The Tennessean from Nashville, Tennessee • Page 47

5 ax on gxempv JV 'roperies Irags is if 1 Woifr-See Stance fOCUS THE TENNESSEAN Wedn day Jonuory 4, 1984 i 4 At', I I 4 I 1 t'r. a----- 1 iirln ifilKlli III 111 Mil if Photo by Kots Smith I They may look calm, but do not be deceived. These goats are 25 years by Dr. Virgil LeQuire, a professor of pathology at Van-I part of the herd "nervous goats" that has been maintained for derbilt University. Nervous Goofs1 Intrigue Researchers When Startled, Animals May Stiffen and Become 'Like a Statue' In Williamson County, Property Assessor Wayne Irwin said his of-.

fice was "in limbo" on the issue and would not evaluate properties or issue notifications until the state Board of Equalization ruled on the matter. "There's going to be a lawsuit on it, I'll guarantee you one of the churches will sue," Irwin said. "I'm not going to be the leader on. it and stick my neck out." Metro's Clary said identification and valuation of the sorts of properties in Metro affected by Leech's opinion have been carried out over the past 18 months. At the time of the decision he indicat-.

ed that between 450 and 500 parsonages would be added to Metro's, tax rolls as of Jan. 1. "I stuck my neck out on this and I'm going to keep it stuck out there," he said. "I'm not an athe-; ist, but I feel that the exemption laws are much too lenient." Sumner County Property Assessor Thomas Marlin said that onlyt in past years had county assessors -had the right to exempt properties. "That's strictly left up to the: state now," he said.

"We're just going to wait and find out for cer-; tain what the ruling is and then we'll abide by the law." In Cheatham County, Tax Assessor Hubert Dozier said his office had not received a copy of the attorney general's opinion and would not take any immediate ac-' tion on the question. Robertson County Property Assessor Bill Henry said he would await clarifi-: cation of the issue and a decision from the state Board of Equaliza-; tion. According to the county asses-; sors, none of them had received significant public response to the opinion, which also viewed as unconstitutional the tax exemptions for county fair associations, com-" munity park caretakers, artificial-breeding associations, fraternal organizations, privately owned airport runways, and solar-' or wind-powered heating and cooling" equipment. By THOMAS GOLDSMITH In Metro Nashville, Property Assessor Jim Ed Clary will put parsonages on the 1984 tax rolls, and Wilson County Attorney Bob Rochelle wants to be prepared to do the same. But most property assessors for Nashville's outlying counties are taking a wait-and-see attitude about a recent state attorney general's opinion that could result in the taxing of parsonages and other presently tax-exempt properties.

State Attorney General William Leech concluded in a Dec. 20 opinion that parsonages, school-owned residences of college presidents, college bookstores and a host of other tax-exempt properties did not satisfy the constitutional requirement for exemption that of being "used for purposes purely religious, charitable, scientific, literary or educational." "What the attorney general has issued is an opinion; the law is that the state exempts the church and the principal parsonage," said Rutherford County Property Assessor Tommy Sanford. "If the legislature changes the law or the state Board of Equalization issues a ruling, we'll go out and pick those properties up." Sanford's research indicates that taxing parsonages in Rutherford County would generate between $9,000 and $12,000 in revenues annually. "Unless there's a major difference of opinion, we pretty well take it that we should follow the opinion of the attorney general," Rochelle said. "I've talked to the tax assessor and suggested a review of all tax-exempt properties." Rochelle said the Wilson County assessor's office would identify the exempt properties, evaluate them and notify property owners.

"That way the property owner could challenge it to the county Board of Equalization, which starts meeting on June 1," he said. "What we don't want to get into is a situation where a ruling is is "I've heard a story about a hired man who, a few days before a barbecue, was given a scatter-gun and told to go into the back pasture and kill one of the goats. He was advised that the goats were very shy and that he should be very careful not to apprise them of his presence until he was ready to shoot. "After crawling up cautiously, he picked out a nice fat kid, took careful aim and fired. Goats dropped in every direction, some 30 animals collapsing simultaneously.

