Bonnie Evans, left, and Cindy McGhee work on baskets that will be sold during at auction this Saturday at St. Mark United Methodist Church as part of its annual fall Fun Fest event. - G. Chambers Williams III
The annual Fun Fest and charity auction will be held this Saturday (Sept. 27) at St. Mark United Methodist Church in Clinton, with the associated rummage sale beginning on Friday.
The rummage sale, held in the church Fellowship Hall, will be open from 8 a.m. until 1 p.m. Friday and Saturday, to be followed by the Fun Fest, with activities for children included, to be held from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday, also in the Fellowship Hall.
At 1 p.m. Saturday there will be an auction of gift baskets, which contain a wide variety of new items, in the church annex.
“A lot of people do their Christmas shopping there,” said Cindy McGhee, outreach coordinator for the church.
YWCA Knoxville and the Tennessee Valley presents its third-annual Trunk or Treat and Resource Fair on Thursday, Oct. 2, from 5:30 until 7:30 p.m. at 1660 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge. The fair will include candy, costumes, free food and community resources.
Atomic Fall Fest, an Oak Ridge community-wide celebration, will take place Friday and Saturday, Sept. 26-27, with live music, family activities, arts and craft vendors, and more.
It will be centered around A.K. Bissell Park.
The festival opens on Friday at 3 p.m. and kicks off with an opening ceremony at 6 p.m. at the Pavilion Stage.
Concerts follow both days at 7 p.m., with Lüttge Presents More Cowbell opening for the Chillbillies on Friday, and Brooke Logan opening for Boys Night Out on Saturday.
Tickets to the concerts are on sale now for $10 at atomicfallfest.com/tickets.
Festival-goers can look forward to a wide variety of attractions and entertainment across the Civic Center and in A.K. Bissell Park.
• The Oak Ridge Conference Center will have Oak Ridge Art Center displays and shows.
• The Civic Center Plaza will have nonprofit and city boards informational booths.
• The Recreation Center Gym will have more than 30 arts and crafts vendors.
• The pavilion area will host performances,.
• Hops and Hounds will provide beer, and a lineup of local food trucks will offer food.
• C.W. Farms will bring a petting zoo.
• Flippenout will bring its world-class athletes to perform their extreme trampoline shows.
The free kids’ areas will be open Friday from 3 to 6 p.m. and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
For more information on safety guidelines, sponsorships and updates, visit atomicfallfest.com.
Erik Richardson of JTI Construction tears off part of the old roof on the Norris gazebo on Monday, Sept. 15, in preparation for installing an entire new roof on the structure. - Emma Jayne Williams
The iconic downtown Norris gazebo now has a new roof, installed last week by a contractor hired through a volunteer group that raised money for the $6,500 project.
After the Norris City Council on Sept. 8 accepted the donated money and approved the expenditure to replace the gazebo roof, Jake Inglehart of JTI Construction LLC showed up at the site on Monday, Sept. 15, with helper Erik Richardson.
The two promptly removed the old roof and its understructure, and put a new understructure in place.
Then last Friday, they returned and installed the new roof, all in one day.
A group of Norris volunteers still plans to put fresh coats of wood stain on the gazebo structure within the next few days.
That group held a campaign in August to raise the money to pay for the gazebo renovations, and reached its goal – and then some – in just nine days.
Nicholas Jameson and his band entertain visitors to the Museum of Appalachia’s Full Moon Pickin’ Party on Friday night. - G. Chambers Williams III
A second edition of the Full Moon Pickin’ Party drew a crowd to the Museum of Appalachia last Friday evening, following a similar event in early August.
This time, the featured performer was Nicholas Jamerson, a Kentucky-born singer-songwriter whose work combines “folk storytelling” and “backroads country ramble,” according to the museum.
Jameson and his band presented a program of songs he had written, taken from his new studio record, “The Narrow Way,” a museum brochure about the event said.
Opening the evening’s schedule of music on the stage behind the museum’s main building was Sleepy Eyed John’s String Band.
Hundreds of people were on hand to hear the music and check out museum exhibits set up for the event, with most people sitting on the grass in their own lawn chairs, or on blankets spread out on the ground.
Amelia Galvas was there to demonstrate broom making, April Griffie was showing embroidering technique, Tina Job and Karin Foust were demonstrating spinning, and Dorothy McMillan was showing how to make corn-husk dolls.
Yee-Haw Brewing Company provided beer, while Southern Sips served frozen treats, and the museum’s restaurant offered food and drinks.
