News - Friday, September 15, 2017

Chattanooga attorney Emily O’Donnell loved the practice of law. She enjoyed the thrill of spotting an issue in a case and devising a strategy to address it. She liked the gamesmanship of going up against another entity and, as a Legal Aid lawyer, was scratching her itch to do good in the world.

Smyrna Police Chief Kevin Arnold can remember the first time his detectives brought a heroin case to him three or four years ago.

“Of course, my reaction immediately was, ‘I thought that went away in the late 70s.’ But we’re seeing it. In fact, we are averaging approximately five heroin overdoses a month just in the town of Smyrna,” adds Arnold, whose city about 10 miles southeast of Nashville has a population of nearly 48,600.

On a recent Friday night, a tough and talented receiver for Ringgold High School named Andre Tarver, was doing his job.

Having run his pass route, he saw his quarterback pull down the ball and scramble towards the near sideline with two Fannin County Rebels in hot pursuit. Tarver did not hesitate.

Keller Williams Realtor Jay Hudson threw a client appreciation bash Saturday, Sept. 9, at Southside Social. Hudson hosted the event to thank his buyers and sellers for putting him in the top 20 percentile of agents at Keller Williams Realty Greater Chattanooga.

The Realtors Land Institute, an affiliate of the National Association of Realtors, invites land real estate agents from across the country to join them in Music City for the 2018 National Land Conference.

Registration is now open for the conference. which is scheduled to take place March 12-14 at the Hilton Nashville Downtown hotel.

Manuel Martinez has joined the Keller Williams office in downtown Chattanooga, where his former mentor, Steve Champion, serves as broker and director of career development.

Martinez obtained real estate licenses in Tennessee and Georgia in 2007. He then joined Prudential Realty Center and received sales training from Champion. In 2009, Martinez joined the Bell family’s new construction brokerage, Bell Development, now known as Bell Homebuilders.

“It,” the new movie based on the 1986 novel by Stephen King, is everything a film based on the book should be.

It bathes viewers in warm rays of nostalgia. It hums with the constant threat of a lurking horror. Its characters feel like real people but the true nature of its monster is left unexplained.

Tennesseans can now register to vote using the state’s new online registration system. The system allows voters to register or change their address.

“This system meets people where they already are: online,” Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett says. “In addition, it will improve accuracy and efficiency for voters and election officials by ensuring there are fewer errors and more accurate voter rolls.”

Volkswagen Group of America Chattanooga Operations, in partnership with the State of Tennessee and the Hamilton County Department of Education, recently celebrated the grand opening of the Sale Creek Middle High School Volkswagen eLab during a ribbon cutting ceremony.

“Walls,” a multimedia exhibition of local, regional and national artists, is on view at the Jewish Cultural Center, 5461 North Terrace Road, through Oct. 27. There is no cost to view the exhibition.

Gallery hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 a.m.-5 p.m., and Fridays, 9 a.m.-4 p.m.

Berkadia has sold The Haven at Commons Park, a 319-unit Class A property built in 2009 and located in the Shallowford Road area near Hamilton Place Mall. The property was operating with occupancy rates near 95 percent, with an average in-place rent of $1,027 per unit when it sold.

Tennessee’s apple harvest started in late July and has ramped up with good prospects for a quality crop statewide. The harvest schedule appears to be running at least a week or two early, with an increased presence of fresh apples on farms, at farmers’ markets and in community supported agriculture (CSA) boxes across the state.

Outdoor living enthusiasts can bid on their own custom living space to help raise money for the new Children’s Hospital at Erlanger in He Shed/She Shed/Tiny House.

The successful bidder will own the reconstructed space currently on display at Erlanger Baroness Hospital Medical Mall. The rooms, built by McCarthy Building Company, are staged to show what an exam room will look like in the new Children’s Hospital Outpatient Center.

While August is generally thought of as the end of the summer selling season as children return to school and fall arrives, the Greater Chattanooga housing market is showing no signs of “cooling” down.

For the month of August, residential home sales were flat to last year, with a .2 percent increase. Keep in mind that this same month last year was the largest August sales month Chattanooga had experienced, so to be flat is an accomplishment. Year to date the market is standing at +1.1 percent to last year, which falls in line with early predictions.

When you think of making home improvements, the interior and exterior of your home may get the most focus. But there is also a lot of potentially great living space just outside your door. Here are a few ways to make your back (or front) yard a seamless extension of your home for entertaining and enjoying the Chattanooga area days and evenings of summer, fall and beyond.

September is Life Insurance Awareness Month. And “awareness” is an appropriate designation, because many people remain unaware of the many ways in which life insurance can help families meet their key financial goals.

Here are three of the biggest of these objectives, as seen through the eyes of a hypothetical couple, Jim and Joan:

Children and families are invited to Hunter Museum on Sunday, Sept. 17, 2-4 p.m., for an afternoon of hands-on activities and live performances, including a teen zone with zine making, music by Slim Pickins, word painting, mask making, marionette making and a puppet theatre, all inspired by the Hunter’s current special exhibition, “Thrill After Thrill: Thirty Years of Wayne White.”