Well, good morning East Tennessee.
I'm Scott bro camp founder and co-owner of his security and technology.
Welcome to around the house this morning, man.
I'll tell you what it is a beautiful morning to sit out on the porch and sip
your coffee or tea or water or whatever it is that you may like.
We'll get to it later today, but it may be the official kickoff of
pumpkin spice latte season.
Uh, anyway, we will, we're just going to bypass the whole conversation.
Now as pumpkin spice latte fan, but anyway, one thing that is orange
that I like is our Tennessee Vols.
We do have football today and, uh, well, let's just say this.
I got a feeling our boys are going to be ready to play today.
The Vols are hosting Texas San Antonio road runners today, four o'clock.
If you don't have tickets, you can watch the game on the sec network.
Listen to the fall radio network or our sister station wivk.
And for the first time ever, the game will be broadcast in Spanish on the
Tennessee athletics app and on utsports.com.
If you're a history buff, today is John severe day and historic Marvel Springs.
The home of governor John severe is having a huge reenactment in
open house from 10 to four.
The event is free.
Don't forget the market square farmers market is open every Saturday.
This season is winding down in the last market day.
This year is November 18th.
Get there while you still can for a complete list of events happening
around your house today, go to visit Knoxville.com.
Well, Knoxville is not the only place to have fun.
Now the fall is here.
We will soon be in prime leaf peeping season.
And that brings tourists to East Tennessee and the great smoky mountains.
One of the quickest ways to get from Knoxville into the park is well, through
Townsend communications director for the blunt County chamber of commerce.
Jeff mirror is with us this morning to talk about the Townsend fall
heritage festival and other great things that are happening in and around blunt
County.
Good morning, Jeff.
How are you?
Good morning.
I'm doing well.
Thank you for having me.
You are.
Hey man, I'm glad that you're here.
I know that we had some, some, uh, previous scheduling conflicts, but I'm
glad we were able to get it worked out.
Um, you know, blunt County is just, I mean, it's just a bustling community right
now.
You guys have so many things going on over there, which I know we will get to.
We will get to discuss some of the economic development things, but there's
there's besides economic development, there is a whole nother path of life
that happens in that area.
Uh, you know, towns in you guys, you really are a, uh, man, I, I'm familiar
with highway three 21 and of course it runs from, well, my, my land of Loudon
County, but right through blunt County, right into the great smokey mountains.
And, uh, I know just like us, that's a, uh, it's great to be able to have that highway
be a part of our culture, you know, in a part of what we do.
So what's happening this weekend?
I know there's some special things going on.
Yeah.
You know, blunt County is a wonderful place to live a week in work and play.
And so we build it as the peaceful side of the Smokies.
It's the calmer side.
Uh, you can go out and get a cabin in the, in the forest and just enjoy a nice,
you know, uh, kickoff to fall season like it is right now.
But there's also, you know, plenty of entertainment options and lots of
history that be found in the area.
You know, Cades Cove speaks for itself.
Uh, the visitors that get drawn, they're a tremendous amount every year.
And also one of the great, uh, probably hidden treasures that most people don't
know is they're driving through, uh, highway three 21 through towns and into
the national park is the great smokey mountains heritage center.
Uh, it's been around probably about 20, 25 years now, and it's just great spot
for just learning about the history of this area and, you know, how the
Appalachian community and heritage, uh, built this area, built the Cades Cove area.
And one of the things that they've really done over the last few years, uh,
is really work on their programming.
Uh, before it was more just kind of a history museum.
Uh, you could see artifacts, you know, from the, from the ancient Native
Americans that were here all the way to the people that kind of first settled in
Cades Cove, made it into a lumbering community, uh, cause that was the, the
first kind of industry that started in this area.
This was all, you know, lumber and timberland, uh, in the early 1800s, late 1800s.
And so, but now, uh, with the heritage center done with Logan hole and, and, and
their crew, uh, they've really worked on bringing a musical accent.
And so they've turned it into a kind of an entertainment venue.
And one of the great, uh, uh, concerts going on tonight actually is, uh, Dean
Dylan, he's one of the, if you're a country music fan, uh, you might be
familiar with a lot of his songs he's written for David Allen Co, George
Jones, Toby Keith, and even Kenny Chesney, who's, you know, a local, uh,
East Tennessee favorite here as well.
And he's poor local legend.
You can say, right?
Yeah.
He's, he's pretty well known around these parts and, uh, you know, he's
performing tonight there.
So they've done a really good job of really working on programming for
that, uh, that perspective as well.
And so, uh, you know, Townsend is just a gateway and, you know, as we've kind
of discovered, uh, throughout the time, a lot of the travel apps, uh, are
directing traffic on highway three 21.
And so that's why people say, oh, there's, you know, a lot more traffic
that's coming through here.
And it's like, well, the reason is because the travel apps on people's
phones are directing people on highway three 21.
And so that's, that's where you see a lot of the locals, you know,
complaining about traffic, you know, people, a lot of, a lot more traffic
in this area, but that's one of the main reasons why.
Right.
Well, you know, I mean, we deal with that same thing and that
that conversation is true.
Right.
I mean, look, when I get in my car, I put, I plug in my GPS, right.
I want to know where my map program has taken me because it's
giving me real time live alerts.
And while I'm working during the days and I'm going from appointment to
appointment, I need to be able to keep a timeline and, you know, but that's
exactly what we see.
We see a lot of those diversions off of the main interstates, taking
some of those back roads.
I've got to tell you, we, that can be very pleasant.
And I know that, especially when folks get the trip down three 21,
it is very pleasant.
There are so many things there's, especially once you get to the
blunt County side of things, there are tons of antique shops.
And then as you said, once you get to towns and there's so many different
things to just kind of, as my mama would say, putz around, right there,
you can just really have an enjoyable time.
And I, I've got to say, my family and I, we took a short break a few weeks ago
to end August and that hurricane came through and we had to change our plans.
And we ended up down in Georgia.
I don't even know where we were at, but we found this great place to go for a
few days and then we went to Savannah.
Well, from where we were at and how you got to Savannah, you just
couldn't get on a major highway.
And so the majority of our trip was back roads to get to Savannah.
And I'm just going to tell you, I'm normally the guy that gets in the car
and, and I, I want to get there.
Okay.
But it was so calm.
It was so peaceful and it was so cool because we really were taking in bits
and pieces of history on that journey.
We would come to these little towns and the traditional rural
town square and just the, the, the houses and the architecture.
And, and as a family, we took that in.
And I know because a lot of times when we go to the smoking mountains
from our place, we go 321 and it is, there's so many, uh, so many
milestones and so many things along the way that if you'll just slow down.
And look around, you can really have a nice, awesome, beautiful
place, awesome, enjoyable trip.
Um, you know, I, I moved up here from the Carolinas and the ironic
thing is I lived off of highway 321 in the Carolinas.
And so I got a crazy bug up my rear one day and I decided I'm going to
take 321 and go all the way.
See where it goes.
Now it was a long journey, but I'm going to tell you though, it was so cool.
It was so cool.
So many neat little stops along the way.
Uh, so I just encourage you, if you have not journeyed down 321 through
Blount County to make your way to the great smoking mountains, national park,
do it, do it, take your time, uh, enjoy in some of the stops that are along the way.
Absolutely.
And what, you know, this is one of the, as we enter, you know, the first day
of fall, uh, according to the national park service, the peak, uh, leaf
changing may be a little bit earlier this year.
So obviously one of the great spots to see the, to view the leafs, leaves
changing is the foothills parkway.
And that's, that's a tremendous route route to take, uh, through the
county into the national park as well.
But yeah, so, you know, usually it's kind of, you know, late October before
you kind of see the peak season, but you know, national park is kind of projecting
this year, maybe a little bit earlier in October.
So if you're going to make a trip to, to, to view that and enjoy the colors
changing, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe move up your cabin, cabin rental a
couple of weeks or something like that.
And it'd be great to see.
So, yeah.
So you guys, you also have some other events happening coming up here
for fall to Christmas.
