Covenant Life Church has agreed to settle its federal court case versus the city of Norris by accepting a permanent injunction that closed the church’s unauthorized recreational-vehicle park, and must pay all court costs associated with the lawsuit. During a special called meeting last Wednesday evening, the Norris City Council approved a one-page document formally settling the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Knoxville last year by the city seeking to shut down the so-called Solid Rock RV Park. The church opened the RV park, with spaces for up to 16 vehicles, in 2019, without first getting a required zoning change, Planning Commission approval, and building permits from the city for the facility. Last week’s “memorandum of understanding” settling the case was approved unanimously by the council, and then signed by both City Manager Charles A. Ledford and the legal representative for Covenant Life International, Inc., the owner of the church. City Council members met in private with the city’s attorneys at the start of the Sept. 9 regular council meeting to discuss the ongoing lawsuit, and later in the meeting agreed to set a special meeting for Sept. 25 to act on the advice it received from its attorneys during the private meeting. It was that advice that led the council to approve the memorandum that effectively ends the lawsuit and prevents the church from operating a campground/RV park on its campus in Norris.
Read MoreA small New River area with five permanent residents and two churches has cloudy and reportedly infected well water. The Anderson County Commission is discussing how to solve the problem. At the September meeting, the commissioners passed around a clouded bottle of water that resident Odis Phillips said came from his well. He said no utility has ever extended a water line onto his property, which is on New River Highway. Commissioner Shain Vowell proposed talking to the Budget Committee about using American Rescue Plan Funds “for any type of assistance that we may be able to use for the water issues in the New River community.” County Finance Department Director Robert Holbrook agreed. The Budget Committee will meet at 4 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 10, in Room 312 of the Anderson County Courthouse. If the Budget Committee approves any measure to solve the issue, that proposal will go to the full commission. For now, though, the cloudy well water remains the community’s only water supply. Phillips said the area with poor water includes himself and his wife and, in another house, his granddaughter, her husband and three children. Phillips said there also are two churches in the area, one with the same bad water and another with no water at all.
Read MoreComments from an Oak Ridge resident spurred the Anderson County Commission to discuss the future of its citizen comment period. No vote on changes took place at the Sept. 16 meeting. However, Commissioner Joshua Anderson suggested bringing the topic before the commission’s Rules Committee. Annette Prewitt, Anderson County clerk, said the Rules Committee meeting will take place Nov. 14. Oak Ridge resident Nathan Mullins spoke during the time for citizen comments, disputing the Republican primary election of Rick Scarbrough for District 33. Scarbrough was at the meeting to discuss roads, but did not speak about the election. Mullins also touched on the issue of library books he says he considers inappropriate, a cause he has spoken about during several commission meetings in a row, although the board has taken no votes on that issue recently. Mullins blamed both issues on the Democratic candidate for that seat, Ann Backus, accusing her of helping Democrats fake voting forms by posing as Republicans and voting for Scarbrough. Voters, however, do not need to be registered to a particular party to vote in its primary. “I’ve been a prophet crying in the wilderness exhorting you to take back your children from the High Priest Ann Backus and her leftist sex cult converts pushing gay sex-ed books into your libraries,” Mullins said.
Read MoreOliver Springs will again be the site of the annual October Sky Festival, set for Saturday, Oct. 19. This event recognizes the part the town and surrounding area played in the 1999 film “October Sky,” about the West Virginia coal-mining community featured in Homer Hickam Jr.’s best-selling 1998 autobiography, “Rocket Boys.” During the festival, held mostly in Arrowhead Park in the south end of downtown, the Oliver Springs Historical Society Museum will also be open, and guided tours will be available. A daylong event, the festival is expected to attract more than 100 vendors, and bring in thousands of visitors. The historic downtown railroad depot will also be open, allowing visitors to see how it felt to be a station manager, conductor or engineer. The museum has a vintage caboose that will be open to visitors, as well. The movie, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Laura Dern and Chris Cooper, told the story of Hickam, a coal miner’s son who grew up in a small West Virginia mining town. There, he began building model rockets as a prelude to a career in the aerospace industry, rather than following his father into the mines. Based on Hickam’s life, the film was shot primarily on location in Oliver Springs and the surrounding area.
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