Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs’ Weekly Update.

Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs’ Weekly Update.

TRANSCRIPT:

“It’s Friday! Time for another weekly update.

This week concluded highs school graduations. Congratulations to all the graduates and thanks to their families, friends, teachers, and school staff. Graduating high school is definitely something you should be proud of. It takes determination and hard work. If I were to give you a little advice, I’d tell you not to be afraid of failure. We all fail when we try something new, step out of our comfort zone, and expand our world. If you don’t fail, you aren’t growing, and if you aren’t growing, you aren’t really living.

So don’t let the fear of failure hold you back. Second, I’d tell you that no one owes you anything. There ain’t no such thing as a free lunch. If you want something, you’re probably going to have to work for it. If you adopt an attitude of entitlement, you’re going to be miserable and you’ll never realize how awesome your life can be.

In addition to attending high school graduations, I helped cut the ribbon at E-Spaces and was honored to speak at the 415th Engineer Facilities’ Detachment and Knox County Sheriff’s Office graduation. A big thanks to all our new officers. This is a hard time to be in the police force. So we appreciate you more than ever.

I’d also like to take this opportunity to talk about my position on school security. I believe that we must have armed officers in our schools for the safety of our students. I also realize that different parts of our community may take different approaches to school security and that’s okay. So, please, call your elected officials, email them, come to public meetings and speak at public forum about this issue, especially if you are a parent of a Knox County Schools student.

Fishing is free tomorrow at The Cove at Concord Park. Now, you will have to bring your own equipment, but as the Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency says, this is a day allows anyone, but especially children, the opportunity to try this great outdoor sport and to celebrate fishing as a wholesome and healthy recreation option.

Tomorrow evening also marks the start of this summer’s Second Saturday Concert Series at The Cove and Clayton Park with Mystic Rhythm Tribe performing at the Cove and Crawdaddy Jones at Clayton Park. Check out the Parks & Rec Facebook page and Twitter feed for more info.

Speaking of Crawdaddies, cicadas are kind of like crawdads, and crawdads are good to eat. So it follows that cicadas are good to eat, too, right? Well, maybe, maybe not, but I’m willing to give pretty much anything a try. So are Will West and Tyler Ivens from the Sports Animal WNML and Harry Sullivan from WVLT. We had a true cicada smorgasbord with buffalo chicken/cicada dip, two kinds of cicada tacos: one with grilled cicadas, the other fried, and finally chocolate covered cicadas.

Thanks to Abbey Harris who prepared the feast, all the dishes were palatable, and no one has reported any gastrointestinal issues yet, although I know that Abbey filed the waivers and release of liability that we all signed just in case. Also, a big thanks to Hayes Cooble and Chase and Walker Presely for gathering the cicadas.

Since we’re on the subject of food, we’ve restarted our Eat & Greets. I’ll enjoy lunch at a different locally-owned restaurant every Friday. Because of COVID-19, we had to put the Eat & Greets on hold, which means that I’ve built up a tremendous appetitive. We started back today at the Halls Deli and Cuban Café. Next Friday, I’ll be at Tandur Indian Kitchen on Bearden Hill. Please stop by and say hello.

So if Until next Friday, I hope everyone has a great week.”