Historic Union County

Spreading the good news of Union County

Cheryl Walker, budget committee chairperson, explained the actions of the budget committee meetings at the May Union County Commission meeting. The budget committee had taken several votes on several parts of the budget: Development (Planning Commission), County Clerk, Sheriff, Special Patrols, Jail (current facility), Fire Protection, Rescue Squad, Libraries, EMS, Debt Service and General Capital Projects; the budget committee did recommend several cuts to the General Fund 101 Budget, but after several tie votes was bringing no recommendations for the other parts.

Interested citizens donated fiddles during the Luttrell Elementary Fiddle Club and Choir Music Awards and Parent Night in May.
Dennis and Gwen Johnson presented the club with a rare German made fiddle that had belonged to their son. They originally purchased the fiddle in Maryland. When Dennis was transferred to Oregon, the fiddle made the trip. Once they arrived in Oregon, the fiddle spent more time stored on a shelf.

Union County lit up the TSSAA State Track and Field Championships by winning girls 100m and 300m and boys 200m. Callie Wetzel remained undefeated as she easily dashed through the 100m and 300m. Alden Wetzel raced to the top in the 100m, placed 2nd in the 400m, and won 3rd in the 100m.

Sandra Vincent and Lora Graves posing for the kindergarten registration picture at Luttrell Elementary. All five Union County Elementary Schools enrolled children for the 2023-2024 school year in May. If you missed the registration, call 865-992-5466 or your local school to register.

Vice Mayor Richard Phillips reported to the Plainview Board of Alderman that he awarded a $500 scholarship to Delaney Weaver at the senior awards for having the highest GPA for a graduating senior who resides within the City of Plainview.
In the same meeting last month, the board learned that Margie Presley was hired as the building inspector as recommended.
The Police Report included 37 calls with three vehicle accidents, one pursuit, one runaway and 11 citations.

Your feet are the foundation on which your body stands and functions. Chiropractors recognize that one of the keys to spinal health, and therefore the maintenance of overall health, is taking good care of the feet. A foot injury can lead, for instance, to limping. And when the body starts compensating for a limp or for any joint that can’t pull its weight, the over-stressed parts will start to ache. Most likely the other leg or hip will start to ache. Next may come lower back pain.

by Beth Bergeron
Our 4H Outdoor Adventure project group is open to students in grades 4 through 12—all 4H members.
Our goal is to provide fun experiences in the outdoors while inspiring awe, and learning to love and care for this beautiful world with which we have been blessed. This group kicked off their fun adventures at Big Ridge State Park last November. They rotated between archery, hiking with Ranger Josh and environmental games.

Murder hornets scared the whole United States a few years ago with their first appearance in Washington State. Do you remember news reports from just a few years ago?
The good news is these hornets are still a long way from East Tennessee.

Union County 4-H had a strong showing at this year’s Big 9 Sub-Regional Achievement Day, which was held at the First Baptist Church in Dandridge in May.
This competition included participants from the surrounding counties of Blount, Claiborne, Cock, Grainger, Hamblen, Jefferson, Knox and Sevier. Well over 100 elementary- and middle-school-aged students turned out for the all-day event, many with their parents, siblings and Extension Agents accompanying them. It was a full day and a packed house!

Nashville, TN– Presley Lay has been named the 2023 National Dairy Month Chairman for Union County.

Lay will be honored June 8 at the Tennessee June Dairy Month Kickoff Event at Ellington Agricultural Center in Nashville. The event includes recognition from Brian Flowers, president of the American Dairy Association of Tennessee. The official kickoff celebration recognizes Tennessee 4-H members’ efforts to promote National Dairy Month in Tennessee.

In-Person Event Returns to UTIA Campus

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — The Green Industry Field Day will be hosted in person this year by the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture. The event takes place on June 27, 2023, and participants will enjoy a variety of sessions that will take place beginning at the UT Gardens Plaza and ending in the Brehm Animal Science Building Lecture Hall.

It has been my privilege to write for Historic Union County for over five years. This month, I am reprinting my first article to remind myself and any readers I may have of the purpose of our teaching. I also want to sincerely say thanks for reading, and I hope my teaching has been a benefit.
In 2 Timothy 2:15 the Apostle Paul charged Timothy to … “rightly divide the word of truth.”

Country Connections By James and Ellen Perry
It’s an early morning in June 2023 and Norris Lake is quiet. No jet skis and fast boats with raucous passengers. No houseboats and pontoon boats bouncing over waves created by jet skis or fast boats this early June morning. All the barbeque grill fires are out with most
grills put up ’til the 4th of July.

By Rick and Lori Southard
We are Ricky and Lori Southard and we left everyone we loved and everything we knew in California and moved to Knoxville. We, along with our two dogs, moved here in November. It was cold and the once colorful fall trees were now bare.
Everything was wet. And cold.
But it was absolutely beautiful! Our house is older and needed a little work done to it. Most of our belongings were way behind us. But we knew we were home. We made it to our little part of “God’s Country”. We were scared to death yet more excited than at any point of our lives.

I was a silent stalker during elementary and high school.
Sounds ominous, right? Just exactly who did I stalk?
For whatever reason, from my first day of my two weeks as a Headstart student to the end of my public-school student experience, I was fascinated with schools and teachers. Same with church and preachers. Same with funerals and undertakers. Anything that had an air of formality and order attracted my attention.

Last week Anne came into the house in a hurry with something on her mind. She had been down at the road getting the mail. “Guess what?” she said, “You have been called for jury duty.”
“ME?” I screamed. “But I'm ninety-five years old… Yes, I would love to serve on a jury. Say! You know I COULD do it. There is an elevator at the back of the courthouse. I could take it to the second floor, wheel myself down the corridor to the court room at the front of the building and sit comfortably in my wheelchair at the jury box. I would be fulfilling my civic duty.”

This is another easy pork steak recipe. I am a great fan of casseroles. Stir it up and pop it in the oven for an hour or so. I can be busy doing something else while it bakes. Brown pork steak on both sides in hot shortening in large skillet. Drain steaks, reserving drippings in skillet. Sprinkle steaks on both sides with salt and pepper. Set aside. Add raw rice to hot pan drippings.

“It’s my lucky day!”
Do you say that when you find a four-leaf clover? Or how about if you find some money in a parking lot?
Personally, I don’t believe in luck. Instead, I believe in the Lord and how He works. Let me tell you, He led me to find a treasured jewel of a friend: Jeannie Cox.
It started in August 2016. That’s when our beloved dog Little John died. Tim loves dogs, so he had to have another one. He soon found one he wanted at the Union County Humane Society.

Perhaps you have heard Balm of Gilead mentioned in a church sermon, read it in the Bible or perhaps through listening to the old spiritual hymn, “There is a Balm in Gilead.”
As a student of medicinal plants, I learned of a tree being used in Appalachian folk medicine. So let me see if I can link together all these references.

The spine is made up of distinct areas: the cervical spine, which is essentially the neck; the thoracic spine, in the mid-back; the lumbar spine, the lower back; and the sacral spine, in the pelvis. The lumbar vertebrae—the individual bones that make up the lumbar section of the spinal column—are described as L1 through L5. If one or more of those vertebrae are out of line—what chiropractors call a ‘subluxation’—here are some problems that may ensue: