Do you love the Kingsport Farmers Market? Would you like to put your creativity to use and show that love to everyone? We want to see your poster designing skills!

The Kingsport Farmers Market is hosting a contest to find the perfect design for its 2019 season poster. This poster will help promote the market not just as a place to find the freshest local produce, but as somewhere that allows people to connect with neighbors, support the economic viability of local farms and work to preserve farmland for generations to come. That’s a lot of power to pack in one poster, but we believe in you.

We’re looking for posters that depict a combination of engaging graphics, informative messaging (who, what, when, where) and market identity. If you win, you’ll receive some Kingsport Farmers Market swag, your name and design featured in the Kingsport Times-News and—best of all—your design will be our official poster for our 2019 season!

You have until Tuesday, April 30 at 5 p.m. to send us a design that meets the following requirements:

• Includes the Kingsport Farmers Market logo
• Includes our location, hours, and web address
  • 308 Clinchfield Street, Kingsport, TN
  • Wednesdays & Saturdays, 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., April – November
  • kingsportfarmersmarket.org
• High-resolution (300 dpi) PNG/JPG format and PDF format

For a digital copy of the Kingsport Farmers Market logo, contact hannahpurdy@kingsporttn.gov. All posters must be submitted through email no later than 5 p.m. on Tuesday, April 30 to hannahpurdy@kingsporttn.gov.

What better way to listen to music than in the great outdoors? Bays Mountain Park welcomes Monroeville for a concert at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 20.

Visit the Bays Mountain Park Amphitheater to see this unique band play a full-length concert. While Monroeville’s style is based in bluegrass, the band’s expert musicianship lets them experiment with other genres to keep their sound fresh. They’re not afraid to improvise while playing live, which makes each concert experience with Monroeville an exciting one.

Monroeville is led by Grammy Award-winning producer and engineer Matt Munsey and features multi-instrumentalists and vocalists from diverse backgrounds. Monroeville has been active for eight years, and won 2012 Momentum Band of the Year from the International Bluegrass Music Association.

Their most recent album, 2016’s “Worlds Apart,” is available to stream on Spotify.

Tickets are $5 and available now online at eventbrite.com by searching “Monroeville.” You can also visit Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium’s Facebook page to easily find the ticket link. A maximum of 300 tickets will be sold.

To learn more about Monroeville, visit monroevilleband.com. For more information on Bays Mountain Park & Planetarium, please visit baysmountain.com or call (423)229-9447.

City Manager Jeff Fleming has appointed Sid Cox as Kingsport’s new City Recorder and Chief Financial Officer.

“I’ve served in this capacity before for my hometown of Elizabethton, so I know the territory and I feel comfortable with it,” Cox said. “This is a great opportunity for me to step up, and step into what I think will be a very professionally rewarding position. I’m really looking forward to working closer with the city administrative team and the Board of Mayor and Aldermen to continue the success and progress made by the City of Kingsport.”

Cox has worked for the city since starting as a senior accountant in 2010. He’s also served as an accounting supervisor, and most recently was the business manager for the Community Services Department. But his life as a public servant goes back much further than that. After graduating from ETSU in 1988 with a degree in accounting, Cox worked for Sullivan County, where he climbed the ladder before eventually serving as Elizabethton’s Director of Finance.

Though he’s had forays into the private sector, Cox was always drawn back to local government.

“I began my career with local government“, he said. I think that there’s a lot of opportunity and satisfaction with helping people in public service.”

The role of City Recorder/CFO is to head the Finance Department, which oversees the security and management of the city’s financial assets, as well as the collection of most revenues. Cox will be over the accounting, customer service and records management divisions that make up the department. Kingsport’s Finance Department has won the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting for 18 years in a row. With a seasoned city employee at the helm, the department hopes to continue its trend of excellence.

When he’s not at work, Cox likes to spend time with his wife of 33 years, Cindy, and his two grown daughters, Chelsie and Courtney. They have dinner together most Sundays. Cox is also a huge fan of college football—particularly the team at his alma mater, ETSU.

He says he’s very excited about this next step in his career, both for him and his family.

“Professionally and personally, it’s a great opportunity and great timing for me,” Cox said. “I’m really looking forward to serving the citizens of Kingsport in a different role.”

America’s Navy is coming to Kingsport, Tennessee, one of 25 cities in ten states to host a performance by the United States Navy Band during its 2019 tour — one of the signature outreach programs of the U.S. Navy.

The U.S. Navy Concert Band performance is scheduled for March 18, 2019, at 7 p.m. at the Eastman Employee Center’s Toy F. Reid Auditorium.

The Navy Concert Band, the premier wind ensemble of the U.S. Navy, presents a wide array of marches, patriotic selections, orchestral transcriptions and modern wind ensemble repertoire. As the original ensemble of the Navy Band, the Concert Band has been performing public concerts and participating in high-profile events for more than 90 years.

One of the U.S. Navy Band’s primary responsibilities involves touring the country. All of the band’s primary performing units embark each year on concert tours throughout specified regions of the country, allowing the band to reach out to audiences in areas of the country that do not have opportunities to see the Navy’s premier musical ensembles on a regular basis. The concerts are family-friendly events, meant to be entertaining to veterans, families, individuals and those interested in joining the Navy.

All Navy Band performances are free and open to the public though all attendees must have a ticket. Free tickets are available at the Eastman Employee Center and the Dobyns-Bennett Band Building.