Friends & Landlords

Reading Tim Stutz's letter in "A View from Afar" [Vol. 8, No. 34] brought back memories of the times I lived in Fort Sanders. I, too, lived at Laurel Terrace, although only for three years from 1981-1983. As Mr. Stutz described it, it is an impressive house that has beauty and character. However, Mr. Stutz later made the comment that "I bet pretty soon ole' Trammell will sell that place and tear it down." While I agree with Mr. Stutz's desire to maintain the character and history of the Fort Sanders' area, it was unfortunate that his flippant comment reflected negatively on someone who has already been preserving the character, history, dignity of the Fort Sanders area; and in fact has been doing it for the past 20 years!

While I lived at Laurel Terrace, I would see the Trammells, Herb and Jane, almost every weekend from spring through fall, planting flowers, weeding, mowing, painting, doing whatever maintenance was required. And if the work wasn't completed on the weekends, it was not unusual to see them there during the week. Two of their children, Bert and Brian, also lived there at different times serving as apartment managers. I'm sure Mr. Trammell could have hired someone to do his landscaping and maintenance, but he didn't. He and his wife and children spent countless hours doing the work themselves—thus keeping the rent lower for their tenants. Their investment, both monetarily and in sweat equity, provided me with a wonderful place to live—an impressive place with character, but also with a feeling of home because of the Trammells' involvement.

It has been several years since I have seen any of the Trammells. Perhaps they don't keep the same demanding pace in 1998. Certainly, they deserve a chance to relax. I don't know what their future plans are for Laurel Terrace. However, I doubt their plans are to "sell that place and tear it down." Their many years as owners have proven that they are indeed responsible landlords as well as friends to those who seek to preserve the character, dignity, and history of Fort Sanders. They have been people committed to their investment and to their tenants, who in return, thought of Herb and Jane Trammell as friends rather than landlords.

Eleanore Womac
Louisville, Tenn.

Fall Creek Falls

Your recent article on the state park system did a good job describing the conflicts between resort development and natural resources preservation. It did not, however, correctly describe the situation regarding strip-mining near Fall Creek Falls State Park. The U.S. Office of Surface Mining's proposal was an evaluation of a petition submitted by Save Our Cumberland Mountains, Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, and others, to have the park watershed and viewshed declared unsuitable for coal surface mining. In its draft evaluation of the petition, OSM proposes to deny the petition, allow the area to remain available for mining, and require a detailed Environmental Impact Statement for each future mine proposed in the area. In effect, postponing any real decision.

Gov. Sundquist's stand was much less pro-environment or pro-park than the media, including Metro Pulse, have reported. His stand does note the need to protect the unique natural resources of the park and places the Fall Creek watershed (which feeds Fall Creek Falls and makes up less than 10 percent of the petition area) off limits to mining. However, he also plays up private property rights and the economic value of the coal, and would consider proposals to strip-mine most of the remainder of the petition area.

Charles P. Nicholson
Norris

Thesis Anxiety

Joe Tarr's piece about the UTK thesis and dissertation archives ["A Matter of Degrees," Vol. 8, No. 32] rekindled memories of summer 1988, when I was grinding out a master's in English. Thanks for sparing my thesis—Assessing the Usability of Technical Documents—the mild derision several other ex-students' weren't so fortunate to escape. I especially liked your description of Ann Lacava, who made painless the whole process of conforming to UT's precise thesis specifications. I'd imagine other schools have some scary, intimidating official to enforce such guidelines, but each year UT creates dozens of happy alums just by making sure Ann's is the last face they see before graduating. She's kind, helpful, witty...everything one could hope for from the person who has to break the news that you'll have to re-do your thesis because the margins are off by a fraction. Computers have made this a more agreeable process, but no amount of technology will ever erase the anxiety for future generations. There's some comfort in that.

Tom Garritano
Knoxville