News
But loving bond lives thru passings
July 24, 2024 by Brandon L. Jones
While this is story about a special float, it is more about the man who built it — and the woman he loved.
Farragut’s Independence Day Parade-goers saw one of its floats for the last time Thursday, July 4.
Built back in 2016 by the late Lou LaMarche, an active Town volunteer and U.S. Army veteran who often played Town namesake Admiral David Glasgow Farragut in various events, the float replicating the USS Hartford in honor of Admiral Farragut first appeared that year in the annual Parade.
“He loved what he did,” said his wife, Dorothy “Dot” LaMarche, a former Farragut vice mayor/alderman, “and he just wanted to do something special for when we had the parade.”
There was no fanfare for Lou, the admiral in disguise all those years, in the 2024 Parade. He couldn’t see the cameras trained on the float he built. He couldn’t hear the applause as it passed along the crowd-lined streets.
Lou passed away five months ago, Feb. 24, after a bout with leukemia. He couldn’t have known his float’s last voyage would be in 2024.
“Everybody loved him,” Dot reminisced of the man who tried to take her hand after only a short time knowing her. “He was kind, and he was pretty well known in the little Town of Farragut.”
After meeting in college, Dot fondly recalled, “He wanted to get married right away. I said, ‘Well, I don’t really know you that well.’” He suggested a visit over Thanksgiving to meet his parents.
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July 24, 2024 by Staff Reports
KNOXVILLE — Knox County Engineering and Public Works Department on Monday, July 22, announced construction crews are putting plans in place to begin a road-widening project at one of the busiest intersections on Hardin Valley Road — at Solway Road, with the widening going roughly one mile westward.
“My team identified a project to take this three-lane section of road and convert it to five lanes,” said Jim Snowden, the department’s senior director. “That way we can essentially double our capacity and still maintain our center turn lane for safety.”
From the Mayor
Work on the roughly $2 million project is expected to start next summer. “The project should take between one and two years to complete and will cost considerably less than most comparable road projects that often take between five to 10 years to wrap up and cost upward of $20 million,” stated a release from Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs’ office.
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July 24, 2024 by Tammy Cheek
Farragut Municipal Planning Commission can be expected to recommend the Board of Mayor and Aldermen adopt the Town’s Mixed Use Town Center Vision Plan as a plan, not an ordinance.
While FMPC took no formal action at its Thursday, July 18, meeting on the agenda item, the consensus among its members was to vote recommending it as a plan only, not an ordinance, at its Thursday, Aug. 15, meeting. This came on the heels of hearing Town attorney Tom Hale advising against adopting it as an ordinance after a presentation on why he came to that conclusion.
After reviewing previous meetings, Hale said, “I think I need to give everybody some context about the way our state law is set up when it relates to planning and zoning.
He referred to a Court of Appeals decision and the judge’s opinion, which stated: “… The General Assembly has the empowered county and municipal legislative bodies to zone property.
“At the same time, it has delegated the land use planning function to local and regional planning commissions. The power to zone must be distinguished from the power to plan. Zoning and planning are complementary pursuits that largely concerned with the same subject matter. They are not, however, identical fields of municipal endeavor. Planning involves coordinating the orderly development of all interrelated aspects of a community’s physical environment, as well as all the community’s closely associated social and economic activities.
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July 24, 2024 by
• At 11:37 a.m., Saturday, July 20, a complainant called Knox County Sheriff’s Office Teleserve Unit to report a theft from Farragut High School, 11237 Kingston Pike.
“Complainant (said) he gave his son (a check) payable to (a music store) in the amount of $50” at noon, Thursday, July 18. His son confirmed he gave the check to an administrator there for band shoes,” the report stated. “Complainant (said) he was notified the check was cashed” at 10:30 a.m., Friday, July 19, to a (person) in the amount of $5,000.
• At 9:48 p.m., Sunday, July 15, a Knox County Sheriff’s Office unit responded to Kroger, 189 Brooklawn St. in Farragut, in reference to recovering a stolen vehicle reported out of Loudon County Sheriff’s Office.
The vehicle, a silver 2022 Nissan Murano, was determined to have been “abandoned with damage to the entire passenger said,” the report stated. Complainant, who reported the vehicle had been stolen, said the vehicle was still in probate as far as the ownership. Complainant’s daughter took possession of the vehicle.
• At 9:16 p.m., Monday, July 15, a complainant called KCSo Teleserve Unit to report a vehicular burglary at a Richwood Lane address. Complainant advised he noticed a handgun was missing at 8:30 p.m., and said “he recalls last seeing the gun on (around 1 p.m., July 1) when he placed it in his rental vehicle (2023 Dodge Charger),” the report stated.
Total value of loss was listed at $500. “Complainant advised he did not know when or where the unknown suspect gained access to the unlocked vehicle.”
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