The year of 'No!'
Scott County residents have flexed their democratic muscles in a mighty way in 2025
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The Year of ‘No’
In any given year, Scott Countians might go an entire 12 months without banding together to fight against something they feel strongly about. But 2025 is not a normal year. The year is not even half over, and already there have been three separate issues that have brought residents of the community together to flex their democratic muscles in a mighty way — putting the civic process to work in shows of unity as they make their voices heard.
The year started with the “rails-to-trails” issue on the former Tennessee Railroad, which was actually a carry-over from the end of 2024. Things quickly pivoted to a Dollar General store in West Oneida. And, finally, the fieriest issue of the three: a new landfill at Bear Creek.
It has hardly been a boring year in Scott County. And with six-and-a-half months yet to go, who knows what issue might come next.
Rails-to-trails
Oak Ridge-based Tennessee Citizens for Wilderness Planning — with local support — has proposed a 46-mile recreational trail along the former Tennessee Railroad route from Oneida to Devonia that has preliminarily been called the “Tennessee New River Trail.”
As proposed, the trail — which would follow the old coal-hauling railbed along Paint Rock Creek and New River — would be open to bicyclists and hikers. But residents along the former railbed are steadfastly against the idea, citing a number of concerns that range from privacy to safety and security. One major issue is wanton trespassing by ATV riders along the railbed since the rails have been removed. In many instances, landowners have reported thefts and littering that have occurred as a result. Supporters of the rail-trail have attempted to counter this concern by purchasing barriers to be placed at points where public roads intersect with the railbed.
The railroad is owned by R.J. Corman, which is abandoning the route. National Salvage, a contractor with Corman, is in the latter stages of ripping up the steel rails and wooden ties from the railroad, having already completed its work from Oneida to S.R. 116 in Anderson County. The question is what becomes of the railroad right-of-way once the abandonment process is complete. Under TCWP’s proposal, ownership would be transferred to an entity that would be established to manage a recreational trail. Landowners along the old railroad, on the other hand, contend that ownership should revert to them.
The latter is apparently a far-fetched idea, unless R.J. Corman decides to offer to sale to adjoining property owners or even donate the right-of-way. That’s because the original builders of the railroad — back in the 1890s and early 1900s — purchased much of the railroad route “fee simple,” meaning the railroad company owned the property without any obligations attached once the railroad ceased to exist. In a few instances, it appears that the railroad purchased a temporary easement, meaning that property would revert to the original landowners once the railroad ceased to exist. However, the U.S. Congress in the 1980s passed legislation known as “rails-to-trails” that keeps railroad corridors intact once actual rail usage has ended by stipulating that they might be used for a railroad at some point in the future while allowing for an interim recreational use. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld this legislation in 1989.
Scott County Commission earlier this year voted unanimously to pass a resolution of non-support that was proposed by Fourth District Commissioner Shonda Gray. Essentially, the resolution states the county’s opposition to the rail-trail. Separately, Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers has vocally opposed the project, raising concerns about who’ll pay for it and who’ll police it. Jeffers’ stance is that Scott County cannot contribute to the building or maintenance of a recreational trail when it has public roads that need to be repaired. He has also said that the Scott County Sheriff’s Department lacks the staffing and resources to police the trail.
The Town of Huntsville is also opposed to the trail. The old railroad runs through the east side of the town, along Paint Rock Creek near the area traditionally known as “Little Creek.” Huntsville Mayor Dennis Jeffers has said he’s siding with the landowners who don’t want the trail in their back yards.
The Town of Oneida has not taken an official stance on the trail, but is seen as generally favorable to the idea. Mayor Lori Phillips-Jones has indicated that a recreational trail would be a tourism boost and would help support business growth.
Separately, a group of Scott County residents — some of them lifelong residents of the community and some of them relative newcomers — have established a sort of advisory committee, along with a website that examines the issues and concerns surrounding the proposal and gives both supporters and opponents of the trail idea an opportunity to comment. Underscoring the fact that not every neighbor of the old railroad is opposed to the trail idea: two landowners who live along the railroad near Paint Rock, Mike Keeton and Lyn Phillips, are members of that committee.
