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Moving is a stressful experience. Add pets to the equation and it gets exponentially more difficult. There are some things that you can do to help make the move easier on you and you pets, it just requires planning before it’s time to make the move. If you’re moving to Knoxville here are some tips for moving with pets.

The first thing you should do is make sure the place you are moving to is pet friendly and find out whether or not they require pet rent. Some places only require a deposit, while others require a deposit, monthly payments, and they have breed specific laws. These are all important things to pay attention to when it comes time to pick a place for you and your furry friend to settle down.

Moving with dogs is usually easier than moving with cats. Cats are not fans of change, and they are especially territorial. One way to make the move easier for cats is to bring boxes into the house a few weeks or months before it’s time to leave. This way the cat can get used to change and not freak out.

When it’s time to start packing and get ready to leave, leave your pet in a familiar room that you plan on packing up last. This will keep them out of the way and limit their exposure to all of the commotion.

On the day of the move, send your pet to a friend’s house so that they are not in the way of the movers. Moving day means open doors and strange people, so keeping your pet around will most likely lead to unnecessary stress.

In a time when conspiracy theories run rampant through the U.S., one might be skeptical to believe everything they hear about the government. The idea of the government coming in and taking over a part of your town, building up a city, and running a completely secret operation right under your nose is seen as crazy, and most people frown upon those who believe this is happening. However for the people of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, this was a reality for a great number of years.

In 1942, the federal government decided to move to Oak Ridge, Tennessee and make it the hub until 1946. In these short four years, the government came in, used eminent domain to take peoples’ land, and built up an entire city; including: schools, homes, movie theaters, and anything you could imagine. The Manhattan Project had begun. Hordes of military families moved to Oak Ridge, bringing the population from just 3,000 to 75,000. While these families were working in top secret conditions, they had no idea what they were really doing. It wasn’t until news of the first atomic bomb that was dropped on Japan in August of 1945, that the people of Oak Ridge knew what they had been working on.

It’s incredible to think that an entire town can be built, side-by-side with the most dangerous weapon in the world, just a few miles away from the major U.S. city of Knoxville, without any outsider’s knowledge. If you are looking to move to Knoxville, but want to live in a quainter, outer-lying town, Oak Ridge movers are happy to help move you in to our historical city.

Earlier in the year, there was a cow named Dudley that narrowly escaped death. He was set to be slaughtered, but an issue with his foot spared his life, and The Gentle Barn swooped in and rescued him.

The Gentle Barn is an organization that rescues animals, along with working with children that have special needs. Through rescuing animals that are suffering and helping children with disabilities, both find a safe haven in The Gentle Barn.

The main location of The Gentle Barn is in Santa Clarita, California. When the owners heard Dudley’s story, they had to intervene. A young calf who lost his foot at his factory farming home, was the perfect candidate for The Gentle Barn mascot. Things were about to get a whole lot better for Dudley.

Dudley was from a factory farm in Tennessee, which is quite far from The Gentle Barn in California. The owners did everything they could and now they are opening another Gentle Barn location in Knoxville. Not only was Dudley’s life saved, he now has a safe home where he is out of harm’s way, he also got a prosthetic leg.

It is the dream of The Gentle Barn owners to open locations across the country, and to spread their healing for all animals in need. Now, not only do they have a second location for their organization, but Dudley the cow gets to live a happy, healthy life helping kids. If you are moving to Knoxville, you too can get in on the action and help save animals, while interacting with special needs children, by joining The Gentle Barn’s initiative.

Recently we have seen a push for greener practices when it comes to the food that we eat. More people are shopping at farmer’s markets, people are eating organic, gmo free foods, and people want to know where their food came from. This national trend for eating green has moved to Knoxville, where urban gardens are picking up steam within the local community.

Knoxville leaders and Knoxville movers have been pushing for a way to incorporate urban gardens into the city. These gardens would be community gardens that everyone in the community would take care of and everybody would be able to take from them. It is a way to not only bring people together, but also to create a greener environment in the concrete jungle that is Knoxville.

