News - Friday, March 20, 2020

Every day, the picture is the same in Chattanooga’s law firms and courthouses: Attorneys and clients shake hands and sit in closed offices or conference rooms to discuss the matters that have brought them together, parties locked in litigation gather in courtrooms to wrestle for a resolution and district attorneys and public defenders stand before judges to argue their cases.

The view from attorney Rick Hitchcock’s office on the 16th floor of Liberty Tower affords him an expansive view of downtown Chattanooga. From his standing desk, he can see a large swath of the city he has called home for nearly all of his 66 years.

Sheena Corbett of Synovus offers her remarks after being installed as the 2020 president of the Chattanooga Mortgage Bankers Association during the organization’s 2019 awards and installation dinner March 6 at The Westin.

The event celebrated a year during which local lenders closed more than 5,500 units for over $1 billion  in loan production.

As we progressed through February, the actual and expected impacts of COVID-19 continued to grow, with concerns of economic impact reaching the stock market in the last week of the month.

As the stock market dropped, so did mortgage rates, offering a bad news-good news situation for those looking to buy a home and perhaps refinance. While short term declines in the stock market can sting, borrowers who lock in today’s low rates look to benefit significantly in the long term.

More than ever, homeowners reaching (or beyond) retirement age are calling the Chattanooga area home. One important part of enjoying your golden years is living comfortably in your own home.

If you plan to live in your current home, aging-in-place modifications and smart home technology can increase your comfort and safety.

Crye-Leike Real Estate Services has named Erik Palmer sales manager of its East Brainerd office. Palmer will be partially responsible for recruiting, training and managing the office’s sales associates.

Palmer moved to Northwest Georgia in 2002. He has been affiliated with Crye-Leike for three years and has over 20 years of experience in leadership and development.

Associated General Contractors of East Tennessee honored four award recipients for outstanding contributions to the construction industry and ushered in new board leadership at its recent annual meeting.

Award recipients included:

Adman Electric for Excellence in Innovation in offering new client efficiencies through pre-fabrication processes

David Crockett, aka Davy: Great Tennessean or greatest Tennessean? Hold your fire, Andrew Jackson fans. I’ll explain later.

First: Efforts to place a statue of Crockett on the prime spot of the Capitol grounds are making progress in the Tennessee legislature. The House bill that would do so, sponsored by Rep. David Hawk, is paired with a Senate bill by Sen. Steve Southerland.

How you deal with COVID-19 depends primarily on how sick you are. Listen to your body talk, as the song goes.

If you’re only mildly ill, you can probably treat yourself at home with over-the-counter medications while drinking fluids and getting plenty of rest.

Strict parsing of the law – what it requires, what it permits – may not serve businesses or their employees well as they navigate huge uncertainties as the coronavirus pandemic unfolds. That’s one takeaway from employment lawyers evaluating the situation.

McKee Foods is planning a major investment in its Collegedale operations, including a large expansion to its Apison Plant, located in the 10800 block of Apison Pike.

Over a 15-year period, McKee Foods has agreed to invest more than $500 million in capital projects, including an expansion of the Apison Plant that will include new production lines, and additional investment in its other Collegedale facilities.

The afternoon I went to see “The Hunt,” AMC Theaters and Regal Cinemas announced they were cutting their seating capacity in half to give viewers plenty of elbow room as they watch movies.

I appreciated the gesture, but I don’t think I was in danger of catching the coronavirus from a fellow viewer while watching the new black comedy action thriller. That’s because there were only six other people there, and two left during the showing.

It’s important to have cash available for your everyday spending and the inevitable rainy day. However, you also need to develop a cash strategy that can contribute to your long-term financial success. But just how much cash do you need? And in what form? 

TDOT Commissioner Clay Bright joined federal, state and local officials last week to break ground on the SR-317 (Apison Pike) improvement project in Collegedale.

Work is slated to begin soon on the 3.4-mile project to widen and improve the Apison Pike corridor from SR321 (Ooltewah-Ringgold Road) to east of Layton Lane near Collegedale Municipal Airport.

The Chattanooga State Humanities Department’s Writers@Work program will welcome author Daniel Wallace to Chattanooga for a weeklong celebration of his novel “Big Fish” April 6-10.

The Writers@Work series celebrates Southern literature by integrating the work of selected authors into the curriculum of the department’s Composition Two course.