Yeah.
One of the things, another couple of things they've got at the heritage center.
Uh, they've got a great pottery festival, the end of October.
Uh, that is a tremendous thing.
If you like, uh, pottery is great for, uh, finding those one of a kind gifts for
the upcoming holiday season as well.
A lot of local hand crafters are there.
Uh, it's actually, uh, performed, uh, there's a, there's a pottery
guild in East Tennessee and they, they kind of head that up.
So it's really a great, you find some great artifacts there.
I've been to it a couple of times, uh, kind of little pottery fans in our,
in our household.
And so got some, got some great items there, but, uh, and also they're doing
a holiday hand crafters festival in November, uh, as well.
So if you're looking for those handcrafted items, it's one of a kind things.
Uh, lots of things going on at the heritage center, uh, as well.
And one of the fun things that they do, uh, is they have what a section, uh,
what they do periodically throughout the years, the smoking mountain storytellers.
Uh, these are some local people that, uh, really do a great job of telling
the history of the area.
And if you really, a history buffer just kind of want to know what's the story
behind the two sisters cabins and, and, and those type of different things that
are, that are in Cades Cove, uh, those are some great opportunities to really
learn about the heritage, uh, in Appalachian heritage in this area.
So the heritage center's got a lot of good things going on.
And, and there is, there are definitely a lot of good things going on.
Well, we are up to our first break here of the hour.
If you've got questions for Jeff or myself, give us a call.
865-656-8255.
That's 865-656-8255.
Call or text anytime.
We'll be right back here on around the house with Scott Brokamp on
news talk, 98, seven W OK.
I welcome back to around the house.
Hope you're enjoying this beautiful, beautiful morning outside, low
humidity, nice temperature.
I think we need to start thinking about adding a deck on outside the
studio so we could just, you know, go sit outside on a deck, have coffee.
Run the show.
Perfect.
I mean, I think we, I don't know, Chris, who can we get to pull that off?
Great answer.
That's kind of what I figured the answer was going to be, but you know, still
look, greater things have happened from crazier ideas.
I'm just going to say that.
So, uh, at any rate, if you were listening with us at the beginning of the first,
uh, segment here, we are speaking with the blunt County chamber of commerce.
Uh, Mr.
Jeff Muir, Jeff, thank you so much for being with us this morning.
Appreciate it.
You know, I didn't even ask him my butcher in that last name or I got it.
You've nailed it right on the, all right.
Nailed it.
You know, I didn't do very good in English class, so I just want to say,
uh, listen, if you want to know what's going on in blunt County, other than
lifting, listening to Jeff this morning, you can go to blunt partnership.com
that will get you to the chambers website.
And Manor is just so much happening out in blunt County.
Well, much like many of the areas here, uh, here in East Tennessee, but I know
one of the, well, one of the big things that is important to you guys is the
towns and fall festival.
Yeah.
The towns and fall festival, uh, is kind of our tribute to the Appalachian
heritage that permeates through this area.
So it's a 32nd year that we've had it.
You don't find too many long running festivals anymore.
A lot of them kind of run a life cycle.
You know, Maryville had the, uh, their fall festival for a number of years,
around about 25 years and just kind of ran a life cycle.
But, uh, this is really unique about the towns and, uh, fall festival is
it's tribute to bluegrass and bluegrass music and kind of the heritage that it,
that it has in this area with the people that settled in Cades Cove and the music
traditions they brought with them and, uh, the people, the, the bands that play it,
they, they don't get paid to play the festival.
They play it and they play it.
They play the festival on their own, but what's really unique about it is, is
they'll have what they call picking parties.
And so they'll have, there's different tents located around the property and
even around the porch, uh, on the, at the towns and visitors center.
And if you're a musician and they'll be out there just playing songs, just a group
of them will get together.
It doesn't necessarily mean from the same band or anything.
They just, just neighborhood people come together and play music.
And it's, it's really great.
It's really kind of that throwback to getting together with family members or
friends and just enjoying an afternoon of playing music.
And so if you're, if you, if you have, if you play music, play a mandolin or play
a guitar or, uh, you know, a bass, uh, just come on out and enjoy and step into one
of these groups.
I mean, they're happy to have you.
They're happy to show you little tricks that they've learned over the years.
And, and they just play songs and you just, you step in, they're playing and
you just step in and start playing right along with them.
And, and so even, uh, they'll even do a band of, uh, a segment at the, at the
show where just ordinary people just step up on the stage and there'll be a group
of them playing together and they figure out what song they want to play.
And it goes right into it.
It's, it's really fun thing to see because you see all generations, you see,
I've seen kids as young as, you know, nine, 10 out there playing their mandolin
with, uh, you know, elderly gentlemen in their seventies out there.
And it's great to see the connection that music brings people together, uh, to
see that connection made.
So yeah, the Townsend Hallow fall festival is next weekend.
It's next Friday and Saturday.
It's a two day event, a very family friendly event.
Uh, there's no admission fee.
You can, uh, there's, uh, admission $10 to park on the property.
Uh, if you want to, those proceeds help benefit the Townsend, uh, fire department.
And, but there's also, you can park around town.
We have a shuttle service that runs from different areas all the way from the
heritage center, uh, up to Apple Valley.
So you can park on either end of town and jump on the shuttle there and, and
just take you right to the heritage center.
But yeah, it's, it's, it's a wonderful event to have, uh, for this community,
you know, being run so long.
And, and a lot of people, uh, some of the old timers we call them, uh, they've
made this an annual tradition for them.
It has become, it is their annual vacation.
They come up here, they enjoy it so much.
Some people have been coming 10, 15, 20 years, uh, to come to this event and
they just make a great weekend out of it.
Uh, we did a survey a few years ago when it kind of even went around the parking
lot a little bit and just looked at the different license plates, uh, from
people that come here.
And it is, is definitely more than just an East Tennessee or North Georgia, you
know, Western Carolina thing.
There are people from, from Alabama, even all the way from up in the Northeast
area, Midwest, you see Indiana, Illinois coming down to this festival.
So, uh, you know, we, it's not a whole lot of advertising we do for it.
It's just kind of a word of mouth thing that travels throughout the bluegrass
community.
And it's really a tight knit community that comes together, uh, to play the
music.
That's, you know, when you get to experience one of these picking sessions,
I'm just, I grew up with musicians and my whole entire family is for the most
part played something.
And, you know, just a good old fashioned jam session is just so amazing to see
to me the raw talent that, that really comes out of these musicians.
I mean, cause they're just, they're just picking up and they're just feeding
off each other.
And it just, you can get, you know, you can get a little bit of a
sense of what's going on in the world.
And it just, you can get some of the most beautiful melodies, some of the
most amazing, uh, just rhythms in, in sounds ever.
And I, I, my dad used to have a, uh, an event every year at his house and it
was, and that's what it was.
It was just a jam session.
People would come out and we'd cook out and it was just a huge jam session.
And it was always the best time.
Uh, definitely, definitely want to check that out.
Is it starts at 10 AM, but it doesn't stop until the music stops.
Exactly.
Yeah.
The festival starts at 10 AM.
We kind of kick off the music, uh, about 11, we have different stage acts that
play about 45 minute sessions throughout the day.
And even though the festival is supposed to end about six o'clock with the
credit, when the crafters or we've got about 50 crafters on hand, uh, they've
been known to play well into the night.
It, you know, talking well deep into that past, you know, past 10 o'clock or
so they'll, they'll keep going in and that's fine.
It's, it's great.
Cause you know, people bring their lawn chairs out.
Uh, they've already, uh, a few weeks ago, you know, people actually, uh, stake out
their lawn chairs around, uh, the towns and visitors center.
So they have a great spot for, for viewing.
And it's kind of one of the, one of the neat traditions of the festival is, uh,
people know it's coming.
And so about three weeks, two to three weeks out, people will start tying down
their lawn chairs around the visitor center so they can get a great spot, uh,
to do that in the, in the back porch area.
Yeah, it's, it's, you know, you know, there's plenty of food available.
