The most memorable quotes in the Chattanooga Times Free Press for July 27-Aug. 1:
"The auditor walked out of our building after that first meeting and told his assistant that in two years the building would be vacant and we would be out of business."
- TSSAA Executive Director Bernard Childress on the state of the organization five years ago, when its finances were on the brink of collapse after a ruinously expensive lawsuit
"It's like a great masterpiece that's been lost."
- Ronda Bruckno, of Mentone, Ala., on the impact to the community from the destruction by fire of the 130-year-old Mentone Springs Hotel five months ago
"We've got to die sooner or later. If it causes me to lose my life, I'm going to speak the truth."
- Jesse Lawrence, former East Lake Courts Resident Association president, urging neighbors to report crimes to the police rather than stay silent
"Your large penal institutions have indeed become the mental health hospitals of the United States. And what you see at our jail is a microcosm of what's going on outside. We have anywhere from 30 to 40 percent of inmates with mental illness."
- G.A. Bennett, director of support services with the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office, at a forum on jails and mental health
"It's interesting that everyone is up in arms over all the shootings and killings with weapons, but we've had twice as many people killed in car crashes and things of that nature. So I think we need some priority placed on traffic enforcement."
- Danna Vaughn, new assistant police chief over special operations at the Chattanooga Police Department