May 2023

Scholarships awarded to high school students

Since 1994, The Johnson City Employee Scholarship program has awarded 215 scholarships totaling $178,260 to students whose parents work for the city. This scholarship program is funded through voluntary, city employee contributions. This year scholarships were awarded to eight students, each receiving $650.

Emily Barnette, daughter of Brian Barnette (Fire Department) will major in business at King University.

Quintin McSpadden, son of JT McSpadden (Communications & Marketing) will major in fine arts at East Tennessee State University.

Kelli Blackburn, daughter of Dana Blackburn (Information Technology) will major in communications at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

Drew Finney, son of Kelly Finney (Parks & Recreation) will major in pre-dental at the University of Tennessee.

Marin Ross, daughter of Brian Ross (Facilities Management) will major in kinesiology/sports medicine at the University of Tennessee.

Evan Rutledge, son of Allan Rutledge (Juvenile Court) will major in mechanical engineering at Tennessee Tech University.

Maggie Howland, daughter of Ann Howland (Information Technology) and David Howland (Fire Department) will attend Kansas State University. Her major is undecided.

Morgan Sagona, daughter of Lisa Sagona (Information Technology) will major in sports management at Georgia Southern University.

Employee donations through payroll deductions or a one-time donation make the employee scholarship program possible. Though a lot of employees do not have college-age children, they have chosen to help improve the lives of other City employee’s children with their donations.

Please consider a payroll deduction to support this very important program. This is a tax-deductible contribution. Email Richard for information on how you can donate, rlockner@johnsoncitytn.org.

Day of Service helps beautify parks

On Saturday, April 29 in partnership with a local nonprofit, Just Serve, the first Day of Service took place at several of our community centers. Community members gathered at Memorial Park Community Center as

Vice Mayor Aaron Murphy declared the fourth Saturday in April as the Johnson City Day of Service. Volunteers then completed mulching at Memorial Park Community Center, Carver Recreation Center, and the Langston

Centre. In addition to these beautification efforts, work began on the area’s first United Way Born Learning Trail. A full ribbon cutting and celebration ceremony for the trail will be announced at a later date.

Teamwork spells excellence

Recently, City employees participated in the third annual Spell-A-Bration, a fundraiser for the Johnson City Public Schools Foundation. Joy Baker, Keisha Shoun, Julia Thomas, and Karen Wise represented the City as the J.C. Bees. Through teamwork, the group correctly spelled multiple words including tourniquet, arrhythmia, tufting and entrepreneur to earn fourth place among 20 teams. (Commissioner Jenny Brock’s team, ‘67 Beetles, edged them out for third.) Proceeds from Spell-A-Bration went to a Digital Communications Lab at Indian Trail Middle School.