Tennessee Community Stories
Norris Shores is a wooded community of 160 homes on 1,200 acres located 25 miles north of Knoxville, Tennessee. It is situated on Norris Lake, the first Tennessee Valley Authority lake developed for flood control of the Tennessee River and hydroelectric power generation. Our residents are about 50-50 full and part time. The Norris Shores Firewise Committee was created by the property owners association in the fall of 2007. Its charge is to address issues relating to high woodland fire hazard risks in the community and its surrounding area.
The committee has made impressive progress, including:
• Several meetings with Leon Konz, the area Firewise Communities/USA representative, Steve Roark, the Tennessee Department of Forestry Area Forester, and Chris Upton, our local fire chief.
• Receiving a $1,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Forestry to begin home hazard assessments.
• Logging over 200 volunteer hours as a result of meetings and training over the past six months.
• Completing a community wildfire protection plan and becoming a recognized Firewise Communities/USA participant.
• Sending information packages containing several Firewise and Tennessee Department of Forestry publications to homeowners to educate them about steps they can take to mitigate the risk to their homes from a wildfire.
Coming up for Norris Shores is a presentation at the annual homeowners association meeting. Further, the Saturdays in March are designated for organized community clean-up activities, a big part of which is collection of dead trees and limbs that would contribute to wildfire risk.
The Norris Shores Property Owners Association has an active website, www.norrisshores.com, which contains a Firewise Communities/USA link and information for homeowners about Home Hazard Mitigation.
Continue to next community story »