Kingston Woods Neighborhood Association

January-April 2010 Neighborhood Home Sales

2010-05-25T14:51:00.003-04:00

Sorry for getting a little bit behind with posting the neighborhood home sales. Here is everything that's sold in our combined neighborhoods from January-April 2010.

7748 Pocanno Road

Details: 3 BR, 2.5 BA, 1800+ sq ft

List Price: $149,900

Sales Price: $131,000

Sales Date: 1/7/10

7717 Sabre Drive

Details: 3 BR, 2 BA, 2000+ sq ft

List Price: $159,900

Sales Price: $159,900

Sales Date: 1/25/10

816 Normandy Drive

Details: 4 BR, 3.5 BA, 1700+ sq ft

List Price: $179,900

Sales Price: $172,500

Sales Date: 3/16/10

7705 Sabre Drive

Details: 4 BR, 3 BA, 2200 sq ft

List Price: $189,900

Sales Price: $187,500

Sales Date: 3/25/10

8029 Sabre Drive

Details: 3 BR, 2 BA, 1800+ sq ft

List Price: $179,900

Sales Price: $176,000

Sales Date: 4/29/10

As always, please let me know if you have any questions about any of these. And don't forget to stop by and say hello to your new neighbors!

Public Information Meeting to Discuss The Ten Year Plan This Thursday at 7pm

2010-03-15T14:50:00.008-04:00

PUBLIC INFORMATION MEETING

TO DISCUSS

The Ten Year Plan

Thursday March 18th 2010, at 7:00PM

At the Arnstein Jewish Community Center

6800 Deane Hill Drive, Knoxville, TN 37919

Area Homeowners have asked Jon Lawler, Director of the Ten Year Plan to End Chronic Homelessness for the mentally ill, alcoholic, and drug addicted to discuss the Ten Year Plan.

What is it? How are sites selected? What services are needed? How it works. Will it cost $20 million dollars a year? Who pays for it? Why should the “scattered approach” be considered? And how it is similar to the Seattle Plan?*

This is a Public Meeting and you will have the opportunity to ask questions and contribute to the discussion. Gene Patterson from WATE will moderate the meeting.

*The Seattle Plan like the Ten Year Plan has no requirement for substance abuse counseling, abstinence, sobriety, or drug testing to insure sobriety.

“These findings suggest that stable housing provided to people who are still drinking and addicted to alcohol can reduce their use of crisis services and ultimately their consumption of alcohol,” Larimer said, noting that virtually every person invited to participate had agreed to enroll. The study also notes that restrictions on the consumption of alcohol in a housing environment may well prevent those most in need from accepting help."

For more information about the Ten Year Plan go to: http://www.ci.knoxville.tn.us/development/homeless10yrplan.pdf

For more information about the Seattle Plan go to:

http://www.saprp.org/m_press_larimer033109.cfm

Local discussion:

http://www.knoxviews.com/node/13264

KWNA Meeting Thursday, March 11th at 6:00pm

2010-03-03T21:19:00.003-05:00

KWNA Meeting Notice

ALL RESIDENTS ARE ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND

6:00 PM Thursday March 11, 2010

Knox County Association of Baptist / 7709 Westland Drive

It’s an exciting time for our neighborhood as we are proposing a new structure to better serve everyone. A full agenda, information on the proposed structure for KWNA, links to government officials, and links to information on supportive housing and the Ten-Year-Plan can be found on our website: www.kwnaonline.com. Please subscribe on the home page so you can be notified by email any time information is posted on our site. In the future, you will be able to pay dues and access the newsletter on the site. And that’s just for starters! A huge thank you to Suzy Trotta for creating and maintaining this web site for us! For nominations, questions, or comments contact Laurie Alford @ 584-5761 x102 (days) or email to kingstonwoods@gmail.com.

Agenda

1. President Bud Yard

Discuss and vote on new structure of Association (see website for proposal)

Nominations and vote for President / Nominations and vote for Division Leaders (5)

Please visit our website for more information and bring your nominations to this important meeting!

2. Incoming President - Assignment of Committees and Members

3. Ron Peabody - Discussion on proposed site off of Gleason to build housing for the homeless – Information on the upcoming community meeting

4. Time permitting – committee break-out sessions – Please review the proposed committees on the web site and bring your suggestions to the meeting.

Related Documents and Links:

KWNA Proposed Committee Structure

KWNA Proposed Leadership Structure

Directory of Government Officials

www.knoxtenyearplan.org

Corporation for Public Housing

November 2009 Home Sales

2010-01-27T22:05:00.004-05:00

Below are the 2 homes that sold in Kingston Woods, Kingston Hills, Kingston Park and West Oak in November 2009. There were no closings in the neighborhood in December.

501 Kendall Rd
3 BR, 2 BA, Sq Ft not listed
List Price: $160,000
Sales Price: $146,000
Sales Date: 11/04/2009
Days on Market: 81

7800 Luscombe Dr (foreclosure sale)
3 BR, 2.5 BA, 1600+ sq ft
List Price: $108,900
Sales Price: $108,900
Sales Date: 11/6/2009
Days on Market: 90

Don't forget to stop by and say hi to your new neighbors! And feel free to give me a shout if you have any question about these homes or any other homes in the Kingston Woods Neighborhood Association's area.

