Steve Marion

White Pine Council approved a two-year moratorium Tuesday on data centers while planners ready zoning guidelines in case one is proposed in the future. Meeting in regular session, the group also OK’d a commercial rezoning on State Street and established a parking plan for the Whispering Pines residential area. The moratorium was approved unanimously following motions from Council Members Tyler […]

It took a little longer than usual due to dry conditions early in the season, but Douglas and Cherokee Lakes have reached their summer target elevations for recreation, TVA officials say. “If we continue to receive higher-than-normal rainfall, these reservoirs could stay close to where they are until Labor Day,” said Darrell Guinn, senior manager of TVA’s River Forecast Center. […]

School officials, their construction manager and architects will meet tomorrow to go over aspects of proposed Jefferson Elementary School renovation documents in anticipation of a bid-letting later this month. Meanwhile, Jefferson Elementary and all other county schools welcomed students for the 2026-27 academic year yesterday morning. After a day off for Election Day today (see related story), they return for […]

Republican nominee Randy Bales cruised to victory Thursday night in the race for Jefferson County Mayor with 82% of the vote. In Commission District 6, Republican nominees Robert Bruner (406 votes) and Mike Parker (322) won seats, defeating incumbent Commissioner Rob Blevins (227), who ran as an Independent. In the race for the Republican nomination for governor, U.S. Sen. Marsha […]

A new County Mayor and 10 new county commissioners will take office September 1 after last week’s general election. Seventh District Commissioner Randy Bales won the mayor’s race handily, drawing 82% of the vote Thursday after a 63% showing to win the Republican nomination in May. Republican nominees also swept the Commission races, defeating four Independent candidates, one of them […]

A Jefferson City couple accused of seriously injuring their 15-day-old daughter last July were indicted Monday on charges of aggravated child abuse. Zechariah Dontae Mills, 22, and Michala Annette Morgan Raines, 20, both of George Avenue, Jefferson City, are each charged with one count of aggravated child abuse/neglect/endangerment involving a victim under age 8. They were released from jail after […]

When he was just starting his emergency medical career, Rodney Satterfield’s first partner on the ambulance was Brad Phillips. “That was 1992, and we basically worked side-by-side from then on,” the paramedic recalled. “Of course, we had no idea this was in the future.” “This” is the transition last month in which Satterfield succeeded Phillips as the new Jefferson County […]

It was 1966 when plans were first announced for a county nursing home, to be constructed on land owned by the county since at least 1833. More than 60 years later, Jefferson County is one of only a handful of governmental entities in the state that remain committed to providing nursing care for its elders. The legacy facility that opened […]

It started with his grandparents. As a youngster, Roger Mynatt looked forward to the almost daily visits to his grandfather’s farm in Knox County, where his father and a dozen brothers and sisters were born and raised. “It’s always been a comfort to me just to talk to the generations before and hear the stories they tell,” he recalled. “There’s […]

Ralph Garland, the East Tennessee native who was inducted into the national Taxidermy Hall of Fame last year, died last Wednesday in Roxboro, North Carolina. A celebration of life ceremony will be held at 3 p.m. August 29 at Montwood Baptist Church in Roxboro. Garland was 83. Garland was born in 1942 in Thornill and began working in taxidermy in […]