Lenoir City Schools Board: Prayer Compromise

By Hugh G. Willett knoxnews.com

 

LENOIR CITY — The Lenoir City school board will observe a moment of silence before meetings in a compromise with secular organizations that have complained about prayer before the meetings.Lenoir City Superintendent Wayne Miller outlined the district's policy at a school board meeting Thursday.
Miller said that although he and the school board members are people of faith, they are also sworn to follow the law.
"For that reason, we will provide an opportunity for people of faith to have an individual prayer during a moment of silence before each board meeting," he said. "After many hours of consultation, this seems to be our only legal recourse."
Miller said that the decision to limit prayer during school activities was made by the Supreme Court many years ago, yet for the most part the public remained silent. He urged board members to become politically active on the subject.
"If you have an opinion regarding this matter, the productive place to direct your energies is at the federal level," he said.
Board Chairwoman Rosemary Quillen said she knows how she will use her moment of silence.
"During this time, I will continue to pray for guidance, wisdom and vision for our decisions as a school board," she said.
Rebecca Market, staff attorney for the Freedom From Religion Foundation, a secular organization that first challenged Lenoir City about prayer in the schools, said the "moment of silence" is acceptable to the organization.
"We're very pleased," she said.
The new policy comes only days after the district received a letter from Americans United, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that supports separation of church and state. The letter outlines what the group considers constitutional violations.
In addition to prayer during board meetings and before high school football games, the letter included new allegations of prayer before basketball games and during a graduation, and it cited posters from the Fellowship of Christian Athletes.
The letter specifically mentioned Lenoir City High School Principal Steve Millsaps and an alleged prayer during a 2010 graduation ceremony.
Millsaps said he had think carefully before he realized the letter was referring to a speech he made at the 2010 ceremony in which he quoted from the Bob Dylan song "Forever Young."
"Is that a prayer? I know I was thinking about one of our students who died that year and about how we were sending these kids out into the world to become adults," he said. "The words from that song expressed how I felt."
Meanwhile, the Loudon County school board continues to pray out loud before meetings. The agenda for Thursday's meeting listed prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance.

Latest letter to the board of education from Atheist Organization

Natalie Shapero* Steven Gey Fellow shapero@au.org
(202) 466-3234 x237
1301 K Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005

April 10, 2012

By Email and First-Class Mail

Lenoir City Board of Education
Bobby Johnson
Rick Chadwick
Glenn McNish, Sr.
Rosemary Quillen
Mitch Ledbetter

Lenoir City Schools
2145 Harrison Avenue
Lenoir City, TN 37771

Wayne Miller, Superintendent
Lenoir City Schools
2145 Harrison Ave.
Lenoir City, TN 37771
waynemiller@lenoircityschools.com

Steven Millsaps, Principal
Lenoir City High School
1485 Old Highway 95
Lenoir City, TN 37771
smillsaps@lenoircityschools.com

Re: Promotion of Religion at Lenoir City Schools

Dear Superintendent Miller, Principal Millsaps, and Board members:

On March 12, 2012, we wrote to you about several complaints we had received from community members about the ongoing promotion of religion in the Lenoir City  Schools. We requested an answer within ten days. Several weeks have passed, and we have yet to receive a response.

Although we have read press coverage of purported changes to certain school practices, we have received no confirmation of these changes from the school district.
Rather, according to news reports, the school district intends to respond by saying, “Thank you very much. We will handle this locally.” Tenn. School Board Halts Prayers at Meetings, Football Games, Associated Press, Mar. 22, 2012, available at http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/tenn-school-board-halts-prayers-at-meetingsfootball-
games.


We assure you that the protection of your local students’ First Amendment right to religious freedom is very much an issue of national concern. In enforcing the
Establishment Clause against local school districts, the U.S. Supreme Court has reiterated “how firmly embedded in our constitutional jurisprudence is the proposition
that the several States have no greater power to restrain the individual freedoms protected by the First Amendment than does the Congress of the United States.”
Wallace v. Jaffree, 472 U.S. 38, 48–49 (1985). And although we do so only as a last resort, we have not hesitated to represent local residents in federal court against local governments that have refused to comply with the Establishment Clause. See, e.g., Stewart v. Johnson County, No. 2:11-cv-12 (E.D. Tenn. 2011) (following lawsuit by Americans United, county government advised by Alliance Defense Fund agreed to provide plaintiff with extensive injunctive relief, nominal damages, and attorneys’ fees).

