The Knoxville News-Sentinel from Knoxville, Tennessee • 5

The Knoxville News-Sentinel Saturday June 28 1986 A5 Fulton rapped for Cloggers ready to step out in Big Apple by TOM HUMPHREY I Nashville bureau by DON WILLIAMS since I am always one who speaks out when I have something to say" the Nashville mayor said "I will continue to do that what a leader is all about doing what may be unpopular at a particular time I go ahead and do it not waiting for someone to say what the polls say and what you should say and da "I back up I don't mindja fight When I know right I fight and fight and fight And I will continue to do so despite the type of introduction given or the comments before an As he left the room several TSEA members apologized to Fulton for remarks "1 was very offended It was so said Judith Harrell who said she was a former TSEA president from Nashville Fulton said Johnson's speech was "obviously planned It was well-written and TSEA is widely regarded as being in McWherter1 comer in the Democratic gubernatorial primary race As speaker he has often worked with the group in passing Mila McWherter is scheduled to deliver a 45-minute keynote speech to the organization today Fulton fellow Democratic contender Jane Eskind and Winfield Dunn candidate for the Republican nomination each were given 10 minutes to speak Friday with an equal amount of time to respond to questions Eskind in talking to reporters after her appearance criticized Fulton and McWherter over Fulton saying a 1971 Mil supported by the speaker was reminiscent of "Nazism and "I thought his language was about as extreme as the Eskind said "1 thought the Mil was Eskind had earlier declined to comment on the measure which would have required sterilization of welfare mothers as a condition to receiving further benefits NASHVILLE Richard Fulton was denounced for "political bloodletting that spins on in an appearance before a state employees group and responded heatedly "I back Sandra Johnson executive director of the Tennessee State Employees Association Friday delivered a scathing attack on Fulton to the TSEA convention Just before the Nashville introduction for a speech Her remarks were centered around charge earlier in the week that House Speaker Ned Ray McWherter sponsored a MU exempting private businesses from a law barring discrimination against the handicapped "either by a horrible oversight or a crude back-door attempt to gut the effectiveness of the handicapped Johnson helped draft the Mil which modified the laws dealing with state workers and lobbied for it -Both she and McWherter say there was no intent to weaken the handicapped bill and the mistake was an As Fulton sat before the crowd of more than 300 members of the 20000-member organization Johnson said: your implication is certainly clear Mayor Fulton with all due respect it is also very wrong and totally unfair to imply that anyone of the parties associated with this MU would ever consider such a thing is totally She said 60 legislators signed on as co-sponsors in the House and Senate and Gov Lamar administration had endorsed it and helped in drafting Fulton normally bland in his speech delivery gave an impassioned response to what an aide later called an not the first time something like this has happened to me and I assume it will not be the last Now-SonMnal Sovlor County bureau PIGEON FORGE As the Tennessee Teams for Liberty begin their clogging routine in the open-air Dollywood stage a hundred or so people gather round In New York be millions In the distance a blue grass band plays "Rocky In New York hear Kenny Rogers Frank Sinatra Lionel Ri- i due A couple of cameras from the local press click and whir In New York there'll be ABC CBS CNN The New York Times The Dollywood Express locomotive chugs by as the doggers prance New York Harbor will be graced with the world's tallest ships If the prospect of representing Tennessee in the July 4 Statue of Liberty Centennial celebration frightens the group of 20 doggers on stage at Dollywood they don't let it show The Tennessee Toe Tappers and Morristown Country Cloggers will be heading up Wednesday for their two day gig in New Battery Park a throw away from the grand lady of the harbor The cloggers like to be known collectively as Tennessee Teams for Liberty As if all these names were not enough Gov Lamar Alexander has designated them Tennessee Goodwill Ambassadors But to look at them is to forget all the high-sounding names As they whirl in a Mur of red blue and white a few distinctively country touches show up They have freckles and braces and curls Even an old-fashioned cowlick stands up occasionally They are in short as American as gingham and bluejeans And it occurs to you about the time they kick into their grand patriotic finale that Alexander has chosen his ambassadors welL Paula Bruce waves a gnat away as she climbs down from the stage Bruce is the manager and sometime announcer for -the Tennessee Toe Tappers But today she is decked out and dancing to make up for an absent dogger Is her group ready for The Kg Apple? She looks back at the energetic teens at the core of the group as if( to say Is the Big Apple reedy tor them? Macyk Mama Broadway theaters win know the presence of these kids before their stay is over she says As for the show "Our stage is equipped for an audience of 10000 1 know whether theyTl freak out when they look at the crowd or not" Until now their biggest performance has been