We've got food trucks there so you can make a good, good day out of it.
Uh, there's plenty of, uh, as I said, about 50 or so, uh, crafters out there
offering everything from, from, uh, honey and different, uh, affinity soaps to,
to handcrafted, uh, belts and, and all kinds of different things.
You can find most of that information at smoking mountains.org.
That's where the site is. If you click on the events page, uh, it'll take you
right there, but, uh, there's a lot of good things going on.
We've got blacksmithing.
So if you haven't, if you haven't experienced, uh, guy, uh, blacksmithing
person, you know, he's got the fire going.
He's got his little, his hammer out and he's, he's building art right there in
front of you that you can see.
And it's not something you see a whole lot.
You don't see a whole lot of blacksmithing.
They do some cornmeal, uh, mixing, uh, cornmeal grinding.
And so they've got an actual cornmeal out, uh, uh, grinding machine out there.
That's run off of, uh, off a steam engine.
So these are some really the old heritage type things that you don't see anymore.
You know, most of it's all processed in some, you know, some plant in Illinois
that you find your cornmeal done, but you know, here and they, and they sell it in
five pound bags and they, they mill it for you right there.
So, you know, it's fresh, uh, you know, it's, it's very organic in the, in that
way. And so there's a lot of things going on, uh, from that perspective as well.
Uh, you know, the hand crafters are very, are very, you know, uh, personable and the
people that come to the festival, uh, if you have questions about how did you make this,
the conversations you can build.
And if you, if you find somebody that has a, has a niche craft that you're kind of
working on and you find somebody there, it's great person to talk to because you know,
you have that connection, but also they can offer you great tips about how they make this
or do that. So it's, it's been, it's been a fun event to have, uh, in this area for
about 30, over 30 years now.
That, I mean, that's amazing that, that the tradition is carried on for that long.
Um, but that, that tells you something, right? I mean, when, when you can have a
festival for that long, that means people really enjoy it. And like you mentioned, this
is some of the, a lot of them, it's their vacation. They, they plan their trip and
they plan for this event every year. And that's just amazing. All right, Jeff, I'm
gonna put you on the spot.
Okay.
All right. So what is the one thing in particular that you love about that festival? What is
the number one thing?
Uh, for me personally, I love the music. I love the way that, uh, you talk about, talk
about the musicians, you know, there's professional musicians you hear on the radio, but these
people that play are just as good as a lot of those people that, that you hear on the
professionals, professional music scene. Uh, you know, they don't get the accolades and
a lot of them are, you know, just your neighborhood friends. They're, you know, they're running
the Napa auto parts store down where you are in, in, in, you know, for their, for their
afternoon or evening entertainment, you know, they're at home, uh, picking and playing,
uh, like that. But you know, uh, the clogging, the clogger dancers that come out and play
and dance in front of the stage, uh, is, is fun to see too. Just the, just the active
involvement of people getting out and just enjoying, uh, being out in the smoking mountains
is, is exciting to see.
Well, we all love being out in the smoking mountains anyway. So, well, you heard it from
Jeff, the music and the clog dancers, you gotta come check it out. Um, Townsend fall
festival next weekend, towns and visitor center starts, uh, 10 AM and goes until the music
stops. So it sounds like it might just be 10 AM starts on, uh, 10 AM on Saturday and
ends. Well, whenever everybody goes home after the weekend,
That's probably true in a lot of respects.
Well, we are going to take a short break, but when we come back, we're going to talk
a little more in depth about the economic development of blunt County and the blunt
County chamber of commerce and how they are helping to impact the community as well.
Stay tuned with us here on around the house with Scott Brokamp on news talk, 98 seven W O K I.
Welcome back to around the house. I am Scott Brokamp and in studio with me this morning,
Jeff Muir from blunt County chamber of commerce. Well, we've been talking about some really
awesome events that are coming up in blunt County area. Um, talked a little bit about
the great smoking mountains heritage center, which by the way, you can go to GSM heritage
center.org to find out about all the events that are going on at the heritage center.
Uh, the towns and fall festivals coming up next weekend. You definitely won't want to
miss it. It is at the towns and visitor center and, um, well, other than fun and food and music and.
Leave watching all those great things there. There's a lot happening in the Marival Alcoa
area, blunt County in general. And well, I mean, most everybody has heard about obviously the
Amazon fulfillment center. We've heard about Smith and Wesson, but I mean, obviously those
are two huge, huge milestones for you guys. And, and our whole entire area, you know,
that's what's beautiful about our East Tennessee areas, that the things that happen in blunt
County or Loudoun County or Anderson County, all the development, it all continues to help
our whole entire East Tennessee area because you know, we're a close knit community, even
though we may be, what do we, I think what seven counties that kind of make up the Metro area.
We're all a very close knit seven counties. We may be different, but we're really a lot of like,
you know? Yeah, exactly. And that's, you know, blunt County, we kind of pitch ourselves as one,
as a regional employer. And so we, you know, we draw people to work in this area. If you,
if you follow Pellissippi Parkway in the mornings, the traffic moving into the County,
it's just as much as it is going out of the County. So the blunt County has become kind of
the blunt County has become kind of a regional hub for, for employment. And obviously adding
the Amazon fulfillment center and Smith and Wesson, both of them are having their grand openings
here in a couple of weeks. So we're excited to get them started. So Smith and Wesson was pretty much
on, on track. I think Amazon was probably delayed maybe about six or eight months getting started.
Just, just the way the economy ran with some supply chain issues, because when you've got
a, over 3 million square feet of warehouse space to fill, it takes a lot of, a lot of materials to
fill in that, in that fulfillment center. And so it'll be great having Amazon here,
because they're talking about maybe cutting down the time from you order to the time it's actually
delivered to your door, probably less than a day now, just because of the product that they have
available there and the proximity of which, you know, this metro area can, can handle it. It's the
first facility in East Tennessee, and we were proud to, to have them located, located in Alcola.
So it's, it's been wonderful to have, you know, but the, you know, the, it's the economic engine
that drives, that drives the car, I guess, for being able to put on the Great Smoking Mountains
Heritage Festival, put on these festivals. It's these types of things that bring people here and
want, and want to experience that and want that be part of their life. And so that's why we,
that's what we try to do. We, you know, people think that, you know, the Chamber of Commerce, we,
we, you know, we are this voice of small business in the area and we do drive some economic
development. But essentially what we do is we facilitate, we facilitate businesses that want
to come into the area and get them associated, meet the right people in the city and county
governments to make sure that, that, you know, they get the right permits they need at the right time
and try to make sure it's the right fit for the community. We, you know, we actually turn down
a lot of people that, prospects that want to move into the area. We really try to have a diverse set
of businesses there. So we're not following just one single economic trend because as we know,
there's a lot of up and down. So if there's a, there's a peak in the construction industry,
it may be a valley in, in automobile manufacturing. And so we try to have a very diverse economy of
businesses in the area to make sure that, you know, if you look at the overall line, it goes
pretty, pretty much straight up and you avoid a lot of the pitfalls and peaks and valleys that go
along with it. And so you'll find that we're really working to fill the Pellissippi Place,
which is our research and development technology, technology park, trying to get some spots filled
in there. So we're really working towards the, the technology sector. One of the growing sectors in
this area is actually an aerospace. You know, Oak Ridge is going to, is put in to get an airport in
Oak Ridge. So there's really a need for people associated with, with aerospace and not only in
pilots, there's this, you know, there actually a shortage for pilots in this country, but also
technicians to work on the planes and the engines and make sure everything's running and airline
schools to help educate these people. They actually, the only really airline aerospace
educational facility is at Northeast Community College up in the Tri-Cities. And so we're trying
to get one built here because we have Cirrus Aircraft, which is, you know, one of the largest
personal aircraft vendors in this country. And they have their center here where they do a lot
of the training. And so they want to bring up, be able to have people to, you know, work on these
private planes that come in, but also have the ability to have extra pilots on hand. And also
just to, you know, when you add another airport, you're adding a whole other sector of, of people
that need to work in those areas. And so we're, it's all about creating jobs and opportunities
for people. And one of the great things that we've seen is, you know, people talk about, you know,
the minimum wage. And so we bring in companies like Amazon and Smith and Wesson and they kind
of raised the wage rate a little bit higher. And so that brings, lifts everybody up a little bit
higher too, because of competition, people are going to have to pay more for, companies pay more
for people working. So that's, you know, that's one of the benefits of actually, you know,
finding these higher level paying jobs and people that want to come here and work,
is trying to make sure that those needs are fulfilled.
