Steve Marion

Dandridge officials cut a ribbon and took the inaugural stroll along the Town’s new half-mile greenway overlooking Douglas Lake last Wednesday evening. “This is a project that reflects vision and a commitment to improving the quality of life in Dandridge,” said Town Administrator Chris Shockley before Vice Mayor Todd Kesterson clipped a blue ribbon and a group set off down […]

A New Market man was sentenced to six years Wednesday after pleading guilty to the statutory rape of a 13-year-old Iowa girl. Martin Amaya Sandoval Jr., 38, of 2102 Flat Gap Road, received three consecutive two-year sentences, as well as one concurrent two-year sentence, after pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated statutory rape. Circuit Judge Jeremy Ball ordered Sandoval […]

It was just work at the start. A talk with a school board member, a ride with a state trooper for his commercial driver’s license test, a couple of practice runs, and it was Sam Hinchey’s first morning as a school bus driver. Late summer, just after dawn, 1969. The big yellow bus swung along twisty two-lane Highway 92 from […]

The parents of a 5-year-old girl found dead in 2024 at her White Pine home were sentenced to prison last week after pleading guilty to child neglect. Shirley Ann Hurst, 43, of Harrison Road, was ordered to serve 12 years without parole eligibility. In an appearance before Circuit Judge Jeremy Ball, she entered a guilty plea to aggravated child neglect. […]

On the eve of his 90th birthday, Al Large remembers the last wheat threshing in Jefferson County. It has been decades since wheat shocks dotted the fields and neighbors traded the labor that put biscuits on the table all winter. Growing up, threshing kept Al busy through July, after the first hay cutting and before the tobacco harvest. “We’d help […]

A barn was destroyed early Sunday morning as a thunderstorm swept through Dumplin Valley. Murrell Jarnigan of 1086 Dumplin Valley Road reported that the barn, atop a hill behind his home, collapsed on his tractor and other equipment. He was already making plans yesterday to have the remains of barn, which was insured, removed so that it can be replaced. […]

Dandridge Council approved a $300,000 plan Tuesday to add two new police patrol positions as the Town continues to grow. Meeting in regular session, Council also gave final approval to a 6% increase in water and sewer rates and hired engineers and project managers to help with a proposed water treatment plant project. When Council approved a business annexation at […]

Questions about the “early termination” of the veterans service officer’s employment dominated discussion at Monday night’s County Commission work session. Chairman Jimmy Carmichael said he believes ending former VSO Marissa Gilliam-King’s employment a couple of weeks before her July 15 resignation date was “within my purview,” but Commissioner Marcus Reed countered that he is unable to find authority for the […]

A North Carolina company is closing in on completion of hazardous materials removal at Jefferson Elementary School, with access to the school expected to be restored as early as next week, Director of Schools Tommy Arnold reported. NEO Corporation of Canton began work last Monday on the third and final phase of their work, which involves removal of asbestos floor […]

It’s now 60 years since a defining moment in Dandridge history — the magical 1966 state championship win by the Maury Girls Basketball Team. Team members gathered with Coach Bill Carlyle for a reunion last week at The Chop House in Sevierville, one day before the Maury Class of 1966 Reunion at The Shepard Inn in Dandridge. “There was a […]