Accordingly, we urge you to immediately remedy the following practices.

A. Complaints raised in our March 12 letter.

Our March 12, 2012 letter raised concerns about four practices, none of which the School District has adequately addressed.

Prayers at board meetings/football games.

According to one media account, the school district plans to suspend prayers at board meetings and football games. See Hugh G. Willett, Lenoir City School System Curtailing Prayers at Public Meetings (Mar. 1, 2012, 4:00 a.m.), http://www.knoxnews.com/news/2012/mar/21/lenoir-city-schoolsystem-curtailing-prayers-at/. If true, these are welcome developments, but we have received no confirmation of them from the school district. Please confirm that the school district has in fact decided to suspend prayers at these events, and please advise when these changes will take effect.

Prayers at graduation ceremonies.

With respect to our concerns about student prayers at graduation ceremonies, we have seen no indication that the school district
intends to suspend this practice. Even media reports reflect only that the Superintendent has denied—contrary to the citizen complaints that we described—that
there have been student prayers at graduation ceremonies, and has not committed to stopping the practice. As we explained in our March 12 letter, the First Amendment prohibits even student-led prayers at school-sponsored graduation ceremonies. See, e.g., Santa Fe Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Doe, 530 U.S. 290 (2000); Corder v. Lewis Palmer Sch. Dist. No. 38, 566 F.3d 1219 (10th Cir. 2009); Lassonde v. Pleasanton Unified Sch. Dist., 320 F.3d 979 (9th Cir. 2003); ACLU of N.J. v. Black Horse Pike Reg’l Bd. of Educ., 84 F.3d 1471 (3d Cir. 1996) (en banc). Please confirm that you will ensure that your high school graduations—including this year’s ceremony—will not feature prayers, student-led or otherwise.

Promotion of religion by physical-education teacher.

We have seen no response—in the media, or otherwise—to the complaints that we raised about the promotion of religion by a school physical-education teacher and coach, Ms. Herron. These practices include reading to students from the Bible and encouraging students to
attend meetings of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. As detailed in our March 12 letter, the Establishment Clause plainly prohibits public-school teachers from
promoting religion to students. See, e.g., Lee v. York Cnty. Sch. Div., 484 F.3d 687 (4th Cir. 2007); Doe v. Porter, 370 F.3d 558 (6th Cir. 2004); Roberts v. Madigan, 921 F.2d 1047 (10th Cir. 1990). There should be no delay in bringing these practices to an
immediate end.

Distribution of religious literature on school grounds by church members.

We have received complaints that, even after our March 12 letter, members of a local church
are distributing Christian literature to students on school grounds during the school day. As we detailed in our previous letter, the Establishment Clause plainly prohibits a public school from allowing a church to proselytize on school grounds during the school day. See, e.g., Doe v. Wilson Cnty. Sch. Sys., 564 F. Supp. 2d 766, 797 (M.D. Tenn. 2008). The school district should likewise halt this practice immediately.

B. Additional Establishment Clause complaints.

Since our previous letter, we have also received complaints about additional constitutional violations at Lenoir City Schools.

Prayer by school officials at school events.

We have received complaints that the principal, Mr. Millsaps, delivered a prayer at the high school’s 2010 graduation ceremony, and that the high school’s athletic director has recited the Lord’s Prayer to students over the loudspeaker during basketball games. As the U.S. Supreme Court has explained repeatedly, the delivery of prayers at school events is unconstitutional— especially when requested or delivered by school officials. See, e.g., Santa Fe, 530 U.S. at 302 (Establishment Clause prohibits “invocations [that] are authorized by government policy and take place on government property at government-sponsored school-related events”); Lee v. Weisman, 505 U.S. 577, 587 (1992) (Establishment Clause violation when “[a] school official, the principal, decided that an invocation and a benediction should be given” at high-school graduation); Engel v. Vitale, 370 U.S. 421 (1962) (“by using its public school system to encourage recitation of the Regents’ prayer, the [government] has adopted a practice wholly inconsistent with the Establishment Clause”). The prayers by the principal and athletic director fall squarely within that prohibition.

Fellowship of Christian Athletes posters.