September & October 2009 Neighborhood Home Sales

2009-11-02T14:46:00.004-05:00

Below are the 6 homes that sold in Kingston Woods, Kingston Hills, Kingston Park and West Oak in September and October 2009.

7808 Ramsgate Dr
4 BR, 3 Ba, 2500+ sq ft
List Price: $199,900
Sales Price: $189,000
Sales Date: 9/25/2009
Days on Market: 81

813 Normandy Dr
3 BR, 1.5 BA, 1900+ sq ft
List Price: $174,900
Sales Price: $171,900
Sales Date: 10/2/2009
Days on Market: 61

7843 Ramsgate Dr
4 BR, 3 BA, 2700+ sq ft
List Price: $234,900
Sales Price: $227,000
Sales Date: 10/06/2009
Days on Market: 214

724 Noragate Rd
3 BR, 1 full bath, 2 half bath, 1900+ sq ft
List Price: $174,900
Sales Price: $173,900
Sales Date: 10/8/2009
Days on Market: 152

7613 Sabre Dr
4 BR, 2.5 BA, 2200+ sq ft
List Price: $184,500
Sales Price: $173,800
Sales Date: 10/14/2009
Days on Market: 106

704 Piper Rd
3 BR, 2 BA, 1600+ sq ft
List Price: $159,900
Sales Price: $152,000
Sales Date: 10/19/2009
Days on Market: 126

Don't forget to stop by and say hi to your new neighbors! And feel free to give me a shout if you have any question about these homes or any other homes in the Kingston Woods Neighborhood Association's area.

July & August 2009 Neighborhood Home Sales

2009-11-02T14:15:00.002-05:00

I apologize for falling behind in updating the neighborhood home sales. It was a super busy summer!

There have been quite a few sales since June, so I'll be catching up over the course of a few separate posts. Below are the 5 homes that sold in July and August.

8030 Luscombe Dr (new construction)
3 BR, 2.5 BA, 1300 sq ft
List Price: $149,900
Sales Price: $138,000
Closing Date: 7/13/2009
Days on Market: 194

744 Cessna Rd
3 BR, 1.5 BA, 1200+ sq ft
List Price: $140,000
Sales Price: $130,000
Closing Date: 7/15/2009
Days on Market: 113

7712 Luxmore Dr
3 BR, 2.5 BA, 2300+ sq ft
List Price: $189,900
Sales Price: $186,000
Sales Date: 8/11/2009
Days on Market: 53

8129 Kingsdale Dr
4 BR, 3 BA, 2300+ sq ft
List Price: $189,900
Sales Price: $185,000
Sales Date: 8/26/2009
Days on Market: 212

7601 Luscombe Dr
3 BR, 2 BA, 1700+ sq ft
List Price: $139,900
Sales Price: $128,400
Sales Date: 8/31/2009
Days on Market: 143

Stop by and say hi to your new neighbors! And feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions about any of these.

Neighborhood Meeting August 11, 7:00pm

2009-08-02T21:56:00.000-04:00

HELP Save Our Neighborhood Trees!

Have you seen the blue and orange paint on our trees?

KUB is pruning/cutting trees in Kingston Woods & Kingston Hills (and soon, in West Oaks and Kingston Park)

Come to the neighborhood meeting with KUB people!

When: Tuesday, August 11, 7:00 p.m.

Where: Erin Presbyterian Church, 200 Lockett Road (go east on Deane Hill Dr., left on Lockett)

Why: to express our concern with KUB’s aggressive pruning policies, and demonstrate public support of these concerns (including political reps and media)

· RSVP if possible, to let us know if you can attend the meeting with KUB and share your concerns.

· Talk to your neighbors and encourage them to attend the meeting too

Why Should You Attend? To Show that YOU CARE!

· Several neighborhood members have been working to set up this meeting and avoid unduly aggressive tree-pruning by KUB which will damage our property values and increase our utility bills.

· If only 15 or 20 people show up, that will clearly indicate to KUB and our political representatives that we don’t care enough to bother with. Each property owner will then just need to address KUB on an individual basis.

· However, if 100-150 people show up to represent concerns by a neighborhood of ~450 homes, then that would indicate strong concern by KUB customers/ ratepayers and citizens/ taxpayers/ voters. It would also encourage more KWNA residents to serve the neighborhood at large as information gatherers/disseminators, lobbying our public officials and services, etc.

· Think about it—it is to your benefit as well as the whole neighborhood’s.

Stay updated!

· Visit the KWNA website at: http://www.kwnaonline.com/ to learn more information about this issue and others affecting our neighborhood

· Send your email address to KWNA Secretary Sara Jordan (jordanss@comcast.net, or 693-5869) to be kept abreast of further neighborhood news.

Who is affected?

