Tag: Hamblen County

Cage-Free Chicken Farmers Announce $30.8 Million Investment in Morristown

Kaitlyn Osteen

Handsome Brook Farms announced, on Friday, that they will be investing $30.8 million, as Handsome Brook Farms establishes their first manufacturing operations in Hamblen County, Tennessee.

The chief executive officer of Handsome Brook Farms, Jordan Czeizler, said, “We are excited to locate this new manufacturing business here in Morristown and to join this community as an employer, investor, property owner, and corporate citizen. As we researched possible locations across several states, we kept coming back to the favorable environment created by local, regional, TVA, and state officials here in Tennessee and in Morristown. We look forward to growing our business here in this community and sincerely appreciate the support and welcome that we have received.”

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Hamblen County Commissioners Send All Cameras to the Back of the Room

Chris Butler

  Hamblen County commissioners recently adopted a policy mandating that anyone recording commission meetings with cameras, video equipment or other recording devices must stand in the back of the room. The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government has criticized the policy. But County Commissioner Tim Goins told The Tennessee Star this week that “it’s not a big deal” and “some people were complaining” about people up front making too many noises. Commissioners speak into microphones, meaning everyone in the room should already hear or capture audio on their recording devices, Goins said. “This is not a threat to government transparency,” Goins said. “We want transparency. We want all that good stuff.” County Commissioner Wayne Nesmith told The Star the local cable company televises their county commission meetings. Nesmith also said, however, County Mayor Bill Brittain does not want recording devices in the room. “The mayor doesn’t want anybody recording our commission meetings. In my opinion you should be recording all committee meetings, budget meetings, jail study commission meetings, any meeting the county is doing, they need to be recorded,” Nesmith said. “I’m not sure why. My gut feeling is they don’t want the people in the county knowing what’s going on…

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Hamblen County Under Investigation, Yet Again

Chris Butler

Tennessee Comptrollers are investigating the Hamblen County Trustee’s Office, according to a document they released this week — but they won’t talk specifics. Comptrollers would only say they are investigating the county’s Trustee Department. They said they will publish any findings in a future report. County Mayor Bill Brittain told The Tennessee Star Thursday he had no comment. “We have been advised not to discuss the situation further because it is an on-going investigation,” Brittain said in an emailed statement. Brittain attached a document to the email he sent The Star. The document was a letter from County Trustee John Baskette saying the investigation “relates to the timeliness of deposits made by the office.” “It is an ongoing investigation and no conclusions have been reached,” Baskette said. “The Trustee’s Office is fully cooperating with it.” This is not the first time Comptrollers have taken Hamblen County to task for alleged wrongdoing. As The Tennessee Watchdog reported in 2015, Ronald Brady, the county’s former solid waste director, allegedly took more than $227,000 from taxpayers and spent it on, among other things, a trip to Disney World. “Brady admitted to also using the money for other personal expenses, including service on his…

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The Would-Be ‘State of Franklin’ That Never Officially Existed

Gregory Watson

The United States Constitution does, of course, contain guidelines as to how a territory may enter the Union as a full-fledged state on an equal footing with all previously-existing states.  The last time that any new states were added to the United States was in the year 1959 when Alaska became the nation’s 49th state and Hawaii became the country’s 50th state. Specifically, the U.S. Constitution’s Article IV, Section 3, Clause 1 — which requires only a simple majority vote — reads: “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; but no new States shall be formed or erected within the Jurisdiction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more States, or parts of States, without the Consent of the Legislatures of the States concerned as well as of the Congress.” There has been recent chatter about admitting Puerto Rico into the Union as the nation’s 51st state. As the Constitution was not written until 1787 — and, once written, did not take effect until the following year — the procedure outlined within the still-in-force Articles of Confederation would have remained applicable to admission of news states up to…

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