Driver’s license center moving into tight space in Bearden | Victor Ashe

The state driver’s license facility currently on Montvue Road in West Knoxville will be moving east about three miles in June or July to Gore Road off Kingston Pike near Buddy's Bar-B-Q and Sonic. The driver’s license center is under the Department of Safety. The Montvue location was a lease to the state that expired. It had to move.

Michael Hogan, state director of driver services, said the state signed a 10-year lease with Black Horse Capital Partners, which owns the property on Gore Road adjacent to Walden Drive and Agnes Road.

Gore Road going from Kingston Pike to the new center is very narrow and goes over two railroad tracks.

There will clearly be more traffic due to the new facility. It is hard to see the traffic flow working well without widening Gore Road from Kingston Pike over to Walden Drive.

The new facility is coming out of the ground, and the six employees at the current center plus the supervisor will move there when the building is completed and ready for occupancy in six to seven months.

The GOP redistricting plan for House districts in Knox County generates noise about incumbent Democratic State Rep. Gloria Johnson being placed into Sam McKenzie's district, but given the way the map looks today Johnson will return to Nashville after the 2022 election. Why?

Johnson will not oppose McKenzie but will move into the new District 90, which has no incumbent.

This new district voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016 by 5 percentage points, but in 2020 it voted for Joe Biden over Donald Trump by 16 points. In fact, 60 percent of this district is identical to Johnson's current district.

Other than the inconvenience of forcing Johnson to move, nothing has been accomplished as the GOP does not currently have a moderate candidate who can prevail in the new district.

If the GOP wanted to beat Johnson, they would have had to move several heavily GOP precincts from Justin Lafferty’s or Michele Carringer’s districts. Neither Lafferty nor Carringer was going to allow favorable precincts to be moved.

Nor do they want Johnson as their opponent. Even people who dislike/disagree with Johnson recognize that she is an energetic and skillful campaigner.

Former Chancellor Mike Moyers, 60, has left the Bernstein, Stair, McAdams law firm after 11 months and returned to the Knox County government to work for Law Director David Buuck effective Jan. 10.

Moyers was once county law director himself before becoming chancellor, a position he resigned in January 2021. He now has a farm in Sevier County.

The Law Department did not make available Moyers’ salary as this column was written when he was not yet on the payroll. With the addition of Moyers, the Law Department will have 11 attorneys, of whom only two are women.

Both are among the three lowest-paid attorneys. Amanda Morse is paid $106, 616 (third lowest), while Jessica Jernigan-Johnson gets $104,930, tied for lowest salary with Houston Havasy. Buuck is paid $186,041.

The next highest paid person is the chief deputy, Charles Sterchi at $136,830, which is almost $50,000 less than Buuck. Moyers will likely make less here than he did as chancellor.

The County Law Department has several high-profile cases which may fall into Moyers' lap.

Steve Cotham, head of the McClung Collection of the Knox County Library, retired Dec. 17 after 41 years with the library and 36 years as head of the McClung Collection. His leadership transformed the collection into a world-class research facility. He will be hard to replace.

Birthdays

Jan. 6: Alex Neubert is 47. Gail Showalter is 75. Greg O'Connor is 81. Jennifer Montgomery is 50. Juanita Cannon is 82. Lewis Brewer is 80. Former city Facility Services employee Stephen Dyer is 68.

Jan. 7: Adam Brewer is 41. Kanika White is 43. Leo Cooper is 89. Robert F. Collignon is 70. Samuel Yoakum is 42. Bill Morrow is 75.

Jan. 8: Adam M. Priest is 45. Brad Hair is 41.

Jan. 9: Amelia K. Baker is 41. Bruce Ingraham is 76. Marcy J. Souza is 49. Duchess of Cambridge Kate, wife of Prince William, is 40. Terry Mosley is 73. Former AAA president Tim Wright is 75.

Jan. 10: Guy Smoak is 62. Melanie Wood is 81.

Jan. 11: Eden Bishop is 55. Kristi Paczkowski is 53. Marian Epps is 46. Meghan Conley is 39. Reinhold Mann is 69. Scott Rhea is 59.

Jan. 12: Anna Corcoran is 42. Dr. Bill Sullivan is 81. Carol Montgomery is 73. Chris Barksdale is 41. Attorney John M. Neal is 68.

Victor Ashe is a former Knoxville mayor and former ambassador to Poland. He is a columnist for Shopper News.

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Driver’s license center moving into tight space in Bearden | Victor Ashe