In a move toward a semi-annual tax collection cycle in the coming years, the county has shifted its budget process calendar forward two months. The change requires agencies except schools requesting money from the county to submit a request by Dec. 14. The school budget requests deadline is Jan. 31.

With the holidays forefront in our minds this time of year, most folks will give thought to the things for which they are grateful. For Smyth County natives Fred and Joy Dye Jr., it is an easy choice. They are thankful just to be alive.

So far, state budget cuts to area senior programs have caused only minor ripple effects. But the District III Governmental Cooperative is not out of the line of fire just yet.

Judy Mowbray started out with the 630s, the health section, but now has moved on the animals and cookbooks. And, boy, the cookbooks are a mess. Probably not as bad as the children’s books though.
Mowbray has joined a handful of recent volunteers to the Abingdon Public Library’s Adopt a Shelf program.  Volunteers choose a shelf or section of the library that interests them and every two weeks check to see that the section is in correct order and cared for.
Mowbray makes the trek once a week from Shady Valley.

One million of anything is a lot.
However, just because the goal of raising one million pennies is lofty at best, it’s not deterring the students at E.B. Stanley Middle School from trying.

It was a big season for the Holston Cavaliers.
Coach Jason Matlock said when team members handed in their equipment Monday they talked about how they still want to be playing.
The Cavs lost last Friday night to Bath County (27-20) in the beginning round of the Region C, Division 1 playoffs.

Justin Browning, 16, said he worked on putting up frames and walls every day for the past few months. He was one of about 28 carpentry and masonry students at the Washington County Technical School who transformed an old basement and storage room into student center.

It happens every year. Like the leaves of fall or the flowers of spring, you can just about set your calendar by them. However, unlike the leaves of fall and the flowers of spring, those decorations don’t just grow out of the poles then wither away at the appropriate time. It’s nothing that magical.
A dedicated crew of men and women, led by the town’s Horticulture and Grounds Supervisor Ann Newman make sure that every year, rain or shine, the town feels festive.

Credit the drought. It was, after all, the low water that helped sheriff’s deputies locate a coat and backpack connected to the death of John Wolfe Jr. a year ago.
A few weeks ago, someone spotted the jacket, which had belonged to Wolfe, near where the body was found in Laurel Creek, by Iron Horse Campground. An antique license plate was in the backpack, Sheriff Fred Newman said. Nothing was in the jacket. 

It took rescue crews about four hours on Friday to get an injured hunter out of the woods near Speedwell.
Of Abingdon, the man was flown to a Bristol hospital after first responders hand carried him and used an ATV to get him out of the forest.