Most who hail from Scott County, Tenn., have probably figured out that while we’re decidedly Southern Appalachian at its finest, we sometimes buck Southern tendencies.

Not only were we one of the only southern counties to buck the idea of secession during the Civil War (while much of East Tennessee was opposed to secession, Scott Countians reacted to Tennessee’s secession by voting overwhelmingly to withdraw from the state and form the Independent State of Scott).

We also are at odds with the rest of the South when it comes to what we call our soft drinks. Ask just about anyone from Scott County, and they’ll say it’s a “pop.” But everyone knows that pop is a “Yankee word” (actually, it’s a Midwestern word; in the Northeast, it’s almost exclusively called “soda”). And when you go just about anywhere else in the South, they’ll look at you like your nuts if you call your coke (doesn’t matter if it’s actually a Coke, or if it’s a Pepsi or even a Diet Mtn.

Dew; it’s still a coke) a pop.

Well, here’s a map that proves it. With the exception of Johnson County, Scott is the only Tennessee county where the overwhelming majority of folks call their soft drinks “pops” instead of sodas, colas, cokes or soft drinks. (Taken from Facebook.)

From the press release:

NASHVILLE — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Commission has announced its intention to provide an extra tag for youth only at the 2012 elk hunt at North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, said if implemented, the youth tag would be in addition to the four tags that would be drawn and the tag that has been donated to a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO).   There would now be a total of six tags available for the special season. The youth tag would be for Tennessee resident youth only between the ages of 13-16.

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The one tag would be for a hunt to be held at North Cumberland WMA on the weekend of Oct. 20-21 which would follow the Fourth Annual Elk Hunt set for Oct. 15-19. All five elk hunting zones would be available for the youth hunter giving the juvenile access to approximately 40,000 acres for the elk hunt.

The general elk hunt has been and will continue to be open to all applicants regardless of age or residency.

Due to a big game gun season being held, all deer archery hunters on the WMA would be required to follow the blaze orange requirements. This would apply only to the WMA elk hunting zones while a gun season is underway and not the entire WMA.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is seeking comments concerning the proposed hunt to be presented to the TWRC. Comments may be sent to TWRA Big Program Coordinator Chuck Yoest at chuck.yoest@tn.gov or by mail to Chuck Yoest, Wildlife Division, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, P.O. 40747, Nashville, TN 37204.

Comments must be received prior to Feb. 8 so they can be presented at the next TWRC meeting.

That’s a start. Now they need to take one of the four permits and stipulate that it be awarded to a resident of Scott, Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne or Morgan counties.

Launched yesterday by Scott County Mayor Jeff Tibbals at the Scott County Chamber of Commerce’s annual meeting…

ShopScott.net

(I don’t typically use this blog to comment on local issues, instead preferring to use it to comment on various things that interest me – from sports to politics – since writing about local issues is part of my “day job.” This is an exception.)

As the U.S. economy continues to oh-so-slowly, but surely, pull itself out of the miry clay of a deep recession, the economy in many rural areas is oh-so-typically slow to follow suit. In Scott County, Tenn., which once had one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates, joblessness has fallen by almost five full percentage points from its peak at just over 23%. But total employment has been mostly stagnant, even as it has become apparent that the worst of the recession is probably behind us.

As hundreds of workers face the prospect of their 99 weeks of unemployment benefits expiring, many with still no desirable job prospects on the horizon, what can be done to help turn around the economy?

I’m certainly no expert, but from where I’m sitting, here’s a start:

1.) A positive attitude
Just a few days ago, I was discussing the local economy with a well-intentioned local gentleman, and he said something to the effect of (I’m paraphrasing), “Mayor Tibbals had two or three companies ready to locate in Scott County . . . so who told him ‘no’?”

This is a persistent rumor that seems to grow a fresh set of legs every few months. Depending on who is doing the telling, Caterpillar wanted to locate a production facility in Oneida that would have created 500 well-paying jobs, or Walmart wanted to locate a distribution facility in Helenwood, etc.