Schools all over the country have recently started teaching their students how to grow gardens, whether through a garden at the school, or a local garden that they take field trips to. This green initiative is teaching kids how things work and showing them that food doesn’t just come from the grocery store, you can grow it and take care of it on your own.

The proposal for green gardens in Knoxville has passed through the Metropolitan Planning Commission and could be voted on in June. This green initiative would catch on to a movement that has been brewing nationwide.

Storms that have been scouring the city of Knoxville have left behind huge amounts of damage in recent days.

The most affected was Madisonville, as building official Tony Wilson states that, “it’s very unsafe right now.”

Some of the damage included several trees being uprooted – not only were power lines knocked down, but one tree ended up smashing a shed into pieces, one tree destroyed a fence on its way down, and one tree even fell just a few feet from one Knoxville resident’s home. One resident recalls seeing the canopy of a convenience store totally collapse to the ground, while a major billboard unfortunately had a huge chunk ripped off of it.

According to Wilson, he avoided some of the damage because, “my car wasn’t being thrown from side to side so it’s amazing the wind must have just caught this just right.” A crew member out on the job to help clean up some of the damage, Jean Kirkland, recalls his thoughts while the storm was going on. He remembers thinking “boy, I can’t believe that the whole big roof that wind had to be so powerful that it just picked that up.”

One home in Knoxville was unfortunately not as lucky as some of the other homes that evaded damage – on Westwood Lane a tree was completely uprooted and crashed right through the roof of a house. While everyone in the home at the time of the incident is safe, they will have to use local Knoxville movers when packing and moving whatever belongings they can salvage, while they stay at a temporary location while waiting for their home to be repaired.

A new business venture geared towards putting a smile on peoples’ faces has just been put into action by Pastor Sean Alsobrooks at KnowLife church. He already owns Remedy Coffee, but now he has set his sights on opening up a donut shop by late summer.

According to Alsobrooks, “donuts make people happy.” While there is no arguing with him there, he further wins over our hearts by expressing that “it’s hard to eat a donut with a frown on your face. There’s something about the smell and taste that takes us to that delightful place. Put simply, donuts make people happy.”

The Pastor first added the business owner title to his name when he initially opened up Remedy Coffee back in 2009. While many people had their doubts about whether or not the coffee shop would succeed, he has happily proven them wrong six years later, with a crowd that keeps coming back to his coffee shop. Now that he has successfully seen one establishment take off, his next goal is to do the same thing with a different kind of shop.

This time, Alsobrooks plans on packing and moving his business talents to a new neighborhood in downtown Knoxville. According to him, “it’s just a short walk from downtown Knoxville [and] there hasn’t been any new retail businesses started in this neighborhood in decades. It’s filled with amazing, historic buildings and it’s our greatest pleasure to help bring back to this beautiful yet often overlooked part of our city.”

One Knoxville Girl Scout just raised the bar regarding Girl Scout cookie sales; she announced that she sold 2,600 boxes. Needless to say, the Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachia Sweet-Sellerbration Gala is honoring Tigerlily Collier and numerous other girl scouts for their accomplishments.

In total, about 350 girls are expected to attend the gala, where they will be exchanging their uniforms.

Heather Hatmaker, director of revenue for the Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachians, laments that, “each Girl Scout works incredibly hard during the Cookie Program to learn important life skills, and each one deserves to be celebrated. The Sweet-Sellerbration is a special honor for the girls who prove that entrepreneurship is really a huge part of Girl Scouting. We’re just so proud of them!”

On average, Girl Scouts who have been invited to the Gala in order to receive recognition for their dedication and to honor their achievements, have sold about 221 boxes. While selling 221 boxes is no small feat – the 2,600 boxes that Tigerlily sold has her troop going through the roof. In total, out of all of the boxes sold from each girl going to the gala, almost one million dollars was earned. All of the money will be going to Troop Treasuries – an amount that the organization is beyond grateful for.

