One week: A look at where election qualifying stands as it enters its final week
Plus: First lawsuit filed in landfill battle, and an update on the O&W Road and Niggs Creek Road bridge projects
Good Thursday evening! This is The Weekender, a final look at this week’s news from 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) any of these newsletters, do so here. If you haven’t subscribed, please consider doing so!
Subscribe now
Today’s newsletter is sponsored by Buckeye Home Medical Equipment. Serving Scott County and several other communities in the Upper Cumberland region, Buckeye is a full-line DME providing home health equipment to its patients.
One week to go: A look at election qualifying
HUNTSVILLE | Candidates for election in Scott County in 2026 have one week remaining until the qualifying deadline of Feb. 19. Here’s a look at how things currently stand:
County Mayor: Incumbent Jerried Jeffers has qualified as an independent candidate, while Huntsville Mayor Dennis Jeffers has qualified as a Republican candidate. Outstanding petitions: Trent Cross (I), Jennifer Shockley (I).
Sheriff: Incumbent Brian Keeton has qualified as a Republican candidate, while former sheriff Ronnie Phillips has qualified as a Republican candidate and law enforcement veteran Kris Lewallen has qualified as an independent candidate. Outstanding petitions: Dennis Chambers (I).
Road Superintendent: Incumbent Kelvin King has qualified as a Republican candidate and is currently unopposed.
Trustee: Incumbent Rena Erwin has qualified as an independent candidate and is currently unopposed.
Circuit Court Clerk: Incumbent Donnie Phillips has qualified as a Republican candidate and is currently unopposed.
County Clerk: Incumbent Felicia Hamby Bilbrey has qualified as an independent candidate and 2022 challenger Amanda Chambers Sexton has qualified as a Republican candidate. Outstanding petitions: Christina Kay Cross (I).
Register of Deeds: Incumbent Ashley Newport Riseden has qualified as an independent candidate.
County Attorney: No candidates have qualified. Incumbent John Beaty (I) has an outstanding petition.
First District: Incumbents David “Blue” Day (I) and David R. Jeffers (R) have qualified for County Commission, as has challenger Elaine R. Lowe (I). Incumbent Tommy Silcox (I) has qualified for School Board, as has challenger Rhonda Marlow Davis (R). Outstanding petitions: none.
Second District: Incumbents Joyce Potter Keeton (I) and Taylor Buttram Stephens (R) have qualified for County Commission. Outstanding petitions: Mike King (R).
Third District: Challengers Mike Keeton (I) and Ron Keeton (I) have qualified for County Commission. Outstanding petitions: Kenny Morrow (R), Daniel W. Murley (I) and Dacy Williams (I).
Fourth District: Incumbents Kenny Chadwell (I) and Shonda Gray (I) have qualified for County Commission. Incumbent Kimberly Kidd (I) has qualified for School Board. Outstanding petitions: Jerry Wade Byrge (I) and Taylor Stephens-Overton (I) for County Commission.
Fifth District: Incumbent Kelly Posey-Chitwood (R) has qualified for County Commission, as has challenger Zack Strunk (I). Incumbent Angela Anderson King (I) has qualified for School Board, as has challenger Roger Douglas (I). Outstanding petitions: Ralph Trieschmann (I) for County Commission.
Sixth District: Incumbent Colby Burke (I) has qualified for County Commission, as has challenger Jason Perry (R). Outstanding petitions: Torrey Slaven (I).
Seventh District: Incumbents Jared Burke (I) and Tom Payne (I) have qualified for County Commission, as has challenger Kris Byrd (I). Incumbent Tressa Murphy (I) has qualified for School Board, as has challenger Matt Stiltner (I). Outstanding petitions: Anthony Carson (I) for County Commission.
Oneida Special School District: Incumbents Kevin Byrd (I) and Mark Matthews (I) have qualified, as has challenger Stuart Jones (R). Outstanding petitions: Benji Jacobs (I).
Mountain People’s Health Councils offers general practice dentistry for all ages, using the latest technology for dental imagery and digital scanning. Sliding scale fees apply! Learn more. (Sponsored.)
Oneida business files lawsuit against Roberta Phase II landfill permit
NASHVILLE | Rock Properties International, Inc. and owners Ralph and Michelle Trieschmann have filed a lawsuit against Roberta Landfill Phase II Inc. and TN Dept. of Environment & Conservation Commissioner David Salyers alleging that the 2010 landfill permit was issued inappropriately.
The Trieschmanns own Timber Rock Lodge, the former Jim Barna Log Homes headquarters that is located adjacent to the 24-acre permit that was issued by TDEC in 2010 and is at the center of current efforts by Chattanooga-area landfill developer Knox Horner to construct a second landfill in the Bear Creek area of north Oneida.
On Tuesday, the Trieschmanns filed a lawsuit in Davidson County Chancery Court in Nashville, seeking to stop the recertification of the 2010 Roberta Phase II permit.
TDEC in 2010 issued a 24-acre permit to Johnny King, who had earlier successfully sought a permit for Roberta Sanitary Landfill that was constructed in the 1990s and is now owned by Knoxville-based Waste Connections LLC as Volunteer Regional Landfill. King’s second landfill permit was located adjacent to the first landfill, on the approximately 1,500 acres of land he once owned between Bear Creek Road in Oneida and Poplar Lane in Winfield.
