Local News

Students in the Webster Pike area don’t have to worry about redistricting for the time being.

An item under old business on the Aug. 15 Roane County Board of Education agenda that called for the redistricting of that area was deferred.

Retiring Board Member Everett Massengill asked for it to be put on this month’s agenda. When it came up during the meeting, he asked for it to be deferred.

“We hadn’t discussed it in a committee or anything,” he said.

The motion to defer passed 10-0.

Harriman City Councilman Kenyon Mee hopes successors to the city’s elected posts will take home more money for their service.

That’s why the outgoing Council member pitched an ordinance to raise the salaries of Harriman’s mayor and City Council members.

“This is comparable, if anybody wants to know, to other cities and the county,” said Mee.

Harriman City Council approved first reading of the ordinance, which proposes raising the monthly salary of the new mayor from $175 to $300 a month.

The first reading of the Harriman budget for the fiscal 2017 year includes rounding up the property-tax rate from $1.2197 per $100 valuation to $1.22 per $100 valuation.

Harriman Treasurer Charles Kerley said a taxpayer with a $100,000 appraised-value home will pay 7 cents more on the tax rate, while a home with a $200,000 appraised-value will pay 15 cents more.

Councilman Wayne Best said the city is keeping its tax rate low, but that means the city is limited in what it can do.

Albert Goss, a longtime Harriman resident, recently celebrated his 95th birthday in Hawaii with friends and his daughter, Linda Lum. He is pictured at Kualoa Regional Park in Oahu.