Right. Well, and, and we, I mean, we've, our areas is gone through, in fact, the whole entire
country has gone through somewhat of a pay correction, you know, post COVID and, you know,
we've, we've all seen that. And, but as a small business owner myself, I think one of the things
that's helped us to identify and help us to see is that there are lots of ways that we can
make sure our employees are happy. And, and it is embark, it has had us to embark upon a lot of
conversations that we probably should have been having or thought we were having, but we weren't
really having, you know what I mean? And so, you know, yeah, Amazon's going to be here. And so now
instead of me waiting two days, I can get it today or tomorrow, you know, the, the world of instant,
but I feel like it's helped us as a business to kind of step back a little bit and, and go back
to those, well, some of those heritage roots of, of having good communication. And as a small
business, we want our employees to know that you do have input on the decisions that we make, that,
you know, what you do here is a part of who we are as a company. And, and then of course, we all
want to work together for, well, the, the end result or, or the rewards that everybody wants. And,
you know, not everybody's the same, not everybody's motivated and driven by the almighty dollar.
Some are, hey, I want more time off. Some are, I want different hours. There's things in life. And
so, you know, we see some of that. And so when we have other companies come in, such as your, your
Amazon's and your Smith and Wesson's, and, and we see some of the out of the box thinking that they
have done with how they handle employment and some of the things they do, it does, it helps all of us.
It's kind of like any type of correction, right? It's a little rough to begin with, and then usually
sways a little too far to one side. And then it gets leveled out and it mellows out. And then it
ends up being a benefit for all. And so, you know, I know a lot of times we think about, we hear all
the time, everybody's moving here. Everybody's moving here. Well, it's beautiful here. But also
at the same time, there's, there's a lot of great reasons to come here.
Yeah. And one of those great reasons, as you've seen a lot in some downtown development and, and
downtown Maryville, we've got about 12 Blount County developers, local people. We encourage them to
really take a part in developing downtown Maryville. Alcoa has started their Springbrook farm,
facility, place where they're building out there. Alcoa, you know, was, was a company town started
in the early 1900s with the aluminum company of America. They never had a downtown. It was just a
company town. There was the, there was the mill and there were houses around it. And that was,
that was all there was. And so they've really taken it upon themselves to build a town town area.
It's going to be filled with green space, lots of walkable greenway areas. And they've really done a
great job of really planning what types of mixed use facilities are going to be in this, in Springbrook
farm. And so you're seeing a lot of that. They've already built, you know, a couple of apartment
complexes there. Like there's like 600 units in there. There's a new food city out there. There's
a couple of hotels are going to build some other mixed use facilities out there where there's, you
know, retail underneath and residential on top, just, you know, two, three story buildings, not
really high, but you know, some opportunities like that. And you, I think you're, you're seeing a lot
of, and everything's walkable. And that's what we're really doing. And I think that's the
thing that's really important for our employees. Not only just for, you know, if they live close
enough, they could walk in or bike in, but just for, you know, the health factor, people want to
be out and getting healthier. And so people just like walking on the greenway. It gives them, you
know, just that 15 minute walk during your break, you know, can, you know, just be able to walk
through the greenway. And so that's what we're doing. And so that's what we're doing. And so
that's part of the downtown development center as well. There's a lot of great buildings in
downtown Maryville. There's some good bones there, but some of them have kind of fallen by the wayside
a little bit. And so we're really working with these developers and really, these are local
people that are investing back into the community. It's not a developer from Charlotte or Atlanta
just coming in and saying, Hey, I'm going to build this. Just like, you know, you know,
you're going to build this. You're going to build this. You're going to build this. You're going to
build this. You're going to build this. You're going to build this. And so they're really
like, this is a good place to build your business and really build the development.
Right.
And so a lot of people are coming in and saying, Hey, I'm going to build this, just like,
I can get my money in and get out. These are people that actually have an investment in the
community. They've been here for a long time. Some of them, you know, really want to make
downtown Maryville. One of them big one is James Tomichek. He's really done a good job of
facility they're going to build there and some other things he's got going on
that are great. There's 20 different projects on the books for downtown
development at different stages and so we're excited to see that development
coming into downtown Marriville. There's going to be a hotel built as well so you
know that'll bring in some people too especially along the 321 route into
towns and Marriville's never really had a you know a hotel. They've all been
located by the airport properties and so this would be you know just a different
sector thing and one of the really exciting things you know we heard heard
from a lot of the young people that you know you know we know about the mountains
we like the outdoor activities but we want to do stuff indoors too and so one
of the things that is coming on board is the armory there was an old armory on
Ella Street in downtown Marriville and they cleared the lot and they're going to
rebuild that into an entertainment venue kind of a like a maple hall like you
haven't right where there's you know a bar upstairs there's things to do you
know some maybe an indoor bowling and some different indoor activities but
it's all about keeping our young people here. We try to make sure that they
have ample opportunities to move on and enjoy their careers here. Yeah absolutely
I mean let's face it I mean I don't know why anybody would want to leave here but
they do but again it's about making sure that we have things in place that we're
able to have everything we need for well quite frankly for you to stay here so
hey listen we're gonna take a short break but when we come back we're gonna
talk about the perfectly blunt awareness initiative that Jeff and there his team
has got rolling through for blunt County so stay tuned with us right here on
Around the House on Newstalk 987 WOKI. Welcome back to Around the House. Hope
you have enjoyed listening this morning I'm speaking with Jeff Muir from the
blunt County Chamber of Commerce you can go to bluntpartnership.com and you
can learn all about what's happening in blunt County economic development and
well just about anything really you want to know there's links on there to get
you around everywhere but while you're on there you will probably run across
something that says perfectly blunt awareness. What is that?
