UT Medical Center opening specialty office in Oneida
Plus: Bid awarded for High Point Bridge replacement
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!
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.
UT Medical Center planning first office in Scott County
ONEIDA | University of Tennessee Medical Center is preparing to open its first specialist clinic in Scott County. The office will be located in the long-abandoned medical facility between Plateau Electric Cooperative and the Scott County Food Court on Alberta Street in south Oneida.
Construction crews have been renovating the 8,000 sq. ft. building for several weeks. It is owned by M&O Oneida LLC. While UT Medical Center has not announced the new clinic, signage went up on the facility this week, indicating that the new office will be the home of University Midwives and UT Rheumatology Associates.
University Midwives is part of UTMC’s Center for Women & Infants. It offers well-woman care, pregnancy and postpartum care, and labor and birth services. It currently has offices at UTMC’s main location on Alcoa Highway in Knoxville, as well as at the Regional Health Center in Halls, the Kim Health Clinic on Chapman Highway in south Knoxville, and at Turkey Creek.
UT Rheumatology Associates offers diagnosis and treatment for a range of systemic autoimmune diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, scleroderma, osteoporosis, and more.
Scott County Mayor Jerried Jeffers said UTMC first approached him soon after he took office in 2022 to inquire about support for a medical facility in the local community.
“I told them, please send us specialists … rheumatologist, cardiologist, it doesn’t matter what,” Jeffers said. “We just need something so our people don’t have to drive out-of-town.”
The new clinic being opened by UTMC comes amid a relative boom of health care growth in Scott County. Big South Fork Medical Center held a grand-opening for the county’s first wound care clinic earlier this week, and Huntsville Post-Acute & Rehabilitation Center has announced an in-patient dialysis center that is expected to open next year. Mountain People’s Health Councils Inc. just completed a new diagnostic center in Oneida, and is planning a new medical clinic in Huntsville.
“I’m very excited (about the new UT medical office),” Jeffers said. “I hope more will come of it. I’m hoping for dermatology. But if this is all they’ve got, I’m tickled with that. It’ll be a game-changer.”
Jeffers said the UT Medical Center brand inspires confidence.
“It’s a nice confidence-builder for people just to have that sign out there,” he said.
Jeffers added that once UTMC began exploring its options in Scott County, it considered the local population and the health care offerings already here to decide what model would work best and what services it could provide.
Huntsville Post-Acute & Rehabilitation Center offers short-term or long-term care … on your terms. Learn more. (Sponsored content.)
Bid awarded for new bridge construction at High Point
ONEIDA | King General Contracting, the Cookeville-based construction firm that is currently working on a bridge over Pine Creek on O&W Road, has been awarded a bid to replace the currently-closed railroad overpass on Niggs Creek Road in Oneida.
The so-called High Point Bridge has been closed since Spring 2024, when the TN Dept. of Transportation condemned it after it scored low on an inspection.
King General Contracting was awarded the bid at Monday’s meeting of the Scott County Finance Committee. The bid for just over $1.9 million was one of two submitted. The other, by Southern Construction in Knoxville, was for more than $3.5 million.
The new bridge will be similar in size to the existing bridge, although Scott County Road Superintendent Kelvin King previously said there would be some minor adjustments in height and width due to requirements of Norfolk-Southern Railroad.
Construction of the bridge on O&W Road, which is located just west of the Toomey Road intersection near the Big South Fork National River & Recreation Area, began last month. That project is expected to be completed later this fall. The O&W Road bridge was ordered closed by TDOT after the state agency closed the High Point Bridge. However, the design process of the High Point Bridge took longer due to the involvement of the railroad, which was required to approve the design at various stages.
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.)
The weekend
☀️ Weather: Bone-dry weather and warming temperatures will remain the theme through the weekend and much of next 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
• Friday: Oneida football will host CAK (7:30 p.m.) and Scott High football will host Austin-East (7:30 p.m.). Both games will be broadcast live on the IH Sports Network, with the Rogers Group Pregame beginning at 6:30 p.m.
• Saturday: The Scott County Farmers & Crafters Market will be open from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. — rain or shine. The market is located at 600 Scott High Drive, Huntsville.
• 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 operates natural gas distribution pipelines in portions of Scott and Morgan counties. Visit citizensgastn.com.
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📢 Programming Note: Watch for our weekly E-Edition later this evening! You can always find our E-Editions here. The E-Edition is published on Thursdays (and on Sundays during the high school sports season) and includes all digital content from the week in an easy-to-read, flip book format.
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 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 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)