Local News

Fire is used for everything from food preparation to home heating to generating electricity, but it is also one of the most underestimated natural occurrences on earth. And in the case of curious children, fire can be a dangerous attraction.

On a cold February night, Terry Cook and his two younger brothers, Zackary and Connor, sneaked outside their Tennessee home to set some grass on fire.

“I’d been messing with lighters before the accident,” Terry, now a sixth-grader at Taylor County Middle School, said.

It’s a problem, but not one found only in Taylor County.

Drug abuse can be found everywhere, local law enforcement and drug officials say, and its impact can be felt everywhere it takes root.

“There’s always been a problem,” Taylor County Sheriff Allen Newton said. “Every county has it. It’s society. It’s sometimes accepted in certain cultures today.”

Taylor County Cattlemen's Association will accept applications for the County Agricultural Investment Program beginning Monday, April 22, at Taylor County Extension Office.

Applications will be accepted through Friday, May 3, during regular business hours from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Investment areas are agricultural, diversification, large and small animals, farm infrastructure, fencing and on-farm water, forage and grain improvement, on-farm energy, poultry and other fowl, technology and leadership development and marketing.

It will soon be cool again at the Taylor County Courthouse.

On Monday, magistrates agreed to replace the courthouse's air conditioning chiller for about $50,000.

The chiller, which is used to cool water, began leaking a few weeks ago, Taylor County Judge/Executive Eddie Rogers said. The chiller hasn't worked since.

During Tuesday's meeting, magistrates heard proposals to fix the air conditioning system from Carrier, the company the county currently contracts with to provide maintenance on the system, and Perfection Group.