Keeton in particular has told the Independent Herald that while his preference would be to obtain ownership of the portion of the railroad corridor that slices through his land, he realizes that isn’t a likely option and prefers an alternative that will keep ATV trespassers away.
Where does it stand? This past spring, the federal Surface Transportation Board granted a final one-year extension to TCWP’s Notice of Interim Trail Use — a provision of the rails-to-trails legislation from the ‘80s. That gives TCWP until April 2026 to negotiate and reach a final agreement with R.J. Corman. Meanwhile, Trust for Public Lands — a national non-profit that offers significantly more financial muscle and influence than TCWP — has signed on in support of the effort to establish the rail-trail.
The Dollar General
In 2024, Goodlettsville, Tenn.-based Dollar General entered into an option to purchase a tract of property on West 3rd Avenue in Oneida — between Verdun Road and Cooper Lake Road — for the purpose of building the company’s fifth discount store in Scott County. There are existing Dollar General stores in Oneida, Huntsville, Winfield and Robbins. The company said it had no plans to close its existing Oneida store; instead, it appears to have been eyeing a second option.
Because the property was zoned for light residential use and not for commercial use, rezoning was required by the Town of Oneida before a store could be built. The Oneida Board of Mayor & Aldermen passed the first reading of a rezoning ordinance in late 2024, leaving a public hearing and second reading of the ordinance to make the rezoning official.
Then word got out. Residents of West Oneida — most of them neighbors of the tract of land where the store was being proposed — crowded the Oneida Municipal Services Building courtroom for the public hearing in January, and almost all of them were staunchly opposed to the idea of having the discount store for a neighbor. Among the issues cited by residents were safety and security, pollution — both litter on the ground and light pollution — and having a commercial business in a quiet residential neighborhood.
An attorney who represented Dollar General was present at a February meeting of the Board of Mayor & Aldermen to request a postponement of the second vote on the rezoning ordinance in order to have time to address the concerns cited by residents. However, the board declined to grant that request, and the rezoning ordinance died after no board member made a motion to send it to a vote.
Where does it stand? With a Dollar General apparently off the table, the tract of land on West 3rd Avenue remains vacant. It’s still zoned for residential use, which would prevent any other business from being placed on the property without approval by the Oneida Board of Mayor & Aldermen. There was some thought that Dollar General might simply shift its plans further west and choose a location along Coopertown Road that falls outside the city limits — Scott County does not have zoning regulations — but that hasn’t happened … so far, at least.
A second landfill
If Scott County residents were united against transforming the Tennessee Railroad into a recreational trail and building a Dollar General in West Oneida, that was nothing compared to the pushback against a second landfill at Bear Creek.
The issue is complicated. In a nutshell, though, developers led by Cleveland, Tenn.’s Knox Horner are in the process of purchasing up to 700 acres of property adjacent to the existing Volunteer Regional Landfill that is owned by Waste Connections. The developers have proposed both a second landfill and a transfer station that would allow trash to be transported into Scott County by rail and offloaded at a site near the proposed landfill.
Initially, Horner’s group eyed the possibility of locating a temporary transfer station on the former Hartco property in downtown Oneida. Following the public outcry against that idea, he said he was abandoning the plan — and Brewco, which has a lease-purchase contract on the property with the Industrial Development Board of Scott County — said it wasn’t interested in the idea, anyway. Since then, an application has been filed with the TN Dept. of Environment & Conservation for a permanent transfer station on a portion of the property being purchased that borders the Norfolk-Southern Railroad off Poplar Lane. But that has initiated further concerns, due to its close proximity to Winfield Elementary School, which is about 1,500 feet away.
Horner has said he began his due diligence in 2022 and that his investors have spent more than $1 million since that time to ensure the environmental feasibility of a landfill on the Bear Creek property. It wasn’t until Spring 2025, however, that residents learned of the landfill plan. The response was swift, and the situation has evolved rapidly over the past four weeks. Residents have filled meeting rooms to capacity three times for public hearings: first, at a County Commission meeting on May 19, then at an informal hearing hosted by the Oneida Board of Mayor & Aldermen at Oneida High School on June 5, and finally at a meeting of the Winfield Board of Mayor & Aldermen last week.
