News - Friday, February 10, 2023

Call them DADUs or ADUs – just don’t call them STVRs. Also, are they a property, a use or both?

Welcome to the often-confusing state of play when it comes to adding a second dwelling to residential property in Tennessee’s urban cores.

History does not always preserve itself in banner headlines, photographs of singular moments in time, or thick tomes packed with exhausting research. Sometimes, history can be subtle and easy to miss.

Such could be the case with a picture that’s only slightly larger than a postage stamp in the board room of the Chattanooga Bar Association.

Brittany Faith, Lee Ann Adams and Chancellor Pam Fleenor pose with 2022-23 Tennessee Bar Association president Tasha Blakney (second from right) at the TBA’s board of governors meeting at The Westin Chattanooga on Jan. 27.

Faith is an attorney with Grant, Konvalinka & Harrison in Chattanooga and the 2022-2023 president of the Young Lawyers Division of the TBA; Lee Ann Adams is the immediate past president of the Chattanooga Bar Association; Blakney is an attorney with Eldridge & Blakney in Knoxville; and Fleenor is the 2022-23 president of the Tennessee Judicial Conference.

There are days when Shelby Purcell simply would like to have a conversation with an adult. Since she’s a third grade teacher, those days when she can tend to be few and far between.

“There are mornings when I wake up and realize I’m going to spend my day arguing with third graders,” Purcell, 26, says with a laugh. “I love teaching that age. Your kids still love you and are very sweet, but at the same time, they’re independent enough to do things on their own and think for themselves and their personalities are starting to emerge.”

There are a ton of good reasons to make home improvements, even in our current economy. You might want to boost your home’s future sales value, add livable space or refresh an aging room.

Or you might simply want to enjoy your home more, especially if you wanted to move but the market didn’t cooperate.

The dreary February weather in the Tennessee Valley has many people dreaming of spring and planning home improvement projects.

Savvy homeowners know the 56th Annual Tri-State Home Show will be the perfect opportunity to help kick off home improvement plans for the year.

Jay Robinson once again landed at the top in real estate sales in 2022.

After adding over $200 million in sales last year, Robinson has now tallied $1.5 billion in sales over the course of his 35-year career.

In 2022, the average sale price for single-family homes in the Chattanooga metro area increased by nearly 15%, with the average list price rising by 16%. Combined with a 13% decrease in the number of days on the market, it’s clear Chattanooga’s real estate market remains healthy, Robinson suggests in a news release.

In the dark comedy “The Menu,” celebrity chef Julian Slowik welcomes diners to Hawthorn, his ultra-luxurious restaurant, and asks them to not eat.

“I beg of you one thing – do not eat,” Slowik says. “Taste. Savor. Relish. Consider every morsel you place inside your mouth. Be mindful. But do not eat. Our menu is too precious for that.”

HHM Certified Public Accountants has hired two directors, a senior accountant and five staff accountants to work in its Chattanooga office.

Scott Lowe returns to HHM as a director in the dealership group after working as the chief financial officer for an automotive group. He will focus on audits and assurance as well as consulting and tax planning.

Another year means another prestigious award for Lola Oke.

Oke, a political science major and Brock Scholar in the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Honors College, is the first UTC student to be awarded a Charles B. Rangel Graduate Fellowship.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Symphony Orchestra will present a free concerto concert, open to the public, at 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12, in the UTC Fine Arts Center’s Roland Hayes Concert Hall.

The concert, which also will be available to watch via livestream (livestream.com/utc/events/10751049), will feature four student concerto winners.

We all want to stay healthy and live independently throughout our retirement years. Unfortunately, that won’t be possible for some of us, so it’s a good idea to be prepared for health-related challenges – such as the need for long-term care.

Delaying the start of Social Security benefits is a powerful way for retirees to cope with inflation, survive bad investment markets and reduce the risk they’ll run short of money. The advantages of waiting are so great that financial planners often recommend their clients tap other savings, such as retirement funds, to help them delay claiming.

If the video footage from the Tyre Nichols beating in Memphis tells us anything, it’s that we need to keep protecting the tools that allow public accountability for corruption.

Two bills in the Legislature last year sought to reduce a citizen’s ability to view bodycam or other law enforcement video footage.

A pro football era has ended. Sure, everyone saw Tom Brady re-retired after 23 seasons of play that made him the greatest quarterback in NFL history in the eyes of most.

But it was another era that bears discussion here – a footnote nationally but a big occurrence locally.

By Terry McCormick

Ryan Tannehill’s stock in Tennessee might have gotten an unexpected boost last week with the retirement of Tom Brady and the resulting fallout.

Tannehill, who I still expect to be under center in 2023 for the Titans, perhaps had his status with the team bolstered because of what happened with both Brady and the San Francisco 49ers.

It might be a rare occurrence, but it’s pretty hard not to notice the two best and most consistent teams throughout the regular season have made it to the Super Bowl.

Both the Philadelphia Eagles and Kansas City Chiefs were the top seeds in their respective conferences this year.