The Museum of Appalachia is on Andersonville Highway in Norris.
Clinton resident and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning member John Cosgrove spoke about a possible hiking and cycling trail in the New River area at the Monday Sept. 22, Clinton City Council meeting. - Ben Pounds
A new 41-mile cycling and hiking trail could run from the Devonia community in the New River area to Oneida, using an old railroad line for its path.
This Rails to Trails project, not to be confused with a similar one within the city of Oak Ridge, would run through parts of Anderson, Campbell and Scott Counties.
It would follow the former Tennessee Raiload line owned by the R.J. Corman Railroad Company.
Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning, an Oak Ridge nonprofit, is promoting the project.
Even though it does not go through Clinton, the Clinton City Council unanimously voted to show support for the project called the Highlander Trail at its Monday, Sept. 22 meeting.
Earlier, the Norris City Council also passed a resolution favoring the trail.
But the Rocky Top City Council last Thursday night declined to consider a resolution of support, with Mayor Kerry Templin reporting he had received complaints from residents along the proposed trail
They oppose “stangers walking through their yards,” Templin said.
Our Appalachian Rivers are home to an amazing abundance and diversity of aquatic life which need our protection.
A free public screening of Hidden Rivers of Southern Appalachia will be held at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, at the Historic Grove Theater.
The one-hour documentary showcases the rivers and streams of the Southern Appalachian region, considered North America’s most biologically diverse waters.
The film follows conservation biologists and explorers as they highlight the beauty and fragility of aquatic life and efforts to protect these ecosystems.
The event is co-sponsored by the University of Tennessee Arboretum Society, UT Extension Service and Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning.
Donations will be accepted.
Attendees are asked to register in advance at simpletix.com.
For more information, contact Michelle Campani at mcampani@utk.edu.
The UT Forest Resources AgResearch and Education Center, which marked its 60th anniversary in 2024, is among 10 UT AgResearch and Education Centers across Tennessee.
The UT Arboretum Society will celebrate its 60th anniversary in 2025. More information is available at utarboretumsociety.org
The Anderson County Archives will receive a $4,200 grant for roller shelving.
The award will be an Archives Development Program direct grant from the Tennessee Department of State.
The Anderson County Commission approved acceptance of the grant at its Monday, Sept. 15, meeting.
County Mayor Terry Frank said that the archives moved into a new space about two years ago.
That move was intended to get the heavy weight of the historical books onto the first floor, down from the third floor, which did not structurally support their weight, Frank said.
Other goals for the move included increasing security of the documents and enhancing their storage efficiency.
“We still have a lot of work to do, but it is a work in progress,” she said.
“We are very thankful for the State of Tennessee’s assistance in helping us improve the long-term safe storage of Anderson County’s historical records,” Frank said.
Visitors to the Smoky Mountain Mustang Club show Saturday in downtown Clinton look over the 1967 Ford Mustang owned by David Heck of Clinton. - G. Chambers Williams III
Although Saturday’s car show in the Commerce Street parking lot in downtown Clinton was sponsored by the Smoky Mountain Mustang Club, there was a variety of vehicles on display.
Many of them were not Fords and not even of the Mustang era, which began in 1964.
“It’s an all-makes show,” said club President Jim Maddox of Farragut, who underscored that policy by bringing his 1963 sport-roof Ford Galaxie 500 XL to the show, instead of a Mustang.
“I’ve owned it since 1981,” he said of the Galaxie. “It has been taken down to the bare frame and completely rebuilt, and it has a 1967 Shelby 428 engine in it.”
Maddox said the club’s regular meeting place is the Apple Blossom Café in downtown Clinton, and that the club has a spring show each year on the lot at Ray Varner Ford.
Volunteers bring litter ashore at the Anderson County Park boat dock from a previous spring Norris Lake cleanup event.
The annual five-county Norris Lake fall cleanup event will be held this Saturday (Sept. 27), covering parts of the lake in Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Union, and Grainger counties .
It’s coordinated by the Norris Lake Project Team, which also holds a spring cleanup event.
Both annual events are held “with the mission of preserving the natural beauty and conserving the resources of the Norris Lake Watershed,” according to the team’s website.
Saturday’s cleanup will begin from three locations: the Blue Mud Public Launch (adjacent to Big Ridge State Park), Sugar Hollow Marina, and Blue Springs Dock.
Volunteers will have access to boats and barges to reach shoreline areas inaccessible by land, and will use these vessels to bring the collected trash and Styrofoam back to shore, the group said.
