The city of Rocky Top has removed this blessing box installed by the Upper Room Church under the CSX Railroad bridge in downtown Rocky Top. - G. Chambers Williams III
The city of Rocky Top has permanently removed the “blessing box” that was installed and operated by a local church on property under the CSX Railroad bridge along Creek Street just past Railroad Avenue downtown, Mayor Kerry Templin announced during last Thursday’s City Council meeting.
“I’m tired of seeing that area used as a dumping ground,” the mayor said. “People are using this as a place to dump anything.
“That blessing box is gone, and it’s going to stay gone,” Templin added.
A city public works crew “mistakenly” removed a previous blessing box on the site last November, but a new one was installed later on the site by the Upper Room Church, which had operated the previous one.
Blessing boxes are outdoor stands set up usually by churches or other charitable organizations to provide food, clothing and other necessities to people in need, at no cost to them.
The Rocky Top City Council sits in session on Thursday, May 15, at City Hall. In the middle is Mayor Kerry Templin. - G. Chambers Williams III
Rocky Top plans to keep its property tax collections for fiscal year 2026 at the present year’s level despite an Anderson County property reappraisal this year that raised property values significantly.
Projections in the new budget, which takes effect July 1, are for property tax collections of $1.58 million, compared with $1.57 million in the current (2025) fiscal year budget, according to the budget ordinance approved on first reading by the City Council on April 17.
The council has set a public hearing on the new budget for 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 27, to be followed by a special council meeting at 6 p.m. to consider passing the budget on second and final reading.
Norris residents will pay an adjusted property tax of likely no more than 92 cents per $100 evaluation for fiscal year 2026, beginning July 1, an amount designed to hold the rate from last year despite a countywide reassessment this year that raised property values significantly.
The City Council last week unanimously approved the city’s 2026 spending plan on first reading of the budget ordinance.
The council scheduled a public hearing on it at 5:30 p.m. June 9, just prior to the 6 p.m. regular council meeting, during which the budget is expected to be finalized and approved on second and final reading.
The Anderson County Commission is asking the state and federal governments for help with water in Briceville.
It passed a resolution at its May 19 meeting to encourage the state and U.S. representatives and senators who represent Anderson County to look at grants to bring water to that community.
The resolution describes Briceville as “one of the rural communities in our county that must contend” with the challenge of “providing safe drinking water to their residents.”
County Commissioner Tim Isbel made the motion, and Commissioner Joshua Anderson seconded.
Commission also advances new shelter project, funding updates
by Ben Pounds
An outside company may soon look at the Anderson County Animal Shelter to find areas it can improve.
The County Commission voted on May 19 to have the Animal Shelter face an operational audit.
Commissioner Stephen Verran made the motion, and Commissioner Ebony Capshaw seconded. It passed unanimously among those present, although commissioners Tyler Mayes, Phil Yager, Robert Smallridge and Robert McKamey were absent.
Mayor Terry Frank said the county had not chosen a contractor to make the audit. It will go to the Budget Committee next.
“Just having a third party come in and look at the operations rather than the people who are already in the know is often enlightening,” she said, adding they might notice “low-hanging fruit.”
Former Clinton High School assistant baseball coach and teacher Clay Turpin and former guidance counselor Carrie Jenkins face charges of destruction/tampering with government records related to altering student grades.
Anderson County Sheriff’s Office Captain Shain Vowell told The Courier News that Turpin went to the Anderson County Detention Facility on Thursday, May 8. With his $100,000 bail paid, however, he left the following day.
His 24 tampering/destruction of government records charges are connected to a grade-altering scandal, which caused the school system to fire Turpin on May 8, 2024.
Anderson County Schools had already done an internal investigation, and Turpin admitted to going through the grades of students in a credit-recovery program and changing them to be above 60.
He claimed that “others were doing it and aware of it … if this is wrong somebody would stop us doing it.”
Jenkins faces two charges of destruction/tampering with government records.
She turned herself in on May 13 at 5:03 p.m. and made a $40,000 bond through Tennessee Bonding Co.