KUB organizes its pruning operations by Electric Distribution Circuit area. In the Kingston Woods area, they have already sent out letters for circuit RH11 (covers Moneta, west end of Deane Hill, and east end of Twining). Letters are supposed to go out Tuesday, July 28 for circuit RH32 residents (supposedly the next area west of RH11, where we have already seen many markings). Liz Didier (KUB Vegetation Management) told me last week that the contractor was only about half done marking the current circuit area; she said it would cover the Kingston Hills streets too. West Oaks and Kingston Park are scheduled for late this year.

The yellow door-note from the KUB contractor said 10 feet from power lines…

KUB's representatives have been leaving notes on doors stating that they are only cutting to achieve at least l0 foot clearances. You will soon receive a letter from KUB. However, the reality is they will likely cut all branches of trees facing the power lines from the ground to the top of the tree (they call it “ground to sky clearing”) in many instances. Using the official “lateral pruning method,” KUB will often cut the branches back to the middle of the tree instead of just cutting a smaller amount. This results in clearances far greater than 10 feet from the power lines, and the overall effect is that many trees will be cut in half. KUB in many cases would rather remove the whole tree.

What is KUB’s legal standing for entering my yard and cutting my trees?

KUB has the right to maintain their power lines. This means they can make repairs and climb the poles without obtaining your permission using limited right of way authority. In some areas they have utility easements which give them additional legal authority.

However, it is believed that they do not have unlimited rights to remove or destroy trees without your permission, especially if the tree is located beyond the right of way. At some point, extensive damage to trees becomes trespassing and vandalism. Large trees increase the value of property by many thousands of dollars, plus their shade saves us lots of money on utility bills. Consider consulting your own private attorney for specific legal advice.

Submit pictures of your marked trees…

Thousands of trees have been felled in surrounding neighborhoods over the past month alone. Take pictures of your large, endangered trees which show their addition of value, shade, and beauty to your home. Email them to suzytrotta@gmail.com to be posted on our KWNA website’s "Endangered Trees Showcase." Include pictures highlighting the distance from the power lines.

Flyers going out to all homes in the neighborhood

We have prepared flyers with essential information concerning KUB’s tree pruning / cutting operations to be distributed to all neighborhood homes.

Street Captains (listed below) or other neighbors on each street—can you help us with distribution of flyers on your street? If so, please contact Sara Jordan (jordanss@comcast; 693-5869) and we will get copies to you.

Thank you for getting involved—

Sara Jordan

Secretary, Kingston Woods Neighborhood Association

and

John Overly, Concerned KWNA member

Pictures of KUB's Tree "Pruning"

2009-08-02T21:31:00.000-04:00

In an effort to make KWNA residents aware of the devastating results of KUB's neighborhood tree "pruning," we'll be posting "after" pictures taken in both our neighborhood as well as other nearby areas.

The first set of pictures comes from the Westland/Nubbin Ridge/Burton Rd. area.

lksjdl

Pre-School Items Needed

2009-07-29T10:24:00.003-04:00

A Luxmore Drive resident needs help getting some items for her pre-school classroom. If you can provide any of the items below, please contact me and I will forward your message on to her.

Boys and/or genderless dress up items - Chef, Doctor, Business Man/Woman, Aviator, Fire, Police, architect engineer, scientist, etc. If you are retired from any of these professions and have specific items the children might use they would be welcome additions.

Medium and large cars, trucks, boats or aircraft. (Matchbox and Hot Wheels would be too small)

Science items such as root view farm, etc...

Musical instruments, stringed and percussion are especially good. Mouth played instruments need to be able to be sanitized...

PreK or Kindergarten Leap Pad books and cassettes.

A World globe!

Any fabrics and craft items.

May & June 2009 Neighborhood Home Sales

2009-07-27T12:44:00.002-04:00

Three homes sold in the neighborhood in May and June. Details are below -

725 Aeronca
3 BR, 1.5 BA, 1500 sq ft
List Price: $157,900
Sales Price: $152,500
Closing Date: 5/15/2009
Days on Market: 109

8032 Sabre Drive
3 BR, 2 BA, 1712 sq ft
List Price: $144,000
Sales Price: $137,000
Closing Date: 5/29/2009
Days on Market: 29

516 Kendall Road
4 BR, 2.5 BA, 2131 sq ft
List Price: $189,900
Sales Price: $187,000
Closing Date: 6/16/2009
Days On Market: 56

Stop by and say hi to your new neighbors! And feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions about any of these.

Notes from July 21, 2009 Meeting re KUB Tree Trimming

2009-07-27T12:39:00.001-04:00

The following are the notes from the July 21st meeting regarding KUB tree trimming in our neighborhood. Please review and leave any comments you may have.