We also understand that since the concerns about religion at the school have become public, the posters advertising meetings of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA)—which are posted in the highschool’s hallway—have become even more overtly religious, and now feature prominent images of crosses. FCA members do not have free reign to proselytize on school walls during the school day. See, e.g., Bannon v. Sch. Dist., 387 F.3d 1208, 1217 (11th Cir. 2004) (per curiam) (upholding removal of proselytizing FCA mural from high-school hallway). Especially light of at least one teacher’s improper promotion of FCA meetings, the school district must make every effort to avoid endorsement of FCA’s mission and message.


We will continue to investigate complaints about Lenoir City Schools and monitor the school district’s responses closely. Please respond to the concerns raised by
this letter—as well as those identified in our March 12 letter—by the close-of-business on Monday, April 16, 2012. If you have any questions or would like to discuss these issues further, please contact Natalie Shapero at (202) 466-3234 or shapero@au.org.

Sincerely,

Gregory M. Lipper, Senior Litigation Counsel
Natalie Shapero, Steven Gey Fellow*

*Admitted in Pennsylvania only. Supervised by
Gregory M. Lipper, a member of the D.C. bar.

New beer sold in TN gives to Military, Families

(WBIR) Founding Fathers Beer is now available in Tennessee, and it's got a mission to help the military.

The Minnesota-based company that brews this new lager will donate half of its profits to troops and their families.

In Tennessee, two non-profit organizations will help distribute the funds.   Those groups are Operation Homefront Tennessee and The Armed Forces Relief Trust.

Founding Fathers focuses both on producing an American-brewed beer  and helping troops across the country.

"To be able to give back to theses troops is an exciting adventure. We want to be known as the new American Lager and when people see the Founding Fathers logo we want them to realize this is a company that really helped support America and the families of our troops, the greatest military on earth," said Phil Knutsen, Founding Fathers President/CEO and Founder.

Cherokee Distributing will be Founding Fathers' distributor here in Knoxville.

The new beer is the first product for Founding Fathers and the company says it hopes to expand its business in the future.

ATTN PLEASE: AMBER ALERT ISSUED

AMBER ALERT

Child Abduction Emergency

Isaiah McLean

Kimberly McLean

David Shawn Perry

Shena McLean Perry

...OFFICIAL AMBER ALERT...

THIS IS A CHILD ABDUCTION EMERGENCY RECEIVED BY THE
TENNESSEE BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION

AN EAST TENNESSEE AMBER ALERT IS BEING ISSUED FOR 2 YEAR-OLD
KIMBERLY MCLEAN AND 1 YEAR-OLD ISAIAH MCLEAN BY THE GREENE
COUNTY SHERIFF`S DEPARTMENT.

KIMBERLY IS A WHITE FEMALE WITH BLONDE HAIR AND BLUE EYES.
SHE IS 3`0" TALL AND WEIGHS 33 LBS. SHE WAS LAST SEEN
WEARING PAJAMAS. ISAIAH IS A WHITE MALE WITH BLONDE HAIR AND
BLUE EYES HE IS 2`6" TALL AND WEIGHS 25 LBS. HE WAS LAST
SEEN WEARING DARK SHORTS AND A DARK SHIRT.

THE CHILDREN WERE TO BE PLACED INTO PROTECTIVE CUSTODY TODAY
APRIL 11, 2012. PRIOR TO THIS THEY WERE TAKEN BY THEIR
NON-CUSTODIAL PARENTS, DAVID SHAWN PERRY AND SHENA MCLEAN
PERRY. DAVID SHAWN PERRY IS A WHITE MALE WITH BROWN HAIR AND
BLUE EYES. HE IS 6`0" TALL AND WEIGHS 235LBS. SHENA MCLEAN
PERRY IS A WHITE FEMALE WITH BROWN HAIR AND HAZEL EYES. SHE
IS 5`9" TALL AND WEIGHS 170LBS. THEY ARE DRIVING A 1994
BEIGE 4 DOOR HONDA ACCORD WITH TN LICENSE PLATE 760WJZ.

WARRANTS HAVE BEEN ISSUED FOR FELONY CHILD ENDANGERMENT AND
UNLAWFUL FLIGHT TO AVOID PROSECUTION FOR BOTH SHENA PERRY
AND DAVID SHAWN PERRY.

