Timothy Wyatt

The official beginning of summer may still be a few weeks away, but Williamsburg is heralding the season a bit early, kicking off its summer event schedule later this week. The first event of the city’s summer events is set for Friday with the first Block Party of the year. The headlining musical act will be Rhythm Exchange, a five-piece group based out of Knoxville, TN that specializes in a variety of popular hit songs. The group’s Facebook page stated they perform songs “that you can sing along to or dance along to.” There will also be a slight change to the first Block Party of the season, as it will be moving to the Green Space on Main instead of its normal location at Bill Woods Park. Williamsburg Mayor Roddy Harrison said that the location change is due to a video crew that will be in town shooting a story about Dayspring Health and its relationship with Williamsburg. The video crew is expected to be at the Block Party and will be filming some of the event. Harrison noted that there will be areas at the Block Party for those who wish not to be on camera. The event will take place from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. Attendees are asked to bring lawn chairs and are welcome to bring their own refreshments. Downtown restaurants will also be open during the event and attendees are encouraged to patronize those establishments. There are also now public bathrooms available at the Green Space in the building behind the stage. Thrifters will also have something to look forward to this weekend, as Williamsburg’s annual community yard sale is set to take place on Saturday at the Williamsburg Convention and Tourism Center from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. That event is being held in conjunction with the 14th Annual US25 Yard Sale, which is being held both Friday and Saturday across the state. At nearly 200 miles, the event is among the 10 longest yard sale events in America, according to a release by organizers. “This is a great chance for a household, a team, club or school or church group to make some easy cash for a trip or event. Plenty of rental spots can be found on our Facebook page in the Hot Spots post,” the release noted. Williamsburg is the anchoring city of the event, which begins in Walton and Boone County.

Management of school resource officers (SROs) within the Whitley County School District could soon be shifted away from the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department. Read this story and more for just $.99 cents today, or subscribe to get access every day! Please login to view this content. Not a Member? Join Us

I have worked within the journalism field for the better part of a decade on a professional level, though I did spend several years as a member of the student newspaper—one year of which I acted as the paper’s editor-in-chief—while attending the University of the Cumberlands. Aside from a handful of food service jobs I held to make money during college and a brief stint as a federal contract worker around the start of the pandemic, newspapers are all I’ve known. For those reasons, and many others, this is a bittersweet column for me to write, as this could be the last one I write as part of the News Journal staff. I have accepted a teaching position at a local school district and plan to step away from my full-time role here at the paper sometime in the first half of July to prepare myself for taking on that new role. To be honest, I wasn’t seeking out a new job. This opportunity almost quite literally sought me out. There is still the possibility that I continue to have a byline inside these pages by covering an occasional meeting or event, and may even continue my monthly column. However, those details have not yet been decided. What I can say has been decided, though, is that I will continue to champion local journalism as I cheer on these talented folks and the work they do. There’s a lot that goes into making a newspaper that most people never see. The Tri-County is unique for many reasons, but one that I don’t think many people realize is that it is a bit of a hub for local journalism. In an age when many local newspapers are being shuttered, there are large swaths of the country that have no local news coverage whatsoever. Yet, the Tri-County has four dedicated local newspapers still in operation, with each individual county having two newspapers that provide coverage of their area. Having that kind of robust coverage in one area also serves the community in more ways than they might realize. There have been a number of detailed studies performed in areas that have lost local news coverage, and all of them found that local corruption not only went up, but thrived due to the lack of oversight and accountability that a community newspaper can provide. This work is important. Newspapers are important. Objective journalism is important. Now more than ever. Today’s society is rife with misinformation and disinformation, as well as a variety of echo chambers that perpetuate both. I believe that local newspapers with local journalists that genuinely care about serving the public in which they are tasked with keeping informed are one of the best weapons that can be utilized against that issue. But it does take a certain type of person to do this work consistently at a high level. Sure, most people could probably learn to do the job, but I believe that the larger percentage of them likely couldn’t truly do it well. It requires a level of dedication that lies somewhere between stalwart and unwavering. And I’ve been battling with a number of personal issues that have shifted my focus away from the work itself. I generally enjoy the work that I do and the people that I do that work with. I also obviously care about local journalism and its importance to smaller communities such as ours, but this opportunity felt like too much of a potential boon for my family for me to be able to pass up. If these next few weeks end up being the last ones in which I provide content for the News Journal, I will still continue to hope for this newspaper’s success from afar. I’m proud to have been able to do it for the time that I have and I expect I will miss it once I have transitioned away entirely. The silver lining, I suppose, is that I will still be getting to do work within the field, though I will be trading in the newsroom for a classroom. I would like to thank my coworkers for the guidance and fellowship they have provided over the past few years. I would also like to thank those in the community whom I’ve covered and worked with during that time. I appreciate each and every one of you.