The old adage, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” applies here. Why would county officials turn down prospective employers? At one time, it was said that Armstrong was responsible. The theory went something like this: Armstrong paid its employees around $11-$14 an hour; if a company located in Scott County that paid its employees upwards of $20-$22 an hour, Armstrong would be unable to compete and lose workers; Armstrong controlled the local government.  But Armstrong is gone now (for all intent and purpose; their remaining work force in Scott County is a skeletal crew), yet the rumors persist.

Here’s the truth: there’s no sinister motive in the darkest back rooms of county government to keep our people in Scott County poor. The truth is, if a company located in Scott County and created 500 jobs paying $20/hour, the county mayor and each county commissioner would probably be guaranteed re-election for life. Rest assured that Scott County has never been a finalist for a Caterpillar plant.

As for the Walmart distribution facility, just thinking about it will disprove the rumor. Why would Walmart choose to locate a distribution facility 25 miles from the interstate, where they would have to truck their goods 25 miles over a two-lane highway, then turn around and truck the merchandise 25 miles back across the same two-lane highway just to get to the interstate?

The bottom line is that no one told the county mayor or anyone else associated with county government that they cannot bring certain companies to Scott County. The mayor has never made an announcement about having two or three companies ready to locate in Scott County; if that story was circulating, it was merely a rumor. I believe that local officials have had some solid leads on prospective employers over the past 15 months. Unfortunately, those leads have not come to fruition.

Instead of finding ourselves susceptible of believing rumors that our local officials are trying to keep us penned in poverty, and helping spread those rumors, we need to get behind the efforts to recruit employers to Scott County. Instead of getting on gossip websites — like Topix.com — to talk about how bad our county is, we should find positive things to say. It may seem insignificant, but it does matter. Professional economic developers will tell you that one thing prospective employers like to do when considering a location for a new plant is to take to the internet to check out the attitude of its citizens; to visit retail shops and gathering places in the community, posing as just an ordinary visitor, to see what folks have to say about their hometown. If our message is all negative, it is a negative image of Scott County that is being created.

2.) Professional industrial recruitment
One of the top priorities of County Mayor Jeff Tibbals when he took office in September 2010 was to hire a professional industrial recruiter. The only problem is that the county cannot exactly afford to create a new office at this point. Citizens were hit with a property tax increase in 2010 and will be hit with more new taxes in 2012 — either in the form of a wheel tax (which will go to the voters in a March 6 referendum) or another property tax hike — to help make up budget shortfalls created by the notes on recent construction projects.

Instead of necessitating an even larger tax increase, Tibbals sought private donations to help fund the office — turning to local banks, utility districts, local citizens; anyone who would benefit from an improved economy.

A number of pledges were received, and money has been trickling in. Donations by Mercy Health Partners, the East Tennessee Development District (through Plateau Electric Cooperative) and, most recently, a $30,000 donation from a private citizen, has helped. But the money isn’t yet in place to move forward with a hire. Hopefully it soon will be.

One of the criticisms of Mayor Tibbals’ proposal has been from folks who say that it is the mayor’s responsibility to recruit industry. And it is. But the mayor is the CEO of the county. He also has other responsibilities, and cannot dedicate all his time to industrial recruitment. Not only that, but the simple truth of the matter is that most county mayors are not trained in industrial recruitment. The county mayor, the Industrial Development Board of Scott County and the Chamber of Commerce (incidentally, you won’t find many people who work as hard as Stacey Kidd, executive director of the Chamber) are all working hard to recruit industry to Scott County. But we need to supplement their efforts with those of a professionally trained and experienced industrial recruiter who can devote 40 hours a week — or whatever it takes — to chasing down industrial prospects who might be willing to set up shop in our community.

3.) State incentives are a must
Overall, Gov. Haslam has done a good job to date. Unfortunately, however, his administration’s approach to job creation isn’t doing much for rural areas, especially those located on the northern Cumberland Plateau and mostly cut off from more urban areas. If Tennessee is truly to be the “No. 1 destination in the Southeast for jobs,” as Gov. Haslam has stated several times since taking office one year ago, the state must target rural and urban areas alike.

