt noted that this study points to a whole new way of making decisions, and that TDOT is on the verge of making a human resource breakthrough. This is one of the first efforts of its kind to research a situation and come up with a decision - a new way of doing business, he told the group. Glenn Malone, TDOT Project Manager, also spoke. He will be the local TDOT staff resource, attending all the task force meetings and keeping TDOT informed. City Councilman Joe Hultquist welcomed the group and spoke briefly about the work of the earlier task force established by the City of Knoxville to study the James White Parkway Extension in 2002-2003. He explained that when TDOT delayed making a decision about the extension and referred the project back to the local government for further review, that many people realized the James White Parkway study could not be separated from a Chapman Highway Corridor Study, it made sense to integrate the two. In other introductory remarks, Councilman Woodhull told the group that he is very excited about being a part of this study, and talked about the need for effective government and the benefits of combining professional expertise and academic understanding with local knowledge. Quoting from the book Six Barriers for Effective Government, he shared that "Everyday, citizens of democratic governments must cope with problems caused or perpetuated by the well-intentioned decisions of the officials they elected." He praised the holistic approach to the study, and warned that there will be some trade-offs. He would like to see the issues come together in a way that everyone can live with, and he asked the group to each sacrifice something to get to a place where it works for everybody, to accomplish something very unique. Next, the Task Force Co-Chairs introduced support staff – Jeff Welch, Executive Director of the Knoxville Regional TPO and Director of Comprehensive Planning for MPC; Renee Davis, a Senior Planner working in long-range/community planning and the primary contact for the project; and Mike Conger, Senior Transportation Engineer, who will be working on the transportation model and other transportation planning issues. Additional staff from a variety of city, county and other agencies will be called on when needed. After staff introductions, the Leadership Knoxville facilitators were introduced and the meeting was turned over to them. Jeannie Dulaney, Executive Director of Leadership Knoxville, led in an introduction of the task force members and participants, asking them to tell what organization, if any, they represent, and to give some information on their hobbies, work, and experiences in south Knoxville. The task force is well-rounded, with a wealth of knowledge and variety of backgrounds to draw from.
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Facilitator Kathy Hamilton, a previous finance director for Knox County, shared with the group that she now works as Director of Finance for Connex. David Kitts is a training specialist for the Knoxville Police Department, working in the domestic violence unit. The Leadership Knoxville facilitators bring a neutral, process focus to the study. While they are familiar with the local government, their goal is to help the task force function well together as a group. They apply an 80/20 rule to group efforts, recommending that groups are better at making decisions when they spend 80% of their time in the beginning getting to know each other, and 20% of their time doing the work.
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In order to get to know each other better, the participants had been asked to sign in on a very long sheet of paper, adding their names and the date of their ‘entrance’ into Knoxville. For some, college or a career/family move brought them to the community, while others were born in here. Kathy Hamilton led the group in a timeline exercise "You Have to Look Back Before You Can Move Forward." The group discussed south Knoxville history and memories, while David Kitts took notes on the positive and negative aspects of each situation, and Jeannie Dulaney illustrated the timeline with cartoon drawings. The early streetcars, first bridges and restaurants were often mentioned. Many participants recalled walking as the primary means of transportation. Events such as the World’s Fair, downtown redevelopment efforts and building the James White Parkway interstate connection brought the group up to the present time and issues faced today.
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After
facilitators reviewed the timeline, MPC staff discussed the most immediate
tasks: finding the best day and time to meet and establishing a set
meeting schedule, and breaking into three subcommittees – Community
Impact, Transportation/Mobility, and Economic Development. The large
task force will meet monthly, in the early part of the month, while
each subcommittee will meet at a separate time later on in the month,
and report back to the large group at the next monthly meeting. Much
of the technical work will be done through the subcommittees. All meetings
– task force and subcommittee - will be open for the public to observe,
and all information – minutes, etc. will be posted on the web site for
easy public access
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. Councilmen Hultquist and Woodhull ended the meeting at approximately 7PM by thanking the participants and facilitators. The group was reminded to pick up their Task Force notebook, review the materials and provide their subcommittee selection sheet to Renee Davis at MPC.
Meeting
Summary provided by Renee Davis
If
you have comments or questions about the
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