This year’s Holiday Festival of Lights at the Cove at Concord Park set a record for non-perishable food items donated—enough to fill 16 barrels. A total of $7,428.49 was also donated.
The 22nd annual event ran almost the entire month of December and concluded Sunday, Jan. 3. Last year’s festival, which set the previous record, raised $7,677 and 12 barrels of food.
“In a year with so much uncertainty and strife, it is so rewarding to see this kind of generosity come from one of our longest running Knox County traditions,” said Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs. “These donations are evidence that even in the worst of times, we can pull together to support each other.”
Concord dock rebuild
In other parks and recreation news, we had some folks at Alcoaway Optimist Park, off Belt Road, working on the playing field. There were also crews at the Tommy Schumpert disc golf course, removing dead and fallen trees. And, we had crews continuing to rebuild the dock at Concord Park.
I should also point out that a contractor is working on the utility lines at Plumb Creek Park, so we will have to shut down the dog park over there beginning Jan. 12 for three to five days for safety reasons. We’ll send out more reminders next week.
Also, as noted earlier this week, construction crews with Charles Blalock & Sons recently completed a key stretch along the Knox-Blount Greenway, a 45-mile mega-project designed to provide pedestrians and cyclists connectivity from Knoxville to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
The new section, which is just over half a mile long, links Maloney Road Park to UT Farm Roads in south Knoxville along Alcoa Highway. The Public Building Authority helped oversee the project.
Brown Road drain project
Over in the Engineering and Public Works Department, crews are continuing tree cleanup and pothole repairs from the Christmas Eve snow event. They also finished a cross drain project on Brown Road.
In addition, the department brought in one dump truck per maintenance district at midnight just in case Thursday’s possible rain turns to snow on Friday.
Mike Donila is communications director for Knox County government.