before an Am Vets convention at the Hilton Hotel in Knoxville But they also have danced in the Presidential Park at the White House at the cast party for the movie "The arid at DOE lawsuit criticizes taxing facilities in OR Don WWnnNew BtnUnU taW At Dollywood Melissa Baxley 5 performs some of the steps be using at the Statue of Liberty party in New York next week ing Ca and Oak Ridge Associated Universities The assessments issued to Martin Marietta by the Roane County property assessors total more than $1 billion and the assessment issued from Anderson County totals nearly $265 million On that assessment the tax Mil would be nearly $20 million annually total assessment from the counties is $48 million and the assessment for Associated Universities is $41 million Oak Ridge officials have not Issued a tax statement but have said theywilL The federal government says in the lawsuit the assessments are "grossly excessive and far greater in proportion than values placed on other industrial in the two counties A lawsuit filed by the US Justice Department on behalf of the Department of Energy says it is unconstitutional for local governments to tax DOE facilities in Oak Ridge The lawsuit was filed Friday in US District Court in Knoxville Defendants in the suit are county executives trustees property assessors and commissioners from Anderson and Roane counties and the mayor director of finance tax and property assessor and city councilmen from Oak Ridge The local governments are trying to collect taxes on the DOE facilities by using a recently passed state law allowing taxation of government property used by a contractor for profit The facilities in Oak Ridge are those of Martin-Marietta Systems Rust Engineer assorted political gatherings So they are no strangers to pressure performances Still New York is kind of in a different category says Bruce The cloggers managed to get invited with the help of Sen Albert Gore and Rep Jim Cooper mainly because Bruce worked in Washington office for a while The party for Lady Liberty is decidedly an exclusive event Bruce is not worried She shows off a "foil a move in which tain shuffle Ail the other steps are built on Her feet slide apart tapping tijq sidewalk beneath as she demonstrates the steps "We throw in a few buck she says demonstrating faster and lower to the ground" New Yorkers may not care for such fine distinctions in dogging she admits but it appears a score or more Tennessee ridge runners are ready to show them a thing or two all the same she twirls a leg up behind her pivoting at the knee then she demonstrates a "windshield fanning her right leg before her opposite shin Her cloggers win slay with the and other wholesome sounding steps Bruce 23 began clogging two years ago under the tutelage of Drudy Suiter who manages the Morristown Country Cloggers easy to she says "First you learn the Smoky Moun- Three groups vie for remaining public service TV Channel 15 by JAY P15KEY News-Sentinel staff writer Presently city residents need cable television service outdoor antennas or satellite dishes to receive the station If granted use of Channel 15 WSJK-TV plans to broadcast in Knoxville Federal regulations will not permit Channel 2 to operate in Knoxville because the station's frequency could interfere with similar signals from Atlanta and Nashville and violate rules regarding the separation of channels Channel 15 would operate as a sister station to Channel 2 The station would share Channel 2s studios and have much of the same programming Curtis has said Lincoln Memorial University the third applicant for Channel IS would include the channel as part of a communications curriculum the school is developing said Jim McCune dean of administrative services Community Broadcasting Corp would broadcast educational and cultural shows Statum said "We have been thinking about the station for two Statum said "1 don't know why ail of sudden other people have become The station would also have local programming and some shows with religious themes he said His corporation is working in conjunction with Knoxville College and Johnson Bible College Approval of WSJK-TVk application would pave the way for Knoxville residents to receive better reception of PBS programming said Curtis the station's general manager Although Channel 2 studios are in the University of Tennessee Communications Building in Knoxville the transmitter is about 55 miles northeast of Knoxville on Short Mountain near SneedviUe WSJK-TV Channel 2 a Public Broadcasting Service affiliate "There'S not too many (FCC) hearings for non -commercial Stone said "It is The channel which must provide public service programming or be operated in conjunction with an educational institution is the only remaining signal the FCC has allocated to Knoxville Stone said The FCC has scheduled the hearing to determine which group can provide puMic service programming said the Rev Hugh Statum of Knoxville Community Broadcasting Corp "The FCC will look at which stations have the financial ability to operate the channel and best serve the said Statum pastor of Highland Hills Church of God in Lenoir Gty If granted a license to operate Channel 15 Knoxville A battle to operate a new public service television channel in Knoxville is shaping up Three groups have applied to the Federal Communications Commission to operate Channel 15 a slot reserved for public service programming in Knoxville East Tennessee Public Communications