Perfectly blunt is just kind of our our little mantra that we have that talks
about how blunt County is one of the the perfect places to live work and play and
we want to make sure that people know that what the blunt partnership is doing
to help make the community a better place and so that's what's you know one
of the great things about perfectly blunt is a great play on words you
know especially from the manufacturing side is perfectly made perfectly blunt
in blunt County you know if you want to go to the mountains it's perfectly
peaceful perfectly blunt so we have a great play on words that we can use with
that as well but just trying to make sure that people understand that or put
the word out more about the blunt partnership we've always been on kind of
sat on the sidelines when it came to these type of things about really
pushing out stuff from behind the scenes and I was just kind of want to make sure
that people understand that you know we do a lot of things we do tourism
development for the county we do the economic development for the county we
also house the Chamber of Commerce which is the voice of small business and small
businesses are the backbone of any community yeah we're happy to have the
Smith and Wessons and the large manufacturers and and the people that
do a lot of major employment but is really the small business people and you
know companies like yourself that employ you know maybe it's just two people
maybe it's ten people but those are the people those are the companies that
really drive everything we do because without them you know we wouldn't have
people to you know install security systems or work on your car or you know
change our oil in those type of things and so those that's really what we want
to focus on is really make sure that people understand that we do that when
we do the events we do a number of events throughout the year for the
community we host hops in the hills in the summer on Broadway and during the
summer for community events we have a grains and grits spirits festival which
is part of the Tennessee Whiskey Guild that we help create across the state
that's in November that's that's sold out event but that's another one of the
fun things we do obviously the Townsend Heritage Festival we do a taste of
blunt in the spring just had that a couple weeks ago we brought together you
know 30 blunt County restaurants and food trucks and for people just to
experience the different types of food that are in the area and maybe you know
somebody you haven't you've seen but you haven't really wanted to try but hey
they're at the they're at the food festival and you try it and then you go
go visit the business and so we try to make sure that you know people
understand that there are people behind the scenes that are working to make make
this community a better place and working hard with with the government's
and and and the people in general a general public to make sure that what
we're doing is for the betterment of the community because you know if we all
work together to make it a better place then it will be and so we're just trying
to make sure that that that that's what's happening well and you know you're
right I mean small business is the heartbeat to really essentially any
community and and I'm so grateful to be a part of that in our community and and
again being here even though we're seven different counties around where we're so
close-knit that look if you're you're in one you're in them all right and and
it's which is awesome I think that is amazing and and I know just like you
guys and several of the chambers around that you guys all work together because
when we look at things we understand the impact of those economic development and
and the growth strategies of each of the different areas that they impact all of
us and so what happens in blunt it affects what happens in West Knoxville
or Knoxville or Oak Ridge and you know I'm sure there are many of people that
work in Oak Ridge they live in Blount County and vice versa so you know what
you guys do is a huge part and I think a lot of people may not understand or know
the underlying what kind of the heartbeat that you guys help provide
within our communities you give small businesses an opportunity to get
together but also those big businesses right so I know with many of our chamber
affiliations we get to go in and we get to talk and meet with people that we
probably wouldn't have otherwise so you know that I know you guys do well yeah
that's one of the major things we do is we're facilitators we try to bring
people in the community together make sure that the businesses have the
opportunity to work with one another but it's also about me you know it's making
the connections and you know as a chamber of commerce we don't promise
we're gonna increase sales to your business but we will help you we can put
you in front of more people in one setting that you then you can go visit
in a week and that's and that's what it's about it's about making those
connections that work that work for your business yeah you you are right about
that some of the relationships that I know that we have built through our time
in in different chambers is has been just I mean it's probably the most
valuable thing that we have in our business so thank you Jeff so much for
joining us this morning again you can go to blunt partnership calm you can find
out all that the chamber has to offer and what's going on in the blunt County
area don't forget the Townsend Fall Festival next weekend starts at 10 a.m.
goes until the music stops and it will be at the Townsend visitor center there's
plenty of places to park and and if you can't park right there to visitor center
there's some shuttle options available as well you don't want to miss it you
know in and make your plans make them quick because the leaves are gonna be
turning and it's gonna be packed so take a trip right on down 321 right through
the heart of blunt County go do some sightseeing go enjoy a beautiful weekend
right now we are gonna take a break and Jeff again thank you so much for being
here and when we come back we're going to be speaking with another Jeff from
rural metro and we're gonna make sure that we can keep you safe with your
bonfires this fall stay tuned right here on around the house on news talk 987 W
okay I there it is welcome back to around the house I hope you're enjoying
this beautiful day sons of beaming such a nice just a beautiful morning out this
morning I hope it if you're listening it's you're listening outside instead
of like we are cooped up inside this studio I'm telling you Chris we gotta
figure we got figured out man we gotta get it we gotta get a porch that's
how it is too we gotta get a porch anyway if you were listening in the
first hour my first guest was Jeff Muir from the blunt County Chamber of
Commerce talking about all the great things happening in blunt County and man
there definitely was a lot don't forget the Townsend Festival down at the
Townsend Center next weekend you'll want to go and get in on some picking check
out some crafts and enjoy there's a lot happening around town as always because
well we live in beautiful East Tennessee but of course today it's game day
Tennessee Vols hosted Texas San Antonio Roadrunners today at 4 o'clock if you
don't have tickets you can watch the game on the SEC Network listen to the
Vol radio network on our sister station wivk and for the first time ever the
game will be broadcast in Spanish on the Tennessee Athletics app and on the
utsports.com if your history buff today is John Severe day and historic marble
Springs the home of Governor John Severe is having a huge reenactment in
open house from 10 to 4 the event is free don't forget the market square
farmers market is open every Saturday the season is winding down in the last
market day this year is November 18th get there while you still can for a
complete list of events happening around your house today go to visit
Knoxville.com that's visit Knoxville.com well my second guest in here this
morning is captain Jeff Bagwell from rural metro he is a public information
officer and well we're gonna talk about a lot of cool things but I mean what
better way to start off Jeff then let's talk about the topic of the day today
and quite frankly it is a topic that everybody is well aware of and
everybody always seems to rush today is officially the autumn equinox okay okay
you can now break out this pumpkin spice lattes or whatever it is that you want
okay I am a I'm a summer guy I love summer yeah I don't like it when summer
ends so you know everybody has been posting for a month that they're ready
for pumpkin season and okay fine it's pumpkin time you can have your pumpkins
get your jack-o'-lanterns out get your Halloween decorations out of me I got
kids so we got to have some Halloween decorations my wife is a a well it's
near-death fear of spiders and so our kids and you know you can tell we might
joke around a little bit at my house but we all decided that we were gonna put a
huge spider web with a huge 23 inch spider on the web outside the house this
year so we're sporting the spider looks pretty good or getting ready but anyway
so Jeff let me ask you a question okay what's the strangest thing that you have
ever had pumpkin flavored I've not had a whole lot of pumpkin flavored stuff I
tried a pumpkin coffee one time and I wasn't a fan so I did I don't even think
I finished it at all but I don't eat a lot of pumpkin pie I know that's a big
thing it's time of year everybody's got to have pumpkin pie my wife is a huge
pumpkin scent person everything has to be pumpkin this time of year and I'm
like okay you go do your thing because I don't I don't do that so I don't a lot
of pumpkin stuff you know I like I like the little cinnamon spice I'm good with
that yeah but let me let's face it I mean the best part about pumpkin pie is
that you can literally unload the container of cool whip on it and not be
embarrassed so I mean that's how I like my good side I'm not sure about you but
but you know what you know hey Chris so are you are you a pumpkin latte guy are
you a pumpkin spice fella I have never been one yeah me neither you know in
fact I'm the type of guy like when I go somewhere and I get coffee I order coffee
and and then they say well do you want cream and sugar I said no I ordered
coffee right right I mean coffee is is coffee right if you start adding things
to it it's no longer coffee now it's a latte or a creamy sugary drink coffee is
meant to be black you you lost me on that one yeah well sugar on my cough in
my coffee go get you some pumpkin spice way through the fall to get the December
and then it's peppermint lattes that is my thing when it comes to coffee oh
lord see this is what happens this is what happens with fall everything just
gets rushed okay look let's get through Halloween let's get through
Thanksgiving before we get to Christmas yeah I guarantee you this weekend there
will be some retailer that has Christmas decorations out on the floor
it's already there this crazy this you know everything's got to be hurry you
know we're as I was talking with Jeff earlier we're talking about the Amazon
