The Cleveland Daily Banner- The lights for the Cleveland Christmas tree will be turned on Friday night, an event that has taken place for many years
The Cleveland Daily Banner- The lights for the Cleveland Christmas tree will be turned on Friday night, an event that has taken place for many years due to the efforts of former Postmaster Bob Easterly nearly 50 years ago. The tree was planted as a seedling in 1966 around what is now the Bradley County Courthouse Annex. At the time, it was more known as the Cleveland Post Office, and was where Easterly worked daily. The Norway spruce was part of that local project, but did not become the town’s Christmas tree until the Cleveland Downtown Alliance. That organization eventually became MainStreet Cleveland, which is now involved in the lighting of the tree each Christmas. This year’s Christmas tree lighting is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 4. Both Cleveland Mayor Tom?Rowland and Bradley County Mayor D. Gary Davis will be joining Santa Claus at the event, and the First Baptist Church choir will be singing Christmas carols at the entrance to the annex building prior to the lighting event. The Times Free Press- The YMCA that has served Rhea County for more than three decades will close at the end of this month. The announcement comes nine years after the Rhea County Y transitioned from being independently owned to merging with the YMCA of Metropolitan Chattanooga, said Rick Madison, chief operating officer at the Chattanooga YMCA. The Rhea Y lost more than $400,000 in the past nine years, Madison said. And despite efforts to increase interest to make it sustainable, Y membership stalled at 351 members. But YMCA board members haven’t given up hope for making fitness services available to the county’s 32,000 residents. Board members met with Dayton city officials for more than an hourThursday and emerged with the possibility of reopening the facility on Jan. 2. The Chattanoogan reports- Senate Education Committee Chairman Dolores Gresham (R-Somerville) and Senate Government Operations Committee Chairman Mike Bell (R-Riceville) Thursday called for the resignation of University of Tennessee Knoxville Chancellor Jimmy Cheek. The lawmakers made the call after learning about UTK’s Office of Diversity and Inclusion’s new guidance to staff on holiday parties, saying they have no confidence in his ability to lead the state’s flagship university. “The Office of Diversity is not welcoming to all and hostile to none as they claim,” said Senator Gresham. “They are very hostile to students and other Tennesseans with Christian and conservative values. By placing a virtual religious test regarding holiday events at this campus, every student who is a Christian is penalized.” Senators Gresham and Bell criticized the Office of Diversity and Inclusion in August for a post on the university’s website asking students and faculty to toss out “he” and “she” when addressing students for gender-neutral pronouns like ”ze” and “zir”. They also expressed disapproval over the university’s “Sex Week” which includes such events as drag shows, lectures given by a porn actress, an aphrodisiac cooking class and condom scavenger hunts. Senators Gresham and Bell objected to student activity fees being used to help fund such events. “This is offensive to the vast majority of Tennesseans who help fund this university through their tax dollars,” added Senator Bell. “We have lost confidence in Chancellor Cheek’s ability to lead the state’s flagship university.”
