Union County is a beautiful place to live and visit during any season, but this winter was even more sparkling than expected. The Light Up Union County Event, hosted by partnership UT Extension and Union County Chamber of Commerce, generated twenty three divine holiday light displays. The contest was split into three categories this year including Individual, Organization, and Commercial Business. A Facebook poll was conducted, running about two weeks, for each category.

The cool air is wisping through Union County as November peeps around the corner. With the cool air and festivities surrounding the town, excitement for the upcoming holidays begins. As lights are strewn up in window seals and trees become aglow, the county will glisten with Christmas spirit. Opportunities will arise for a car ride through town with the family, Christmas carols on the radio and hot peppermint cocoa in hand to gaze at the town through the frosty windows and admire the holiday decorations.

The UT Extension Agricultural Committee is set to meet on November 6th to welcome new members. UT Extension is an off-campus division of the UT Institute of Agriculture. Extension is a statewide educational organization, funded by federal, state, and local governments, bringing research based information to Tennesseans where they work and live. Information is available in a wide array of categories including Ag and Natural Resources, Family and Consumer Sciences, 4-H Youth Development, and Community Economic Development.

A community thrives on leaders taking initiative and pushing themselves and others to full potential. Leadership Union County (LUC) is a local organization that focuses on developing leaders to help create a unified and progressive community by identifying opportunities and challenges, developing strategies, and providing resources to achieve community goals. LUC’s charter class began in 2000. On September 20th, Leadership Union County is honored to have added six graduates to the leadership program.

Since 2009, the Union County Lions Club has sponsored and conducted eye screenings for Head Start children. Usually with this testing, four or five children will be identified to have vision problems–problems that are not found in your pediatrician’s office testing. If these problems are identified and treated before the child is six years old, 70 percent of blindness can be prevented. Although Union County Lions Club is still a young club, several projects have been completed. Just before school began, Pre-Kindergarten children were tested.

By the late 1840s the political pressure to have a county seat where residents could vote and conduct business without having to make an overnight trip was sufficiently strong enough that an Act of the Tennessee legislature was drafted to form a new county from portions of the five surrounding counties–Anderson, Campbell, Claiborne, Grainger and Knox Counties. On January 13, 1850 the Act to establish Union County was passed. There was haggling over boundary lines and some lines were redrawn. Nonetheless, Knox County was not happy about losing so much of its tax base and filed a lawsuit ...