People who had a way with words in Chattanooga area news last week:
“It just needs to be a little bit better, and we’re getting there.”
— Chattanooga Mayor Tim Kelly talking about the Chattanooga Airport.
“I don’t know if that stays that way forever or what. We might all be in flying cars by then.”
— Cleveland, Tennessee, commuter John Thomas, 55, on when the merge lane design funneling traffic from the Interstate 75/Interstate 24 split into three lanes on I-75 at East Brainerd Road might be updated.
“I think what happens is that sometimes a case has a lot of victims, and sometimes some of the victims get prosecuted. And in this particular case, John Hoover made a lot of people victims, including Jacqueline Hoover.”
— Defense attorney Dan Ripper on the sentencing hearing for the Hixson stepmother who pleaded guilty to aggravated neglect of a vulnerable adult.
“Maybe his friends could hire him a lawyer, too,”
— General Sessions Court Judge Lila Statom when she questioned whether Chattanooga tow company operator Benjamin Duvall qualified for a public defender.
“We are not represented well. We’re there four or five hours before county business comes up sometimes, the county is pushed to the side.”
— Kim Helton on support of a resolution to split the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Regional Planning Commission into two boards, one for the city and one for the county.
“We started this business really for our kids. We wanted something for them to like, grow up in and for them to see us serving people and learn how to serve people.”
— Josh Pratt, owner of Brothers Bagel, on why he started the business.
“There’s no names attached to it or anything. There’s no person that’s accountable. There’s no individual you could speak to. It’s kind of sketchy to me.”
— Josh Epperson, Volkswagen employee and member of UAW bargaining committee, on a petition circulating to decertify the union.
“I was a court clerk there for 20 years and saw the deterioration of it, but to see it restored was one of the highlights of my life.”
— Sarah Moore about the historic Dade County Courthouse, which is hosting the county’s inaugural Christmas at the Courthouse event this December.
“You know when you’re already sick, you don’t want to be stuck at the ridge cut for 30 minutes. You want to get in, get out to get back home to rest.”
— Steve Henry, chair of the Catoosa County Board of Commissioners, on the new hospital opening in Ringgold.
“To the people I’ve harmed, I’m sorry.”
— Final statement by Harold Wayne Nichols, who was put to death by the state of Tennessee for the 1988 rape and murder of Karen Pulley, 20, of Chattanooga.
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