fulfillment center and you know now we're gonna be able to get our stuff in
in the same day or a day yeah okay look I mean there's times that I'm like I
really wish I you know I need this today right but do I really well I thought I
was listening to that segment and I thought man can they can they deliver
firetruck parts because we really need those like today and they take months
yeah yeah I'm with you on that we you know we there's still tons of supply
chain issues I mean it's so weird even in our business like we can go and place
an order today and everything's great and in two weeks from now the most
common product is on backorder and yeah and it's gonna be here we don't know when
and I will say this and I don't I don't like getting into political stuff so I
won't get into political stuff but one of the things that I think that has
occurred a little bit post-covid was that we've all had to stop take a breath
and realize everything is not instant because we have been forced to wait for
some things because they're not available yeah they're not made they're
not ready you're not getting them you know and so I think is important to slow
down so yes as we talk about that okay all right listen I'm not gonna bash
the the pumpkin spice latte group okay but get whatever drink it is that you
want take a step outside the door enjoy it enjoy it take a deep breath slow down
because I'm gonna tell you it'll be super busy very quick yes it will anyway
so well there we go that's our that's our topic for the day fall is beautiful
I love fall it really is I do love fall but as I tell my wife and in my family
the one thing that I really don't like about fall is that I know that winter is
right behind it yeah I'm not a winner guy I'm not a fan yeah I don't like it I
just soon be able to wear shorts and t-shirt all year round yeah so you know
hey I guess I don't you know I don't have the privy of all that so anyway here
we are we're in we're in fall finally here it's beautiful out oh yeah and
feels good if you've been one of those that it's too hot to go outside listen
now's the time hit the greenway go take a hike in the mountains go find some
outdoor activities go enjoy it and man enjoy it now enjoy it now because when
you get back in you know you might live somewhere that you might want to go sit
bottle of fire afterwards in the evening time right yeah so we're gonna take a
short break but when we come back Captain Bagwell is gonna help us keep
safe I'm gonna make sure that we don't hurt ourselves others or our properties
right as we're enjoying that little fire time so tune in with us right here after
this short break on around the house on news talk 987 W okay I welcome back to
around the house well I guess we are your pumpkin spice today we are yet we
are gonna spice you up this morning oh my goodness gracious I am Scott Brokamp
founder and co-owner of his security and technology and well I'm talking with
Captain Jeff Bagwell from the rural Metro fire department I mean how was
that for a start of your your show right there huh I like it I like it so I hear
I'm gonna I'm gonna take us down some rabbit holes I'm sure but one of the
things is I really want to talk about is who and what is rural Metro yep and and
let's let's get this taken care of subscription service yep so rural Metro
came to Knox County in 1977 and a lot of a lot of people want to give us credit
for being the the innovators or the first membership private fire
department and truthfully for those folks that are that remember that are
older Knox County had private fire protection all the way back into the
50s Fountain City Fire Department you had West Knoxville Fire Department a lot
of the places that are now incorporated by the city and then rural Metro came in
it kind of brought some continuity to the multiple fire departments that we
had in the county at the time so rural Metro is a private fire department we
don't receive any taxes from Knox County so the only funding source we get is
what comes from memberships with or contracts with individual property
owners that's residential and business industrial all of them are the same so
that's based on the square footage of your of your property and it's it's an
annual assessment right so and and I know this is we have this conversation
with all of our client in fact every new client that we go to even if they're
not in a rural metro area we work with you guys really closely we hand them out
a postcard we make sure we have the conversation about signing up for
subscription fire service because from where I came from everywhere I've ever
lived previously it's always been included in my tax dollars even now I
live in Loudoun County and we have I'm in a volunteer area so it's funded
separately it's not a subscription service and so many people they don't
know right they don't know that and I and I'm you know I keep banging my head
and I know that you guys do as well and you've got a gentleman out there who's
working member services and trying to explain this and get the word out but
you know it's like there should almost be a law that when you purchase a
property that you get this huge you know big document it's got to be one of the
five thousand pages that you sign that you actually have to read you know what
I mean because this is so important yeah and there's and there is in the when you
purchase a house now there is a disclosure law in all those what 150
pages that you have to sign every one of them or initial them there is a page in
there that stipulates who your fire department is so that the the mortgage
group has to tell somebody who the fire department is and whether it's a tax
based or it's a volunteer donation based or if it's a subscription based and a
lot of times unfortunately that's not happening that discussion doesn't happen
my daughter bought a house in Powell and that conversation never happened yeah
now the realtor had already explained it to her but at the closing table that
didn't happen and that's something that's got to change because we've had
people that have bought homes moved in burnt something on the stove set off a
fire alarm from his security the fire department responds and and and then all
of a sudden they get a bill three weeks later and they're like what the world
when the world is this right and and we've had people say well you should
have known it was a it was a false alarm well do you want us to not come right
you should want us to write every time right because if it is a fire time is of
the essence we need to get there and we need to be as quick as we can to put out
that fire yeah absolutely and you know and then of course the flip side of that
then then they call us and they're like well hey you know it was a false alarm
and why you know now they want me to pay the bill right and they want you to pay
it and and the and the key is with you guys just like anybody else's is there's
a security code you have to tell me great cause right they wouldn't want you
to kill them off right if they're what right you've got to have checks and
balances you do you do and that's why to me we and we work really hard yep in our
company to have conversations with our team to make sure that we're having
conversations with our clients yeah and you know and it almost gets to the point
now we've even discussed having the conversation as far as not providing
monitored fire protection in a residential house if they are in rural
metro area and they do not have subscription service but but now but
then that puts us and now we got to go and you know so listen it's just simple
okay if you have a house if you have a property are you gonna have that
property without having homeowners insurance that's what I was gonna say
heck no same thing okay heck no in fact and you may be able to test this I've
talked to some insurance folks about it but there are some insurance companies
that are denying claims because you didn't sign up for your subscription
fire service I can't speak to that but I can tell you that insurance companies
won't pay our bill so and we've got this later on in the in the segment but you
know if you're not a subscriber or a member and we send you a bill after the
fact and that bill could be thirty five forty thousand dollars your insurance
company's not going to pay that mine is State Farm and they will pay five
hundred dollars yep that's it yeah and so the rest of it's on me so instead of
spending two hundred fifty thousand or whatever my policy has to replace my
house and my contents now I have to take part of that money out to pay the fire
department when it was much better to just pay the four or five hundred
dollars a year right on the front end right so that's that's the other piece
right is every thinks it's so expensive right but it's really not it's it's
really not I ask I ask a person one time how much they spend a month on cell
phones for their family and you're laughing because you've got several mine
is probably three hundred and something dollars for five cell phones so you know
my goodness my my membership for my house is not $400 right a year exactly
I'm paying three hundred and something every month exactly yeah it's it I mean
is essential let's face it it's not cheap to roll a fire truck right but it
goes it it actually goes beyond the fire truck though doesn't oh yeah there's a
lot of other services that we do for our members we've come we'll come out and
change your smoke detectors check smoke detectors or smoke detector batteries
you provide the batteries and the detectors because it's your house your
property you need to have what you want but we'll come out and put them up how
many people have cathedral ceilings now oh my goodness can't reach them you don't
have the ladders we have a few ladders and we have guys that know how to use
them and we'll come out and change those we'll put up smoke detectors for people
that may not have them and we get those through the state fire marshal's office
and so we can we can do a lot of things and then also we'll come out and do a
home safety check a lot of insurance companies will give you a discount for
that as well as they'll give you a discount for being a member of the fire
department a supporting member and we'll come out and and help you place fire
extinguishers things like that anything fire related that's what we're there for
but if you're not a member I can't come do that because you're not supporting us
now do you guys is ambulatory services as well yes now we we come out with
first responders all of our trucks have EMTs and paramedics on them right and we
can do just about everything that an ambulance can do except transport you
got you and so we can do all of that but that and that is included in your
membership now the transport portion is sure that's through another party which
is AMR in Knox County right so so therefore we can we can do all of those
things and I've actually personally been in somebody's living room started an IV
given medication talked to a doctor on a phone transmitted an EKG and got a
diagnosis and immediately gone straight to a cath lab when we get to the ER so
