Peaceful Side Brands, Benton’s team up for new Townsend cafe
Peaceful Side Brands is preparing to open Sharons’ Half Day Cafe, a new fast-casual breakfast and lunch restaurant in Townsend focused on Appalachian ingredients and local partnerships. The business is a partnership with Benton’s Bacon and Country Hams. The approximately 80-seat restaurant is expected to open Aug. 5 at 7955 E. Lamar Alexander Parkway. It […]
20,000-square-foot Ferguson Waterworks facility headed to Regal Drive
The Alcoa Regional/Municipal Planning Commission unanimously approved the company’s site plan July 16. The development will be located on Regal Drive and include an approximately 20,000-square-foot wholesale warehouse, an ancillary plumbing showroom and a fenced outdoor storage yard. Plans also show 56 parking spaces for employees and customers. Ferguson Waterworks is a national supplier to […]
National leadership conference returns to East Tennessee for second year
East Tennessee-based executive coach Paul Boyles is hosting a second annual installment of Live2Lead, a national leadership simulcast, on Friday, Oct. 30, at the Hilton Knoxville Airport in Alcoa. Live2Lead is an annual one-day event created by Maxwell Leadership, the organization founded by author and speaker John C. Maxwell. Recorded keynote sessions are broadcast to […]
Banking on the Mission: Tennessee Military Federal Credit Union Turns 70
The legend goes that it started from the trunk of a car. In 1956, McGhee Tyson was still an active-duty Air Force base, Blount County was largely rural, and the airmen stationed there had few options when money ran short. So a handful of them did what servicemembers have always done — they improvised. They […]
Tennessee Business Filings Hit Record High as Blount County Growth Keeps Pace
Tennessee set an all-time record for new business filings in the first quarter of 2026, and Blount County’s own filing activity shows the same growth taking hold locally. New business filings in the first quarter of 2026 were the highest for a first quarter in the 33-year history of the data, according to the new […]
The Growth Dilemma: What the Numbers Say About Blount County’s Population Future
The narrative has become as familiar as the gridlock on Alcoa Highway: those Californians are taking over Blount County. It plays well in political ads. It fills Facebook comment sections. It packs city council meetings with residents who describe their community as being overcrowded by outsiders. But a closer look at the data — drawn […]