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144th Year • No. 56 Haywood County, Tennessee $1.00 Two Sections, 18 pages Brownsville STATES-GRAPHIC Thursday, September 2, 2010 See recipe on page A5 See weather on page B8 Mayor Franklin Smith may have said it best Monday when he exclaimed, “There’s a lot of courage in this courtroom today,” as he followed up with a “and now the honeymoon’s over.” Haywood County’s elected officials took their official oath of office, issued by Judge Clayburn Peeples, at 11 a.m. Monday at the courthouse. “This is evidence that the democratic process of electing officials still works in this great nations of ours,” Smith added. “And this makes your duties official.” Among a packed room with family and peers alike, the recently elected county officials held their heads high as they raised their right hand taking the coveted oath and signing their name to four years of honorable service to their community. Incumbents Franklin Smith (county mayor), Melvin Bond (sheriff), Sonny Howse (county trustee), and Steve Smith (register of deeds) return to their ranks respectively as femmes Sonya Castellaw (county clerk) and Mary Bond Lonon (circuit court clerk) were ushered in as the new elects in August’s county- wide election. “It was just under 100 years ago the legislative law first authorized a woman could be hired as a deputy clerk by county and here today we have elected two full-time women to serve,” said Judge Peeples speaking of Lonon and Castellaw. C o u n t y Commissioners taking the oath included (in order of districts they serve): Kathy Chapman, Janice King, Allen King, Richard Jameson, Robert T. Green, Charles R. Willis, James Teddy Waldrop, Jerry L. Smith, Wally Eubanks, John P. Gorman Jr., Chris Lea, Becky Booth, Larry Stanley, Bob Hooper, Jeffery Richmond, Marjorie Vaulx, Samuel T. Mathes Jr., Leonard Jones Jr., Robert Thornton, and Joe Stephens. Elected Road Commissioners for this election term are: Willie Ross (3 rd and 7 th ) and James H. Boyd (8 th and 9 th ). Constables serving the county include: Claude Gibbs (1 st ), Joe Ing (3 rd ), Lynn Cates (4 th ), Ed Cleek (5 th ), Roger Byrd (6th), Ed Ellington (7 th ), Daniel Groh (9 th ), George Floyd (10 th ). School Board members taking the oath were Pearlie Hess, Robbie Jarrett-King and Harold Garrett. Haywood County’s full-time elected officials taking office this term include: Mary Bond Lonon, Circuit Court Clerk; Melvin Bond, Sheriff; Franklin Smith, Mayor; Sonya Castellaw, County Clerk; Sonny Howse, County Trustee; and Steve Smith, Register of Deeds. It was in 1982, that Elma Pirtle got the chance to work for the Haywood County Circuit Court Clerk’s office. “The Lord had blessed me with a job and I just took it from there,” Pirtle said. Since then, Pirtle has had the opportunity to get to know and speak with a number of residents, elected officials, attorneys and judges. It was Tuesday, August 31 in the Haywood County Courthouse lobby where Pirtle would once again meet with those familiar faces— along with friends and family members—to help her say goodbye to the court clerk’s office, and celebrate her number of years to the office. For approximately 27 years, Pirtle has worked to keep all records and minutes of the county court from a variety of cases. She leaves the office while on top, as the Circuit Court Clerk. Mary Bond Lonon will succeed her. Fellow employees, family and friends with Employees from the Circuit Court Clerk’s office crowd around retiring Elma Pirtle (seated) for a quick picture. Mike McWherter greeted a few residents at the Sugar Creek Retirement Center last Tuesday afternoon. “Hello, I’m Mike McWherter. I was wondering if I could get you to consider me for your vote this November.” It was a line said multiple times by Governor hopeful Mike McWherter (D), while in Brownsville last Tuesday, August 24. Yet, instead of going the traditional route, driving from neighborhood to neighborhood, knocking on home doors, McWherter made his face-to-face campaign with the residents of Sugar Creek Retirement Center. McWherter spent his time talking of the issues that are important to him, his trip through Tennessee’s 95 counties, and fielding questions from residents, some of who were curious about McWherter’s father, Ned. If Mcwherter’s initial trip to Sugar Creek, instead of the usual candidate hotspot, the Haywood County court house—he did at least stop by to wish Ann Medford good luck on her retirement—seemed a bit of a surprise, then perhaps the same could be said about his campaign. While touring, McWherter has taken on a number of odd jobs, from calling bingo at churches to shoveling manure. It’s this approach that has allowed McWherter to dig a bit deeper into people’s desires and expectations for the next governor. “What I’ve been wanting to do, since the campaign, is tour around the state and spend time with everyday Tennesseans doing everyday tasks, and ask their advice and their thoughts about what their expectation are for the next governor, and how they want the state to move forward,” McWherter said. “And the way to do that, to get people to really open up is working side by side with them for a little while. They can get to know you a little better and they’re much more forthcoming with what they will tell you.” While McWherter has stated before that his issues deal with a strong state budget, protecting TennCare, looking at clean energy solutions and of course education. The candidate has placed jobs as the most important on his agenda. “Alady up in McKenzie gave me probably the best advice I’ve gotten in this campaign,” he said. She said, ‘I hear you talk a lot about healthcare, and I hear you talk a lot about education. But the bottom line is, if you don’t have a job, it’s difficult to educate your children and you can’t even think about healthcare. And I thought, truer words were never spoken.” Fore more information on McWherter, you can visit his website at www. mikemcwherter.com/. Brandon Carter is in full action during this competition in Ripley, TN. Carter described this incident as bittersweet, as he had one of his best rides, but suffered from a broken ankle. Carter poses for a picture with his 2005 award for Best Newcomer from the American Bull Riders Association. What can you do in eight seconds? In that short span of time, you can probably send an email, contact a person through your cell phone or pull up a website. Depending on the connections, you could probably pull all of this off at the same time. By today’s standards, these are all menial tasks. And perhaps they show better than anything that there isn’t anything really extraordinary you can do in eight seconds. However, if you’re someone like Brownsville native Brandon Carter, there is one extraordinary thing you can do in eight seconds: ride a bull for prize-winning glory. For eight seconds, luck and skill meet right in the middle, between a bull and a rider. You could be at the top of your riding game, and still come up short thanks to a bull that wasn’t “bucking” or jumping. Or you could be knocked off and on the ground in two seconds flat. It’s a unique world all too common to Carter, Local officials take oath of office First term elected commissioners Marjorie Vaulx, Sam Mathes, Teddy Waldrop, and Jeffery Richmond, seize the moment with each other before they take their oath of office to serve their districts. Brownsville resident aims for bull riding gold McWherter visits Sugar Creek Retirement party held for Elma Pirtle States-Graphic Brownsville Leadership Haywood 2011 See Page B7 Haywood County Officials Swearing In for Oath of Office See Front Page and B8 See Bull A3 See Pirtle A3 Thu 9/2 95/69 Sunny along with a few clouds. Hot. High near 95F. Winds SW at 5 to 10 mph. Sunrise Sunset 6:30 AM 7:23 PM Fri 9/3 82/57 A few thunderstorms possible. Sunrise Sunset 6:31 AM 7:21 PM Sat 9/4 83/56 Sunshine. Highs in the low 80s and lows in the mid 50s. Sunrise Sunset 6:31 AM 7:20 PM
