Just after 5:00PM Sunday afternoon, a Coffee County woman was driving a Toyota SUV and her 6-year-old son was a passenger. The two were traveling west on Gowen Road in the New Union area.
The SUV was near the Gowen Road Bridge when the driver went off the right side of the road and struck several trees. The Toyota then careened back onto the road and burst into flames.

The driver was able to get out, but the young boy was trapped. A bystander forced the passenger door open and rescued the child.

The child was flown to Vanderbilt with deep cuts, broken bones, and a possible head injury. The driver was unhurt and not transported. The Coffee County Sheriff’s department and EMS worked the crash scene.
More details when they become available.

Animal rights activists from Coffee and surrounding counties were in Manchester on Friday to protest. The group first protested in the lane that leads into the Coffee County Animal Control building, and then moved to the Coffee County Administrative Plaza.
Vera Lund, a Manchester resident, told WMSR Radio that she did NOT blame the animal control officer that shot and killed Bryan Pennington’s dog, Toby, on Monday. She says the problem is not enough funding and needed policy changes. Lund added that animal control officers should be better trained and facilities needed upgrading.
Funding to animal control in Coffee County for 2011-2012 was $97,916, and they are asking for $102,067 in the upcoming budget.
The story began when Bryan Pennington said his black 16-year-old Labrador retriever, “Toby,” was picked up by Coffee County Animal Control Monday afternoon and was apparently shot in the head by a control officer.
Pennington told us that his dog had arthritis in his legs and was blind in one eye.
The animal control officer, Charlie Brown, who shot and killed the dog, has said in media reports that he thought the dog had been hit by a car, and did what he thought was best for the dog. Brown says he feels sorry for the family.
Pennington told WMSR News that he does not want to see Brown lose his job. His hope is that the Coffee County Animal Control will reconsider the way they euthanize animals by not shooting them.
A meeting of the Health and Welfare committee has been called for today (Monday June, 18 2012) at the Coffee County Administrative Plaza. The Animal Control department reports to Health and Welfare.
Coffee County Mayor David Pennington has stated he will remove himself from any decisions to avoid any conflicts of interest. Bryan Pennington is Mayor Pennington’s son.

A Manchester man is being held in the Coffee County jail on a bond of $115,000 after leading deputies on a chase around the Coffee County Justice Center Friday morning(June 15). Cody Ledbetter, of Commodore Drive in Manchester, is charged with initiation of the process intended to result in manufacture of methamphetamines, possession of drug paraphernalia, evading arrest and violation of probation. According to a report by Deputy Sgt. James Sherrill, Ledbetter was seen in the lobby of the jail leaving a phone card for an inmate in the jail. When Sherrill told he him he was under arrest for violation of probation, Ledbetter took off running from the jail. Sherrill and several others gave pursuit for three blocks before losing him. While the deputy was searching his car he found components for producing meth. Later Friday morning, Sgt. Sherrill received information that Ledbetter was at a residence on South Franklin Street in Tullahoma.
Sherrill along with deputies took Ledbetter into custody and placed him in the Coffee County Jail.

A Tullahoma woman is being held in the Coffee County Jail under a $10,000 bond after being arrested on meth charges.
Amanda Faye Gifford, 25, of West Grundy Street is charged with initiation of the process intended to result in the manufacture of methamphetamines and shoplifting.
Gifford was arrested by Tullahoma Police Officer Christopher Coe Thursday after she allegedly was seen in Kroger attempting to leave without paying for a pack of lithium batteries.
When the officer talked with Gifford, she told him that she was taking the batteries for a male who intended to use the items in the manufacture of methamphetamines.
She was booked into the Coffee County Jail on the charges and is to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court July 12.

A Hillsboro woman faces several theft and burglary charges in connection with the theft of items from a vehicle at Old Stone Fort Park.
Brittney Nicole Cargile, 18, of Andy Lane Hillsboro, was arrested last week on charges of three counts of burglary and three counts of theft of property. She is held under a bond of $25,000.
According to warrants, Cargile and a male juvenile entered three vehicles parked in the parking lot of the museum at Old Stone Fort State Park and took iPods, wallets, cash clothing, suitcases, GPS systems, knives, a wedding ring, an external hard drive, and a book of CDs.
She is to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court August 29.

An eighteen wheeler crashed Saturday morning (June 16) before six o’clock with no injuries. As that crash was being cleaned up, another crash occurred.
At approximately 1:30 pm on I-24 east bound at mile marker 116 a 2002 Nissan Frontier, driven by Christie Bowman, 40, of Ooltewah, TN, and her female passenger suffered non-life threatening injuries and were flown to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga. It appears the vehicle ran off the right side of the road and hit a wrecker that was on the shoulder due to the earlier incident. The Nissan spun back onto the interstate and a tractor trailer rear-ended the vehicle and pushed it into the median. The driver of the tractor trailer was not injured.
The interstate was shut down for about 50 minutes.
During clean-up of accident number 2, wreck number 3 occurred near the 111 mile marker when a single vehicle ran off the road and hit the guardrail and damaged the car heavily. The driver suffered minor injuries only.

Emergency crews were called out on Sunday morning (June 17) for an accident on the Woodbury Hwy near the Timberloft Restaurant. The driver of the 4×4 truck refused transport to the hospital. The truck was severely damaged.

State regulators have taken possession of the Farmers Bank of Lynchburg, Tenn., and appointed the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. as its receiver.
The Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions announced the action late Friday afternoon, citing the bank’s “impaired capital, unsound condition and inability to continue normal operations.”
Deposit accounts of the bank have been transferred to Clayton Bank and Trust of Knoxville and will be available immediately. Clayton Bank and Trust is the owner of American City Bank, with branches in Tullahoma and Manchester.
Depositors will be able to access their accounts at the former main office and branch locations of the Lynchburg bank during regular business hours.
Regulators said ATMs can still be used, checks written and debit transactions made.
The FDIC has established a toll-free phone number to answer questions from depositors, creditors and other interested parties regarding the receivership of The Farmers Bank of Lynchburg.
An important thing to remember is that customers of Farmers Bank are now subject to the guidelines of the new bank, including interest rates on loans and deposits.
The toll-free number is 1-800-774-8035.

Sales tax collections in May were up in Manchester and Tullahoma and down slightly in the county. In Tullahoma, May collections in 2011 were $742,056, last month Tullahoma collected $822,189, increasing $80,132. The county tax collection went down by $1,197 compared to May 2011. The City of Manchester saw another month with sales tax collections going up, this time $27,827 over May of 2011 with just over $631,000 collected. Overall county collections were $1.6(M) for May 2012.