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04/22/19 — James “Jim” Horace Featherston

Funeral services for Mr. James “Jim” Horace Featherston, age 72, of Manchester will be conducted at 2:00 PM on Monday, April 22, 2019, at Coffee County Funeral Chapel with Bro. Pat Allison and Bro. Earl Cairns officiating. Burial will follow in Forest Mill Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 10:00 AM until the time of service at the funeral home. Mr. Featherston passed from this life surrounded by his loving family on Saturday, April 20, 2019, at his residence.

Jim was born in Manchester, TN to the late Lawrence and Amanda Featherston. He owned an air duct cleaning business, was a security officer, and worked as a reserve officer for Coffee County Sheriff’s Department. Jim was a very hard worker and dedicated business man. He also loved mowing his lawn, fishing and being outdoors, and visiting with his friends. He was a very loving husband, father, grandfather, and brother.

In addition to his parents, Jim is also preceded in death by one son, Jamie Featherston; one brother, Wayne Featherston. He is survived by his loving wife of 46 years, Jan Featherston; one son, Jeffery (Amanda Anderson) Featherston; one sister, Glenna Poff; two grandchildren, Kiely and David Featherston, and one grandchild on the way; multiple nieces and nephews.

Coffee County Funeral Chapel is honored to serve the Featherston family.

Statewide Helplines set up for Patients affected by Arrests of Doctors and Nurses

Tennessee is activating substance abuse resources and statewide call lines to help patients affected by the arrests of doctors and nurses in a crackdown on prescription opioid abuse.
Indictments were unsealed last week charging more than 30 medical professionals in Tennessee with illegally prescribing and distributing millions of painkillers.
A federal grand jury indicted Dr. Harrison Yang, 75, of Manchester, Tennessee, with healthcare fraud violations.
In a sperate case, Nurse Practitioner Jonathan White, 49, of Tullahoma, Tennessee, was indicted on three counts of healthcare fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud.
According to a news release, TennCare members receiving services from any of the affected clinics can find assistance coordinating care by reaching out to their assigned health plans.
For addiction treatment services, Tennessee’s REDLINE operates 24 hours a day at (800) 889-9789. The state also has a 24-hour-a-day crisis line for anyone experiencing a mental health crisis at (855) CRISIS-1 or (855) 274-7471.

State Road Improvement Plan Includes Coffee County Highway

The Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) is planning several major road improvements throughout the state.
On Thursday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Tennessee Department of Transportation Commissioner Clay Bright released TDOT’s annual three-year transportation program, featuring approximately $2.1 billion in infrastructure investments for 139 individual project phases. The program provides support for Gov. Lee’s first Executive Order by funding work on 86 highway and bridge projects in economically distressed and at-risk counties.
One project in Coffee County will be State Route-2 US-41 (Hillsboro Hwy.) From Joe Hickerson Road to AEDC right of way road.

State Unemployment Holds Steady in March

Tennessee’s statewide unemployment rate for March 2019 remains at the historic low of 3.2 percent according to the latest statistics released by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
March is the second consecutive month the state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate sits at the all-time low. When compared to March 2018, unemployment in Tennessee is down by 0.4 of a percentage point.
Tennessee reached its previous record low unemployment rate of 3.3 percent in October 2018, and it remained at that level for four consecutive months. The state began tracking unemployment rates in 1976.
Nationally, unemployment also remains unchanged. The March seasonally adjusted rate for the United States is once again 3.8 percent. That is a 0.2 of a percentage point lower than the rate in March 2018.
Total nonfarm employment across Tennessee is down 3,000 jobs when compared to February.
Tennessee did experience an increase in the mining/logging/construction sector in March which gained 1,500 jobs. The financial activities sector also added 800 jobs.
The trade/transportation/utilities sector had a loss of 2,600 positions for the month, while the manufacturing sector experienced a decrease of 1,200 jobs.
Over the last 12 months, Tennessee has seen an overall gain of 47,800 new nonfarm jobs across the state.