"Aghast, and without waiting for the resurrection, he ran back to the house. i don't know how it happened," he panted. "I only fired once but I killed every damn one of them R.J. Goode, a fancier of "nervous goats." stranger who appeared in Marshall County wearing two hats, one a fez. The stranger, who was thought to have come "rather circuitously" from Nova Scotia, brought with him the clothes on his back, a sacred cow and four myotonic goats, the account continued.

Whatever the origin of the "nervous goats," the cause, of their physical condition was probably a genetic mutation, Atkinson said. "Farmers like to keep the breed because they can't jump over high fences and they do whatever normal goats do," he said. Swift noted that the strain of myotonia in goats has become so widespread in Middle Tennessee that researchers have had difficulty locating goats that have no trace of the condition for comparison in experiments. Since myotonia occurs in humans, researchers have sought to learn more about the condition in goats in order to apply the information to human muscular disease. "It's an animal model that's closely related to a human disease," Atkinson said.

"It's pne of the most closely related animal models there is." Myotonic goats have been the object of study and scientific papers since the early years of this century. One goat was sent to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore to be studied, and two herds are maintained at research institutes in Ohio and Minnesota. The Vanderbilt pathologists' work was funded by the Muscular Dystrophy Association until a grant expired in 1982. No projects are currrently under way, but Swift says valuable work remains to be done on the unusual creatures. By THOMAS GOLDSMITH I NASHVILLE You no doubt have heard 5 the expression "dizzy as a goat" but have you ever heard of a "nervous" goat? about "fainting" or "stiff-legged" goats? Well, the story of the nervous goats found in Middle Tennessee is a curious mixture of scientific appraisal and folk mythology.

The strange behavior of the animals, in the area since the 1880s, is due to a' condition called hereditary myotonia. When startled or moved to sudden action, a "nervous" goat experiences an attack in muscles contract and don't relax, xausing the animal to stiffen and sometimes to fall over in its tracks. i "Sometimes they'll look just like a statue," said Dr. James Atkinson, a Vanderbilt University pathologist who has studied the goats over a period of 10 years. "You could pick them up and carry them around like a piece of wood." goats studied by Atkinson and Dr.

Larry Swift, another Vanderbilt pathologist, belong to a herd of the animals maintained for 25 years by Dr. Virgil LeQuire, profes-5pr of pathology at the university. Other herds of the animals have been kept through 'the years by farmers who wanted the goats around for amusement, as in an anecdote attributed to J.L. Lush and quoted by Atkinson in a scientific paper. "The first goats of the Texas flock were brought from Tennessee to Texas solely to uphold the veracity of the Texas farmer who had been telling neighbors about their existence in his boyhood home in Tennessee," Lush related.

"Naturally their odd behavior was put to the test again and again. "As a form of Sunday afternoon sport the scaring of these goats may not have quite been equal to a circus for entertainment and diversion, yet it had its attractions and was often practiced." The goats don't lose consciousness during a seizure and the experience doesn't hurt them, Atkinson said. "Once they have an at-. tack it'll last about 20 seconds, then for the next 20 or 30 minutes they'll be perfectly normal," he said. Researchers think the ancestry of all "nervous goats" can be traced back to Middle Tennessee.

According to one account collected by R.J. Goode, an Alabama man who researched the goats' history, the animals were brought to the state by a mysterious Did You Get A Video Recorder For Christmas? Moke Yours The Best Choice! JOIN TENNESSEE VIDEO CLUB GET ONE MOVIE FREE! (Limited Time Only) LOWEST RENTAL RATE IN TOWN 8C per hour (minimum S3.00I County Saw Transformation, Consistency in '83 sued next November or December and we don't know the value or the measurements or the type of heat for these properties. "My advice is to be prepared. Once they declare it, it's the law all along. We can always back off." Clyde Davis, property assessor for Dickson County, said he believed the properties in question should be assessed, especially in the case of an institution in competition with private business.

