POSTAL CUSTOMER
VOL. 8 NO. 41
IN THIS ISSUE
Machine in motion
With the federal government shut down and a debt crisis looming, perhaps we should kick in to buy copies of Jon Meacham’s 2012 biography of Thomas Jefferson for the members of Congress. In 1800, with President John Adams running for a second term, opposed by Vice President Thomas Jefferson, the Electoral College vote tied, and the House of Representatives went to 39 ballots before naming Jefferson the winner. Talk about gridlock!
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Read Sandra Clark on page 4
Riding like animals It was a triple-great day for the Union County Humane Society: The weather was bikeriding perfect, the bikers were riding to help animals, and the shelter raised over $5,300 for expenses.
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Read Libby Morgan on page 2
Load the cannon Tennessee, in search of the elusive signature victory, faces another scary outing in the SEC jungle. For some strange reason, gamecocks do not sound as dangerous as crazy gators and wounded bulldogs past and red elephants and terrible tigers yet to come. Load the cannon for South Carolina. One more shot at Steve Superior, oops, Spurrier is promising.
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See Marvin West on page 4
Good business For the first time in 25 years, Quality Label & Tag CEO Jim Jennings was offered a rate reduction in his company’s health insurance premiums. Quality Label, located a block off Clinton Highway, makes pressure-sensitive labels for a wide variety of locally produced products. When meat packers Selecto, Valleydale and Lay’s were in business, Jennings worked as many as 30 employees on two shifts. Times are tougher now, but he still takes pride in providing good benefits, so he took the insurance offer – for now – to reduce the tab for covering his 17 employees and their dependents.
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See Betty Bean’s story on page 2
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Heritage Fest By Libby Morgan
October 12, 2013
biggest ever
The unusually hot weather last Saturday brought out a record crowd to the ninth annual Heritage Festival, according to estimates by Jack and Marie Rhyne and J.V. Waller, veterans of the festival steering Marie Rhyne committee. “We had people parking everywhere we could find a parking spot. We’ve never had to use that much of our parking areas,” said festival director Marie Rhyne. “Jack and J. V. think we had 5,000 visitors. I’m estimating a little higher. The setup went fairly smooth, with many of our vendors setting up the day before. That helped a lot. “Heading up the festival is hard, it’s tiresome, it’s exciting. I had a lot of help and I always have had a lot of help, and that’s what makes it successful,” she said. Marie is compiling the results of the vendor surveys, and the festival committee will meet next week to discuss details and improvements for next year, the tenth for the Union County Heritage Festival. “I like to do this while it’s fresh on our minds.” Derek Haun hefts a hay bale over the 10-foot mark at the Union County Heritage Festival Hillbilly Olympics to win first prize. Photo by
Libby Morgan
To page 3
Mondays with Oak Grove By Libby Morgan The old Oak Grove School in Sharps Chapel is getting a new lease on life thanks to many hours of volunteer labor since the restoration began three years ago. Preservation Union County, a group of citizens concerned about the county’s historic structures, is working with East Tennessee Preservation Alliance to help fund the project and to proceed properly in order to retain the original design. Through the building’s designation by the ETPA as an Endangered Heritage, attention to the 1934 school has focused on stabilization and preservation. Work completed so far has included cleanup, removal of overgrowth and repair of the foundation. Three Mondays this month are window repair days, with retirees from TVA volunteering along with neighbors and friends. Last week, Union County historian Bonnie Peters, who also serves as a board member of ETPA, joined former co-workers from her days as a TVA employee and several others as the group scraped and painted the original window frames. Chef Walter Lambert showed up at lunchtime with a beans and sausage dish. Others brought cornbread, cookies and cake. The building is a Rosenwald school, built just after the Great
Betty Bullen, Joe Rogers and Bonnie Peters work on windows at Oak Grove. Rogers’ father attended the school. Photos by Libby Morgan Retired TVA employees Frank Stidham and Barbara “BJ” Chandler work on window frames at Oak Grove Schoolhouse in Sharps Chapel. Depression. Julius Rosenwald, an owner of Sears and Roebuck, funded a foundation in 1917 which supported a program that built over 5,000 schools in the Southeast. Today only about 15 percent of the
original “Rosenwalds” survive. Oak Grove is an apropos site for the headquarters of Preservation Union County, and the group plans to make the school available for classes and community meetings.
“All are welcome to join us in our work,” says Peters. “We plan to work the next two Mondays, Oct. 14 and Oct. 21, beginning at 9 a.m.”
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