What’s more, the troops not only received the proceeds from the cookies sold by the Girl Scouts of the Southern Appalachians, but they also were the recipients of over 16,000 boxes of cookies.

If you are moving to Knoxville and have young girls, have them consider joining Girl Scouts, a popular group for young girls in the Knoxville community.

Lawrence Tunnell, former acting city judge for Knoxville, has reason to feel extremely relieved – the city just dropped all assault charges that he received this past November.

The incident involved the former 94-year-old judge; however, now the victim involved in the incident has disappeared. Despite currently not being able to be located, he had already contested that he did not wish to continue on with the prosecution. This was made clear when prosecutor Victoria Walsh gave a statement stating that Smallwood did not wish to proceed further. This is a life-changing announcement for Tunnell, considering he would be facing charges of aggravated assault.

Apparently, the alleged victim, Charles Smallwood, was struck with Tunnell’s car and was knocked to the ground. The incident began because Tunnell had fallen, and Smallwood, along with a couple other by standing witnesses, helped him up and tried to make him stay until the ambulance came to help him. Unfortunately, Tunnell tried to leave anyways, despite the crowd’s attempt to help him. When he began to drive away, Smallwood attempted to stand in front of his car so that he could not go anywhere – which immediately backfired when Tunnell proceeded to hit him with his car.

A surprising incident for the 94-year-old former judge. Luckily he will not have to worry about packing and moving to a new town due to a momentary lapse of judgement.

In a particularly severe storm earlier this week, parts of the Laurel Falls Trail in the Great Smoky Mountains, just outside of Knoxville, experienced a significant amount of damage. The damage was great enough to have to temporarily close the trail until the damage had been remedied.

As of yet, no current date to reopen the park is set in place, as it is contingent upon a full assessment of the state of the trail and the overall severity of the damage. Most of the damage was caused by an exorbitant amount of rain, ice and snow storms.

According to Trails Program Manager Tobias Miller, “our trail crews are experienced with these kinds of washouts and will work to make the necessary repairs so that the Laurel Falls Trail, one of our most popular in the park, can be safely reopened for hikers.”

The 1.3 mile long trail already has steep grades and drop-offs and is roughly paved, so the extra damage makes the trail more dangerous for hikers and families than usual. A long-time favorite of park-goers, the trail leads to one of the most popular attraction of the entire national park – the waterfall.

The attraction is so popular, that the park has already had to re pave the path leading up to the falls, so as to preserve the integrity of the path. The closing of the trail has many visitors complaining that they will not get to experience the full park experience.

This past Wednesday, Superintendent Jim McIntyre presented a proposal for the 2015-16 budget for the fiscal year, leaving many with additional questions.

In the proposal, the superintendent suggested increasing the school’s overall budget from $424.9 million to $440.7 million – a 3.7 percent increase. The main focus of the increased education budget? Increasing teachers’ pay by 4%.

Currently, the average pay for a Knoxville teacher is $45,998 and while teachers earn their bonuses throughout the school year, they don’t receive the full amount until fall – explaining why the bonuses are incorporated into the following year’s budget. In total, it would cost about $10 million to make the proposed increase happen, with the state contributing about $4.3 million.

Throughout the budget meeting, board members went back and forth on why giving teachers raises and bonuses would benefit the overall community.

According to board member Amber Rountree, “I support a raise for our teachers, but what I’ve heard continually…is I think teachers would rather see across the board versus merit pay.”

School board member Karen Carson also showed her support for increasing teacher pay, by stating that, “we can decide to do this bonus one more year with the understanding that it ends this year, so about half the teachers will get a one-time bonus or we can apply the 4 percent raise across the board that we’re trying to do.”

However, the proposed budget increase for education comes at the cost of getting rid of APEX, the district’s strategic compensation program. This caused a couple of board members to raise questions of concern – largely because many of the teachers had been working with the understanding that bonus dollars would be available throughout the course of their work.