Since assuming office nearly a year and a half ago, Mayor Tibbals has relentlessly pushed a message in meetings with state officials: The state needs to create incentives that reward companies willing to settle in rural areas away from the interstate. Unfortunately, that message seems to have fallen mostly on deaf ears.

But it’s a valid point. While the county can — and does — offer incentives to companies who choose to settle here, most of the taxes are collected by the state, meaning that it is the state that really has the power to make or break an incentives package that is lucrative enough to lure a company to locate in a certain area.

The way it is currently structured, the state offers the same incentives to companies regardless of location. A company that settles near I-75 in Anderson, Knox or Campbell counties, or along I-40 in Roane or Cumberland counties, gets the same incentives as a company that settles in the Mid-County or Airport industrial parks.

With all the available properties along the interstates, why would a company instead choose to locate 25 miles away from the interstate?

For many of those companies to look seriously at Scott County, we’re going to have to wait until the work forces in those interstate counties are back to full employment, at which point Scott County’s available work force will be enough incentive for someone to locate a plant here. It goes without saying that this would be a drawn-out approach to economic recovery.

4.) Flaunt what we got
Take out a map and look at the recreation lands located along the northern Cumberland Plateau. You’ve got the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area (115,000 acres), the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area (145,000 acres), the expansive Daniel Boone National Forest, Frozen Head State Natural Area (4,500 acres), the Catoosa Wildlife Management Area (80,000 acres), and Pickett State Park and Forest. Plus you have privately-managed recreational lands such as the 20,000 acres of Brimstone and the potential to develop rec opps in the Chitwood Mountain area of Scott County.

Now put your finger directly in the middle of all of that land. Where are you? Oneida/Huntsville.

If there’s one area where Scott County is falling short, it’s promoting our tourism opportunities. I’ve maintained that this has been the case since before the recession began, but it’s even more important now that manufacturing is at its lowest point in modern times.

Consider what we have to offer: Brimstone Recreation has been named by one magazine as the No. 1 destination in the entire nation for ATV riders. That’s without the North Cumberland WMA and adjoining Coal Creek (Windrock) added in. We have some of the best off-roading in the country in our back yard. Folks from all across the region come to Scott County to paddle our whitewater rivers. Folks from all over the eastern U.S. come here for our equestrian trail riding.

We have excellent hiking in the Big South Fork — from day trips to the multi-day John Muir Trail and, on the opposite side of the county, the Cumberland Trail. There’s rappelling, mountain biking, and more.

Taken by themselves, none of those things stand out (except the ATV riding). Put them together and you have an adventure tourism package that few areas anywhere in the country can match. If you’re an outdoors recreation enthusiast, you can visit Scott County for a week, do something different every day, and not do the same thing twice.

This is a story that needs to be told.

I overheard a former, high-ranking county official say that tourism isn’t the answer for Scott County because it only provides low-paying jobs. The beauty of it is that it doesn’t have to be the sole answer. But it can certainly be part of the answer. And, yes, tourism-related jobs are often low-paying. But a strong tourism base also opens the door for entrepreneurial opportunities. Look at what has happened to Brimstone Recreation. Not only is that business flourishing, but a number of other small businesses have spawned as well: cabin rentals, campgrounds, outfitters. And Brimstone’s big event weekends (Memorial Day and Labor Day) helps to create customer traffic and generate taxes at a number of other local businesses — from motels to gas stations to grocery stores.

The bottom line is that full employment in a rural county like Scott County will never be the same as full employment in counties better situated along interstates or near urban areas. There will never be an abundance of white-collar jobs here like there are there.

But too often we trick ourselves into thinking that we’re destined to remain a poor county full of unemployed workers forever. We fall victim to the myth that we’re uneducated or untrained (the percentage of high school graduates and college graduates in Scott County is similar to those percentages in more urban areas). We fall victim to the myth that we aren’t willing to work (but 48% of us who have jobs are willing to drive to Lafollette, Clinton, Knoxville and Oak Ridge to work, which says that we’re more motivated than some would have us believe).

We have workers. We have a work ethic. We’re ready to go to work. We just need a little help.