Corp Knoxville Community Broadcasting Corp and Lincoln Memorial University in Harrogate Teno have applied to the FCC for permission to operate the channel The applicants are scheduled to present their cases to an administrative Judge Sept 8 in Washington said Robert Stone attorney for East Tennessee Public Communications Corpi The corporation operates Azaleas at Parson Gregory Bald worth summer hike i Carson Brewer I Quaker botanist William Bartram called them "the most gay and brilliant flower yet known" And he hadn't even seen the Gregory azaleas 1 told Bob that people who know about such matters say this is the finest example of hybridization of wild azaleas on this continent The (lame azaleas have little if any fragrance But some of the whites are loaded wth the best -smelling stuff I ever stuck a nose ta Some of the salmon-colored Rowers also smell good We walked over Gregory and down to the Moore Spring one of the two or three best springs the Smokies and ate our lunch Then back over Gregory and down across the saddle to Parson seen several other people on Gregory But no ere else was on Parson -Fewer azaleas and for less color variety But Parson was quiet Most of the sound was birdsong lrd softly combing the wild grass and brushing the tree leaven Peaceful restfJ cooling I think Bob enjoyed hi first long hike (about 1 1 rules a'J told) in the Smokies HeU be going back Canea Brewer Is a retired News-Seatlarl calsmaist aad staff writer Gap on the Parson Branch Road to Sheep Pen Gap in the wide saddle between Gregory and Parson in less than four hours Pretty good uphill walking This hike last Monday was first long walk in the Great Smokies He's ready for more But 1 had to caution him that he cannot expect every hike to have a destination as great as Gregory and Parson in the second half of June when the azaleas are showing oft At Sheep Pen Gap I told Bob a little about how that place used to look 50-75 years aga when most of the trees in the long fiat saddle between the balds were big chestnuts And about the Blount County people who used to go there in autumn and harvest hundreds of bushels of chestnuts to sell and to use themselves And about Nate Burchfield the herder who lived in a cabin in the saddle and when he wasn't too busy with the sheep and cattie in his charge made muscadine brandy A man I used to know spent a night in Nate'S cabin and Nate gave him a sack of salt for a pillow We turned left and started the climb up Gregory A third of the way up there in the trail ahead of us stood a ruffed grouse a male I wanted him to fly so Bob could hear the thunder of his takeoff He wouldn't fly Then we saw his mate She wouldn't fly either Then we saw why: They had little ones with them and they were trying to get them to cover Nice family Though I had feared we might be two or three days late to see the Gregory azaleas at their best I don't think ever seen them lovelier Bright reds at least three shades of pink salmon pure white sand yellow and the orange-yellow we usually have in mind when discussing the so-called flame azaleas There is not much use in trying to describe the Gregory azaleas to somebody who hasn't been there la late June Gregory simply is the loveliest place in the Great Smokies and one of the prettiest in the whole country The place is covered with acres of grasa lots and lots of low-bush bfoebemes a scattering of sma3 trees a few laurel bushes also Moomsrg Monday And scattered here and there especially around the rim of the bald the azaleas masses of fresh vibrant color Upon seeing flame azaleas for the first time more than 00 years aga that old Sweaty and tired and a little out of breath Dr Robert Puckett and I lay down under a scrubby little oak close to a brilliant red azalea on top of Parson Bald A cooling wind shook the shade made by the oak leaves and dried our sweat Bob Puckett wanted to go to Parson Bald He sometime in a fight vein calls himself "Parson He is my minister pastor of the Norris Religious Fellowship He became a convert to walking three or four months aga And though he celebrated his 60th birthday only a few days aga he has become a veritable walking machine He preached a sermon on walking a few Sundays aga Among the things he said was that he now has a new insight into what Jesus had on his mind when he told that fellow taTake up thy bed and I hadn't told him we were going to Parson Bald I hadn't told him there was a Parson Bald I had told him go to Gregory Bald Parson about a mile south of Gregory has always played second fiddle to the larger bald that has such an outstanding display of wild azaleas Ten people go to Gregory for every two who go to Parson But after I decided walk up the Hannah Mountain Trail instead of up Forge Creek and Gregory Ridge 1 figured I ought to mention Parson Bald to Parson Puckett and if he wanted to walk out to it we'd do sa He so wanted But we saved it till last We had a generally uneventful walk up to Sheep Pen Gap Bob got in front and set a fast pace I tried to find things of interest so I could slow him down to show him something But there wasn't much I dd get him stopped at what looked like a fresh hole in the ground that some ent ter had dug as a home for himself Turned out ret to be that at alL A bear had dug that bole to get at a nest of little bumblebees living there At least this was what we deduced from what we saw: A haT bumblebee the bear forgot to finish We made the four mZes from Sams.