IF YOU HAVE SEEN ANY OF THE SUBJECTS OR THE VEHICLE, PLEASE
CONTACT THE GREENE COUNTY SHERIFF`S DEPARTMENT AT
423-798-1800 OR TBI AT 1-800-TBI-FIND

Welfare Drug Testing bill being revised

State Rep Julia Hurley
(R-Lenoir City)

By Chas Sisk, The Tennessean

Tennessee lawmakers are revising a bill that would require welfare recipients to take drug tests in an attempt to improve its chances of holding up in court.

The bill's sponsors are working to limit the circumstances in which applicants for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families would have to submit to a drug test following two opinions from the state attorney general that across-the-board testing would not stand up to a court challenge.

Any drug testing requirement probably still would trigger a lawsuit.   But Gov. Bill Haslam's administration and some Democrats say they may come around to support the measure if testing is limited to cases in which case workers have a reasonable suspicion that an applicant uses drugs.

State Rep Jeanne Richardson
(D-Memphis)

The House Health and Human Resources Committee passed the drug testing measure, House Bill 2725, on an 11-6 vote that largely followed party lines, with Republicans in the majority.

The vote came after the bill was amended to require testing only in instances when a recipient has been arrested or convicted of a drug or alcohol-related offense, fails a psychological test for substance abuse, fails a different drug test or is involved in an employment-related accident.

The amendment - filed by Rep. Jeanne Richardson, D-Memphis, an opponent of the original bill - responds to a pair of opinions fromAttorney General Robert Cooper that said drug tests likely would be found unconstitutional. The opinions were based on a 2003 federal court decision in Michigan that said drug tests for welfare recipients violate the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches.

The bill's sponsor, Republican Rep. Julie Hurley of Lenoir City, said limiting the drug tests will solve the constitutional problems that struck down the Michigan law and have bogged down a more recent effort to test welfare recipients in Florida.

"I think this is a really good step forward," she said.

Officials from the Department of Human Services, which administers Tennessee's welfare program, said the Haslam administration might back the bill if the scope of tests were limited.

The vote by the health committee removed one major hurdle to the bill, but it still faces several challenges.

The bill still has to be approved by the House Finance Committee, which will review its financial impact. Running a drug testing program for welfare recipients would cost the state about $400,000 a year, according to an analysis by legislative staffers.

The state would save nearly $1.8 million a year by withdrawing benefits from people who fail the drug test, staffers say, but that assumes the courts allow the DHS to do so. Fighting for the law in court would cost the state at least $100,000, staffers say.

"There's no question that this bill is unconstitutional, ineffective and a waste of taxpayer dollars," said Hedy Weinberg, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee. "The bill denies the right to privacy and due process based solely on an individual's socioeconomic status. The socioeconomic status seems to be what's driving this bill and it's unacceptable."

Financial estimates assume that applicants for welfare would pay for the tests, which cost about $30 each. The law calls for those who fail the test to take it again, also at their expense, to confirm the finding.

Bill Russell, general counsel for DHS, said those tests would be a substantial burden for welfare recipients getting only about $142 a month.

The bill states that people who fail drug tests would be able to restart their benefits after six months if they complete a substance-abuse program and pass two more tests.

Richardson indicated that she could support a narrow testing requirement, on the belief that it could help people with drug problems receive treatment.

"I was very, very concerned about this bill because there's not much evidence that TANF recipients use illegal drugs more than anybody else does," she said. "This could be used therapeutically to talk to a person and get them into a treatment program."

Still, Democratic support for even a limited-testing bill seems far from assured. Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner, D-Old Hickory, said it is unfair to test welfare recipients but not other people who get government aid.

"We give subsidies to farmers. We're not drug testing farmers in this state," he said. "We give subsidies to veterans. We don't drug test veterans in this state. ... We're testing the poorest of the poor in this state."

Hurley, however, said testing welfare recipients enjoys widespread support.

"This is a fair bill," she said. "Eighty-five percent of the people in my district asked for this bill. ... This polls statewide at over 72 percent. This is apparently a concern not only my constituents have and have asked me to bring, (but) that the state of Tennessee's constituents and voters have."

