The Newport Plain Talk

Cocke County Mayor Iliff McMahan, left, gave state Rep. Eddie Yokley a look at county archives in the basement of the Annex Building. McMahan noted the tremendous amount of work performed by chief archivist Wilda "Bill" Parrott and assistant archivist Chris Hoaglan, right. Although flood waters earlier this decade swamped the building's basement, McMahan said, "They (Parrott and Hoaglan) have done all the painting and tapestry work. It's really neat." Yokley presented the archivists a check for $1,000 to be used for the purchase of a microfilm reader. Regarding the donation, Hoaglan said, "Thank you, I didn't expect it."

State Rep. Eddie Yokley presented the Cocke County Library Board with a $1,000 check for the Cosby Library Tuesday afternoon at the Annex Building. As of Tuesday, Yokley has made the last community grant money donation for the year, having made wise use of the $100,000 allotted to him for the program. Yokley said that instead of donating one large lump sum to an organization, he prefers for the grants to be, "Spread around, so as to touch more people. It creates more good will." The Rev. Alvin Watts, right, is the outgoing Chairman of the Cocke County Library and is pictured with Yokley, center incoming library chairman Rick Carr, left.