TURNOVERS

by Alan B. Gibson

New school year – crowded mornings and afternoon reminder

Students will be reporting for classes for the first time in the new school year next Tuesday, August 7, so here’s a reminder to everyone. It isn’t really sports oriented, but I always throw it out there in this column anyway.

Be careful – a new school year means an increase in traffic during the morning and afternoon hours, and much of that traffic in and around the schools, especially the high school, involves young, inexperienced high school students who are anxious to get to the building (because they are usually pushing the limit on the opening bell), as well as even more anxious to get out of there and off to whatever it is that youth do now after school.

Mix that in with school buses working their way around the area schools, and the normal morning and afternoon traffic, and things can get crowded and dangerous pretty quick.

Throw in an occasional ambulance run during the same times that schools are opening or closing, with a DES headquarters being situated across from the high school, and things can get potentially disastrous.

Bottom line – again for the next several months, let’s be careful out there!

Been a busy season on the water

I don’t know yet what kind of season – commerce wise – that the local docks are having, but I can attest that this has been one of the busiest summer seasons on the water, at least on Dale Hollow, that I’ve witnessed in several years.

Fishing boats, skiers, wake boarders and just general pleasure boating have kept the waters stirred up throughout the entire summer. At one point this past Saturday, while pulling some youngsters on a tube, things became so crowded in the Wolf River area that I just shut the boat down and we re-grouped to just swimming for awhile.

The summer season may be coming to an end, but we’ve still got about a month to go before things begin to slow down – the rest of August, and then the final of the “big three” summer tourism holidays – Labor Day.

So, a reminder to everyone – on the roads and on the lakes – give yourself a little extra time and room and make the rest of the summer season a safe one.