THE TOMAHAWKMountain City, Tennessee 3768375 centsWednesday, June 10, 2020 Vol. 146 No. 24www.thetomahawk.com

By Meg DickensSTAFF WRITER

Once again, the Mountain City Council focused on the legality of Black Bear Wine & Spirits’ drive-thru window during the council’s first digi-

tal meeting on June 2, 2020. Technical issues withstand-ing, the discussion took up nearly a third of the meeting.

Adding to the spirited meeting, Lawyer Nora A. Koffman from Baker Donel-son in Johnson City lead the

discussion on behalf of her client, Two Sisters LLC, owners of Mountain Spirits Liquor. That discussion and heated debate brought light to a possible legal issue on Mountain Spirits’ side as well.

The entire Black Bear Wine & Spirits’ drive-thru issue revolves around a technical-ity pointed out by Alderman Morrison. Does the state or city have jurisdiction over beer sales? A City ordinance

Council meeting heats up over liquor store legalities

CITY COUNCIL

Jill Penley FREELANCE REPORTER

Davidson County Chancel-lor Ellen Hobbs Lyle ruled last week that the state’s lim-its on absentee voting during the pandemic constitute “an unrea-sonable burden on the fundamental right to vote guaranteed by the Tennessee Con-stitution.” This rul-ing means Tennessee must give all of its 4.1 million registered voters the option to cast ballots by mail during the coronavirus pandemic, a judge ruled Thursday.

“In this time of the world-wide COVID-19 pandemic and its contagion in gather-

ings of people, almost all states – both Republican and Democrat – are provid-ing their citizens the health protection of voting by mail option,” Lyle wrote. “This

includes southern states such as Ala-bama, South Caro-lina and Arkansas, and Tennessee‘s neighboring state of Kentucky and near-by West Virginia. The governors, state officials, and legis-lators in those states have spearheaded

efforts to expand access to voting by mail to protect their citizens’ health during the pandemic.”

The Nashville ruling, which will most likely be appealed, requires the state to “prominently post on their websites and disseminate to County Election Officials that voters who do not wish to vote in-person due to the COVID-19 virus situation are

6 56525 10651 4

Tennessee to permit vote by mail for all registered voters

Hobbs Lyle

Jill Penley FREELANCE REPORTER

COVID-19 continues to disrupt almost every facet of life, but one issue brought to the forefront during the pan-demic is the lack of child-care options, part icular ly in rural areas, such as John-son County. The county is blessed with two state licensed daycare centers – In the Begin-ning Lighthouse of Love and Laugher and Promises Academy. There are also school-based centers; how-ever, it remains uncertain as

to when they will be able to reopen.

There are some childcare bills advancing through the state legislature to al-leviate the lack of child-

care choices in rural Tennes-see; however, many Johnson County par-ents are left w o n d e r i n g when, and if, help will ever materialize. One such bill,

Tennessee House Bill 2689, sponsored by Rep. Timothy Hill, also known as the “Parents’ Day Out” bill, authorizes programs oper-ated by a religious institu-

“Parents’ Day Out” bill to help in-home childcare professionals

Doe Mountain WIDE OPEN for business

CHILDCARE

By Meg DickensSTAFF WRITER

The Mountain City Council got a dose of reality in con-nection with one of the city’s water department employees’ status during its June 2 meeting.

While following the meeting agenda, it came to light that, unbeknownst to the city government, one of its employees had applied for and received unemploy-ment benefits while on a self-imposed leave.

The City was aware of the general situation, but council members were visibly sur-prised by the news.

The discussion revealed that the city employee was at home to protect an ill family member from COVID-19

exposure and had exhausted all of his sick leave, vacation time, and the extra 80 hours President Trump granted through the Families First Act. The self-quarantine was reportedly doctor’s orders,

but the employee showed no documen-tation and has yet to produce any despite management’s re-quest.

According to Su-pervisor Andy Gar-land, the employee’s last workday was in mid-March, but the department officials

had not heard from him since. The council was unsure if there was contact previously and designated the lack of communication as a no-call no-show situation, a policy that most companies view very seriously.

City caught unaware at council meeting

Community Calendar ...........A2Education .............................A3Court Report .........................A4Accent ..................................A5Service Directory ...............A4,5From Page One ...................A6

Sports ...........................B1,3Agriculture/Health............B2Father’s Day Feature ......B3Faith/Obituaries ...............B4Classifieds ....................B4,5Senior ..............................B6

INSIDE:

By Tamas MondovicsEDITOR

Local artist, John Jackson, was pleased to learn his work has recently found its way to a national juried show at the renowned A. Smith Gallery in Johnson City, Texas, and for a good reason.

Known by his friends and family as “J” Jackson practic-es “slow” photography, and is one of the few photographers left in the world, who still creates cyanotype and silver gelatin images using the ear-liest photographic methods.

One of Jackson’s images was among the 50 works of art chosen from the 892 en-tries to be on display.

“My photogravure prints are made with a four-step process,” Jackson said, ex-plaining that “two pieces of photographic film are processed in his darkroom. “First, the original image is exposed to the camera, and a film negative is made.

Second, the film negative is enlarged onto another piece of photographic film, which yields a film positive of the original image.”

The printing plate is a com-

mercially manufactured steel plate coated with a light-sen-sitive PVA emulsion, which is used in the printing industry to print labels etc.

“I make two separate expo-

sures to the plate, using first an “aquatint” screen and then the film positive,” he said.

After exposure, the plate is etched in water – dried and

Local artists accepted into a national juried show

John Jackson working in his studio near Trade TN. Jackson is a long time resident of Johnson County and supporter of the area arts and artists. You can see more of his work at the Johnson County Center for the Arts in Mountain City, TN. Photo by Dennis Shekinah

See Vote Page A6

See Childcare Page A6

CITY COUNCIL

See Council Page A6

See Liquor Page A6

See Jackson Page A6

See Page B3 in this week’s paper.

Father’s DayFeature Page

adsales@thetomahawk.com or 727-6121 ext. 22.DeaDline: FriDay, June 12, 12 noon

WomenTodayPublishing June 17

Focusing on healthcare professionals and volunteers making a difference

during COVID-19

A rider (front) confirms his pass on Doe Mountain, in Johnson County, TN ATV trail last Sunday. The passes were checked by a Trail Ambassador. Johnson County recently made history by being the first to win the new

Natural Resource category in the 2020 Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Awards for the Doe Mountain Recreation Authority (DMRA), also known as the Doe Mountain Recreation Area. Photo by Dennis Shekinah

Parsons

“It’s time that the very northeast

corner of Tennessee be remembered in

Nashville, we matter.”

Sally Snyder

By Meg DickensSTAFF WRITER

Johnson County made history by being the first county to win the new Natural Resource category in the 2020 Governor’s Environmental Steward-

ship Awards for the Doe Mountain Recreation Authority (DMRA), also known as the Doe Mountain Recre-ation Area.

Johnson County competed with 81 other nominees for the honor. Gover-nor Bill Lee and Tennessee Environ-

ment and Conservation Commissioner David Salyers announced the award winners on Wednesday, June 3.

“We were honored to be selected as the winner of one of the 2020 Governor’s Environmental Steward-

DMRA wins environmental award for Johnson County

See Doe Page A6