and and stop that person's heart from from being damaged while I'm sitting in
there living or waiting on that ambulance to get there Wow so those kind
of things are priceless you can't you can't put money on that no no I mean you
know a few hundred bucks a year yeah I mean let's face it it literally when you
start talking about what the actual real cost is to subscribe to service you're
you're talking what you're you're gonna skip going out to eat a couple of times
you know and that's it I mean let's be real you know it's I cannot and in again
like I say we we do we we go out and we try to preach mm-hmm that listen just
sign up for servers yeah you know because when you when you experience a
false alarm not if yeah but when guy yeah good just like we tell our
customers we're here when you need us not if but when because it's gonna
happen something's gonna go wrong something's gonna break something's
gonna need servers something's gonna right so when this happens the bill that
comes behind that yeah okay so you guys are rolling you're rolling two trucks on
an alarm on an alarm right so two trucks how much is it gonna cost me for two
trucks for a false alarm if I don't have service thirty six hundred dollars
thirty six hundred bucks mm-hmm and and and a house fire gets five trucks so and
to think that well it won't ever happen to me we've had people in storms we've
had more lightning storms yeah this year that I can remember you and me bucks
County yeah plus a tornado I mean when was the last time you sat in your living
room said I think we'll have a lightning storm tonight and I also get struck you
never think about that and again I've had I know of one particular home that
got struck by lightning and had a fire in the attic and they weren't members
and the problem is is that you now they have another problem on top of that
right right and they never planned for that and it's it's it's sad we don't
like sending those kind of bills out but it is business yeah yeah I mean it's
there's a lot of cost associated and let's face it those fire trucks are not
cheap no no it's not like you're going and buying a little taco toy okay these
are real operating big fire trucks so it I cannot stress it enough if you're
listening and you live in a rural metro area yep make sure that you subscribe to
service you don't know if you live in a rural metro area well go to rural
metro fire calm you can put your address in and they'll let you know it'll let
you know if you are in a subscription area or not yep so very simple and and
I know your team does very well with anytime somebody purchases a property
you guys well yeah you really do a good job of chasing them down yeah I mean
there's in fact we have those conversations there is there's no way
that you can tell me that you didn't know right because I know personally from
working with you guys that there is at least five touches that occur to every
new homeowner whether or not you open the mail and read it that's right that's
another conversation but the attempt has been made and you got to know and I'm
just telling you this is you're talking a few hundred bucks that really not only
save your property but save your life oh yeah so any right I'm gonna get off my
soapbox because I know that's really your soapbox but like it you know I'm
dealing with a I'm dealing with a customer right now that same situation
so anyway we are gonna take a short break but when we come back as promised
we're gonna talk about some bonfires and fire pits and outdoor safety for
enjoying this beautiful fall weather as fall is officially here so stay tuned
with us right here on around the house news talk 987 WOKI welcome back to
around the house hope you're enjoying listening this morning I've had a well
it's a day of Jeff's here yes so yeah mr. Jeff from Blount County Chamber of
Commerce and now we've got captain Jeff from rural metro fire department so
listen it's okay if you want to have a pumpkin spice latte yeah we determine
that today today only how's that we're gonna stop after today but but let's
talk about look now's the time of year everybody there they want to go sit in
the backyard they're born enjoyed fire pit yeah obviously you know look it's
harvest season okay bonfires upon us yep there's there's a lot of things we
need to be mindful of isn't there there is in Knox County and you mentioned you
lived in over in Loudoun County great place I love to go down there I've got
friends in Lenoir City but in Knox County you have to have a burn permit you
can get that you can go online to Knox County gov and it's under air quality
management but fire pits and I have one in my backyard that I've created that
I've made the biggest thing is to be smart with what we do obviously you
don't need to be burning household garbage that's a no-no and and you don't
need to burn things that are in construction materials things like that
natural wood tree branches things like that logs you know that kind of thing
we have a lot of people this time of year that want to burn leaves hmm those
are no-no's yeah and especially it is very dry out there some parts of Knox
County got a little shower last night but it is very dry yeah so we want you
to a have a burn permit there's not a burn ban right now but we want you to
have a burn permit and and then follow those rules ie it's got to be a certain
size it has to be out at dark and people think well you know it's it's contained
it's good or I put it out how well did you put it out what did you do to put it
out we've actually had cases where people have put out a fire they think and
only to find out six hours later that the fire has now rekindled and is burning
toward their house hmm or in one case last year in West Knoxville it burned
down their shed their neighbor's shed their wooden fence because they thought
the fire was out and they left mm-hmm and you just don't know when a little
bit of wind is going to pick up because we are in fall yeah just like spring so
we have changing of seasons that means you have cold fronts warm fronts whatever
I'm not a meteorologist coming through and they can kick up those embers and
can start and spread a fire so we want you to like in a fire pit you have blocks
around it or it's recessed in the ground and real nice and those are better areas
for a little fire than than just having it out in your yard right and burning
things and and my grandmother used to for years want to break stuff aside and
then set it on fire yeah my wife likes to do that too and I'm like no no no no
we don't do that anymore stop you know and she's I call her the pyromaniac and
if she's listening she'll get me later but but that's but a lot of people like
to do that and you just have to be smart about it sure have a garden hose out
there if you're gonna if you're gonna have a bonfire at night certainly we'll
probably have one tonight be a great night for it after Tennessee whoops and
bud over there in Neyland so it'll be a good night for it but but it'll be in
contained my my pit yeah and we'll sit around it we might roast some marshmallows
with the with the grandkids or the neighbor kids and might even roast a
hot dog or two but those are good times when we can do that in my opinion we
probably don't do enough of those kind of events in our society anymore we're
too hustle bustle we're on the go all the time yeah what sometimes when you
slow down and enjoy cuz you said a minute ago fall will be gone before we
can turn around and then it'll be cold and we'll be all mad right all right the
people that are complaining this hotter be complaining it's cold here in just
a couple of months but one of those you know no comment so all right so I'm gonna
I'm just gonna ask this yeah so in general let's say I've got a fire pit
outside I have a fire and I'm gonna go to bed what how long does it really
honestly take for that fire to be distinguished to where that is safe if
there are and I've had this conversation with my son who likes to
stay up late if you've got a log that is red hot yeah it needs a lot of water
several gallons of water to put out even in my 36 by 36 fire pit so a lot of
water and fuel separation a lot of people think well I can just put water
on it or put it out if the fuel which is that wood or paper or whatever you're
burning is still compressed then therefore it can still touch each other
and it can spread so you want to divide that my dad used to used to take a stick
and spread the logs apart yeah at a campfire yeah even though it was
surrounded by rocks yeah you still spread it apart and then put water on it
yeah but it may take may take an hour for it to completely go out yeah and and
you really want it to go out I've got up in the middle of the night and found
that my son did not put out the fire like he was supposed to and I go out
there at 2 in the morning and put it out make sure it's outright because I'm
fearful I've seen it I've seen right seen those kind of things happen where
it starts from a pile of trash or brush or what yeah well I mean we used to do
when I was a kid we used to do quite a bit of camping mm-hmm and you know same
thing we would we would have a contained area yeah fire and well quite frankly
you gotta have a fire that's your heat source because when I say camp and I
mean it was a tent you know and but so many times you you'd go to bed at night
and then you'd wake up the next morning and all you do is restoke the fire to
cook breakfast right so if you think about it right that was the whole entire
night that it was still a very viable and and potentially dangerous fire yeah
so I mean people that had wood stoves and fireplaces that heat with that yeah
at night we encourage you to shut that damper bring the fire down yeah you
don't need to go to bed with the roaring fire in your fireplace and people say
well how am I gonna stay warm we'll get another blanket right you know it's okay
that fire that's burning two rooms over is not gonna help you in your bedroom
right right snuggle with your spouse it's okay it's okay right come on
so I'm a little huggle snuggle it's good it's good so alright so bonfires what
about grill safety and yeah and you know there's a lot of cooking going on and of
course you know we've got the green egg phenomenon oh yeah and you know
everybody's into smoking and you know which has been going on for a while now
so yeah look let's face it you build a house he went to grill right outside the
door right okay so and I'm not saying that you know you might disagree I'm not
saying it's a bad thing but there's things that you need to do to make sure
that it's a safe thing that's right I mean and again I've seen where people
they grill right out so the door when we were talking right so the door I'm
telling you he stepped out the door and there was the grill right and and we
tell people look it needs to be at least four or five feet away well I don't want
to get wet well take an umbrella I mean if you're far enough out but I have one
of those eggs that you talked about mines not green mines red which is okay
but it cooks the same it's a red egg but you know that when you start the fire it
burns real the flames are up right when you walk away from it
