News
Second Harvest and local churches are prepared to assist families and individuals
November 26, 2025 by Tammy Cheek
Food Insecurity, Part 1 of 3
As the holidays approach, Second Harvest Food Bank of East Tennessee and the food pantries it serves already are seeing a surge in people seeking assistance.
With this influx, they have to prepare to serve more families and individuals.
“Our numbers have picked up about double from what we’ve been getting,” said Joan Cambeses, who is in charge of Grassy Valley Baptist Church’s food pantry. “We’ve been averaging about 160. Today, we had 187, and it’s a lot of new people.
“These are huge families,” she said. “They have to fill out a form and list how many people in a household, and it was averaging like one to two, three, sometimes four. Now, we’re looking at eight, sometimes nine, 10 people in their homes.
“There’re a lot of teenagers and younger children on these lists,” Cambeses said. “Some of it is grandparents taking care of their grandchildren.
“We’ve had a lady from Lenoir City came over here. Some from Knoxville and Alcoa,” she said. “They have been looking for food pantries, and one they went to was out of food, and they couldn’t find any others open.
“All food pantries run differently,” Cambeses said. “Some run once a week, like us. Some are open once a month. Some are by-weekly. And, there are certain hours.
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November 26, 2025 by Tammy Cheek
Plans will begin for a new access into Sugarwood subdivision.
During a Farragut Board of Mayor and Aldermen meeting Thursday, Nov. 13, the Board voted unanimously to approve a professional services agreement with Barge Design Solutions Inc. to design a preliminary engineering plan for another access into Sugarwood Subdivision onto Kingston Pike.
The access road would be from Sugarwood Drive to the traffic signal at Smith Road and Kingston Pike.
With Knox County building the new elementary School at Village Commons Boulevard, which is 400 feet east of Sugarwood Drive, Town staff and the Board already discussed their anticipation that Sugarwood residents would have more difficulty entering and leaving the subdivision.
“Eastbound traffic on Kingston Pike currently backs up during peak hours to points west of Sugarwood Drive, making access to Kingston Pike extremely difficult from Sugarwood Drive,” Town engineer Darryl Smith said. “Construction of the new school at Village Commons Boulevard will add further congestion near Smith Road during peak hours.
“An access road from Sugarwood Drive to the CVS Pharmacy would allow Sugarwood residents to access Kingston Pike at the Smith Road traffic signal,” he added.
“Back in September, we brought a proposal from Barge Design Solutions for approval, and you requested we hold off for a little bit and meet with the stakeholders,” Smith reminded the Board.
“Alderman (Drew) Burnette was very nice to lead that discussion,” Smith said. “I think it turned out well. We had quite a bit of good input from residents.
“Also, staff met with the leaders of St. Elizabeth Episcopal Church to talk about one of the alternate (accesses) we were considering,” he said. “They were not very enthusiastic about the alternate going through the (church’s) parking lot.
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November 26, 2025 by Tammy Cheek
Veterans and other residents can learn more about how the attack on Pearl Harbor came about when Farragut historian Frank Galbraith presents Day of Infamy, 7 p.m., Monday, Dec. 1, along with a veterans’ reception, in Farragut Town Hall Board Room.
“He will be talking about the incidents that occurred up to the attack on Pearl Harbor,” Town administrator David Smoak said of Galbraith.
“This is the 20th year in a roll, I think, we’ve done this,” said Galbraith, a former history teacher. He estimated about 75 people attended last year’s program.
“There’s not too many people left to do it,” he said. “I’m going to give (the presentation) possibly the last year.
“I’m 84 years old, and nobody else does this. I want people to remember what we went through.
“It’s just so important,” the historian added. He related the 1905 quote from philosopher George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
“So, I want folks to know,” Galbraith said. “And, you’d be surprised how our younger generations are not aware of these things.
“But, we can go through whatever we have to go through as long as we remain true to the principles of this great country we live in,” he added.
Galbraith also wanted to relate “how we held on together (during those times of war), we came through it and then we ended up winning the war again.
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November 26, 2025 by Staff reports
Town of Farragut got the holiday season started with its annual Countdown to Light the Park, which took place Monday, Nov. 24, in Founders Park at Campbell Station.
This year, Santa helped flip the switch at 6:45 p.m. on the Town’s massive light display.
The event drew thousands of people into the park, where there was live entertainment, such as Meredith Laing Jazz Trio, Sprectra Twirlers and Chattanooga singer Andrew Witherspoon.
