Rocky Top removes ‘blessing box’ from under railroad bridge
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. (photo:G. Chambers Williams III )
“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.
Rocky Top has a sketchy history concerning blessing boxes. One that was located just outside City Hall was removed by the city several years ago, and a woman who ran unsuccessfully for a Rocky Top City Council seat in 2020 campaigned on a promise to remove blessing boxes from everywhere in the city.
There has also been one next to Lake City Elementary School, among others.
The woman who ran for council – even though she wasn’t actually a Rocky Top resident –posted pledges on local social media sites to remove the blessing boxes if she were elected.
She said that she believed the boxes were encouraging the homeless, which she called “wicked people,” to gather and stay in the city.
There are several blessing boxes in Clinton, Andersonville and other areas of Anderson County.
In other business during last week’s meeting, the council:
nAnnounced that the June council meeting would be moved to 6 p.m. Tuesday, June 17, because the regular meeting day, which would have been June 19, is a city holiday, City Manager Mike Ellis said.
nAnnounced that City Hall would be closed, and city services would not be operating on Labor Day, Monday, May 26, and that trash pickup in the city would take place on Tuesday, May 27.
n Heard from Police Chief John Thomas that he would like for the council to designate A&J Automotive on South Main Street as a “public nuisance” so it could be shut down by the city.
nHeard from Ellis that the city’s purchase of the former Martin Funeral Home site on South Main Street had been completed, paving the way for the city to tear it down to create a public parking lot to serve the growing downtown business district.