Last week was a difficult and emotional roller coaster ride for the family of Chris Marcum, the 29-year-old Oneida man who was among three shot at a Halloween weekend party.

Marcum was conscious when he was airlifted to UT Medical Center in Knoxville, where he underwent surgery. Initial reports from the scene were that he would “probably be okay.” But doctors at UT found the damage to be more extensive than was first thought. At one point they didn’t think he would survive the weekend. Then they thought that if he could make it through the first 48 hours, he might pull through. By Monday, he had improved enough to give the family hope that he would recover. On Tuesday, however, he took a turn for the worse. Family and friends were still holding out hope for a miracle, but the decision was made Wednesday to turn off life support after his organs were donated.

The father of three died shortly after sunset Wednesday evening.

Thousands turned out for his funeral in Oneida Saturday, filling the sanctuary at Bethlehem Baptist Church and spilling into the street. Many of them were still struggling to come to terms with exactly what happened. Why would a man carry a .30-30 deer rifle to a party, shooting at people, shooting at random, shooting into vehicles? It’s something you read about happening in the big cities; not in a quiet community like Oneida.

The question is: did the justice system fail Chris Marcum?

Marcum, who was hosting the party at an abandoned chicken house on Bear Creek Road that was owned by his family and frequently used for he and his friends to gather, was shot at near-point blank range with the high-power rifle, allegedly by Greg Potter, a 54-year-old Oneida man who has had his share of run-ins with law enforcement.

Investigators say that before Potter turned his rifle on Marcum, he shot Ben Cooper in the neck outside the chicken house. Cooper recovered and was released from UT two days before his friend’s death. Potter also fired random shots into the building on at least two occasions, investigators say, resulting in minor injuries to one more. Before he arrived at the chicken house, he fired into a pickup truck that was occupied by three men, narrowly missing the driver. Later, as law enforcement officers showed up to take him into arrest, he allegedly fired at Scott County Sheriff Mike Cross and Oneida Chief of Police Darryl Laxton before being talked into giving himself up.

Exactly why he did it may never be known. But he apparently was agitated at the people who gathered at the chicken house. He was staying in a house nearby and had frequently called police to complain about noise and traffic. A witness living nearby told investigators that Potter had stopped by her house carrying his rifle — “he always carried the rifle,” she said — and again complained about the racket coming from the chicken house, which is located in a relatively secluded area in north Oneida.

Minutes later, three people were wounded and dozens more emotionally traumatized by seeing a friend gunned down before their very eyes.

“They were on their own property,” one sheriff’s deputy would later remark. “They weren’t bothering anyone.”

A friend who was not at the party that night defended Marcum. “Did they like to get together and drink a little? Yeah. Did  they get a little loud sometimes? Yeah. But did they ever bother anyone? Absolutely not.”

In fact, police said they had received no complaints from anyone else related to the activities at the chicken house.

Just Potter. Who apparently decided to take matters into his own hands, if police accounts of the shooting are accurate.

The disturbing part was that the Oct. 29 incident wasn’t the first time Potter was accused of killing. In December 1978, he gunned down his brother. The two had spent the night partying at their mother’s home in the Low Gap community near Helenwood in Scott County. When his brother attempted to change the station on a radio that was playing, Potter shot him in the head, killing him.

He was indicted on first degree murder charges, but told investigators that he was just trying to mess around with him by firing shots into the ceiling — they did that sort of stuff all the time, he told them — but his hand “must have slipped” when he fired the weapon. It was a story that no one affiliated with the investigation was buying.

But it was a different time, with a different prosecutor, when the justice center worked differently. Potter wound up pleading guilty to voluntary manslaughter. He appealed for probation, saying that he had realized the error of his ways. That was denied, and he was sentenced to 2-4 years in prison.

While awaiting conviction and sentencing, he was twice more arrested, both times on alcohol-related charges. When he was sentenced, he was allowed to serve his time in the county lockup. After one year, he was released on probation.

Fast-forward a decade and a half, and Potter was again at the center of a shooting investigation. This time, everyone was fortunate to escape unscathed. Two deputies patrolling the Low Gap community drove by the same home where Potter had shot his brother. Potter was standing in the driveway with a rifle.