King has since passed, and the property on which the Roberta Phase II project was permitted is among some 700 acres of land being targeted for purchase by Horner and his investors. Horner has applied to have the permit re-certified, and boasted last summer to representatives of a coalition of local governments who were meeting in Oneida to explore ways to oppose the planned landfill that construction would begin by fall. However, fall came and went without construction, as TDEC and Horner continue to work through several issues that stand in the way of re-certification. Because the landfill was not constructed after being permitted in 2010, current landfill construction must meet state laws that have changed in the 1.5 decades since, including Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit (ARAP) issues for streams and wetland areas that Horner’s group plans to modify.
In their lawsuit, the Trieschmanns argue that TDEC has no authority to issue a solid waste permit until the landfill application is approved by a local regional solid waste board. They argue that the Roberta Phase II application was not submitted to the Scott Solid Waste Board for approval, stating: “…public records confirm that TDEC issued the permit in open disregard of the law and well aware that no application had been submitted to the Regional Solid Waste Board.”
The lawsuit cites a July 2005 letter from TDEC to Roberta Phase II stating that the application must be submitted to the Scott Solid Waste Board. In absence of that action, the Trieschmanns argue, then-TDEC Solid Waste Director Mike Apple requested a letter from Scott County Attorney John Beaty. Beaty wrote a letter to TDEC stating that the application was not in conflict with local solid waste planning, but added that his letter was his own opinion and was not based on “any decision or review made by any other Scott County government official, person, or entity.” The lawsuit charges that TDEC “cherry-picked” the contents of that letter “to suggest compliance” with state law “when it was plain from the whole of the letter there had been none.”
The Trieschmanns purchased the eight-acre former Barna property in 2020. They state in the court filing that they “will be directly impacted by this illegal permitting action by TDEC…”
The lawsuit is not the first legal step that has been taken in an attempt to stop the landfill permit re-certification process. In October, the Middle Tennessee law firm Sherrard Roe, Voight & Harbison, which represents a coalition of local governments including Scott County and each of its municipalities, along with McCreary County, Ky., wrote a letter to TDEC urging the re-certification process to be suspended. TDEC has not responded to that letter.
The Trieschmanns are being represented by Nashville attorneys Elizabeth Murphy and Dominic Leonardo.
While the lawsuit is the first to be filed in relation to the Roberta Phase II project, local citizens group Cumberland Clear — which announced the lawsuit — said in a Facebook post Thursday evening that they will be filing their own lawsuit “in the very near future.”
Huntsville Post-Acute & Rehabilitation Center offers short-term or long-term care … on your terms. Learn more. (Sponsored content.)
Completion of O&W Road bridge project hoped for early April
HUNTSVILLE | Scott County Road Superintendent Kelvin King said Thursday that he hopes the O&W Road will be reopened into the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area by “the first of April,” if weather cooperates for the completion of new bridge construction over Pine Creek.
A Cookeville construction firm is currently replacing one of the two remaining original railroad bridges over Pine Creek, just west of O&W Road’s intersection with Toomey Road. The bridge has been closed since late summer 2024, when it was condemned by the TN Dept. of Transportation. It was originally built in 1914.
The steel-and-wood bridge is being replaced by a concrete bridge. King told the Independent Herald Thursday that construction workers were scheduled to begin pouring the concrete decking on Monday. Progress has been slowed, he said, by inclement weather for the past three weeks.
The same firm also has a contract with Scott County to replace the condemned railroad overpass on Niggs Creek Road at High Point in south Oneida. King said the holdup on that project is not the O&W Road project, but a final go-ahead from Norfolk-Southern Railroad.
King said the construction firm has entered into a contract with a flagman company to control railroad traffic during the construction project, and the company had a crew ready to travel to Scott County several weeks ago. However, he said that Norfolk-Southern has not given the go-ahead for the company to begin its work.
The Weekend!
☀️ Weather: It’ll be a nice start to the weekend, with sunshine and temperatures in the mid 50s on Saturday, and upper 50s on Saturday. However, an inch or so of rain will fall Saturday night and Sunday. Check out our daily Eye to the Sky updates on our Facebook page— published each morning at 7 a.m. on the dot.
—
📅 Community Calendar
• Friday: In high school sports, Oneida will host Coalfield (6:30 p.m.) while Scott High will travel to Loudon (7 p.m.). The OHS/Coalfield game will be broadcast on the IH Sports Network.
• Saturday: In high school sports, Oneida basketball will host Sunbright at 4 p.m. and Scott High basketball will host Campbell County at 4 p.m. Both games will be broadcast on the IH Sports Network.
• Saturday: Second Saturday night service will be held at Jake’s Branch United Baptist Church at 6 p.m. For more information, see our Church Directory.
• Sunday: Celebrate Recovery, a 12-step program designed to help with addiction, co-dependency and domestic abuse, will be hosted by Fire & Purpose Ministries from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at 27192 Scott Highway in Winfield. There will be food, fellowship, praise and worship. Childcare is provided.
The Community Calendar is presented by Citizens Gas Utility District. Citizens Gas Utility District pipelines are generally safe. They can be damaged by things such as excavation, natural forces, and automobile accidents. These can potentially cause a leak.. Visit citizensgastn.com.
Scenic Sale!
This week’s sale items at Scenic Foods in Huntsville! The sale continues through Tuesday. Sponsored content.
Thank you for reading. Our next newsletter will be Friday Features. 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 from the Past (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)