Notes from July 21, 2009 Meeting re KUB Tree Trimming
Present: John & Janie Overly, Randy & Elizabeth Schonegan, Larry Silverstein, David Massey, Sara Jordan

Handouts: “Things to Consider re: KUB Tree Trimming” (from Larry)

Draft Flyer from Sara

Larry discussed several neighborhoods’ experience with KUB’s increasingly aggressive tree trimming and his experience over the last three years with trying to meet with and get any response from KUB management. It was frustrating and discouraging, but they don’t like bad publicity, and sometimes will respond when they get political pressure. Even when Silverstein got a unanimous approval of a resolution by the City Council, KUB persisted in its same modes of pruning and cutting.

Other points and observations:

1. Sara reported from conversation with Liz Didier of KUB that letters will go out to affected homeowners, but haven’t been sent yet.

2. The paint-blazing operation of Kingston Woods is only about half done. The “forester” leaving yellow handbill notes on residents’ doors is contractor T.J. Sexton of ACRT Association. (See www.acrtinc.com)

3. The western part of the KWNA area (West Oaks “airplane” streets, plus Kingston Park) are on different major electrical circuits and are not currently involved in this tree pruning/cutting operation. They will be scheduled later this year.

4. City Council and County Commission are the proper pressure points to have any impact on KUB. Plus media attention helps.

5. David Massey gave advice on approaching KUB, plus some on strengthening a cohesive KWNA organization. But we agreed that the focus now should be on gathering momentum to moderate KUB’s tree pruning & cutting, and worry about getting KWNA members later.

6. We should find out when they plan on starting the pruning and cutting, and insist that KUB send mail notice to every resident in the affected area before doing any cutting.

7. We should request a delay in starting any cutting until after the neighborhood meeting.

8. In our communications with KUB, we should copy the relevant members of the City Council, County Commission, and City Neighborhood Coordinator).

9. Target the neighborhood meeting for early-to-mid September, to give time to work around leaders’ vacations and communicate with the neighborhood community. Perhaps Tuesday, Sept.1 or Thurs, Sept.10.

10. Request not only Liz Didier but others from KUB at the meeting (who all needed?).

11. David suggested use of a Listserve to keep email addresses instead of the Excel spreadsheet currently being used.

12. We plan to gather (and place on the KWNA website) pictures of beautiful trees in our neighborhood that will potentially be affected by pruning or cutting, showing the negative impact on home value and utility bills.

13. Similarly, we plan to gather (and place on the KWNA website) example pictures of trees mutilated by KUB pruning, plus areas where they have done wholesale cutting of trees. People should see and be warned about what KUB’s tree-trimming efforts leave behind. Recent location suggestions are along Northshore by Lakeshore Hospital, Duncan Road, and others.

Sara requested comments and suggestions on the flyer she had drafted. Elizabeth made some suggestions which will be implemented. Sara will then pass the revised draft electronically for this group’s further comments. The idea is to have a bold, large font attention grabber and announcement of the community meeting, and on the back have more detailed information, pointer to the KWNA website, invitation to show your pictures and tell your yard’s situation at the meeting, and request email addresses to put on the neighborhood mailing list. Randy said he could help with getting copies made. The flyers will be distributed to every house in the neighborhood, hopefully with some help from proactive people who are interested in this issue.

Sara will also pass along to the leadership group a number of messages that Larry passed to her over the week end.

KUB Tree Trimming - A Message from Larry Silverstein

2009-07-19T23:11:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure how many of you have been reading the emails regarding KUB's plans to trim many trees in our neighborhood, but please take the time to read a message that KWNA received from Larry Silverstein, a concerned citized who has been fighting KUB over tree trimming in his own neighborhood. It is lengthy, but it is quite informative. KWNA would love to hear your comments on this issue. You can leave them at then end of this post.

Mr. Silversteins full email follows below:

Hi:

I was previously in contact with some of you in March re: TVA tree trimming that took place in your neighborhood and across Westland Dr. A relatively small number of properties were directly affected by TVA's action in your neighborhood. I have spent the last 6 months fighting TVA for what they did behind Green Hills Rd off Westland. TVA ended up needlessly clear cutting hundreds of trees instead of the few that they said they were going to remove. A lengthy Complaint was recently submitted to TVA's Inspector General's office regarding that incident.

I understand that many in your neighborhood are very concerned about what is about to take place now that KUB is returning very soon to your neighborhood to cut trees. I do not whether or not your neighborhood has organized anything to try to minimize the damage about to be done to the trees, although I know that some emails have gone out to some residents warning of what might happen.

I've been battling KUB for 3 years over what they did in West Hills where I live, as well as the rest of Knoxville. You may recall seeing the newspaper articles in the Sentinel, Metro Pulse, and Shopper News. The Sentinel articles can still be found on line if you google Larry Silverstein KUB trees or search the Sentinel's web site at knoxnews.com A couple of years ago I got many neighborhood associations involved to contact KUB and City Council members to complain about KUB's tree trimming program. My West Hills Association passed a Resolution. I was able to get City Council to unanimously pass a Resolution urging KUB to do a better job and to cut as few trees as possible. Unfortunately, it appears to me and others that KUB has simply ignored City Council and is getting away with worse behavior than ever. I am currently talking with people around Knoxville about what additional action might be taken. Perhaps an Ordinance is the only way to stop all those who are butchering trees and destroying private property in Knox County. Our current city of Knoxville Tree Ordinance is worthless for protecting trees.