“It’s midnight and there’s a guy standing there with a rifle. It just didn’t add up,” former deputy Jackson Sharp said. “But there’s nothing illegal about standing outside your home with a rifle at midnight.”

The deputies looked at Potter, Potter looked at the deputies, according to accounts given at the time. As the patrol car slid on by, shots rang out. Deputies dove for cover inside their cruiser, then high-tailed it out of the area to await backup.

Mike Cross, then a deputy at the Sheriff’s Department, was the arresting officer.

“We went to the same house, he came out the same door, carrying what looks to be the same gun,” Cross said last week, comparing Potter’s most recent arrest to his arrest in the early ’90s.

Again, Potter had a story that investigators didn’t think quite added up. He was just firing shots into the air, he said.

Sharp, who left law enforcement shortly thereafter and entered the education field, where he’s currently head coach of the Scott Lady Highlanders basketball team and offensive coordinator for the school’s football team, is as convinced now as he was then that Potter was firing at officers.

“Who watches a patrol car drive by, then starts firing shots? It just doesn’t make sense,” Sharp said. “What was he shooting at at midnight?”

But Potter’s defense worked. There wasn’t enough evidence to pursue a prosecution. The charges were dropped.

Somewhere along the way, Potter applied for and received a handgun carry permit, though federal law bars handgun possession by convicted felons and state law prohibits carry permits from being issued to convicted felons.

As recently as early October, he was arrested on gun-related charges. This time was in Knoxville, where officers stopped him on suspicion of DUI and discovered him in possession of a handgun. He was charged with possession of a handgun while intoxicated, but there was still no charge for carrying a prohibited weapon as a convicted felon. And because he has not been convicted on the charge in Knoxville, he still had his handgun permit — at least until it was ordered revoked by Scott County Sessions Court Judge James L. Cotton Jr. in a hearing Friday morning.

District Attorney General Wm. Paul Phillips, who successfully petitioned the court to set bail at $1 million secure, to make sure Potter couldn’t get back out on the street before his trial date, called Potter an “extreme risk to public safety.”

His criminal history suggests that Potter has been an extreme risk to public safety for some time. One can’t help but wonder how much differently things would have turned out if Potter had been convicted of first degree murder and received a lengthy prison sentence back in 1978.

The University of Iowa has been awarded a $5.8 million grant to study migraines in children:

The CTSDMC will serve as the data coordinating center for the study that compares amitriptyline and topiramate, two medications often used to treat migraine in adults but which have yet to be proven effective for use in children.

“There are currently no medications approved by the FDA to prevent childhood migraine,” said Christopher Coffey, Ph.D., UI professor of biostatistics and director of the CTSDMC.

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“The results of this study will have worldwide impact on the decisions made by pediatricians, family practitioners, neurologists and other health care professionals dealing with migraine in adolescents.”

Posted because Dr. Coffey is married to a Scott County native, Beth Cecil.

“Labor Day is just another day to labor.”

Those are the words of Scott County Sheriff Mike Cross as his sleek, black SUV rolls north along U.S. Hwy. 27 through Helenwood. Traffic is relatively light, partly due to the Labor Day holiday and partly due to the persistent rains that have been falling since before dawn, soaking everything and leading to some concerns of flooding.

“Drug dealers don’t stop selling just because it’s Labor Day.”

Cross is leading a team of law enforcement officers towards Oneida. Armed with a stack of warrants, the team’s focus is putting a hurting on Scott County’s drug trade. A hotbed of the illicit drug activity has been the Oak Park Apartments in Oneida. Working together, the Scott County Sheriff’s Department and Oneida Police Department have warrants for the arrests of six residents at the sprawling apartment complex. The plan is executed to perfection as the team of law enforcement cruisers and unmarked cars roll into the complex, simultaneously pounding on the doors of six apartments as the residents from other apartments venture outside into the early morning rain, wondering what the commotion is about. Some are indifferent to the presence of law enforcement; others are thankful to see an effort being made to stamp out the drug trafficking that is taking place in their complex.