Big Payback’s Sixth Annual, 24-hour Online Giving Day is May 2

A record number of area nonprofits are busy preparing in a big way for The Big Payback’s sixth annual, 24-hour online giving day.
A total of 964 Middle Tennessee nonprofits — including schools and religious institutions — from 35 counties will be participating in The Big Payback, an initiative of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, on Thursday, May 2.
The record total includes 118 organizations representing 23 counties that will be participating in The Big Payback for the first time. Categories include human services, education, community improvement, arts and culture, youth development, animal welfare, health, housing and shelter, and the environment.
The Big Payback is a community-wide online giving day designed to give the public the opportunity to pay back the nonprofits that make this a place we are proud to call home. Starting at midnight on May 2, there are 24 hours to make donations to a wide swath of participating local nonprofits at TheBigPayback.org.
In its first five events, The Big Payback has helped organizations raise more than $12.5 million in donations as well as foster an impressive 24,716 first-time gifts, making possible awareness of and solutions to pressing needs in our community.
Last year’s event raised a record of more than $3.1 million in donations, from 22,071 total gifts.
“The Big Payback’s slogan is ‘Live Here. Give Here’ and provides an easy and fun way for our community to show our local pride and give back,” said Ellen Lehman, president of The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.
Participating nonprofits from Coffee County include:
— CASA Works, Inc.
— Citizens for Homeless Relief, Inc. / Shepherd’s House
— Coffee County Children’s Advocacy Center
— Coffee County Humane Society
— Coffee County Imagination Library
— Coffee County Senior Citizens, Inc.
— Hands-On Science Center, Inc.
— Haven of Hope
— Hospice of the Highland Rim Foundation, Inc.
— Manchester Municipal Arts Commission
— Millennium Repertory Company
— One Day of Hope of Coffee County
— Partners for Healing
— StepUpTN
— Tullahoma Fine Arts Center
— Tullahoma Community Foundation
— Tullahoma South Jackson Civic Association
— United Way of the Highland Rim
For more information, call 615-321-4939 or visit www.cfmt.org.

Preds Facing Elimination After Game 5 Loss to Stars

The Predators are down to their last chance.

Dallas defeated Nashville, 5-3, in Game 5 on Saturday afternoon at Bridgestone Arena to take a 3-2 lead in the Round One series.

The Preds got the first goal in Game 5, but Dallas scored five for the second-consecutive contest and have now won two-straight games after Nashville did the same in Games 2 and 3.

On Saturday, the Predators credited the Stars for playing well, but the errors the home team made on the day didn’t fall in their favor, either.

“I don’t care how you get fired up for these games, if it’s positive or angry or how you want to prepare, we’ve just got to be better, myself included,” Preds goaltender Pekka Rinne said. “It’s a huge game on Monday, obviously, with our backs against the wall and not the situation we wanted. But you’ve got to give some credit to Dallas, they’ve been playing well and right now I feel like they are taking advantage of our mistakes. It’s tough right now.”

“It seems like the mistakes that we made were obvious tonight, and once we made them they were in the back of our net,” Predators Head Coach Peter Laviolette said. “I don’t feel like it was a point where we were under siege, I just felt that when we made a mistake it was costly and it turned over quick, and it had a result to the end of it. Those are the ones we have to clean up.”

Nashville’s start was ideal as Rocco Grimaldi got the home team on the board just over six minutes into the contest with his team-leading third of the postseason. Dallas evened the score at 13:08 of the opening period with a strike from Jason Dickinson, and then Alexander Radulov scored twice in the first eight minutes of the second stanza to put Dallas up by two.

Ryan Johansen got one back with his first of the playoffs less than two minutes after Radulov’s second of the day, but Tyler Seguin made it a two-goal game once more before the second intermission arrived.

“We make it tough on ourselves,” Preds defenseman P.K. Subban said. “It’s the details that are killing us… We have to work for each other. Once we start doing that, we’ll tie the series up.”

Dickinson got his second of the game less than a minute into the third, and although Kyle Turris gave the Predators life when he threw a puck toward the net and saw it deflect into the cage, that was as close as Nashville came.

“The bottom line is we’re not playing good enough and we need to raise our level – everybody,” Rinne said. “Otherwise it’s going to be a short, short run. But you don’t want to have any regrets and right now we’ve got to prove it on the ice. We’ve been talking a lot and we’ve had enough time to prove it, so now it’s time.”

It’s a new season, and while the Predators aren’t about to make comparisons to previous teams that have been in situations such as this, the group certainly has experience when there’s no other choice but to win, and they’ll use that in any way they can.

