News - Friday, March 6, 2020

The only girl among six siblings, Latoya Watkins grew up a rough-and-tumble tomboy in Chattanooga’s St. Elmo neighborhood. By the time she arrived at Lookout Valley High School, she was ready to take on anyone.

“I was tough,” she says. “I had five brothers, so I had to be.”

As a business law attorney and former accountant, Hollie Floberg is comfortable with numbers. Some might even say she’s good with them.

But as Floberg counts her careers, she stops at two. Even though she teaches an online accounting class for her alma mater, Tennessee Wesleyan University, she doesn’t consider serving as an adjunct professor to be one of her careers, or even a side gig.

Chattanooga Business Elite has named Amanda Jelks “Best Attorney.” The award was presented to Jelks at the first Black Excellence of Chattanooga Awards at the Chattanooga Convention Center.

The ceremony was held to recognize successful minority entrepreneurs, minority-owned businesses and community organizations that are impacting the Chattanooga community.

The Tennessee Bar Foundation has extended invitations to become fellows to four Chattanooga attorneys.

Marc Harwell of The Harwell Law Group, Rick Hitchcock of Chambliss Law, Allen McCallie of Miller & Martin and Mark Ramsey of Spears Moore will be honored April 3 during the TBF’s Fellows Dinner at the JW Marriott Hotel in Nashville.

The Chattanooga Bar Association held its annual memorial service Feb. 28 in the County Commission Room in the Hamilton County Courthouse. The ceremony remembered the members of the association who died in 2019.

The roster included C. Avery Duff, Michael Anderson, Bill Ortwein, Bob Walters, Richard Klingler, Dale Buchanan, Robert McAllester, John McMahan, Kyle Weems, Stephen Greer, David Nelson, Bud Vincent, John Phillips, Jr., Joseph Timberlake, L. Hale Hamilton and W. Lloyd Stanley.

Local Realtors took advantage of the 54th annual Tri-State Home Show at the Chattanooga Convention Center last weekend by setting up booths and making themselves available to the general public.

The event featured more than 500 booths and hundreds of local home building and remodeling experts.

The stock market is tumbling, and the fed has cut its rates again. Many economists have theorized we would have a market correction in 2020 and, with the election this year, there remain many unknowns.

One thing we know for sure is rates have dropped to some of the lowest we have seen in the last five years. While the supply of homes is very tight, interest rates dropping to under 3.5% gives buyers more purchasing power.

Spring is a great time to sell a home in the Chattanooga area, so homeowners looking to put their houses on the market should start preparing now.

Staging your home in the right way is a critical step in the selling process. The more your prospective buyers can envision themselves living in your home, the more likely you’ll make a quick sale.

If British statesman and notorious gambler John Montagu really did invent the sandwich, I imagine its simplicity so stunned the English of the 18th century that they wondered why no one had thought of it before.

From its supposed beginnings as a serving of sliced meat between two pieces of toast (crafted, as the story goes, to allow Montagu to continue a marathon gambling session), the sandwich has evolved into an art. In skilled hands, the combination of bread and other ingredients can produce a masterpiece.

Cecilia Kass opens her eyes at night and slowly lifts her bedcovers to reveal a man’s arm wrapped around her. As she removes the arm and eases up, her expression tightens.

Cecilia might be free of her boyfriend’s grasp, but beyond the bed are the walls of his home, and beyond those, the walls that enclose his property, and beyond those, an ocean and a forest.

Crye-Leike Real Estate Services has named Jeff Nixon administrative manager of the Chattanooga region. Nixon will oversee the various divisions of the Chattanooga area and help in the efforts to increase office growth and productivity.

Nixon joined Crye-Leike eight years ago as the managing broker of the Huntsville, Alabama, office. He moved to Chattanooga and became the sales manager of the downtown office in 2017.

The Chattanooga Airport has awarded Hoar Construction the contract to design and build its $25 million, four-level, 1,300-space parking facility.

The team also includes local architectural firm MBI Companies, American Structural Concrete, International Parking Design and Culp & Tanner Structural Engineers.

The road leading to the Chattanooga Airport is getting a new look.

The Chattanooga Department of Transportation will be making significant improvements along Shepherd Road and Airport Connector Road as part of the Airport Master Plan.

Upgrades will include narrowed lanes, bicycle lanes, curbs and gutters, sidewalks and landscape improvements. The new roadway cross section will consist of two 10-foot travel lanes in each direction and a 10-foot, two-way center turn lane.

International Women’s Day 2020 is observed March 8. This special day celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. Yet, women still face gender barriers as they seek to achieve their financial goals. How can you address these challenges?

The Lucile Miller Wright Scholarship program has named Jariah Chapman, a member of Girls Inc. of Chattanooga and a senior at Brainerd High School, a 2020 Girls Inc. National Scholar and awarded Chapman a $20,000 scholarship.

Chapman was selected for her outstanding academic achievements and community service work.

Redistricting plans continue to evolve as Hamilton County Schools reviews community responses to plans for changes in attendance areas.

The changes are required due to the addition of the new East Hamilton Middle School this fall.

Hamilton County Schools has revised the attendance area maps for the East Hamilton and Ooltewah attendance areas after considering the information received during discussions with parents during community meetings and the results of the initial redistricting proposal survey.

Public Art Chattanooga, the city of Chattanooga’s public art division, recently launched its City Creators program, which provides opportunities for artists to collaborate with city government and apply their practice to civic and community-focused projects.

Chattanooga Zoo officials are celebrating a “monumental work of nature” involving a resident Komodo dragon.

The Chattanooga Zoo announced the birth of three Komodo dragon hatchlings in September. At that time, it was unknown if the offspring were a product of breeding between first-time mother Charlie and the zoo’s resident male, Kadal, or if parthenogenesis had occurred.