Keeping the pedal to the metal on drugs

As his first year in office draws to a close, Mike Cross comes across to some as a modern day Andy Griffith. Residents have commented on how accessible he is as sheriff, finding time to field concerns and complaints from throughout the community. As often as not, he doesn’t even wear a gun.

But Scott County, Tennessee, is a far cry from Mayberry these days. Drug abuse has become a major problem, ensnaring even some of the community’s best-known, most productive citizens. As abuse of methamphetamine and prescription drugs increases, home burglaries and other thefts have also increased. Law enforcement says there’s a direct connection there. The sale of narcotics and the manufacture of meth has also greatly increased. A less spoken about side effect of the problem are the overdoses — intentional and unintentional — that are claiming an increasing number of lives of Scott County’s young citizens, between the ages of 20 and 50.

It was realizing the extent of the problem that caused Cross to turn to the community for help: help reaching a higher power. “I don’t know what else we can do but pray,” Cross said last spring.

He first turned to David “Blue” Day, a former constable and current county commissioner in the First District. Day contacted Jimmy Byrd, Scott County’s elected trustee and a well-known figure in local churches, where he sings with his daughter, Sarah. Byrd contacted Jim West, pastor at White Rock Baptist Church, Scott County’s largest church outside Oneida.

Within weeks, a crowd of more than 200 gathered on the courthouse square in Huntsville, where they joined in prayer. It was an outpouring of earnestness. Local ministers and their parishioners prayed not only for a solution to the community’s drug problem but also for jobs in a county that has one of the nation’s highest unemployment rates.

Then they kept coming back to the mall. One Friday evening each month, a crowd gathers for prayer. They’ll be there this Friday.

The prayer meetings spawned a revival, with a different minister taking the pulpit each night on the square. Organizers said it would last as long as the Lord led. They originally planned on two weeks. It wound up going for three. On the biggest nights, as many as 800 turned out.

Cross has taken some flack for the prayers.

Most of it comes from outside Scott County. You don’t have to leave the Bible Belt to find a noticeable anti-Christian sentiment, but you do typically have to leave the rural communities. What typically happens is a story in the Knoxville media will result in negative comments, such as: “How foolish for a sheriff to believe that prayer is the answer to crime.”

Funny thing is, naivete and foolishness aside, the prayers appear to be working. The Sheriff’s Department has been seizing methamphetamine labs left and right in the past few months. “We aren’t doing anything differently, and yet these labs are falling right into our laps sometimes,” Cross said back in the summer. “If it isn’t prayer, I don’t know what it is.”

As an aside, Scott County’s unemployment rate has also dropped below 20%. It’s still the state’s highest, but it’s lower than it has been in a year and for the past two months has declined at a faster rate than any surrounding county, including jobs-rich Anderson County.

Joining forces

As summer turns to fall, the Sheriff’s Department is switching gears. Things have been relatively quiet on the meth front, with no lab seizures in more than two weeks. In the meantime, drug agents were putting the finishing touches on a lengthy narcotics investigation.

“It isn’t that we changed our focus away from meth,” Cross says. “What we think, or what we hope, is that we’ve made a large dent in meth production. But our narcotics investigation was ongoing even while a lot of the meth stuff was happening.”

The narcotics investigation involves working undercover. Ideally, undercover drug agents would make “buys” from suspected dealers. But in a county like Scott County — where everybody knows everybody else — that isn’t easily accomplished. Instead, agents often use informants to make buys. They’re wired, allowing agents to listen to the transaction take place. The conversations between dealer and buyer are recorded so that they can be used in court later.

It’s a tedious process. Many of the informants have themselves been arrested in the past, and some of them are far from trustworthy. And to meet the muster of the constitution, every I must be dotted and every T crossed. If agents are going to spend long nights building a case, they want to be sure it sticks.

Early on in the investigation, the Sheriff’s Department teamed up with the Oneida Police Department, building a coalition against drug dealers that law enforcement officials on both sides say is unprecedented.

