Recently, while researching for a different story, I came across an old story from 2008. It was a story to explaine what the ten foot wooden, copper topped obelisks were on Broadway in Lenoir City. They were suppose to be like boundary markers for the historic area of down town Lenoir City. I think there were four or five of them all together.

They were erected under the former mayor Matt Brookshire's administration. The cost at the time for the things was $14,365.00. But not to worry though, they were paid for with that magic money we've talked about in the past. You know, that free money, grant money.

Well, fourteen thousand dollars and five years later, they're all gone. Apparently, they began to rot away shortly after being erected so they were torn down a while back.

This is just another example of government waste and incompetence. But what's new?

City officials report that the ten foot wooden, copper topped obelisks mark the entry points of what is considered the old down town section. There are two at Hill Street and Broadway and two at "B" Street and Broadway, one in the yard of the Lenoir City Museum and one at LCUB. The silhouette on the lower base is not Abraham Lincoln as some have suggested but that of William Ballard Lenoir, the city's namesake.

The low bid for the new features was $14,365.00. Your tax dollars at work. I guess Mayor Brookshire needed to top Doyle Arp's columns.