Powell Tennessee

Powell was established in 1789, by settlers moving through Eastern Tennessee into the North and West. Attracted by a ready supply of water and good farming land, settlers stayed to establish one of the first trading outposts in Northern Knox County.

Over the years, Powell has grown from a sleepy farm community to one of the fastest growing suburban communities in Knox County. Boasting Knox Counties Best of the Best Schools, Knox County's First Greenway System and ready access to all area attractions, Powell offers residents the quality and values of rural living with all the convenience and excitement of city life.

Powell is nestled between the metropolitan areas of Knoxville and Oak Ridge in North Knox County. Located between 1-75 and Clinton Highway, Powell offers easy quick access to both Knoxville and Oak Ridge and a wide choice of shopping, entertainment, and recreation. This combination of the quietness of rural living plus the convenience of access to urban shopping and entertainment makes Powell an ideal community to locate a business or raise a family.

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Powell, TN 37849
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Sandy Lusk to Retire from Powell Elementary this year

Sandy Lusk’s mom (Ethel Walczyk) taught school at Powell Elementary. Sandy attended Powell Elementary and later returned to teach physical education at the school.

After 32 years of watching children grow and teaching at the school, Lusk has decided to hang up her whistle and retire.

Lusk was responsible for bringing the safety patrol program to Powell Elementary and will end her teaching career on the annual AAA safety patrol trip to Washington, D.C. , with the students.

“I will miss the students the most,” said a misty-eyed Lusk. When I look at the third grade students in the gym (participating in a weather program), I get sad because I will not get to see how they will mature in a few years.”

She attributes the staff at Powell Elementary as one reason that she has stayed at the same school for her teaching career. “This is the greatest staff to work with. And we have wonderful parents here in Powell,” said Lusk. “The supervisors that I’ve worked for have always been very supportive of the programs that I have initiated at the school.”

These programs include a dance team and a jump rope team.

Once the doors close on her teaching career, Lusk will spend a lot of time with her 2-year-old grandson, Cole. “I plan on enjoying him to pieces.”

Lusk lives with her husband, Louie, and son, David (who will graduate from UT next week), and plays with her dog and three cats in her spare time.

HPUD’s Jackson gives plants update

By Shannon Carey

It’s going to be a busy summer for Hallsdale-Powell Utility District.

Nick Jackson, the utility’s manager of treatment plant operations, gave a detailed update on plant upgrades during Monday’s board meeting. While some are complete, others are scheduled for winter completion.

“If we have a good summer, we have lots and lots of work for the utility district,” said HPUD president Marvin Hammond.

The upgrades are aimed at reducing HPUD’s plant violations and improving water quality throughout the district. Jackson announced that new operational practices at Beaver Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant have resulted in a 90 percent reduction in violations over the last six months compared to the same period in 2004.

“The goal obviously would be zero violations, and that’s what we’re working for,” he said.

Jackson said there have been no violations at the Melton Hill Water Treatment Plant since new lagoons were brought online in fall 2005, compared to 48 violations in 2004.

“The 48 violations were not related to the qualtiy of drinking water produced,” said Jackson .

Cost is also a factor in these upgrades. Jackson said chemical changes at the Melton Hill plant will save the utility an estimated $19,000 per year.

The Melton Hill plant will also allow HPUD to close three smaller water treatment plants, saving the utility money by consolidating operations.

The Melton Hill and Norris intakes and treatment plants will allow HPUD to supply more, cleaner water to the area. The Norris intake brings clean, cool water from the river channel. Soon, the plants will employ cutting-edge membrane ultrafiltration to treat the water.

“I think I’m going to put that on my card, ‘Cleanest water in town,’” said HPUD commissioner Bill Poston.

New lagoons were brought online at the Beaver Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant on April 12. Jackson said the lagoons will help store wastewater during times of higher flow, resulting in fewer violations and plant equipment problems.

This plant is also scheduled to begin membrane ultrafiltration. The final design for the facility will be complete in June 2006, and HPUD plans to bid the project in early fall. When complete, it will be the first large-scale membrane bioreactor in Tennessee, making HPUD the only utility in Tennessee with all plants using membranes.

Jackson said HPUD is looking at alternative methods for disposing of sludge resulting from wastewater treatment.

“Handling the sludge that’s the byproduct of the wastewater treatment process is very expensive,” he said.

The utility is considering various methods of sludge disposal, such as land application for local farmers.

In March, HPUD installed 55 linear feet of water pipe, 30 linear feet of casing, 534 linear feet of sewer pipe, installed 57 meters and inspected 38 sewers.

“Not a real good month for us, but it is still a good month from the utility district perspective,” said Hammond .

Mock Wreck

By Ruth White

There were no words. No narration. Just re-enacted scenes of tragedy.

Powell High School hosted the second annual Mock Wreck on March 17. The event was the culmination of the month-long PBPA-sponsored Teen Driver Awareness program.