First, Scott County Commission unanimously passed a resolution opting into the Jackson Law, a 1989 state statute that gives local governments control over the approval process of privately-owned landfills. Then, the Town of Winfield both opted into the Jackson Law and began the process of establishing overlay zoning that would prevent transfer stations within half a mile of a residence or one mile of a school. The Town of Oneida has not formally met since the issue was pushed onto the front burner, but will do so later this week.
The complicated part is that no one is quite sure whether the opposition of local governments can stop the landfill or the transfer station — a question that could ultimately be left to a court to answer. Scott County Commission attempted to stop the first landfill at Bear Creek in 1989, after the state passed the Jackson Law, but a court ruled against the county in 1992 and allowed the landfill to move forward. John Beaty, the county’s attorney, has cautioned that the county might be in violation of the 1992 court order if it uses the Jackson Law in an attempt to stop the second landfill, since the new landfill proposal includes a portion of the same property that was subject to the 1992 court ruling. Then there’s the question of whether overlay zoning can be used retroactively in Winfield. Horner has pledged to push forward with his plans for a transfer station and has said he will turn the matter over to his attorneys to determine how to proceed.
Where does it stand? At this point, the ball is in the court of TDEC. The landfill developers have applied for a transfer station permit, though it has not yet been approved by the state agency. There is an existing landfill permit for a tiny portion of the land in question that was approved by TDEC in 2010; however, it was approved for the former owner of the property — Roberta Phase II Inc. — and the agency has said that further evaluation is needed on its part before construction of the landfill can proceed. In 1989, TDEC was in the process of approving a permit for the landfill when the state legislature passed the Jackson Law. At that point, TDEC paused the approval process to see what Scott County would do. Scott County rejected the landfill, leading to the lawsuit and the ultimate court decision that came three years later. However, in 2010, when a second permit was applied for at Bear Creek, TDEC approved it without awaiting input from the county. (Scott County’s opt-in to the Jackson Law had expired by the time TDEC issued a license for the landfill in July 2010; however, TDEC gave a preliminary approval to the permit in February 2010, at which point the Jackson Law was still in effect.) The question, according to those watching the issue from afar, seems to be whether TDEC will issue a permit despite the opposition from the governments of Scott County and Winfield and risk being sued by those entities, or whether TDEC will repeat the course of action it took in 1989 by pausing the approval process and placing the legal onus on the developers and local governments.
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School board approves ‘Jumbotron’ at Scott High School
HUNTSVILLE | By a vote of 5-2, the Scott County Board of Education on Thursday approved a digital video scoreboard for Scott High School’s Highlander Stadium, clearing the way for construction of the nearly-$200,000 project that should be completed by the start of the 2025 football season in August.
The digital video boards are commonly called “Jumbotrons,” although JumboTron is actually a brand name coined by Sony in the 1980s. Scott High’s would be constructed by Digital Scoreboards and would be 16 ft. by 25 ft. in size, encompassing 400 sq. ft. of real estate. Several other schools around the region have video boards in place at their football stadiums, including Anderson County, Alcoa, Williamsburg, and others.
According to 3rd District board member Chris Shelton — who spearheaded the Jumbotron idea — the video board can be used to provide educational opportunities for CTE students at Scott High, who ostensibly would be involved in the creation of content and operating the board on game nights, while also generating revenue that could be used to build up non-revenue sports like baseball and softball. The revenue would come through advertising dollars by selling sponsorships to local businesses.
However, support for the Jumbotron was not unanimous; 5th District board member Angela King and 7th District board member Tressa Murphy opposed the purchase.
While thanking Shelton for his foresight and saying she was not against the Jumbotron, Murphy said there were other needs that should be addressed.
“I see that we have positions where teachers have retired that we have not replaced,” she said. “I see that our maintenance department is trying their best to take care of the schools and keep them going (but) have gone over their budget. I have seen where we’re relying on ESSR funds to pay for a chiller that we’re not going to get.”
The last reference was to a chiller that is going to cost the school system in excess of $400,000 to replace, according to Murphy.
“We’ve got cooks, custodians, teachers assistants, secretaries, paraprofessionals that are way underpaid,” she added. “The least we could do is look at doing something for them in some kind of capacity before we look at the Jumbotron.”
