Today's Opinions

By RON WOODY
Roane County Executive
The closing of the Blair Convenience Center noted at the Roane County Commission meeting in January showed my lack of political experience and knowledge of politics.

Prior to the Blair Convenience Center’s closing, our office reviewed reports, evaluated service, studied the financial impacts and discussed the closure of the Blair Convenience Center for more than a year with our commission.

No maliciousness was intended to any individuals or groups in the Blair community.

Editor’s note: This column was written to educate during Public Notice Week in Tennessee. Many government agencies want to keep from having to publish important public notices in newspapers. The following makes the case of what citizens stand to lose if that were to happen.
 

By JIM ZACHARY
Tennessee Transparancy Project
Any battle to remove required government public notices from newspapers is an assault on government transparency.

Compromising government transparency is a full-out assault on the citizens of Tennessee.

January’s winter mood swings have been extreme this year.

We’ve gone from comfortable shirt-sleeve weather to heavy rain and floods, then winter storm warnings and, so forecasters say, bright sunshine.

I remember one January that was pretty monochromatic — read that as snowy white and bitterly cold.

In January 1978, I managed to make my way through a winter storm back to campus at Western Kentucky University.