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Local News

  • Wampler leaving Rockwood parks, rec

    By CINDY SIMPSON

    csimpson@roanecounty.com

    Rockwood will be losing its longtime parks and recreation director.

    Robin Wampler, who has served in the role since 2001, has decided to return to his career with Jerry Duncan Ford in downtown Harriman, where he was once employed for 16 years.

    Wampler said his longtime friend, Marty Duncan, will soon take the helm of the dealership.

    “It is something that took a long time for me to decide, because I really like working with the kids,” he said.

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  • Convenience wine sales bill could cost jobs

    By TERRI LIKENS

    tlikens@roanecounty.com

    Art Austin, owner of Cheers of Kingston, isn’t feeling too cheery lately.

    His liquor store stands to lose substantial business as a result of a bill that could allow the sale of wine at food stores.

    Austin knows all too well what that kind of competition can do to a small business. He ran the IGA in Harriman until big stores like Wal-Mart and Food City put him out of buiness.

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  • School board won't 'retreat' to Smokies

    By DAMON LAWRENCE

    dlawrence@roanecounty.com

    Everett Massengill said there will be no out-of-town retreat for the Roane County Board of Education this winter.

    Massengill, the board chairman, said backlash from last year’s retreat is the reason why.

    “People were saying, ‘I can’t believe they didn’t stay in Roane County,’” Massengill said. 

    In February 2008, the board met at the Oak Tree Lodge in Sevierville for a discussion on the proposed building plan.

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  • Rockwood High School considers change to block scheduling

    By JENNIFER RAYMOND

    jraymond@roanecounty.com

    To deal with ever-changing graduation requirements, high schools are looking at the best ways to accommodate for these changes.

    One solution may be block scheduling, a plan Rockwood High School officials are exploring.

    Principal Alan Reed said he and the Rockwood faculty began looking at block scheduling after learning about the Tennessee Diploma Project. The project has yet to be approved by the state, but Reed wants to be ready.

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  • Utilities report more people falling behind

    By CINDY SIMPSON

    csimpson@roanecounty.com

    The weather may have warmed recently, but higher energy costs have left some worrying about how to pay the bill.

    Local utilities say they recently have seen slightly higher numbers of people seeking assistance with their payments, including more who are asking for extensions or additional assistance that have never done so before.

    Rockwood Electric Utility has said they recently wrote off $5,000 in bad debt.

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  • Bond reduced for Houston brothers

    By TERRI LIKENS

     

    tlikens@roanecounty.com

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  • Despite disaster, love of land remains

    By TERRI LIKENS

    rceditor@bellsouth.net

        Wayne Tollett lost his dock in the surge from the TVA fly ash impoundment collapse, but his sense of humor is still intact. He was amused at TVA work crews cleaning up along the water's edge near his Lakeshore Drive home Tuesday.

        “They were picking up dead fish first,” Tollett said, chuckling. “I wasn't sure why, but the first thing that came to mind was cover-up.”

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  • Coal ash spill stirs lots of interest

    By TERRI LIKENS

    rceditor@bellsouth.net

    Celebrity environmentalist Erin Brokovich will be in town Friday with a legal team.

    The American Coal Ash Association is beating her to the punch.

    The American Coal Ash Association, a Colorado-based trade group whose mission is proclaimed as “advancing the management and use of coal combustion products,” is holding a public meeting Thursday at Midtown Elementary School gymnasium at 2830 Roane State Hwy.

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  • Teen has hot ticket to history-making event

    By CINDY SIMPSON

    rccindysimpson@bellsouth.net

    An Oliver Springs youth gets to witness history first hand next week in Washington, D.C.

    Dillon Shelton, 14, an Oliver Springs Elementary School eighth-grader, will be involved in the inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th U.S. president.

    Shelton is attending as a participant with the Junior Presidential Youth Inauguration Conference.

    “Politics has always been something I’ve been interested in; politics and history,” Shelton said.

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  • New TVA scrubber will mean cleaner air soon

    By CINDY SIMPSON

    rccindysimpson@bellsouth.net

    Technology that will reduce air pollution across East Tennessee is scheduled to start working at the Kingston Fossil Plant about a year from now.

    “We’re on schedule to be on line in early to mid-November ’09; we’ll actually be scrubbing flue gas,” said Robert Rehberg, an official with the Kingston plant.

    The scrubber will use a limestone slurry mix to clean the emissions of sulfur dioxide, a byproduct of the coal-burning process the plant uses.

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The Roane County News is your source for local news, sports, events, and information in Roane County and Kingston, Tennessee, and the surrounding area.