Local News in the Blount Countian
While the national press screams for our attention, the news that actually affects our day-to-day lives is local. Blount County is fortunate to have a local paper produced by a local publisher and staff.
animal & shelter-related coverage 2024
Interested in writing about animal topics? A volunteer opportunity is available.
- Foster volunteers open their hearts and homes 09.11
- Dog confinement now required in Blount County 08.21
- ACO Jeff Kirkland praised at retirement 08.07
- Dog confinement law posed to County Commission 07.03
- Cat adoptions 50% off at shelter 07.03
- Pet a shelter cat for their health – and yours 06.12
- Shelter cats and kittens find happy homes 06.12
- Proactive spay benefits by Lesley Calvert 06.05
- Low-cost spay/neuter in Blount County 05.29
pine mountain-related coverage 2022–2024
- Bluegrass on the Mountain cover photo 06.2024
- Hog Mountain’s ‘poet laureate’ sings his stories 02.2023
- A century of learning and service 11.2022
- Bluegrass Christmas 11.2022
- Power line spraying ignites concern 10.2022
- Bluegrass Jamboree preview 08.2022
- New playground 08.2022
- PMCC raises $9K 07.2022
- Canning food, building community 07.2022
- Jubilee Blueberry Farm 06.2022
Other Pine Mountain-related coverage is not archived here because the works' copyright belongs to the respective authors. Subscribers can search the newspaper's website to read these articles:
- Andrew goes to The Gym by April McCay, 03.2023
- The Pine Mountain Star by Cheryl Helton, 12.2022
- Charles Head profile by Cheryl Helton, 10.2022
- New traditions by Aimee Wilson, 07.2022
what happened to coverage of pine mountain?
The June 2022 article about Pine Mountain’s Jubilee Blueberry Farm began an increased focus on our community in the Blount Countian. The plan was to report on PMCC meetings, the annual fundraiser, and other local events and stories of interest, with compensation for these articles to be donated from the newspaper to Pine Mountain Community Center, once the organization’s 501(c)(3) was approved. The Blount Countian was enthusiastic about increasing coverage of Pine Mountain and showed that support through prominent placements — see the photo below of two July 2022 front-page stories — and free listings of local events. Residents expressed their support as well and were enthusiastic about the increased coverage of Pine Mountain.
However, PMCC board members soon made clear that they did not want the community center’s meetings or actions to be covered: the board stopped announcing PMCC meeting dates and rewrote the organization’s founding documents in a way that drastically limits participation, blocking information rather than sharing with the community. For more information, see PMCC.
