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Mountain City, Tennessee 37683Your Community Newspaper, Established 1874 75 centsVol. 146 No. 53

www.thetomahawk.com

THE TOMAHAWKWednesday, December 30, 2020

Community Calendar ...........A2Education .............................A3Reports .................................A4Features ...............................A5Service Directory ...............A4,5From Page One ...................A6

Sports ...........................B1,6Obituaries ........................B2Holiday Accents...............B3Faith ................................B4Classifieds .......................B5

INSIDE:

Take a look back at 2020 Sports …see page B1

By Jill PenleyFREELANCE WRITER

On December 22, in re-sponse to the increase in coronavirus cases across the state, the Tennessee Supreme Court issued an Order re-instating the suspension of most in-person hearings from December 28, 2020, to Janu-ary 29, 2021.

Court clerk offices remain accessible, the Order pro-vides a list of exceptions

for emergencies, and courts across the state are encour-aged to utilize virtual pro-ceedings as much as possible. In the past several weeks, multiple judicial districts, counties, and courts have already limited in-person proceedings because of coro-navirus outbreaks in their courtrooms or communities.

“Everyone is tired and frustrated with this disease, but the statistics show it is

State stops most in-person court hearings until January 29

See Courts Page A6

Submitted by Jeffery C. Lowe

With Christmas fast approaching, the Johnson County Senior Center faced a critical funding shortage, as reported

last week. The Senior Center operates the county’s state-funded “Meals on Wheels” program to provide regular meals to shut-in seniors.

But what many county residents may not realize is that the Senior Center also

operates an auxiliary program provid-ing meals up to six days each week to dozens of additional local seniors cur-rently on the lengthy Meals on Wheels waiting list.

Senior Center recieves vital “bridge” donationBy Tamas MondovicsEDITOR

The Johnson County Health Department (JCHD) has received its first ship-ment of the Moderna CO-VID-19 vaccine.

“We are excited to re-ceive these vaccines and see our COVID-19 vac-cination activities under-way in our community,”

said Caroline Hurt Johnson County Health Department Director. “We’ve been pre-paring for months to dis-tribute approved vaccines, and we believe this will be a safe and effective tool in the fight against COVID-19.”

Wasting no time, de-partment staff members administered the Moderna vaccine to first responders,

Health Department Staff Administered Vaccine to Frontline Health Care Workers and First Responders

First wave of Moderna Vaccine distribution

COVID-19 UPDATE:JOHNSON COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD:

HOMETOWN SERVICE COALITIONS:

See Moderna Page A6

See Schools Page A6

Johnson County Sheriff Eddie Tester receives a dose of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine last week. The vac-cine was distributed to frontline health care workers

and first responders. Photo submitted

Johnson County School officials discuss benchmark results that came back higher than expected. Despite hardships from the COVID-19 pandemic and missing educational time, students scored similarly to the previous

year. There are two more benchmark tests in early 2021. Online photo

Hometown Service Coalition representatives John Cunningham, right and Jeffery C. Lowe, presents Johnson County Senior Center Director, Kathy Motsinger with a check for $1,500 to help bridge the Center’s end-of-year

funding gap. Since its inception, HSC has been in high gear supporting local residents and organizations in need of assistance. Submitted photo

The nonprofit organization Women of Mountain City provides a variety of help to the community, including period and hygiene product donations, food deliveries, educational and professional classes, and more. Ladies from the organization show an informational poster on

newest program, which provides first time mothers with a nurse until the baby turns two. Submitted photo.

By Meg DickensSTAFF WRITER

Johnson County Schools expressed concern from vir-tual midterm results earlier

this month. Now, as part of the officials’ five-year plan, details from the “District An-nual Improvement Plan will be shared with the Board of Education.”

Data shows that Johnson County surpassed its ex-pected results during the first benchmark testing of this school year.

This plan revolves around

three district goals. The first goal is to improve literacy in all students. Director of Schools Mischelle Simcox emphasized the importance

Students surpass expectations in benchmark results

By Meg DickensSTAFF WRITER

The Women of Mountain City started its nonprofit journey in early 2020. Need in the county is prevalent, but the COVID-19 pandemic put further strain on people everywhere, closing down some businesses and costing workers their jobs or liveli-hoods. Despite difficulties

New year, new roots:nationwide, people locally donated funds to secure a building for the Women of Mountain City. The Women of MC’s first location, at 1971 B South Shady Street, will open at the beginning of 2021.

“2021 in Johnson County is going to be female,” ex-plained Founder and Presi-dent Olivia Stelter. “Women of MC is opening its doors to women of all walks of life in Johnson County this Friday. They will officially open up to the community Monday through Wednesday from 10 am to 2 pm, and Fridays See Women of MC Page A6

Women-centric organization opens doors for 2021

See Donation Page A6

By Meg DickensSTAFF WRITER

Tourism is not the word many would think of when thinking about Johnson County, but it seems the area has more potential than many realize. Local government officials are work-ing to promote this area at what could be the ideal time. Small towns have been increasing in popularity in recent years, and, if the real estate boom and ris-ing number of new residents mean anything, Johnson County is part of that trend.

According to County Clerk

Tammie Fenner, “there has definitely been an increase in the number of people moving to the county.” Some new residents listed the distinct seasons, lower property taxes, and quieter atmosphere as

reasons to move to the area. The area may have also gotten a slight boost thanks to Johnson County being one of several counties featured in national magazine Medium’s move-to destination list in Au-gust.

As recently as this December, the local govern-ment has been working on po-tential changes and updates to

Promoting tourism and growth in Johnson County

See Tourism Page A6

Fenner

Readers’Choice Awards 2021

Ballots must be mailed or arrive at the Tomahawk office by 10am on Friday, Feb. 5.

Printing January 6through February 3