Commissioners to consider Huntsville play room and 'Jackson Rule'
Commission meets in special called session
Good Monday morning! Welcome to a brand new week. This is The Daybreaker, the first of several newsletters that will be published this week by the Independent Herald. The Daybreaker (Monday) and The Weekender (Thursday evening) are our two news-first newsletters. We publish several other newsletters throughout the week, as well as our regular E-Edition on Thursday and our Varsity E-Edition on Sunday (during sports season). If you’d like to adjust your subscription to include (or exclude) this or any of our other newsletters, please do so here. If you need to subscribe, it’s as simple as entering your email address:
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Commissioners to consider Huntsville play room, ‘Jackson Rule’
HUNTSVILLE | Scott County Commission will meet in special session here Monday evening to consider a two-item agenda: approving the funding for a planned play room at Huntsville Elementary School, and implementing a resolution that would serve as a local opt-in to the “Jackson Rule,” a state statute granting county and municipal governments control over privately-owned landfills.
Commissioners will first meet in committee meetings for their normal first-Monday-of-the-month work session, then will convene in special session. By rule, only the two items mentioned above can be considered during the special meeting, since they’re the only two items on the agenda.
The commission’s vote to approve funding for the Huntsville play room is expected to be a mere formality, as commissioners consider a request from the Scott County Board of Education. Commissioners will also be expected to easily pass the “Jackson Rule,” though it remains uncertain how that action will affect a planned landfill at Bear Creek.
The Huntsville play room was passed by the school board in a special session on May 22 by unanimous vote. Knoxville-based Preen Construction has submitted a $2.19 million bid to build the playroom, which will include a regulation-size gymnasium with seating for 575 people, along with an intervention room, restrooms, and concession stand.
The long-awaited construction project will replace the aging play room at Huntsville Elementary School, which has long been in need of replacement. The Scott County Finance Committee and the Board of Education have both approved the bid by Preen, which is the same firm that built the new Scott County EMS station in Oneida and was one of two to bid on the play room project.
Commissioners will be considering funding for the nearly-$2.2 million project. Some $800,000 in funding has already been approved and is in the budget, while another $800,000 will be available in the new budget that begins July 1 but has not yet been approved. The county will be left needing to borrow the remaining funds, which would be paid for using the school system’s rural projects fund. That fund sees $800,000 annually available for capital projects within the school system, and has been available for new projects since the debt on Scott High School was paid off.
In addition to the play room, commissioners will be considering funding for new flooring and asbestos removal at Huntsville Elementary. That project, along with the play room, are among projects the school board is planning at each of its schools using the rural projects fund.
As for the “Jackson Law,” it is a long-overlooked state statute that exploded back into the spotlight with revelations that a Chattanooga-area developer hopes to build a landfill on up to 700 acres of property adjacent to the existing Volunteer Regional Landfill in north Oneida. The Tennessee General Assembly passed the Jackson Rule in 1989, and Scott County opted in almost immediately before attempting to use the statute to shut down plans for what is now known as the Volunteer Regional Landfill. An 8th Judicial District Chancery Court judge ruled against the county in 1992.
The TN Dept. of Environment & Conservation sent a letter to Scott County in 2003 requesting that County Commission pass a new resolution to renew its opt-in to the Jackson Rule. In 2010, the local opt-in sunset without that new resolution being passed. A small parcel of property adjacent to the existing landfill was licensed as a new landfill just a few weeks later — although a letter from the TN Dept. of Environment & Conservation dated Feb. 6 states that unspecified changes since the permit was issued will require “additional investigation and assessment” by the state agency before a landfill can be built.
While the Jackson Rule requires both the county government and city government to approve a privately-owned landfill. However, it’s not clear that opting in to the Jackson Rule now would stop the proposed landfill at Bear Creek — which would be built on some of the same property that was the subject of the 1992 court ruling. Scott County Attorney John Beaty has told commissioners that he believes the 1992 court ruling would supersede renewing the Jackson Rule opt-in.
Regardless, renewing the Jackson Rule opt-in would be able to stop future landfills on other parcels of property throughout Scott County. Oneida Mayor Lori Phillips-Jones has also said that she is exploring her town’s options on opting into the Jackson Rule. Part of — though not all — of the 700 acres in question at Bear Creek falls into the town’s municipal limits.
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May in review: Temperatures were deceivingly warm
The month of May, which ended Saturday, seemed unusually gray and cool in East Tennessee. How did it actually stack up? Believe it or not, slightly warmer than usual.