Gun found at TYS

The Gun that was found at McGhee Tyson Airport

ALCOA (WATE) - The Transportation Security Administration discovered a loaded gun Wednesday night in a passenger's carry-on bag at McGhee Tyson Airport.

The .380 pistol was found at the checkpoint at 8:30 p.m.

Airport police took possession of the bag and cited the passenger.

The TSA says this is the fifth firearm discovery at the checkpoint in Knoxville so far this year.

A total of 17 firearms were discovered by the TSA at the Knoxville checkpoint in 2011.

Trick Shot Champ from Ldn takes message on road.

Mike Massey
Billiards Trick Shot Champion

Author: Jonathan Herrmann
Source: News-Herald

Mike Massey has seen his share of ups and downs.

He touched on them briefly in a 29-page section of his book, "World of Trick Shots," which he has dubbed his "Poolography." He also travels the world to tell his story and share his faith.

Growing up in Loudon and Lenoir City the son of an alcoholic father, Massey first took up billiards on a bumper pool table at a Loudon County bar. At 13, he began to truly learn the game.

"About 13, in Lenoir City, we went to a pool room and were playing some eight ball," he said. "It was like I almost knew what I was doing."

At the time, pool was "a bad four-letter word. You didn't see women in pool rooms."

Having dropped out of school after the eighth grade, Massey enlisted in the military at 17.

Stationed in Germany, he began to win tournaments. After leaving the military, he used pool as a way to make money. But not in what he would call an honest way.

"I went traveling and hustling and gambling," he said. "I've been locked in rooms with people coming at me with guns, knives, alcohol, drugs, four packs of cigarettes a day, the works."

In his book, he recalls making thousands hustling people on the table, but also being drugged with a heavy dosage of LSD that landed him in a hospital.

He quit his life on the road, married, and became a brick mason and firefighter in Loudon. He stopped competing with others on a pool table.

"I had a thing against competition at one time. I started making all these rules for myself. I got to thinking certain things were wrong and one of those things was competition," Massey explained. "I thought it's not right if you go up there and try to beat someone."

It was in the fire hall that he began to learn trick shots.

He began to enter competitions once again, eventually going on to become a 10-time world trick and artistic shot champion.

"It's not necessarily wanting the beat the person," Massey said of his decision to return to competition. "I think you should try to do your best and if your best becomes the best, great. If it doesn't, well, you tried."

Massey attributes his ability to turn his life around to his faith in God, and that is the message he wants to share.

Despite a stretch in his life where he says he "backslid" into something more closely resembling his time on the road, leading to a divorce from his first wife, he works to deliver that message on the table.

"I started doing these trick shots actually to give my testimony," he said. "I like to see people smile around a pool table and that's what these trick shots are all about.

"I'm at peace when I'm using them for the Lord and using them in that way rather than out there beating somebody and winning tournaments," he said. "I'm burned out on that. You win a tournament and there for a while you get the glory and you get the money and for a couple days your ego feels OK, but it's not true joy."

Massey has done shows in prisons and has been to 43 different countries, traveling with his current wife.

"My wife and I are like two gypsies running around," he said. "This year already I did probably 40 or 50 shows."

Having returned from travel that included a stop in Egypt where was able to share Scripture with his trick shots to several countries over a video feed, he shared his story to a small group in Loudon Thursday before doing a trick shot show in Knoxville Saturday. He is set to leave the country again soon.

"I don't care how many tournaments you win, how many touchdowns you make, how much money you make, if you don't have Christ you're still not going to have joy," he said.

He makes his way back through Loudon about once a year, and he hopes to return more in the future.

"This is my roots," he said. "It's where I'm from."

