Representatives from the Union County Rescue Squad addressed the regular meeting of the Union County Commission on Monday, June 22, 2026, and asked for the same amount of contribution that the fire departments were receiving in the budget for 2026-2027 (FY 27). Dennis Nicely spoke while Brad Harrell distributed a report on the Squad's finances and needs. According to Nicely, the squad has not been able to have the bass tournament fundraiser and tools and equipment need to be upgraded or replaced.

This article has nothing to do with cooking pinto beans. By the way, I love them fixed in an iron skillet. Instead, it’s about how a game that used pinto beans changed the way I approached life.

A new study suggests that aquatic therapy for individuals with chronic low back pain can do more than strengthen the muscles around the spine. It can also have a beneficial impact on the negative psychological factors that are often associated with the disabling disease.

The study used a randomized controlled trial involving two groups of chronic low back pain patients. It found that participants who took part in aquatic therapy reported improvements in pain-related fear and sleep disturbance compared to those who followed standard care programs.

The Union County Board of Education will meet in Special Session on Monday, June 29, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. in the Large Courtroom at the Union County Courthouse. The only item on the agenda will be to Approve/Disapprove Budget Amendments and Transfers.

The Union County Board of Education will conduct a workshop on Thursday, July 16, 2026 at 6:00 p.m. in the Library of the Old Horace Maynard Middle School.

A Meet the Candidates event is scheduled at the Sharps Chapel Community Center on Thursday June 25th at 7:00 pm.

Adjutant Norman Gillen (U.S. Navy) opened the June meeting by welcoming all the veterans attending. As a member of the Tri-County Honor Guard, Norman reminded folks that all veterans, by law, are entitled to burial rights, a marker, and a place in any veterans’ cemetery. The goal of the Honor Guard is not only to honor the veteran who passed but to also honor and comfort the family. Veterans are buried with full military honors, three rifle volleys and the playing of Taps. The flag that had been draped across the coffin is then folded and presented to the next of kin.

Farmers’ markets provide direct, face-to-face transactions between local agricultural producers and consumers. They provide a designated space for farmers to sell fresh, seasonal food directly to the public, cutting out middlemen to benefit both the local economy and the community.

By Steve Roark
Volunteer, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.

Confession time: I am not good at math.

I use it, it’s great, we went to the moon with it, yada yada. But I don’t think well mathematically and strive to understand it. But I was amazed to discover that trees use mathematics to arrange their leaves on a twig to optimize their collection of sunlight for the photosynthesis thing. Leonardo da Vinci picked up on this long ago. The “impress your friends” word of the day is phyllotaxis: the arrangement of leaves on a stem in relation to each other.

Trees arrange their leaves in three major ways: whorled, opposite, and alternate. Whorled is where several leaves encircle the stem at one point, which is uncommon. Opposite is where the leaves are arranged in opposing pairs on each side of the twig. Dogwood, all the maples, ash and buckeye use this arrangement. Usually, each successive pair of opposing leaves forms at right angles to the original pair, thus minimizing shading each other from the sun.

The math really starts kicking in with the alternate leaf arrangement, which I used to define as leaves forming on the twig randomly and not in pairs―but they are not random. With alternate arrangement the leaves form in a spiral along the twig, and how many leaves form per complete spiral is predictable by species.

Imagine you have a tree twig in your hand; focus on one leaf and its location; from that leaf start counting leaves along the twig and how many turns around the twig it takes to return to a position matching the original leaf but further along the branch. For example, if you are looking at sycamore, you will count two leaves with one turn around the stem. With cherry, you will count three leaves and two turns around. Oaks and a bunch of other hardwoods have a 2/5 arrangement: 2 turns around the stem in 5 leaves. There are other spiral leaf arrangement ratios as well: 1/3, 3/8, 5/13 and so on.

But there is a common thread in all of them in that they are all Fibonacci numbers, named after a mathematician who figured them out in the 13th century. I know it is getting a little deep but hang with me. Fibonacci numbers include the sequence 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, etc. Note that when you add two numbers in the sequence together, they add up to the next highest number.

So if you look, 1+2=3, 2+3=5, 3+5=8, and so on. Interesting yes, but what is critical about Fibonacci numbers is the ratio between them. If you divide a Fibonacci number by the next highest number, it will be 0.618034 times as large as the number that follows. The Greeks called this ratio the “golden mean” because the proportion 0.618034 to 1 is the mathematical basis for almost all spirals in nature: leaves spiraling up a twig, the arrangement of bracts on a pine cone, sunflower seed arrangement on the flowerhead, even the spiral of a snail shell.

What it boils down to is that in nature, a spiral based on Fibonacci numbers is a very efficient design form, and in the case of trees it minimizes how much each leaf shades another, meaning better sunlight collection and thus more food production. So next time you are in the woods, keep in mind that there is purpose in almost everything you observe. This is both awesome and humbling.

Saturday, June 20th. Park at the Veterans Cemetery on John Sevier, and a transport bus will take you over to French Broad Veterans Memorial Park.

Is there something that you watch for on a regular basis? For instance, every time we’re on the road, my husband Tim looks for certain cars. “Did you see that Camaro?” I usually respond: “There was a Camaro?” As for me, my cousin and good friend Lynda has gotten me in the habit of looking for what we call “A God Thing.”