shut the lid right gas grill same thing shut the lid people don't understand
that that grease from your food drops down in that in that grill and
eventually it could catch on fire so close the lid let whatever is under
their burn yeah close the lid before you walk away we've had fires underneath
the covered porches yeah where people walk away from them you have an active
fire I realize it's it's fueled by fuel that you are giving it right if it's a
natural gas or propane that's still a fire and if I put a piece of paper up
next to it or piece of wood it doesn't matter it's gonna burn it no matter what
absolutely it's an active fire shut the lid before you walk away and have it a
safe enough distance away from your house now you mentioned smokers and and
and hot and what do they call the things you drop a turkey and deep fry them
deep fryers oh my word I've talked about deep fryers forever but again don't do
that in your garage right we've had people try and they've usually seen a
visit from us we would much rather you call us just to invite us for the food
rather than invite us to put out your fire but we've had that happen do it in
a garage stop right put it outside put it ten feet away from your house it's
okay it's a little bit of raindrops on it are not gonna hurt it if it's a
smoker or something like that so and I keep going back to this because it's
it's true common sense goes a long way and well unfortunately we have a lot of
people that don't have common sense but that's what a lot of it is yes and the
and the antics that says well it won't happen to me well it can't happen to you
you're in the security business it can it and it does and it does and it
probably will at some point in your life my father is 83 next this month next
month October and he's never had to call the fire department for a fire but he's
had to call the fire department to help him up out of the floor to help
transport him to the hospital so the likelihood that you're going to have a
fire in your house the chances may be slim but there's a whole host of other
things that you may need the fire department for not just because your
house is on fire yeah well and I experienced in neighborhood that I lived in
that a house caught on fire mm-hmm okay and then the two houses next to it
sustained damage yeah okay so again the fire department had to put the fire out
on those houses too yep okay so when when you move from property A to
property B okay just because the fire was at property A doesn't mean that
they're paying your bill on property B that's right okay and so again it's
another one of those I just I can I've never found a logical reason to explain
why you would not subscribe to fire service the only thing that I know is
again is we have a lot of people that move here from other areas and and other
states and and quite frankly again the majority of places that I have lived all
of those services were covered either through volunteer service or they were
covered in my taxes yep and so when I learned of subscription service it was
I'm like wow that's I've never heard of that and so and we do we hear that a lot
yep but that's why it's so important that people are aware that they have to
be they have to be and like you said earlier we we work very hard to to try
to get into neighborhoods to go see people to let people have the opportunity
to ask those questions and of course then obviously answer them but but it's
very important that they be a subscriber to the fire department it's it's just
another service it's another thing and people say well you know I'll roll the
dice yeah okay that's that's scary to me it's it's just it's a service not to not
to take lightly and to well think that it's just gonna be there because you
know that's that's how it works here so any right if you are new here if you've
just moved here maybe you've been here a hundred years maybe you know of rural
metro maybe you don't I just want you to go to rural metro fire comm yep make
sure check your property may if you're in rural metro area make sure you've got
a subscription if not sign up today okay in payment plans okay yeah you can do a
payment plan if if three four five six hundred dollars is too much to cover
your you know six seven eight hundred thousand dollar house you can do a
payment plan yep okay I'm monthly so easy don't do not sacrifice all of your
hard-earned work for the beautiful home that you have and for your family and
cheap out on a few hundred bucks it's all I'm gonna say with that we are gonna
take a short break and we're gonna come back and we're gonna figure out how to
fuel the fire for the rest of this fall season right here all around the house
with Scott broke him on news talk 98 7 W okay I
welcome back to around the house we are in the home stretch here our final
segment and we are talking with captain Jeff Bagwell from the rural metro fire
department we are talking safety we're talking protection we are talking about
man make sure that you sign up for service if you don't know about it you
can go to rural Metro fire calm and you will learn if you were like me who moved
here from another state and never ever heard of anything about a subscription
fire department or subscription services let me just tell you it's not covered if
you're in Knox County right now there are areas Knoxville the city of Knoxville
city of Knox that is no fire that's included in your tax dollars yep right
but if you're in the county Knox County it is not included in your tax dollars
and so if you need a fire truck you don't want to be paying thirty forty
thousand dollars out of pocket for when you could just simply pay a few hundred
dollars and it's way less than your homeowners insurance no doubt about it
so Jeff I'm just gonna have to go there because we are in the fall season yep and
Christmas is coming okay and every year we hear of a tragedy of a Christmas tree
catching on fire every year what what are things that we can help to avoid
those consequences what are things that we need to look for what are things we
need to do to protect ourselves or family yeah so talking about Christmas
trees obviously a live tree has to have water and and not just water once a month
once a week like every day as much as you put water in your dogs or your cat's
bowl you need to put water in the tree and and people have said well does that
really matter because the tree doesn't drink water like my Great Dane does okay
well that may be true but your Great Dane may be drinking the water out of
the Christmas tree bowl right that's happened hmm you know the dog the dogs
getting plenty of water because he's drinking his and then he's drinking the
one out of the Christmas tree and so the tree has no water it takes literally
seconds you can you can go to YouTube and look at videos upon videos yeah of
Christmas trees that go up that are dry yeah and you think well it's still green
so it's not dry oh it's still dry mm-hmm it is still very dry so we'll do
another segment this year with the news media and we'll burn a Christmas tree
and we'll show you how quickly it can it can ignite now we've done a lot of
things globally I guess you could say with with lights used to it was the old
you and I remember the old incandescent that we got hot oh yeah on a live tree
or even on an artificial tree our first artificial tree at my parents house was
plastic yeah and so that would melt the plastic well now we've got LEDs we've
got all this and that's great that's great for fire prevention of that tree
but a you got to have it watered and then if you say well I don't have to
worry about watering it because I've got LED lights true but maybe true but then
you've also got that space heater that's sitting right there next to the
Christmas tree or you've got the fireplace or the wood stove there are
too many other things that can create generate heat near a dry tree so the
tree has to be has to have water in it at all times and then there's the
artificial trees got to worry about them too because people put things on the
trees that may be flammable and then again that that heat source that's close
to it every year it happens last year we had one on Christmas Eve remember how
cold it was we were out in the bitter bitter bitter cold working on this fire
and we were able able to get all of their Christmas presents out and those
kind of things and and you got to remember all of our guys we still have
hearts right and we still while we love our jobs and we love what we do and we
love serving people but we want people and kids particularly to enjoy Christmas
and have the presents that are under the tree so we were able to get those
out a few Christmas ago we had to do the same thing on a Christmas day and you
got also think when you talk about Christmas trees and decorations we think
about the the decor that requires electricity yeah so we plug that stuff
in and now what we have is we have overloaded circuits and one's overloaded
on top of another my wife sent me a picture of her under her office under
her desk all these cords and plugs and power strips and she said is this a fire
hazard and I said don't show this to me again okay yes it is but you know so
those kind of things happen people use outdoor lights inside inside lights
outside they get wet they cause fuses to trip and and older houses that are not
don't have the the proper breakers in right that new ones would yeah well now
we have more of a problem with the circuitry and we can overload it and we
can cause a fire in an attic I mentioned the house fire a few years ago in on
Christmas we had literally the homeowner had no idea that the fire was burning in
their attic no idea yeah so you got to be prepared for those kind of things
yeah I've yeah I've dealt with a couple of those so all right so look we are
almost out of time but there's one thing I do not want to pass this up and this
is listen okay if you hear sirens yeah and you're in your car pull your over to
the side of the road right and make room for our emergency vehicles I mean look
my office is on Kingston Pike and Campbell station and every single day I
see somebody who the fire trucks coming right up and they just drive right
through the intersection okay get out of the way get out of the way right please
yeah please pay attention any right all right that's my PSA for today that's
right listen if you don't know if you are in there in rural metro area rural
metro fire comm that's rural metro fire comm Jeff Bagwell thank you very much
for being here with us today hey if you've missed part of today's show and
you want to listen again there's a link on my website go to his security comm and
just click on the ATH radio tab to find recordings of past shows I want to thank
my guests this morning for being here Jeff Muir with the blunt County chamber
and Jeff Bagwell from rural metro have a topic or guest you'd like to hear on the
show send us an email to the house at his security comm around the house is
produced by news talk 98.7 with guest coordination services from be media
savvy have a great first day of fall and I hope you enjoy some quality time around
the house today go balls or as they say in Spanish vamos walls