The Mock Wreck was a re-enactment of a two car automobile accident. Cars were smashed. The “rescue team” had to use emergency equipment to remove “victims” from one of the vehicles.

Drama student Andrew Bledsoe, playing the driver responsible for the accident, was handcuffed and “taken away” by Knox County Sheriff’s Office officer Laura Hayes.

“They tell me I had been drinking,” Bledsoe said in character. “But I had only had four (drinks).”

The Mock Wreck was intended to show students the horrible reality of an accident scene. A follow-up program was held in the auditorium after the mock wreck.

The collaborative effort included members or services from the PHS Drama Club, Rural/Metro fire and EMS departments, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office, Knoxville Volunteer Rescue Squad, Mynatt Funeral Home, UT Trauma and Surgery centers, Lifestar, Clinton Highway Wrecker Service and the Patricia Neal Rehabilitation Center .

The Teen Driver Awareness program was created last year to promote teen driver safety following a series of accidents in the Powell community.

The program is an annual event.

PowellTN.com welcomes these new listings to our community site.  Support your local businesses and thank these organizations for their support of Powell.
Rebecca Turner Insurance- AllState (Business/Insurance Section)


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Five Powell High teachers to retire

By Jake Mabe

 (Editor’s Note: Five Powell High School teachers are retiring at the end of the school year. Jake Mabe sat down with them this week to say good-bye to Janie Cassell, Polly Anderson, Judy Jorden, Mary Smith and Peggy Phillips.)

 Janie Cassell

She says simply that it is time.

Janie Cassell loves her job. She loves running a school newspaper, loves teaching high school juniors and says that kids are just kids – they aren’t any better or any worse than they were 20 years ago.

But all good things, as they say, must come to an end. And Cassell says it is time for her to retire.

“I have two grandchildren and my children live in Charlotte ,” she says. “And I’m going to probably do something else. But I will not grade any more research papers!”

Cassell earned a degree in journalism and worked for the Department of Human Services and as a counselor for the state area vocational school earlier in her career. She became involved with education through PTA. At one of the meetings, former Knox County Schools Superintendent Earl Hoffmeister encouraged her to go into teaching.

“I said, ‘Well, if I do, will I have a job?’ And he said, ‘Absolutely.’ ”

So she earned a master’s degree and student taught at Powell Middle and Powell High before coming on staff at Powell High.

“I worked with (former PHS teacher) Sandy Nesbitt, who was absolutely so wonderful,” she says. “I knew I was going to be just like Sandy , but you can’t. You have to be who you are, which I’m sure I have been all these years.”

Former Powell High principal Allen Morgan wanted the school to have its own newspaper. He encouraged Cassell to help start one.

“It’s been really, really great,” she says. “We went from having no equipment, zero, nothing – to having our own computer lab, printer and scanner, which we all paid for ourselves. That’s the great thing about this community. We’ve been able to sell so much advertising each month that we are able to support ourselves.”

The award-winning Powell High newspaper staff puts out one 12-page newspaper composed solely by juniors, along with eight 24-page newspapers and one 48-page edition.

Cassell also coached Scholars Bowl for 14 years and says she loves teaching English to juniors.

“They’re not over it yet,” she says. “Seniors are over it. But juniors aren’t.”

She says she’s going to miss her students. And she’s even going to miss all those crazy newspaper deadlines.

“And this has been a great place to work,” she says. “I’ll miss that.”

Polly Anderson

Polly Anderson says teaching special ed students is a challenge.

But a colleague says Anderson didn’t have any other choice – her heart is with her students. “You really have to be special to teach special ed, and she is.”

Anderson began working at Powell High in 1977 as a teaching assistant. Allen Morgan and Shirley Underwood encouraged her to earn her teaching degree in special ed – which she did.

“Allen Morgan told me I was wasting away,” she said, smiling. “I had three small children and it was a lot, but I did it.” She’s been teaching since 1982.

Anderson says she’s had a lot of support at Powell High. She’s particularly proud of the school’s Renaissance program, which recognizes the grades of every student, from special ed to gifted classes.

“It puts everybody on an even field,” she says. “Our students don’t make any differences. They just accept everybody the way they are.”

Anderson is retiring this spring. She says she’s going to miss her friends, the 20 minute lunches with her colleagues and, of course, she’ll miss the students. But she’s got six grandchildren to play with and some crafting she’d like to do.

“It’s exciting (to think about),” she says.

Judy Jorden

It was like a homecoming.

Judy Jorden says joining the Powell High staff 13 years ago was just that. She had spent 11 years at Halls Middle a few years before and said the communities are a lot alike.

But, then again, Jorden’s enjoyed school wherever she’s been during the last 31 years. She loved the middle school kids at Vine Middle and treasured the elementary students at Cedar Bluff Elementary during her first teaching assignment.

“I’ve taught all facets,” she says.

She knew art was going to be her career in elementary school back when her fourth grade teacher saw a spark and fanned it into a flame. And her father, also an artist, offered her plenty of encouragement.