Letters to the editor:
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Here's What You Can Do

I want to commend Jesse Fox Mayshark for the excellent article on the land preservation in general and the Foothills Land Conservancy in particular in the February 3, 2000 issue of Metro Pulse ["Battlefield: East Tennessee" Vol. 10, No. 5]. As president of the Conservancy, I suppose I'm a little biased about the work we and others are doing to help preserve a little of what makes East Tennessee one of the most beautiful places in the country.

Your article did raise the issue of what could people do to get involved. Well, here's a short list:

A. Join the Foothills Land Conservancy and/or come to our Annual Meeting at Profitt Dining Hall at Maryville College on Saturday, March 18 at 11:45.

B. Contribute to our campaign to acquire Smith Bend.

C. Call or write Sen. Jimmy Duncan and ask him to co-sponsor HR 701—the Conservation and Reinvestment Act—which would triple the federal funds in land protection by charging a royalty on offshore oil and gas lease revenues. In effect, it is investing the proceeds from a nonrenewable natural resource in permanent, renewable assets for all Americans.

D. Call or write your local state representatives and complain about the proposed closings of three East Tennessee State parks including House Mountain.

E. Go—and better still, take a kid with you—to Ijams Nature Center, or the Foothills WMA, or the Smokies.

All these places are close by, free, and here for all of us to enjoy because ordinary people cared enough about the land and the things that live in, on, and around them to preserve these places for us and those that follow

Rick Murphree
Knoxville

Hard Knocks

As a resident of Fort Sanders, I think I know why so many houses are being razed in that area: Property Taxes. Basically, if you improve your property, you are fined for it. My appraisal went up from $73,000 to $105,000 between 1993 and 1997. According to the News-Went-To-Hell, the average increase was less than 20 percent. I appealed and brought the appraisal down to $95,000, but the board gave no reason as to why my property had been selected for such a drastic increase. I did not add to it or improve it structurally. I did paint the house and add a prison fence, the latter due to the federally-funded murderers and hoodlums known as The Job Corpse (sic). I would like to know how it cost the city more to provide services (fire, police, etc.) just because I painted my house? The board either couldn't or wouldn't give me a reason. Of course, the county property taxes are just outright theft because a city resident cannot call the sheriff, etc. So, please understand the possible position of landlord Robert Shagan et al. You give me enough money and I'd turn my lovely house into a parking lot and move to Seymour or some other place away from Knocksville and Knocks County (Motto: Give us all your money).

John R. Snyder
Knoxville

Rollo Speaks

O.K., so you did another garbage issue ["Wasting Away" by Joe Tarr, Vol. 10, No. 6], the government does a fine job of covering up garbage, at the convenience centers they don't allow anything to be sold or given away. It must be buried. This infuriates me, as a savage (sic) artist, I've seen it, the good stuff, crushed and taking up room in the landfills. The only one with the right mindset is Tim Burchett. He proposes to put prisoners to work recycling in the landfills. This would save tons of stuff, make the stupid concept we have now—that every household owner should devote a room in the house as a recycling sorting area—obsolete. I bet the prisoners would love to go outside, maybe make a little money, let them keep that diamond ring that would inevitably get found. Hey, why not put the new jail out by the landfill? And make Tim Burchett our next mayor.

James Sullivan, AKA Rollo
Knoxville