Kris Lewallen, a veteran of local law enforcement who has worked for the past three sheriff’s administrations, spearheaded the county’s side of the operation. OPD’s side was headed up by Blake Murphy, the son of a former Scott County mayor who got into law enforcement shortly after graduating high school and has worked for each law enforcement agency in Scott County at some point.

Sometimes working simultaneously, sometimes working individually, the two departments poured countless hours into the investigation.

“This is something that has never happened before,” Oneida Chief of Police Darryl Laxton said. “Over the past year, the number of burglaries we’ve been able to solve has gone way up because of the information sharing back and forth, and the same is true with drugs.”

It’s no secret that there have been tensions between city and county law enforcement in recent years. Cooperation between the two was limited. When Jim Carson was sheriff, the two departments had a strained relationship even before Cross — then the chief of police in Oneida — was called by plaintiff’s attorneys to testify against Chief Deputy Marty Carson, son of the sheriff, in the wrongful death case of John John Yancey. When Anthony Lay was elected sheriff in 2006, the divide between the two departments widened. There was a public rift as the county and city clashed over drug interdiction efforts within the city limits. OPD charged that the county was causing irreparable damage to its undercover efforts to combat drug trafficking. The Sheriff’s Department said it was entering Oneida to clean up the drug problem because Oneida was doing nothing about it, a statement that ended any hope of the two departments being able to seriously collaborate against crime.

Things have changed since last September’s election. A long-time chief of police in Oneida, Cross knows the ins and outs of city law enforcement and where the county’s assistance is and isn’t appreciated. He and Laxton are friends: they grew up together, have served side-by-side in law enforcement and often squirrel hunted together. When it comes to police methods, they’re both cut from the same cloth; each got their start from Laxton’s father, former Scott County Sheriff Jack Laxton.

Hard work pays off

That cooperation between city and county led to enough evidence to charge 42 suspected drug dealers. There’s enough evidence to file charges against nearly a dozen more, but those cases haven’t yet been processed.

The effort culminated with Monday’s roundup of those accused dealers. City and county officers worked side-by-side, managing to take 27 into arrest before the day ended. Warrants are outstanding against the arrest, but authorities are convinced that they will be located and taken into arrest in short order.

It’s an 11-hour operation in the pouring rain, the kind of conditions that will test the resolve of law enforcement officers. At several stops, the perps are on a first-name basis with law enforcement officers.

“The reality is that a lot of these guys are repeat offenders,” Lewallen says. “We indict them every year.”

Indeed, some of those being arrested hardly look surprised to see patrol cars storming their driveways. Others are agitated. Still others are led away in tears after exchanging hugs with family members. At many residences, wives or girlfriends are left on front porches and doorways, watching their spouse being led away in handcuffs. Sometimes small faces peer from windows as their father or mother is placed into a patrol car for transport to the county jail, where they will await arraignment on the charges they’re facing.

“I hate it for the families,” Detective Randy Lewallen says as officers reorganize in a dry area provided by the cover of a bank drive-thru. “And that’s every family in Scott County. Every family is touched in some way by drugs.”

By the end of the day, officers have hit virtually every community in Scott County, from Ben Smith Road in Robbins to West 3rd Avenue in Oneida. They’ve hit trailer parks and housing projects; apartment complexes and affluent neighborhoods. One of those wanted on charges works with the local Narcotics Anonymous program. One is the neighbor of an assistant attorney general.

Agent Lewallen says operations like this one have political ramifications.

“When you’re talking about this many suspects, every one of them have family members who are going to hate us,” he said. “And every one of them have people who buy from them, and they’re going to hate us.”

But you can’t effectively fight crime with an eye on the next election, and Cross seems to have no intent of doing so. Nor does Laxton, whose mayor is involved in a reelection battle this fall with possible ramifications that could impact the police department if he isn’t successful.

At the end of the day, officers are pleased with the results of the operation, even though they’re well aware that many, if not most, of the suspects they have arrested will be back on the street in short order.

“We’ve put countless hours into this operation, but today we took a lot of drug dealers off the street,” Agent Murphy says.

Lewallen is also happy to see the operation come to an end.