The typical average temperature in Oneida during the month of May is 63.1°. May 2025 saw an average temperature of 63.3°, which is just barely above average.
That number is deceiving, however. The same cloud cover that resulted in so many gray days in May also kept temperatures up at night. Cloudy days are typically cooler than clear days, and clear nights are typically cooler than cloudy nights. That’s because cloud cover serves as an insulator — blocking some of the sun’s penetrating rays during the day, while also preventing heat from escaping back into the atmosphere at night.
As a result, our average nighttime temperature in May was 53.3° — a full three degrees above average.
By contrast, our daytime temperature during the month of May averaged 73.3° — a little more than 2.5 degrees below average. When most people perceive temperatures being warm or cool, they’re basing that perception on what’s happening during the day. That’s why the overall average temperature for May was deceptive: we saw a lot of relatively cool days, but they were offset by a lot of relatively warm nights — again, due to excessive cloud cover that persisted for most of the month.
The hottest temperature we experienced in May was 83°. The temperature hit 80° or hotter six different days in Oneida during the month of May, the fewest this decade. The most was in 2022, when we hit 80° or warmer 15 different days in May.
That’s expected to change this week, with temperatures potentially getting to 80° as soon as Monday, and almost certainly getting into the 80s Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday.
Oneida typically sees its first day of temperatures warmer than 85° by May 19, though it hasn’t happened so far this year.
We typically see our first 90° temperature during the month of June. The average date of the first 90° day in Oneida is June 19, dating back to the 1950s. (The latest it’s ever happened was in 2003, when the first 90° day didn’t happen until Aug. 25.)
The Week Ahead
⛈️ Weather: Finally, a stretch of good weather is in store! We’ll be sunny today with temperatures in the upper 70s. Then we’ll climb into the mid 80s the next two days before rain chances return late in the week. Check out our daily Eye to the Sky updates on our Facebook page — published each morning at 7 a.m. on the dot.
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📅 Community Calendar
Monday: Ridgeview Behavioral Health Services’ Mobile Health Clinic will be in the Walmart parking lot in Oneida from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., offering integrated primary care and behavioral health. No insurance is not a problem. Call (866)599-0466 for more information.
Monday: Huntsville Pool will be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. today and every day this week ($3). The Oneida Splash Pad is also open.
Monday: The Scott County Senior Citizens Center (Main Street, Oneida) will serve lunch from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. The cost is $7 for dine-in or carry-out. Phone: (423) 569-5972.
Tuesday: The Scott County Senior Citizens Center (Main Street, Oneida) will host exercise from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m.
Tuesday: Pinnacle Resource Center’s food pantry (1513 Jeffers Road, Huntsville) will be open beginning at 10 a.m. There are no income guidelines; however, a photo ID and a piece of mail with a Scott County address are required.
Tuesday: The Oneida City Park Farmers & Makers Market will be from 5 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. Call (423) 569-8300 for more information about becoming a vendor.
Tuesday: Boy Scout Troop #333 will meet at the Oneida War Memorial Building on Alberta Street in Oneida beginning at 6 p.m.
Tuesday: Wall Builders will meet from 7 p.m. until 9 p.m. at Trinity Baptist Church (1611 Glass House Road, Helenwood) for those struggling with addiction or striving to keep off drugs. There will be preaching, teaching, food, fellowship and personal counseling.
Wednesday: The Scott County Senior Citizens Center (Main Street, Oneida) will serve lunch from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. The cost is $7 for dine-in or carry-out.
Thursday: The Gerry McDonald Mission House, located on Church Avenue, directly behind First United Methodist Church, is open from 5 p.m. until 7 p.m. You are eligible to receive food once per month. For more information or requirements, call the church office at 569-8828.
Thursday: The Scott County Senior Citizens Center (Main Street, Oneida) will host exercise from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m.
The Community Calendar is presented by Citizens Gas Utility District. Citizens Gas operates natural gas distribution pipelines in portions of Scott and Morgan counties. Visit citizensgastn.com.
Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Echoes in Time tomorrow. If you’d like to update your subscription to add or subtract any of our newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t yet subscribed, it’s as simple as adding your email address!
◼️ Monday morning: The Daybreaker (news & the week ahead)
◼️ Tuesday: Echoes in Time (stories of our history)
◼️ Wednesday: Threads of Life (obituaries)
◼️ Thursday evening: The Weekender (news & the weekend)
◼️ Friday: Friday Features (beyond the news)
◼️ Sunday: Varsity (a weekly sports recap)