After seeing some emails, I drove through your neighborhood tonight to see for myself all the trees with paint marks on them. On some streets it appeared that every house on the side of the street as the power lines is going to be greatly affected. I can assure you that these trees are about to be horribly butchered based on what I've recently observed on Westland Dr. and Duncan Rd. There are also people in Holston Hills, Fountain City and South Knoxville who are very upset over recent tree butchering by KUB. I'm sure many in your neighborhood were not happy the last time KUB came through a few years ago. I can assure you that KUB is much more aggressive now than they were 3 years ago.

While driving down Luscombe tonight, I had a conversation with Randy Schonagen. He is very concerned about his trees and the neighborhood's trees. We discussed what can be done in advance to try to prevent unnecessary and excessive tree trimming by KUB. He is willing to put out flyers urging the neighborhood to take action now to prevent the trees from being butchered or removed entirely. I suggested to Randy that he talk to some to some others in the neighborhood and urge people to contact City Council members and KUB and to request a neighborhood meeting if possible.

I can assure you that if enough fuss is made in advance, at the least, KUB will be much more sensitive about the quality of the work done, have constant supervision of the contractors, and it might make a difference in how much is cut. When Sequoyah Hills was under attack, the neighborhood association went to work and it had a positive effect. KUB does not like bad publicity from angry neighborhoods who are prepared to make a fuss by calling the newspaper or the television stations or public officials. They spend a fortune on public relations and lobbying. Several City Council members are already not too happy with KUB over many different issues, including tree trimming, but they need to hear from many people urging them to get further involved.

KUB's representatives going door to door have likely been telling people and misleading people by stating that they are only cutting a little to achieve l0 foot clearances. However, the reality is they will cut all branches of trees facing the power lines from the ground to the top of the tree ( they call it ground to sky clearing) in many instances. KUB's contractors will cut the branches back to the middle of the tree resulting in trees cut in half. (lateral pruning). This results in far greater than l0 foot clearances, can kill the trees, and KUB knows it. The person going door to door will NOT be on hand when the mostly out of state corporate contractors, with mostly foreign workers, who rarely speak English, show up to cut the trees in half. This will result in excessive trimming of branches that are not a threat to the KUB lines. Supposedly KUB does not care about the cable or phone lines that are much lower than their lines, yet many low branches will end up being removed because they someday may grow towards the line. Even though KUB supposedly doesn't cut dogwoods and redbuds, it has happened frequently.

If people have already given KUB permission to cut their trees, they should contact them immediately and insist that the trees not be cut unless they are home to observe. The owner has the right to tell the contractor to stop cutting and to call a supervisor. However, if they are not home when the work is done, they will return to find their tree cut in half or worse. If people have been intimidated into agreeing to allow the trees to be removed, they should revoke that authority to remove them.

I have been told that KUB has not mailed letters to all affected people. I know that in recent years they mailed letters in green envelopes in advance. I guess it fell by the way side with their recent cost cutting. While they are going door to door, that does not mean they reach many people in person who may not be at home during the day. Of course, they say they leave something on the door, and then it is the owner's responsibility to call KUB if they have concerns. The problem is most have no idea what KUB has in mind to do to their trees.

I also noticed mention of Jim Cortese in an email sent to some in the neighborhood. You should be aware that Mr. Cortese was hired by KUB a couple of years ago as a consultant, and was paid at least $87,000 at $l50 per hour. In that work for KUB, he did a count of trees in 3 neighborhoods. He submitted a report to KUB detailing the types of trees he found, the measurement of them, and evaluating the job the contractors had done trimming trees. In this report, he recommended that KUB should adjust their program to go from trimming trees to removing as many trees as possible instead of having to keep trimming them every few years. Just in these 3 areas he suggested removing about 70 % of the trees near power lines which would remove approximately l0,000 trees. Can you imagine how many trees that would mean for all of KUB's service area? I obtained Mr. Cortese's report and his invoices from KUB with a Freedom of Information Request. I have no idea if Mr. Cortese is still working for KUB or not. KUB's CEO, Mintha Roach, told me in a meeting well over a year ago that KUB was not following Mr. Cortese's suggestion to remove many trees, but the evidence is clear to me that they are indeed removing as many trees, especially small diameter trees, as possible.

KUB will claim they must do this work to prevent power outages. They spend approximately $5 million per year doing this work. Yes, trees do cause some power outages, but a very small percentage of their outages are caused by the trees in the trim zone. Their own statistics from a few years ago showed that squirrels caused more outages than trees in the trim zone. It is also apparent that most major power outages caused by trees occur when an entire tree falls down, not a few branches. Trimming trees will not prevent whole trees from falling, and if anything, makes them more likely to fall. There will always be power outages, many of which are unavoidable. However, butchering all the trees will not prevent the power outages from taking place.