“There have been times when we would work all day doing drug buys and then go out at night to arrest burglary suspects,” he said. “Then we would be on a meth lab by noon the next day.

“There’s been more than once when my wife and I would be ready to go to Knoxville and the sheriff would call and say, ‘Don’t go anywhere tonight. We’re meeting at 1 a.m.’”

But they also try to compensate.

“There are slow days where the sheriff will say, ‘I’m taking my wife out tonight and my phone will be off,’” Lewallen said.

And as long as drugs are being trafficked, the work will continue.

“My thought is that if we arrest 50 drug dealers, there will be 100 step up to take their place,” Lewallen says. “It’s like when you pull a weed from your garden and five more spring up around it.”

It’s a problem that both departments, city and county, will continue to combat.

“This is the first operation under the new sheriff and new chief of police but I’m sure it won’t be the last,” Murphy said.

It’s an issue that will be combatted with hard work.

And prayer.

From DiscoverScott.com:

HUNTSVILLE, Tenn. — Scott County’s natural scenic beauty and relaxed rural way of life will be on full display throughout the month of September, which will feature events each weekend.

The month will be jump-started by a Labor Day weekend chock full of events, including Brimstone Recreation’s SXS Roundup, a Ball Brothers concert at the Bull Creek Farm near Huntsville, and a number of interpretive programs — including hay rides and story-telling — at the Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area.

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Here’s the complete schedule for this weekend.

Visiting Scott County Thursday afternoon, U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander made a point similar to a point on this blog earlier. My point:

Once the legislative session is complete and Haslam has had time to take a deep breath, it would serve him well to make his inaugural gubernatorial visit to Scott County. He could get an up-close look at the struggles a rural county faces as it tries to pull itself up by its boot straps and perhaps serve as a springboard for what could be a major component of his plan to make Tennessee the Southeast’s No. 1 destination for jobs: finding a way to ensure that the state’s off-the-beaten-path communities are situated to share in the state’s economic growth. Here he’ll find an available work force, plenty of available industrial space, infrastructure that can hold its own with Tennessee’s average rural community, officials that are eager to work with prospective industrial employers, and a populous that is tired of being at the top of the jobless list each month.

Alexander’s point:

I think Gov. Haslam is on the right track and I respect what he’s trying to do. But there’s no reason he can’t make Scott County a model community and try out some of his ideas here.”

Alexander made the point I was trying to make, and did it much more succinctly.

Scott County’s jobless rate is 22.1%. The next-highest county has a jobless rate under 15%, according to April’s numbers. Those numbers will come down in Scott County in the months ahead; I would wager a guess that it will be under 20% when the May numbers are released in a couple of weeks and won’t rise back above 20% again unless we enter a so-called “double-digit recession.”

But there’s no doubt that Scott County is lagging behind other counties when it comes to economic recovery. These are still hard times everywhere, but especially so in this community. The reason is anyone’s guess. As an observer, it doesn’t seem to me that it’s because local leaders are resting on their laurels.

The current mayoral administration here has made economic development the top priority, as did the last administration. There is an Industrial Development Board that is working hard to lure industry to Scott County, and the Chamber of Commerce is actively involved in the efforts.

I certainly hope that Scott County is on Gov. Haslam’s radar. If it isn’t, it should be. The people here are largely a conservative bunch who view less government intrusion as a good thing. But sometimes, a little government intervention is a good thing. And when it comes to putting his economic policies for rural communities into play, the Haslam administration won’t find a better place to employ them than right here.

Thousands of ATV enthusiasts from across the eastern U.S. and beyond will crowd into Huntsville, Tenn., this week for White Knuckle Event 2011, the annual event presented by Brimstone Recreation.

It’s already one of the nation’s premier ATV events.

It aims to become the “Woodstock of ATV events” and it’s well on its way. This year, the event will feature David Allen Coe in concert Saturday evening.

It isn’t all about the music, though. There are guided trail rides, unguided trail rides, mud bogs, poker runs and much more. The three-day event begins Friday and wraps up Sunday. Indications are that this will be the biggest White Knuckle crowd thus far.