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Local News

  • Rockwood TVA money put in special fund

    Rockwood is making sure there is no appearance of impropriety when it comes to its use of the leftover TVA money from the Roane County Economic Development Foundation.

    The city received its most recent request of $716,805 on April 11.

    “They have been put in a special account,” Mayor James Watts told council recently.

    City officials previously caught some flack when Rockwood Water, Sewer and Natural Gas did not immediately receive its portion of TVA money designated for water and sewer projects.

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  • Roane County greener than ever before

    The carbon footprint for Roane County has gotten a little smaller.

    The Roane County Industrial Board requested and Rockwood Electric Utility complied in replacing all the streetlights at the Roane County Industrial Park with LED fixtures.

    The board manages the industrial parks for the county and covers the monthly cost of the street lighting.

    “We changed out, I think, a total of 26 fixtures,” said REU manager Kendall Bear.

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  • Pinkerton has left the building

    For years, Jim Pinkerton has been the steadying presence in Kingston government, the face that hasn’t changed even as so many others have.
    Mayor Troy Beets noted his “professionalism in the face of my sometimes run-and-gun sort of approach… he’s been the yin to my yang.”
    And Councilman Don White pointed out that he may be the city’s longest-serving city manager. White would know, given that he’s probably the city’s longest-serving councilman, having held the position on and off since the early 1970s.

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  • State pulls Roane job center

    Roane County residents will have to go outside the county now for help with much of their career services.
    Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce Development is pulling out of 34 career centers in June “in order to continue job placement activities with fewer federal dollars,” Acting Commissioner Burns Phillips announced this week in a news release.

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  • Emergency chief leaves for TVA spot

    Howie Rose is continuing his career in the emergency field, just not with Roane County.
    The director of the county’s Office of Emergency Services has resigned his position and accepted a job with TVA. 
    “My last full time day of employment will be May 3, 2013,”  he said in a letter to County Executive Ron Woody.
    Rose said now is the time for him to move on.  

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  • Junior Ranger program seeks kids

    Tennessee State Parks’ Junior Ranger Program offers children ages 6-14 excellent outdoor educational opportunities.
    There are two ways to become an official Tennessee State Parks’ Junior Ranger.
    Interested children may attend a Junior Ranger Camp in June and July at various parks throughout the state; or complete a series of activities found in the Junior Ranger Adventure Guide.

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  • Looseleaf Laureate: Now I remember why I got that bike

    Some of you have been asking me about the motorcycle I bought last fall.
    I rode it a bit over the winter — just enough to keep the battery charged and the carburetor from fouling.
    Now that spring has made its reluctant appearance, I’m logging more miles and remembering why it is I decided to purchase this rumbling roadster.

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  • Odd behavior nets meth arrests

    Harriman police were dispatched to Walgreens recently on a report that several people had purchased medicines containing pseudoephedrine in close intervals.

    The call resulted in the arrest of a Wartburg man and woman.

    Jeffery Wayne England and Nicole Denise Eubanks are each charged with initiation of the process to manufacture methamphetamine.

    Pseudoephedrine is found in common cold and allergy medicines and is the main precursor to making meth.

    Harriman police said Eubanks was attempting to make a purchase when they arrived at the store.

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  • Tax breaks for firefighters?

    Counties often use tax breaks to attract businesses.

    West Roane County Volunteer Fire Department Chief Charlie Redwine said he sees another use for tax breaks.

    “If we can do it for businesses, I don’t see why we can’t do it for volunteer firefighters,” he said.

    Roane County has five volunteer fire departments.

    Redwine said he believes offering property tax breaks would help with recruitment and retention of  volunteer firefighters.

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  • Yager addresses Watts Bar shooting incident

    State Sen. Ken Yager  of Harriman said the recent exchange of gunfire by a security guard and unknown assailant at Watts Bar nuclear facility near Spring City shows the need for a law he sponsored in 2012 that allows security officers to carry firearms.  

    The new law gives security officers at Tennessee’s two Category 1 nuclear power plants, Watts Bar and Sequoyah, the authority to use deadly force to prevent an act of radioactive sabotage.

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Copyright © 2013

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