LUB/City of Loudon Study Natural gas in vehicles

Loudon considers alternative

Author: Vicky Newman
Source: News-Herald

Does $1.50 per gallon for gas at the pump sound unnatural today? That's what compressed natural gas is bringing in Wartburg at the Citizens Natural Gas pump station. Low natural gas prices are prompting some local officials to explore and dream of compressed natural gas vehicles. The city of Loudon/Loudon Utilities Board is crunching numbers and eyeing costs and requirements for converting city vehicles - particularly large diesel vehicles - to burn the alternative fuel. Lynn Mills, LUB manager and city manager, said it appears natural gas could drop to $2 per dekatherm, which translates to even cheaper costs in the coming months. On March 26, LUB approved a natural gas rate of $2.53 per dekatherm, or 91 cents per 100 cubic feet, delivered to customers in April. Mills told board members "that price goes back to the 1980s." Mills is watching natural gas prices closely, especially since visiting Wartburg, where Citizens Gas Utility District opened Tennessee's second compressed natural gas station a little more than a year ago. The Wartburg station has a 33-gallon capacity, serving seven CNG trucks and one public customer. The station presently has the capacity to serve about 12 public customers, but they would need to stagger the time when CNG trucks refuel. The capacity could be increased to about 100 gallons easily, said Bob Patterson, owner of PBG Energy in Knoxville and builder of the station. The station was a step toward increasing CNG infrastructure in Tennessee. As governments adopt incentives to encourage CNG retailers to expand and add more stations nationwide, Tennessee hopes to see progress continue with as many as 10 more stations opening by 2015. Patterson said demand for compressed natural gas has begun to grow swiftly in Tennessee, even though the technology is not new. "(Knoxville Utilities Board) has operated their fleet with compressed natural gas for 30 years," he said. "It is in Memphis and a lot of utilities. There's a station in Nashville and they're building one in Athens. We have contracts for two others in East Tennessee, between Chattanooga and Nashville on I-24 and one close to Johnson City. "We have enough natural gas supply to last 100 years," Patterson said. "This is a great time of transition. The changes will start with fleet vehicles. They've been doing this all over the country with large fleets. About 25 percent of transit buses and garbage trucks are converted to CNG. Now the auto dealers are getting CNG trucks and bi-fuel models that use gas and CNG." Patterson said the best way to convert a fleet of vehicles would be incrementally, starting with a few and then purchasing CNG replacement vehicles straight from the dealer. Retrofits are expensive. Mills said conversion would be possible for all city vehicles, but it would be especially cost effective for the very large vehicles such as utility line trucks, fire engines and garbage trucks. Retrofit costs $7,500 to $15,000, depending on the size and what is required. An additional fuel tank is installed at the back of the vehicle and lines to the engine, which has a converter. It would take time to get all vehicles converted so the project would have to be phased in, Mills said. A refueling station would cost $400,000 to $500,000 depending on the size built. "The mileage is about the same for gasoline or compressed natural gas, so after you convert you could cut gas costs by about 60 percent," Mills said. "When you are talking an average of $25,000 a month for fuel, it could be viable." Mills said municipalities pay about 50 cents less per gallon for fuel than citizens because it is tax free. "Our price for unleaded now is about $3.05. Our last fuel bids were on Feb. 7. The total bid for diesel, regular and low-sulfur unleaded was $23,700. We have to get a load of fuel every two and a half to three weeks," he said. "Our storage capacity is around 5,000 gallons. We get around 200 gallons of diesel and 4,400 unleaded when we fill the tanks." The fueling stations are modular designs that can be easily expanded as the demand for CNG increases. "It just makes sense to grow these stations as storage space is needed," Patterson said. School buses are a natural fit for natural gas, Patterson said. "California did it first for air quality reasons," he said. "It is a safer fuel, it burns clean and you save money." The Loudon County Air Quality Task Force had encouraged Loudon to consider applying for a Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation grant for air pollution reduction projects. A total of $5 million was set aside, with individual projects funded up to $250,000. The grants require a 20 percent local match. The deadline for an application was March 30, and Loudon did not apply. However, the LUB is applying for a grant to purchase a hybrid utility vehicle that will cost $240,468. "Hopefully with a grant of $120,468 (50 percent) there will be a local match of $120,468. The hybrid would have a diesel engine, but when it is parked to work on the power lines, the hydraulics of the bucket truck would be powered by a battery, allowing the diesel engine to be powered off, saving fuel and emissions," Mills said. Shannon Littleton, Lenoir City Utilities Board general manager, said LCUB is getting ready to try a hybrid utility vehicle with TVA money. "We talked at the end of last year about changing our fleets to some kind of hybrid to use gas and something else," Littleton said. "We were discussing something electric or hydrogen, but we never discussed compressed natural gas. That's not to say we won't soon. We're open minded and willing to listen. We had talked to the county folks about other clean energy sources, but we had yet to do anything about it." Littleton said he is amenable to alternative fuels and power. "There's got to be an alternative to what we are doing now," he said.