But Director of Schools Bill Hall countered that 12 budgets passed by the board during his tenure as director has included raises for personnel.
“This is a different pile of money,” he said. “This is what is in our reserve that we don’t use. We’ve always tried to get as much money to people as we can, but we’re only allocated so much when it comes to that, in that retrospect. I’m never against anybody getting a raise, nor will I ever be.”
In response to a question from Murphy, Hall said that Christmas bonuses for personnel comes out of the reserve.
King asked why money couldn’t come out of the reserve to give raises, to which Hall responded that raises are recurring and could not be funded that way.
Both Shelton and 1st District board member Tommy Silcox said the Jumbotron will give back by generating revenue.
“I’m for raises, too. I’m for bonuses, too. Neither raises or bonuses give back to the fund. This will,” said Silcox.
“I get it, on the surface, what it looks like,” Shelton said. “That’s why I was extremely transparent when I was campaigning. That’s why I’ve tried to put it all over Facebook. I don’t want people to feel like they were baited and switched on.”
Shelton — who is not originally from Scott County and moved here after marrying a Scott County girl — said he heard jokes about kids from Scott County when he was in college.
Shelton said that the Jumbotron could generate revenue for sports programs that don’t require withdrawing from the general fund to cover those sports.
“I’ve tried to illustrate to as many people who’ll listen that we have a plan in place,” he said. “This will help our parents who have to fundraise and go hit up the same businesses.”
He added that businesses want to feel that they’re getting something in return for their investment.
“It’s not the Jumbotron; it’s the vision we have and how we’re going to be able to build up an athletic fund and support our kids,” he said.
“This does not impact the football team exclusively,” he added, saying that he has three daughters who will never play football. “If you think about how it can be utilized for the community, you can go on and on with the benefits. You can go on and on with what we’re going to be able to do with the CTE class and what you can do with the collaboration the (IH Sports Network) has offered.”
Shelton also pointed to the recent high school graduation that was held on the football field with its relatively new turf.
“That was a huge accomplishment,” he said. “Being able to celebrate our students who are graduating … I think it was pretty apparent there was a really positive energy there. A lot of people were proud. The venue was nice, and this is just going to elevate it. Our biggest threat is homeschooling, and at least we’re going to be able to say if you graduate from Scott High you’re going to be showcased in a way that I didn’t get to experience when I was in high school.”
Hall said he was comfortable with the money that is in the reserve. State law requires the school system to maintain a reserve that is equivalent to 3.5% of its annual budget. Hall said the school system currently has 4.5% in its reserve.
King countered that the school system still has to come up with about $100,000 in funding to complete the playroom project at Huntsville Elementary School, and said it’s not the appropriate time to pursue the project.
Ultimately, Hall said, he was okay with whatever the board decided.
“We’re going to play football on Friday night regardless,” he said. “Will this enhance things? Absolutely. Will it generate funds back into our athletic program? Yes, immensely. Will it take some time for people to understand and do? Yes.”
Today’s newsletter is sponsored by the Scott County Chamber of Commerce. Since 1954, the Scott County Chamber of Commerce has advocated for a strong community by supporting stronger infrastructure and leadership.
The Week Ahead
⛈️ Weather: It’s been very rainy and stormy in Scott County lately, and that isn’t going to change this week. Thunderstorms will be likely each day through Thursday, before things improve a little for the weekend. 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.
Monday: Scott County Commission will meet at the Scott County Office Building in Huntsville, beginning at 5 p.m.
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 Winfield Board of Mayor and Aldermen will meet at 1 p.m. at the Winfield Municipal Building.
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 9 a.m. until 12 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 Bandy Creek Pool will be open from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. due to the Juneteenth holiday. The cost is $3 ($2 for children). The Huntsville Pool will also be open from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. ($3).
Thursday: The Scott County Senior Citizens Center (Main Street, Oneida) will host exercise from 10 a.m. until 11 a.m.
Thursday: The Town of Oneida Board of Mayor & Aldermen will meet at 6 p.m. at the Oneida Municipal Services Building. The Town of Huntsville Board of Mayor & Aldermen will meet at 6 p.m. at the Huntsville Municipal Building.
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)