Additionally, children could make crafts; enjoy cookies and milk, complements of Tennova Healthcare; and visit a station where they could write letters to Santa.
To receive a reply from Santa, children are asked to drop letters into Santa’s mailbox by Wednesday, Dec. 17, and include a return address.
Light the Park continues every evening starting at dusk from Tuesday, Nov. 25, through Thursday, Jan. 1. There will be entertainment and giveaways from local vendors, as well as food trucks at Founders Park many evenings through Tuesday, Dec. 23. A calendar of scheduled activities can be found under Farragut News at townoffarragut.org.
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November 26, 2025 by Tammy Cheek
Two Farragut neighborhoods are looking for relief from speeders on their roads.
Union Road and Midhurst Drive residents who applied for speed cushions on their roads got their wish. Farragut Municipal Planning Commission unanimously approved both requests during its meeting Thursday, Nov. 20.
The Union Road request involves the installation of two sets of speed cushions on Union Road, according to assistant Town engineer Eric Schindler.
“On Aug. 29, 2024, the Town of Farragut received a completed Traffic Calming Application from the residents of the speed zone on Union Road — the portion of Union Road between Smith Road and Everett Roa — requesting consideration of traffic calming in the form of speed cushions,” Schindler said. “A speed study was conducted and determined that excessive speeding is present in the speed zone.”
He explained speeding is defined by having an 85th percentile speed greater than 10 mph over the posted speed limit.
“A public meeting was held Aug. 6 to gauge support and obtain resident feedback,” Schindler said. “The support from the residents in attendance was overwhelmingly positive.
“The Traffic Calming Policy requires that greater than 50 percent of the returned ballots from the speed zone be in favor of traffic calming devices,” he said. Sixteen ballots were mailed out and a total of seven votes were received, with six — 86 percent — of those votesbeing in favor of traffic calming devices.
“Two locations on Union Road were selected for the installation of speed cushions,” Schindler said. “The proposed speed cushions are comprised of injection molded composite material, are approximately 78 inches wide by 80 inches long and approximately 3 inches tall at the highest point.
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November 26, 2025 by Tammy Cheek
The Farragut community has an opportunity to honor veterans during the Christmas season by placing wreaths on veterans’ graves as part of Wreaths Across America.
Pleasant Forest Cemetery, located along Concord Road, will kick off efforts in Farragut with a ceremony 10 a.m., Saturday, Dec. 13, at Union Cumberland Presbyterian Church. Shortly after the ceremony, volunteers will place wreaths on more than 275 veterans’ graves at Pleasant Forest, Grigsby Chapel, Union Cumberland Presbyterian and Virtue Church cemeteries.
There also will be a noon ceremony at the main veteran cemeteries in Knoxville.
“We have ordered wreaths for all the veterans, said David Stinton, president of the Pleasant Forest Cemetery Board.
“The cost is $17 per wreath, and we have received donations for about 225 of the wreaths.
“We are looking for donors to buy another 50 wreaths,” he said. Donations made using the cemetery’s QR code go toward wreaths for the Farragut Cemeteries.
“Pleasant Forest has been putting flags on all the Veteran’s graves since way before I started volunteering at Pleasant Forest in 2008,” Stinton said.
“We have developed a process to recruit volunteers to help us put out the flags, so it wasn’t too hard and it didn’t take too long to put out the flags,” he said. “Since we had the process of putting out flags, it was not hard to do flags in May and Christmas wreaths in December.
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November 26, 2025 by
• On Nov. 12 at 2:45 p.m. complainant called the KCSO Teleserve Unit to report a motor vehicle theft from a Kingston Pike business. Complainant stated the suspect rented a truck with false information. Complainant reported she contacted the suspect and told her to bring the vehicle back and fill out the rental form with the correct information. Complainant advised the suspect returned without the vehicle to fill out the rental form. Complainant stated the suspect refused to pay a previous balance and return the vehicle. Complainant stated she advised the suspect she is reporting the vehicle as stolen.
• On Nov. 12 at 4:25 p.m. the complainant went to the KCSO Records Window to report debit card fraud from Red Canyon Road. The complainant reported he checked his bank statement on Nov. 8 and discovered fraudulent payments from Nov. 3 amounting to $165.90. The complainant stated three of the payments went to purchase crypto and the other two were international charges. The complainant advised the suspect had used his card number, which was a bank card. The complainant was unaware of whether the payments were made online or not, and exactly where they went. The complainant spoke with a bank employee who advised he contact his local agency to file a report.
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