Reddick leads diverse group

Mobile Meals senior nutrition manager Paige Bucholtz is looking for help, and she picked the right place to find it: The Democratic Women of Knoxville.

This 40-member club meets the first Monday of the month at the Unite-Here Building, 1124 N. Broadway, shortly before noon, and they’re out promptly at 1 p.m. because these are women with things to do.

“This is a diversified group,” said president Betty Reddick, an energetic telephone company retiree who says her club allows no “parking lot meetings. We take care of everything inside.”

Reddick is proud of the club’s record of service.

“We’re all interested in working in the community – and in politics. We did 21 projects last year, and they were not small projects. We always give about $600 to the United Way. We also give to the Mission of Hope, and all kinds of things.”

From 5-7 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 18, she plans to be at the office of attorney Wanda Sobieski at 612 Gay Street for a meet-and-greet reception in honor of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Kim McMillan, a Knoxville native who also happens to be the only woman in the race.

In June, the club will help host the National Democratic Women at the Crowne Plaza.

In August, the club commemorates Tennessee’s pivotal women’s suffrage date with a Women of Faith luncheon at The Foundry. In between all these events, they’ll find time to support causes like Mobile Meals. At last week’s meeting, they presented Bucholtz with a check for $390 to provide six months’ worth of meals for a senior citizen.

Mobile Meals is run by CAC’s Office on Aging which oversees the preparation and delivery of 840 meals a day. There are 69 routes, 60 of which are serviced by volunteers.

“It’s a constant need,” Bucholtz said.

Next up were the candidates in attendance.

There was Sam Alexander, who is running for the 18th District state House seat (being vacated by Stacey Campfield). Alexander said he took advantage of the “captive audience” afforded by a snowy weekend by going on a door-knocking blitz.

Randy Walker, running for the state Senate seat being vacated by Tim Burchett, reported great success in early fundraising efforts.

“We’ve raised $25,000, more than double my two Republican opponents, one of whom is Campfield. That’s not going to be enough money, I’ll tell you, but I’m working on it and I’ll go to Chattanooga, Nashville or Washington, D.C., if I have to and I’ll need your help.”

Second District County Commissioner Amy Broyles said her campaign hasn’t heated up yet.

“I’m not asking for a lot of donations, but if some competition pops up, I’ll start asking for money.”

There are two Democratic Party-affiliated women’s clubs in Knoxville. Reddick’s Democratic Women of Knoxville (known as “the day club,” branched off from the older Knox County Democratic Women’s Club (known as “the night club,” because it meets in the evening).

“We needed a day club,” Reddick said. “So many women work, go home and don’t want to come back out for a meeting at night.”

Hearing from Ochs

The new East County Sector Plan that will grease the skids for the controversial Midway Business Park is on the MPC agenda for Thursday, Feb. 11, despite requests for a postponement from east Knox neighborhood groups.

A representative of one of those groups, French Broad Preservation Association president Elaine Clark, has been asked to present the Ochs Center Report at the Agenda Review meeting at 11:45 a.m. Tuesday. Clark had been scheduled to give the presentation at a meeting last month, but refused to do so when she learned that what had been billed as a “community meeting” had morphed into a public hearing and become a part of the sector plan process.

The French Broad group commissioned the Ochs Center Report, which is an economic and alternative impact analysis of the impact of a business park in the Midway Road area. Read the Ochs report at http://archive.knoxmpc.org/plans/eastcounty/ochs_reports_jan2010.pdf