Nevertheless, he indicated his office would await a definite ruling on whether to assess the properties. "It will cause some problem, but we can add to our list a lot better than we can take off," Davis said. three new shopping centers, some buildings still await tenants. Owners of Murfreesboro's afternoon newspaper, the Daily News Journal, announced in July their decision to buy the year-old Morning Press there. Negotiations broke down a week after the announcement and Murfreesboro's only locally owned newspaper, the Morning Press ceased publication.

Thousands to Select from CALL 242-6544 37 Cleveland St. IT ESAlDV PB speech. Odom was fired by the city after a successful ouster suit was brought against the mayor for improperly using of the city credit card and illegally benefitting from the use of his car dealership to service city vehicles. The mayor has been allowed to remain in office pending the outcome of appeals of the ouster suit. LA VERGNE Farther north, La Vergne's failing Firestone plant was sold last January to Japanese Bridgestone USA tire company for $52 million.

Bridgestone got an $80 million industrial revenue bond issue to pay for the plant and to retool it. La Vergne built a new City Hall and annexed about 1,450 acres, but perhaps the biggest story to La Vergne residents last year is the $688,000 EPA grant they got to help build a sewer system there. More than a half dozen businesses announced decisions to either locate new industries or to renovate existing enterprises in La Vergne. MURFREESBORO A move to revitalize the Mur- freesboro downtown area to provide smoother traffic flow, additional parking and increased tourism was thwarted when county officials refused to help the city fund the project. However, the downtown area moved a few steps closer to following national trends when retail businesses moved out and professional, governmental and financial businesses established themselves on the old public square.

Tullahoma Savings and Loan Association moved to the square and into a building that had been renovated by local engineer Logan Hickerson for office space. Bill Sellers, who resigned in October after 26 years as county attorney, returned to private practice in an office building his family renovated on the square. Stickney's Drug Store, Goldstein's Department Store, Moudy's, Cato's and a few other retailers left the square. Although not all were replaced by new private enterprises, Holloway's, Allan Loveless Photographies, Marlene's Bridal Shop and Emily's Lunchroom inhabited some of the empty storefronts. While city planners approved FROM Page 1 ufacturing facility in Smyrna officially opened in October bringing ne'ws media from all over the world to watch Japanese ingenuity at, work in Middle Tennessee.

Smyrna, once a forgotten Air Force base, suddenly became the ceMer of attention in the county, prompting higher than average housing starts and the promise of new industry countywide. Mason Tucker, editor of the Smyrna newspaper, The Rutherford Courier, announced his retirement after 20 years of cover-irlg'Smyrna. Knox Ridley resigned as city coordinator, a position he had held for 24 years, and his twin brother, Mayor Sam Ridley, successfully fought off federal prosecutors, who' were investigating him on allegations of conflicts of interest in office. The mayor didn't fare so well in twother legal battles, both initi-ated fired Smyrna Water Department employee Neal Odom. A'federal court ordered Ridley and' his brother to pay Odom $345,000 in damages for violating his constitutional right to free tlTFISiaDS ITALIAN SPAGHETTI DINNER DRAUGHOH'S JUNIOR COLLEGE Offers the finest training available today ELECTRONICS COURSES INCLUDE: Circuit Analysis Electronic Circuit Analysis Industrial Electronics Computer Engineering Technology Microprocessing Systems Digital Electronics FINANCIAL AID AVAILABLE DAY AND NIGHT CLASSES AVAILABLE CALL TODAY, DON'T WAIT! JUNIOR COLLEGE Plus Park Pavilion Nashville, TN 37217 "Be Somebody Going SomewhereF ft ffft to served with tossed salad grilled bread.

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