I love Charlie Busler. He’s been a conscientious county commissioner for seven-plus years and cannot run for reelection because of term limits.
If the three Republicans (no Democrats) running to replace him are half as dedicated, we’ll be OK. Those individuals are Rhonda Lee, Gill Road, Powell; Allen Merritt, Dogwen Road, Halls; and Chuck Severance, Country Run Circle, Powell.
Charles Busler
Knowing Charlie, I’m sure he was behind the new sign on Emory Road that recognizes the Powell Panthers winning the 5A football state championship.
He also got into it at a meeting of the Rule Committee of Knox County Commission on Monday afternoon. Seems Charlie actually attends workshops when he travels on the county’s dime to state and regional meetings. “Some of them (his colleagues) show up for the first one and then you never see them again.”
Busler wanted to amend the commission’s rules to require commissioners who skip meetings to reimburse Knox County for the cost of their trip. You can imagine how many votes that got.
Welcome, Maria
We’ve added a new columnist at Knox TN Today. Maria M. Cornelius covered the UT vs Belmont women’s basketball game in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Monday. (We won.)
Negotiations were intense. Maria already has three or four jobs and had to clear it with everybody. My motivation was the same as always – to hire someone who makes knoxtntoday.com better.
Maria M. Cornelius
We got through all that. Then came the sticking point.
“I can’t call them Vols, though. It’s Lady Vols for me. As the good Pat Summitt intended,” said Maria.
“Lady Vols makes me gag,” I wrote back. If Pat pioneered the term “lady” for women’s sports teams, which she did, then I pioneered writing around it. For 50 years.
The result: to get Maria, her connections and her vast institutional knowledge, I had to give in on Lady Vols (gag, gag). Maria agreed to use the term sparingly. (Is four times in 500 words sparingly? You decide.)
But hey, I’m glad we’ve got Maria Cornelius. Once the tournament ends, we’ll get her a column name and a regular day. Wonder if she does softball?
New tale
I’m a sucker for tall tales, but without permission to use this guy’s name, I’ll mask the facts a bit. It’s still a good story.
Once upon a time, a lad noticed his neighbors had a problem with farm animal waste disposal. He borrowed his grandpa’s pickup truck and worked after school, shoveling and loading and hauling and dumping and composting on a corner of his grandpa’s farm. He wasn’t even old enough to drive. And he was paid in cash.
By age 20, he had saved enough to buy a small house – some $30,000 in dirty dollar bills, fives, tens and quarters. The title company ratted him out and IRS came calling. Seems he had not reported any income, ever, and the title company thought he was dealing drugs.
He must have worked it out because he’s still around, shoveling manure and tall tales. And he’s one of the wealthiest guys in town.
Sandra Clark is editor/CEO of Knox TN Today.
