Area News

Three sales tax holidays are being held in Tennessee this year, with the first already underway through June 30, 2022. The traditional sales tax weekend for school supplies and clothing is Friday, July 30-August 1 and the last sales tax holiday on food, food ingredients and prepared food Friday, July 30-August 5. For more see…

The annual Give a Child a Chance Day, which provides school supplies and other back to school services for students, will be held via drive-thru again this year at Bledsoe County Fairgrounds. The event is being held on Friday, July 30, from 9:00 a.m. to noon at 234 Allen P. Deakins Road. For more see the July 22…

A little over a year after first taking over as Bledsoe County Director of Schools, James Ellis is stepping down from the top position, he told members of the Bledsoe County Board of Education on Monday, July 19 in a special called meeting.  His last day as Director will be August 31, according to a…

Sign-ups for the Fairest of the Fair pageant are underway, with a deadline to complete forms by July 31. Whoever is crowned the Fairest of the Fair Queen in the 17-21 year old division will represent the Fair at the 2021 Bledsoe County Fair being held August 10-14, and at state competition. For more see…

The annual Give A Child A Chance Day which provides school supplies and other back-to-school services for students is being held via drive-thru again this year at the Bledsoe County Fairgrounds on Friday, July 30. The event runs from 9:00 a.m. to noon at 234 Allen P. Deakins Road. For more see the July 15…

The City of Pikeville is enforcing some regulations previously on the books regarding slum clearance and properties deemed unfit for human habitation alongside recent efforts to institute zoning. City Code 13-201 states “Pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated 13-21-101, the board of mayor and aldermen finds that there exists in the city, structures which are unfit…

The U.S. 127 Yard Sale, the “World’s Longest”, is less than a month away. The 2021 sale officially runs August 5-8 for 690 miles from Alabama to Michigan, along US Highway 127, touching many small towns like Pikeville along the way. For more see the July 8 issue of The Bledsonian Banner.

There was a noticeable absence felt at the Bledsoe County Commission’s special called meeting on June 28. It was the first meeting held in over a decade with Chairman Craig Mercer not a member of the legislative body. Mercer passed away in early June after serving on the Commission since 2002, representing the Cold Springs community. For more see the July 8 issue of…

The 47-year-old Pikeville man accused of killing his girlfriend and her mother with a Truckman Fire Axe in 2017 will stand trial beginning August 3 at 9:00 a.m. at the Bledsoe County Courthouse. The trial was originally scheduled to be held in May 2019, but was pushed forward to November 2019 after the public defender’s office declared a conflict of interest and new counsel…

A $208,000 grant for the Lower East Valley Road Industrial Water Line Extension for Bledsoe County was announced by The Appalachian Regional Commission last week. The project is expected to result in 60 jobs created and $10 million leveraged in private investment, according to ARC’s assessment. For more see the July 1 issue of The…