Winners, Republican Sheriff, Republican County Mayor, Republican Trustee, Republican beats out Incumbent Democrat Road Superintendent.  As the voting indicates, it's not a good time to be a Democrat on the Plateau.

I welcome you to the Second Annual Crossville Sustainability Fair. For Crossville to develop sustainably, we must meet the needs of those who live, work and shop in our community today without compromising the ability of future generations who will call Crossville and Cumberland County home home to do the same.
As you visit the demonstrations of our many Sustainability Fair Partners, I want you to think about how you can make some of what you learn today a part of your life and the life of our community.
Thank you for coming. Sincerely, Mayor J.H. Graham, III

2010 Crossville Sustainability Fair Program
Water Conservation
Water Efficiency by Crossville Public Works Water Efficiency Appliances by Crossville Housing Authority Rain Barrels by Obed Watershed Comm. Association
Habitat Protection
Leave No Trace by OWSR / National Park Service
Control Invasive Species by TN Dept. Environment & Conservation
Attracting Birds by Obed Watershed Comm. Association
Planting Acorns by Crossville Tree Board
Wildlife by Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency
Soil Properties by UT Agriculture Extension
Cumberland Trail by Cumberland Trail Association
Preventing Riparian Erosion by Cumberland Habitat Conservation, US Fish and Wildlife & Tennessee Division of Forestry
Wood Products by TN Division of Forestry
Reduce Waste
Recycling by Knoxville Recycling Coalition Recycling by Martin Elementary
Energy Efficiency
Weatherization & Retrofits by Tennessee Technology Center Energy Efficient Appliances by Middile TN Natural Gas LED Traffic Lights by Crossville Public Works Inductive & LED Lighting by G-Mag Energy Efficiency by Neighbors Together
Light Bulb v CFS by TRANE Weatherization by Cumberland County Home Builders Assn.
Sustainable Energy
Solar Photovoltaics by Lightwave Solutions Solar Energy by SimpleEnergy Works Wind Turbines by Southern Alliance for Clean Energy Bike Power by Roane State Community College
Sustainable Transportation
Electric Automobiles by Tennessee Technological University Biofuels & Their Sources by East TN Clean Fuels Coalition City Biodiesel by Biodiesel Logic E-85 by Municipal Technical Assistance Services Bicycles by Cookeville Bicycles
Local Economy
Business Incubator by Roane State Community Value of Shopping Locally by Downtown Crossville, Inc. Gardening by Cumberland County Schools Organic Agriculture by Tennessee Technological University
Community Wellness
Anti-Smoking by Cumb. County Health Dept. Paddling by Cumberland Rivers Paddling Group
Media Sponsors
Crossville Chronicle • VolFirst • WCTE-TV

The Crossville City Council on Tuesday night voted unanimously to select Mr. Adams to take the place of the retiring city manager Ted Meadows.  Crossville which is a retirement and recreational center, has 12,000 residents. It owns the local water company and has 168 city employees.  His first day on the job in Crossville is May 17.

Mayor Graham says Commissioner Adams' 22-years of experience will be an asset to their community.  The city manager job pays 105-thousand-dollars a year and comes along with a new Impala.

Didn't look like any injuries

  As I traveled West on I-40, just before going down to the Highlands from the Upper Cumberland Plateau, many a day wondering why and who had place the Confederate Flag there.  So now a new 70-ft. flag pole was put in place to replace the original 45-ft.pole.

It was placed there Honoring the Confederate Ancestors. The Ferguson-Standing Stone SCV camp has flown a huge Confederate battle flag on the site since mid-July, 2005. The new emphasis on getting a larger flag pole and working on getting markers made with the names of their Confederate ancestors and others who fought from the area, engraved on them begins as the Civil War Sesquicentennial begins and 2010 and ends in 2015.

  To find a camp in your area, visit online to www.scv.org; or call 1-800-MY-SOUTH, or 1-800-MY-DIXIE.
 The Capt. Champ Ferguson – Standing Stone Camp #2014 . Their website is www.champferguson.com.

