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By Joel Washburn washburn@mckenziebanner.com

Doster, Rider Attend Junior Olympic Training Camp

Two McKenzians were among a select few invited to participate in the Junior Olympic Development Camp in Colorado Springs, Colorado last week.

Sixteen-year-old Samantha Doster, a junior at McKenzie High School, and Lance Rider, an education coordinator with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, represented Tennessee as a shooter and coach respectively.

Samantha, the daughter of Mack and Paula Doster and big sister of Andrew, was one of fifteen co-ed shooters in the nation invited to the camp, which is a precursor to the Junior Olympics. Rider was one of 10 coaches nationwide selected to participate in the training camp. He taught trap shooting to potential junior Olympians.

Samantha enrolled through the national Scholastic Clay Target Program (SCTP), in which she participates on the local, yet nationally known, all-girls team. Rider said his fellow coaches in Colorado Springs were well aware of McKenzie's all-girls team of trap shooters.

The Olympic representatives didn't say how Samantha was chosen, said Rider. Each applicant's shooting abilities and written essay were reviewed. They started with a potential pool of 6,500 SCTP shooters and narrowed it to just 15, age 14-20. "They didn't say how the selections were made, but they're looking for good students and good citizens. They want good ambassadors," said Rider.

Samantha arrived via plane, along with her parents, Wednesday at 3:00 a.m. She didn't meet up with her parents again until the Sunday competition. The shooters stayed in dorms where Olympic athletes train. On campus last week were boxers, wrestlers, gymnasts, martial artists, and volleyball players in addition to those participating in the shooting sports. An air rifle team from the Czech Republic was also practicing during the week.

Each day started before daylight with a van trip to Fort Carson. The vans were emblazoned with the Olympic logos, so townspeople were always looking to see who was training, said Samantha. The morning's commute was also met with a security check at Fort Carson, where the athletes trained.

B.J. McDaniel coached Doster during her five days at the training facility. Of the shooting sports, Doster chose to shoot skeet instead of the familiar trap.

The first two days were spent learning techniques with very little shooting. Saturday involved more shooting.

The skeet were much faster than trap. One station, the skeet "came out so quick I could hardly see them," said Doster. She estimated the speeds at 65 miles per hour. She relinquished her Beretta single barrel to shoot an over and under, her first time to shoot that design gun.

Saturday evening, the group enjoyed dinner, complete with live Western music, at a mountaintop ranch. From the vantage point, one could see the great vistas of the city of Colorado Springs .

Sunday, the competition began as Olympic coaches monitored the young athletes. "It was lots of pressure," said Samantha. They were evaluating lots of things, including one's attitude.

"Samantha did very well," said Rider. "She chose skeet to try to learn. She got out of her comfort zone...At the entry level of the Olympics, most stick with what they know." He added the trainers were very impressed with her decision to try skeet instead of trap. Trainers intentionally pressured the young athletes, provided little guidance at times, and watched to see how the youngster reacted to each situation, said Rider.

If she makes the Junior Olympic team, she may travel the world competing. Training will be essential, said Doster, adding that some junior athletes spent $50,000 annually.

Doster has been hunting and shooting since she was big enough to hold a gun. "I remember Dad holding me so I wouldn't fall," said Samantha. She enjoys hunting deer, duck, and dove. She also competes on the MHS Track Team in the discus throw competition. She advanced to the state competition during the Spring 2005 competition. On Saturdays, she participates in city league soccer.

Rider started shooting skeet in 1973 as a youth in Nashville. He landed a job at the Nashville Gun Club during high school, and shot in informal competitions on the Tennessee Tech skeet team. He started shooting trap in 1983. During his career with TWRA, he served as manager for Carroll Lake for three years, was a fisheries biologist on Kentucky Lake for 12 years, and has served as education coordinator for five years. He was instrumental in starting the local SCTP programs, which he termed as "very successful."

McKenzie's all-girls SCTP team has been featured in national magazines including Field and Stream and scheduled to appear in Seventeen.

Recently, members of the boys and girls teams traveled to Evansville, Indiana as "celebrities" to help the Evansville Gun Club raise money for the Boy Scouts of America. Traveling to Evansville were Elizabeth Russell, Lacey Lane, Laura Beth Fowler, Carson Rider, Brandon Sellers, Luke Anderson, Travis Russell, Clint Beecham, and Alex Rider.

Next Monday, the Carroll County Chamber of Commerce will honor the all-girls team during its annual Membership Banquet.

By Deborah Turner

  

Two wells on Highway 436 were found to contaminated following testing directed by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation. Those residences lay on the periphery of the initial testing, indicated by the smaller circle, which represents a half-mile radius of the landfill located off Connie Allen Road. The outer ring shows those area affected if the testing is increased to a one-mile radius.

Two households were issued bottled drinking water after tests of their well water revealed unacceptable limits of a volatile organic compound.