I want to make clear that I am not opposed to all tree trimming, and even some trees may have to be removed entirely. I am against excessive tree trimming which butchers trees needlessly and destroys private property against the wishes of the property owner. I am against misleading tactics by KUB, and once the damage is done, nothing can be done after the fact.

You may have seen the article in today's (Sat) Sentinel showing that KUB has slipped in a recent customer service survey. KUB's response is that, "KUB is investing in both tree trimming efforts and automated electric distribution system equipment to help reduce the number and duration of power outages." They know that people are aware when trees cause power outages, so this way they can look like they are doing something to solve the problem of outages. However, their solution will have very little impact on reducing the number of outages. Of course, they would like to cut down every tree anywhere near a power line, but they know the public would not accept that because it would drastically reduce property values.

You might have seen the article in the Shopper News a couple of weeks ago regarding the problem in Fountain City when KUB's contractor mistakenly cut down an elderly woman's tree. The contractor reportedly settled with the property owner by paying $16,000 after originally offering $3000. It took the intervention of a member of City Council to force KUB to do anything.

I'd be happy to talk to you or anybody else at any time and provide additional information if you are interested.

This is a perfect example of why a neighborhood association is needed every now and then. The time to act is now, before the trees are cut. I can assure you that many people in your neighborhood have no idea what is about to happen and will be shocked when they start seeing the damage done. If it is too late to act in advance, I would suggest being prepared to jump into action immediately after seeing the first trees cut by flooding KUB with calls and emails, (see kub.org) contacting the local media, especially Nick Frantz at the Shopper News, and contacting City Council members, county commission members, and Mayor Haslam. If there is enough interest, I would suggest forming a committee who will daily observe the cutting of trees and report to others in the neighborhood if abuses are observed. People should also take pictures or videos of their yards in advance so they can prove what the trees looked like before they were cut. I realize you may not have a formal organizational structure right now, but that doesn't mean people can't organize to take action now on this issue.

I hope that this information is helpful. Feel free to share this email with your neighbors. I would urge any of you who are concerned about your neighborhood to spread the word to others before it is too late. I can't promise that your trees will be spared, but if you don't try to do something, I can promise that many of your trees will be butchered.

Good luck. Let me know if I can be of any assistance.

Larry Silverstein

KWNA is Going Broke!

2009-06-16T12:36:00.001-04:00

Folks,

The Kingston Woods Neighborhood Association is facing a crisis. No one has stepped up to activate the organization since Bud Yard resigned after many years of hard service through several major issues. He still fills in with advice and help on some issues when he has time, but cannot help a lot. We need someone to take Bud’s place!

A few of us have been serving KWNA in a small way to keep some things going.

Suzy Trotta maintains a website at www.kwnaonline.com which contains timely information like house sales (including price) in our neighborhood, plus other news as available.
Ken Cox serves as Treasurer, collects membership dues, and pays for our security service by Detective Heather Reyda
Sara Jordan coordinates messages to the neighborhood mailing list (long enough that it is broken into two segments, so you see about ½ of it)

Our status:

We have traffic calming measures in place and many of you report an improvement in slowing down and reducing the traffic by your homes.
Knox County tax appraisals hit some of us with pretty steep increases earlier this year, and that caused some email discussion among the membership. There were a number of appeals, and some homes (but not all) got revised appraisals.
Back in late 2007 and early 2008, there was much discussion and concern about the school zone redistricting, but after our KWNA committee and some commission officials presented our case, we were rezoned back to Bearden High School. Thanks again to that committee for its efforts!
Detective Heather Reyda has continued to patrol our neighborhood, and give us security updates at meetings and via email. For this extra level of service, KWNA pays her a small monthly stipend.
We are not a high-crime neighborhood, but on the occasions when there have been burglaries or car break-ins, it has been good to spread the word quickly via email to all KWNA members so we can all be “on the watch.”
KWNA will be broke in July. With KWNA inactivity, many of us have forgotten to pay our dues over the last year, and the small cushion of funds we had at the beginning of 2008 has disappeared. As of this July, we have no more funds to pay for the security patrols that Detective Heather Reyda has been providing for years.

What you can do:

Pay your dues. If you cannot pay the whole $40 annual dues, please pay $20 for the first half of 2009. It helps if we all watch out for each other, and maintaining Det. Reyda’s security service often gives us additional “inside information.” If you don’t know your dues status, ask Ken Cox. Send checks to: Ken Cox, KWNA Treasurer (7740 Luxmore Drive, 690-3592, w_k_cox@hotmail.com).
Encourage your neighbors to join as well. Ask if they are members and are on our KWNA mailing list, and pass this email to them if they are not.
Consider serving as a newsletter editor, KWNA president, or other functions listed on the KWNA website (www.kwnaonline.com)
Share news and concerns that the KWNA community should hear about, by emailing me (jordanss@comcast.net) to pass it on. Inform me when your email address changes or you leave the neighborhood.
Be good neighbors—drive carefully, maintain your yard and keep our neighborhood looking attractive, like an area we can be proud of.

Thanks for supporting KWNA!