The first battle flag that was flown in 2005 was shot at during the first few weeks and then stolen by November of that year.  The old pole may be put back up when it is straightened to fly other historically correct Confederate flags. in part from: Hilltop Express

The nailed vehicles are part of a campaign to make drivers aware that Tennessee’s law enforcement agencies will be stepping up enforcement on the roads this summer and watching for anyone speeding, riding without a safety belt, or driving while under the influence.

Editorial:  So when you see this nice BMW parked in front of you house.  "Drive Drunk, Get Nailed"  Think of a record for drunk driving with arrests of EIGHT DUIs that's still out on the road!  It's sure not the fault of law enforcement.  But be sure to have your safety belt on.  Guess it's to protect you from the Drunk that doesn't do jail time!

With scientists speaking out, might we see the end of mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia? (Image via Silvia Alba on Flickr.com)

Scientists become advocates in the most recent issue of the journal Science

In today’s issue of the journal Science, twelve scientists from institutions around the country outlined the ecological and human health impacts of mountaintop removal mining. It is an impressive paper on those merits alone, but the real impact comes at the end: the scientists call for a ban on the practice. The line between science and advocacy grows blurrier by the day. 

“Mining permits are being issued despite the preponderance of scientific evidence that impacts are pervasive and irreversible and that mitigation cannot compensate for losses,” the scientists wrote. They’re not kidding about the permits—as we wrote yesterday, the EPA seems to be relaxing a few months of strong posturing on the issue, allowing at least one and maybe two projects to move forward shortly.

The authors include researchers from ground zero of the mountaintop removal issue, West Virginia University at Morgantown, and from as far away as the University of California, Berkeley. Collectively, they issue a hefty reprimand to those in charge: “Regulators should no longer ignore rigorous science.”

The paper outlines how streams in Appalachia have been found to have severely elevated levels of sulfate, calcium, magnesium and bicarbonate ions. One survey of 78 streams affected by filling from mountaintop removal debris found that 73 had selenium concentrations several times above toxic levels. Some animals also feed on algae that can accumulate selenium at levels hundreds of times higher than that of the water itself.

The paper spends only one paragraph on human health impacts, but it leaves one wondering why this is even still a possibility:

Adult hospitalizations for chronic pulmonary disorders and hypertension are elevated as a function of county-level coal production, as are rates of mortality; lung cancer; and chronic heart, lung, and kidney disease. Health problems are for women and men, so effects are not simply a result of direct occupational exposure of predominantly male coal miners.

As the raft of citations in the Science paper illustrate, plenty of research has been done on the impacts of surface mining in Appalachia, but this is the first time that a group of experts have ventured out on the advocacy limb in such dramatic fashion, choosing one of the world’s most respected peer-reviewed journals as their platform. They conclude that no new mountaintop removal permits should be issued “unless new methods can be subjected to rigorous peer review and shown to remedy these problems.” As I’m sure the authors are aware, however, that is unlikely to happen anytime soon. Thus, they are in effect asking for all mountaintop removal to stop.

The mining issue has already shown to be one where scientists might be willing to shed the lab coats for a bit. This summer, NASA’s James Hansen joined in an act of civil disobedience and was arrested in Coal River Valley, West Virginia, to protest mountaintop removal. And now with this paper, perhaps others will start speaking out as well.

Bravo, scientists. Bravo.

Crossville Tennessee Today

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United States Congressman Lincoln Davis - Tennessee - 4th District had a town hall meeting in Crossville on Thursday evening at the Palace theater.  The doors closed after the the crowd flowed into the street.

 Note: the 2010 Sale will be (Aug 5-8)

It's that time of year (2009), as U.S. Highway 127 comes to a dead stop.

So do you Love it or Hate it? (the Worlds Longest Yard Sale)

found this (below) in Crossville

It's that time of year. Worlds longest yard sale