Wells owned by Ronnie and Janet Doster and Tim and Debbie Doster, who reside at adjacent addresses on Highway 436 outside McKenzie, showed concentrations of trichloroethene that exceeded groundwater protection standards set out by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation had directed the study of wells within a half-mile radius of the old landfill located on Landfill Lane off Connie Allen Road. A total of 37 wells were tested for 63 chemicals. The initial testing area included residences within the half-mile radius on Coy Rich Road, Old McKenzie Road, Timberlake Drive, Mary Grace Lane, Connie Allen Road, and WKTA Road.

Second samples taken from the Doster wells on September 9 confirmed initial testing conducted approximately two weeks earlier.

Testing accomplished in 1991 had resulted in residences on Connie Allen Road being connected to city water services due to unacceptable levels of some chemicals.

The city is required to furnish city water to the Doster families within 30 days, free of charge, as a permanent solution. Other households along the water route will be offered the opportunity to connect to city water services, as well, for the regular tap fee of $250. Those properties include two-to-three residences on Highway 436 and another four-to-five on Mary Grace Lane. Revel Construction Company will extend the water line to the affected properties at a cost to the city of $85,000, said Mayor Walter Winchester.

"I'm a little bit puzzled that we found two on the periphery of the study that came up with excessive maximum contaminant levels and there are houses behind and around them (and nearer the landfill) that did not," said the mayor.

Compounding his bewilderment is the fact that contamination levels in five monitoring wells near the landfill had been decreasing over time.

Winchester said Monday he had been assured by environmentalists that a person could drink three liters per day of the water at the levels discovered, over a 70-year period, and still have only a one in 10,000 chance of contracting cancer as a direct cause of the cited chemicals.

Nevertheless, the Environmental Protection Agency confirmed Monday that trichloroethene is associated with liver problems and an increased risk of cancer. The maximum contaminant level goal (MCLG) for trichloroethene is set at zero because the EPA believes this level of protection would not cause any of the potential health problems associated with exposure to the chemical.

Despite the zero goal, the maximum contaminate (allowable) level for trichloroethene is 0.005 (5 parts per billion.) This is the lowest level to which water systems can reasonably be required to remove this contaminant from drinking water, according to the EPA.

"Some people who drink water containing trichloroethylene in excess of the maximum contaminate level over many years could experience problems with their liver and may have an increased risk of getting cancer," the EPA notes via its Web site at www.epa.gov/safewater.

Trichloroethylene is a colorless or blue organic liquid with a chloroform-like odor. The greatest use of trichloroethylene is to remove grease from fabricated metal parts and some textiles.

Winchester, who last week told members of the City Council that positive results would result in the extension of testing to a mile radius of the landfill, said Monday he was awaiting instructions from TDEC as to whether further testing was necessary. Initial testing costs were projected at between $20- and $30,000.

By Deborah Turner

Located on Highway 22 south of town, Huntingdon's new spec building is an impressive sight as drivers enter city limits.

HUNTINGDON - Huntingdon is more than ready for new industry with the addition of a $1.8 million, 84,000 spec building situated on ten acres of the 106-acre park recently completed at Industrial Park South on Highway 22.

Mayor Dale Kelley said it was a historic day as city and county officials and representatives of Carroll Bank and Trust, Industrial Board, Chamber of Commerce, TVA, Rural Development, West Tennessee Public Utility District, Brindley Construction Co., and ECD, among several others, gathered Tuesday morning to tour the facility. Many of those entities were directly connected with bringing about the existence of the building. Approximately 27 persons were in attendance, including Al Hilliard--who recalled picking cotton on the site--and wife, Virginia, who sold the land to the town of Huntingdon.

"It's going to mean a lot to the future of Huntingdon and Carroll County," continued Kelley. "I appreciate everybody who made it a reality."

Ray Smith, chairman of the Industrial Board, said, "This is the beginning; we really believe this is the beginning of great things for the industrial park."

Mayor Dale Kelley thanks the myriad of public officials and construction, financing, planning, and utilities representatives and other well-wishers who gathered Tuesday for a first-hand look at Huntingdon's new, 84,000 sq. ft. spec building.

Attractive as well as functional--its interior completely open to allow new owners freedom of interior design--exterior construction consists of 2.4 m split face, lightweight concrete masonry units, Super rock and Ceco rock panels across the front of the office and warehouse, and standing seam roofing on bar joists. Supportive columns are spaced 50-by-50 feet throughout the building. Translucent panels along the top of side walls allow natural light to filter into the building.

Situated on ten acres of the 106 acre park, the facility includes 80,000 sq. ft. of manufacturing/warehouse space and 4,000 sq. ft. of office space under 26 ft. ceilings with 24 ft. eaves. Flooring consists of a thick bed of gravel. Kelley said the building could be expanded to 200,000 sq. ft.

The site is strategically on four-lane Highway 22 just 11.5 miles north of Interstate 40 with future four-lane access to I69 and I55.