Fellini undergoing 'the change'

So, apparently the Fellini Kroger is going to be going through a bit of a change in the next year. (HT to Lady Entropy for bringing this to our attention).

The North Knoxville recycling center and Goodwill dropoff trailer in Fellini's parking lot are set to close Sunday in order to clear room for a Kroger gas station. The city is looking for a place to relocate the center, but in the mean time, the closest recycling dropoffs are at the old Fountain City Kroger site and on State Street downtown. (Allow me to once again plug the subscription curbside service.) Not sure what's going to happen to the Goodwill drop, but I'm guessing you can just take your stuff to the store located in the same shopping center for now.

And according to the Kroger managers, Fellini is going to get an interior remodel sometime in 2011.

So this brings up some mixed feelings for me on both accounts. On one hand, yay for cheaper gas. My fiance and I do all our grocery shopping at Kroger, so we really rack up the gas points, and it would be nice to actually get to use them.

But on the other hand, B and I used that recycling dropoff regularly when we lived in Fourth and Gill. In fact, lots of people use it regularly because there was ALWAYS someone else there dumping their recycling. I'd venture to guess that's one of the more popular dropoff sites.

Someone else also questioned whether the site itself was appropriate for a gas station and the large gas tanks that will come with it being practically on top of First Creek. Gas tanks leak. Leaking means a big pollution hazard for a creek that's already got its share of troubles.

And then the remodel: I know some people might say updating Fellini will cause it to lose some of its charm. I'm not one of those people. I say hooray for Kroger investing in what has felt like a seriously overlooked store. The crazy characters that shop there will still shop there.

Anyone got more dirt on the changes?