Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacob’s Weekly Update.

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacob’s Weekly Update. TRANSCRIPT: “It’s Friday! Time for another weekly update. This week, I helped Rural-Metro celebrate their 75th anniversary in business, spoke with the senior class at the Paul Kelley Volunteer Academy, along with other county mayors from around the region visited DENSO’s Blount County operations, spoke to the Knoxville Breakfast Rotary Club and the Fountain City Business and Professional Association, and spoke at the Harbour’s Gate Winter Luncheon. I also destroyed Tyler Ivens from WNML The Sports Animal in a Tame the Beast Pizza eating challenge at Snappy Tomato Pizza in honor of National Pizza Day. With my win came a $500 donation to Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee. Thanks to Tyler for being such a good sport and to Snappy Tomato Pizza for hosting the contest. I am happy to announce that Knox County is moving forward with our mental health court thanks to a grant from the State of Tennessee. Mental health issues often play a role in perpetuating the cycle of incarceration. Not only will this court allow us to identify individuals in need and connect them with services that will help them but disrupting that cycle of incarceration means less crime and fewer victims. Many thanks to Criminal Court Clerk Mike Hammond and the other members of the Exploratory Committee for their hard work in making this important project a reality. Last month, we began closing County Convenience Centers on Wednesdays to give our crews time to clean the facilities and provide routine maintenance on our waste compactors. This Wednesday, we used our Vac-truck to remove the sediment buildup in our drains under each compactor at the Carter Convenience Center, and we will be doing this with the other centers moving forward. This maintenance also has an environmental benefit by ensuring the compactors drain into to the sanitary sewer system instead of across the facility into the stormwater catch basins which ultimately end up in our streams. I very much appreciate everyone’s patience with the new schedule. Remember, the centers are open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday from 8 a.m. until 6 p.m. .and Saturdays from 7 until 3, with the exception of holidays. For more info, please visit the Solid Waste page at KnoxCounty.org website. Next week’s Eat & greet is at Big Orange Phily’s in Halls at 11:30 a.m. on Thursday the sixteenth. Until next Friday, I hope everyone has a great week.”