—Sara Jordan, KWNA Secretary

National Night Out and Street Captains

2009-06-16T12:34:00.000-04:00

KWNA residents:

Here is a message from Bud Yard. Below it, you will find a list of street captains copied from the KWNA website. Some of these people may no longer live here; a few streets have no current street captain. If you see changes needed, please let us know. The occasion of National Night Out Against Crime on Aug.4 is a good time to get involved and represent your street.

--Sara Jordan

From: byard07@comcast.net [mailto:byard07@comcast.net]
Sent: Sunday, June 14, 2009 5:59 PM
To: Sara Jordan

Sara,

We need to update our street captain list for Neighborhood Watch. Some street captains may have moved and some may not have an email address and may not be in touch with us, but this is a very important function of KWNA that badly needs a coordinator. We have received information from the Knoxville Police Department asking if we would like to participate in the National Night Out Against Crime on August 4, from 6 to9 PM.

This would be an excellent way for someone to get involved as coordinator of the KWNA Neighborhood Watch Program. For more information you can contact the Knoxville Police Department's Safety Education Unit at 215-8633, Officer Michelle Goldsberry at 215-8618, or by email at mgoldsberry@cityofknoxville.org . I can provide any pertinent KWNA information needed for registration

National information on National Night Out is available at www.natw.org.

Thank you so much.

Bud

Data from http://www.kwnaonline.com/2008/06/street-captains.html

KWNA Street Captains:

Aeronca Nicole Rioux 744 Aeronca 691-3922

Bardon Clois Free 509 Bardon 693-4043

Bosworth Rebecca Prosser 512 Bosworth 539-6854

Cessna Katie Willard 728 Cessna 531-3688

Deane Hill Lena Adams 7504 Deane Hill 531-8406

Jerdan Dick Helsel 7729 Pocanno 693-2261

Kendall (433-533) Janet Jenkins 521 Kendall 560-3155

Kendall (401-431) David Allard 413 Kendall 357-1654

Kingsdale Ann Jones 8116 Kingsdale 693-8217

Luscombe (7504-7631) Jack Parsons 7716 Luscombe 693-4074

Luscombe (7630-7736) Sharon Bostick 7720 Sabre 531-8096

Luscombe (7740-8200) Anita Nichols 8036 Luscombe 693-8160

Luxmore Ron Peabody 7721 Luxmore 560-9600

Moneta Mike Alford 7632 Twining 691-8280

Navarre Sharon Trotter 7613 Navarre 470-8895

Nobscot Rachel Scarlett 512 Nobscot 693-5219

Noragate Rebecca Gill 8033 Sabre 694-2753

Normandy Need volunteer for Normandy

Piper Need volunteer for Piper

Pocanno Dick Helsel 7729 Pocanno 693-2261

Ramsgate Don Byerly 7821 Ramsgate 693-6028

Sabre (7604-7641) Laura Bassett 7632 Sabre 693-2980

Sabre (7704-7733) Joan Peck 7725 Sabre 693-8235

Sabre (7736-8109) Joan Butefish 8103 Sabre 693-8374

Sherbourne Nancy Moscher 8205 Sherbourne 693-8324

Twining Laura Lutz 7707 Twining 691-1827

Waco Need Volunteer for Waco

Westmont Circle Ann Jones 8116 Kingsdale 693-8217

March & April 2009 Neighborhood Home Sales

2009-05-12T17:42:00.003-04:00

Three homes sold in the neighborhood in March and April. Details are below -

809 Cessna Rd (one of the newly constructed homes)
3 BR, 2.5 BA, 1300 sq ft
List Price: $139,000
Sales Price: $137,900

733 Piper Rd
3 BR, 1.5 BA, 1552 sq ft
List Price: $151,900
Sales Price: $146,500

8124 Kingsdale Rd
4 BR, 2.5 BA, 2280 sq ft
List Price: $215,000
Sales Price: $200,000

Feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions about any of these.

Thoughts on Traffic Calming Measures

2009-05-12T17:25:00.003-04:00

An interesting discussion about our neighborhood's recent traffic calming measures has been going on via the KWNA email list and I thought it would be a good idea to try to keep it going here.

So what are your thoughts on the new traffic calming measures? Just leave a comment below to get the discussion started.

February 2009 Neighborhood Home Sales

2009-03-13T17:33:00.002-04:00

We just had 1 home sell in all of January and February. Details are below -

7604 Luscombe Dr.
3 BR, 1 1/2 BA, 1470 sq ft
List Price: $129,900
Sales Price: $122,500

November & December 2008 Neighborhood Home Sales

2009-02-19T13:13:00.004-05:00

The following homes sold in our neighborhood in November & December 2008-

8026 Luscombe Dr
Sales Price: $134,800
Closing Date: 12/22/08

7717 Sabre Dr
Sales Price: $145,500
Closing Date: 12/24/2008

525 Moneta Rd*
Sales Price: $150,000
Closing Date: 11/24/2008
*This was a foreclosure sale.

Neighborhood Homes for Sale

2009-01-01T20:45:00.004-05:00

It's been a while since I've reviewed the homes for sale in the Kingston Woods neighborhood, so here's a look -

420 Kendall Road
Asking Price: $259,900
3 BR, 2.5 BA
2400+ SQ FT

7604 Luscombe Dr.
Asking Price: $129,900
3 BR, 1.5 BA
1400+ SQ FT

713 Waco Road
Asking Price: $169,900
3 BR, 2 BA
1600 SQ FT

And the 3 small new construction homes - 809 Cessna, 8030 Luscombe, and 8026 Luscombe - have all been reduced to $139,900.

Feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions about any of these.

October Neighborhood Home Sales

2008-11-13T17:52:00.003-05:00

We just had 1 home sell in the neighborhood last month. Details are below -

717 Cessna Road
List Price: $179,900
Sales Price: $165,000
Days on Market: 128

And don't forget to welcome our new neighbors to our community!

City Leaf Collection

2008-11-10T12:35:00.003-05:00

FYI -

Our first scheduled leaf collection date (no brush because they have changed the trucks to vacuums) by the city of Knoxville is Nov. 17th. There will be a total of four collections, and I will post more info here as it becomes available.

City residents can also call 311 to get approximate dates for when leaves will be collected on their streets.

Halloween Safety Tips For Your Pets

2008-10-27T21:50:00.004-04:00

Not sure about the original source of this info, but it was just sent out over the KWNA email grapevine and I definitely think it's worth sharing here as well-

Halloween Safety Tips for Your Pets

Though Halloween night can be filled with fun and foolishness, safety for all in your family is first and foremost. Make Halloween a safe and joyful holiday for you and your animals!!

1. No chocolate no matter what! Chocolate is toxic to animals, in fact according to the Humane Society, a 10 pound dog can have a fatal reaction to just a few ounces of chocolate! Play it safe, don't give your animals any treats besides their regular chews, bones and Charlie Bears!

2. Costumes are the best part of Halloween for most children and adults, but for our pets, they can be a nightmare. If you do decide to dress up your pet, please remember these important pointers:

Make sure your pet isn't near an open flame or fireplace;
Watch for tripping hazards, choking hazards, etc.;
If your dog wears a mask or head piece, make sure they can see easily and are comfortable, a frazzled dog can lead to a snippy one;
Never leave a dressed up animal unsupervised!

3. Trick or Treaters equal open doors - keep your pet away from doors and make sure they are wearing their collars with current tags at all times. To get your dogs or cats licensed or up to date, please contact your county or city animal control for licensing fees and information.

4. Watch foil and plastic candy wrappers! Pets could eat them and choke or get sick.

5. Events like Halloween can be stressful for animals, keep them inside, and comfortable. Some kids get more adventurous while wearing a mask and teasing can often occur through gates or fences.

6. Watch open flames around waging tails, a powerful tail can knock that candle or jack-o-lantern right over.

7. Though lights and mechanical ghouls can be a treat for your guests, an animal could get quite a shock if they chew on them. Leave all electrical wires, cords and decorations out of the reach of your pets.

8. Leave your furry friends at home. Though this night is a great time for families to trick or treat together, an animal can be easily startled by costumes and loud noises, so although they may want to join in, taking them out with you can lead to trouble.

Most importantly, have fun and make sure every member in your family has a safe and fantastic Halloween!!

Traffic Calming Plan Progress

2008-10-18T16:50:00.003-04:00

Here is the latest update on the Traffic Calming Plan. Since this email was sent, Bill Cole has said that traffic calming will probably begin next week, and probably be completed within 3 weeks. That's great news!

Neighborhood Presidents,
I have received word from my supervisors that construction of traffic calming plans will begin soon. As you may remember, traffic calming device locations will be painted in the street so homeowners can see where they will be constructed and make requests for minor adjustments (5 or 10 feet).

I am writing this so you can inform your members to keep an eye out for these markings on the street. Please ask those who would like to suggest changes to contact me at 215-6117 or this email address.

Thank you all for your diligence and patience. I am looking forward to seeing your projects begin construction soon.

Bill Cole, P.E., P.T.O.E.
Traffic Engineer III
Engineering Department
City of Knoxville, TN
(865) 215-6117

September Neighborhood Home Sales

2008-10-14T21:43:00.002-04:00

Two homes sold in the neighborhood in September. Details are below -

7744 Luxmore Drive
List Price: $160,000
Sales Price: $160,000
Days on Market: 409

7720 Luxmore Drive
List Price: $187,500
Sales Price: $180,000
Days on Market: 112

If you have any questions about either of these, feel free to give me a shout.

Our New Feathered Friends

2008-09-26T12:40:00.006-04:00

Several KWNA residents have spotted a new breed of neighbor over the past several days and Lisa Montgomery's son got a picture of them-

They're called pearl guineas and are known to be good watchdogs, making very loud noises when there are intruders around. They also eat a lot of bugs and ticks. Here are some more photos of pearl guineas if you're curious.

Has anybody else seen these guys around the neighborhood?