“We’ve played a lot of playoff games, we’ve been put in these situations and positions before,” Laviolette said. “They’ve answered the bell, they’ll answer the bell in Game 6 and we’ll bring it back here. This group’s got to go and do it. I don’t think that we should be relying or hanging our hat, the experience I do believe is good for a team. We now have that experience, but we’ve got to go there and make sure we do the job as well.”

Next, the Predators must put forth their best effort of the series and win on Monday night if they want to extend their playoff run and force a seventh and deciding game – and that’s exactly what they plan on doing.

“It sounds like the series is already done with but it’s not, it’s far from that,” Rinne said. “We still have a lot of life left. Like I said, for us it’s a good situation. We know we haven’t done our best, we haven’t played our best, there’s a lot of room to improve.”

Notes:

After missing Games 2, 3 and 4 due to an appendix procedure, Preds forward Brian Boyle returned to the lineup on Saturday, registering four shots and two hits in 10 minutes of ice time.

In addition to Wayne Simmonds, who missed his third-consecutive game due to a lower-body injury, Nashville scratched Yannick Weber, Rem Pitlick, Miikka Salomaki, Zac Rinaldo, Matt Irwin, Cody McLeod, Frederick Gaudreau and Niclas Westerholm for Game 5.

Game 6 between the Preds and Stars comes Monday night in Dallas, time to be announced soon. If necessary, Nashville will host Game 7 on Wednesday night at Bridgestone Arena.

Nashville Drops Opener Against San Antonio

The Nashville Sounds lost their series opener 5-2 against the San Antonio Missions Saturday night. The Sounds are now 2-3 in the season series against the Missions.

With two outs in the top of the second inning, San Antonio struck first with a two-run homer to right field by Lucas Erceg to put the Missions up 2-0.

The Sounds threatened in the bottom of the fourth. Andy Ibanez drew a two-out walk that was followed by back-to-back hit-by-pitches on Chase d’Arnaud and Carlos Tocci to load the bases. Nashville couldn’t capitalize as Jett Bandy flew out to right field to end the inning.

The Missions scored another run in the top of the fifth after Erceg led off with a triple. He scored on a David Freitas sacrifice fly to put the score at 3-0.

Nashville plated their first runs in the bottom of the sixth. Willie Calhoun led off with a single and reached third base on a hit-and-run single by Matt Davidson. Ibanez knocked in Calhoun with a single of his own. After a fielder’s choice to put runners on the corners, d’Arnaud stole second base while Davidson stole home on the throw down to second. That cut the lead to 3-2.

San Antonio’s bats came alive in the top of the eighth with three hits. Mauricio Dibon and Keston Hiura hit singles. Both scored on a Tyrone Taylor double to extend the lead 5-2. That would be enough to hold off the Sounds and give the Missions the win.

A double-header is featured at First Tennessee Park on Easter Sunday to make up for Friday’s rainout. Nashville’s right-hander Ariel Jurado (2-0, 4.50) will face San Antonio’s right-hander Zach Brown (0-1, 4.08). First pitch is at 2:05 p.m. Game two will start approximately thirty minutes after the conclusion of game one.

Post-Game Notes

– With tonight’s 5-2 loss, the Sounds are now 4-11 on the season.

– Sounds’ starting pitcher Taylor Hearn worked through the 6th inning for the first time this season and recorded his first quality start, allowing three runs on two hits and three walks with six strikeouts.

– Matt Davidson’s steal of home was the second time Nashville achieved the feat this season. Carlos Tocci stole home back on April 5 against Iowa.

– San Antonio’s five hits are the fewest hits allowed by Nashville’s pitching staff this season.

– Kyle Bird made his first appearance for the Sounds after starting his season with the Texas Rangers.

The 2019 season is the 42nd in Nashville Sounds franchise history and first as the Triple-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers. Single-game tickets are available now by calling (615) 690-4487 or by visiting www.nashvillesounds.com.

Nashville SC Falls in Road Match at Charleston

Looking for its third-straight win in USL Championship play, Nashville SC couldn’t take advantage of a talent gap and Charleston Battery injuries to fall 3-1 to Battery on Saturday night at MUSC Health Stadium.

Nashville had all of the early chances until Charleston opened the scoring. Van Schaik took a ball across the box and one-touch volleyed it into the upper left hand corner of the net. Nashville keeper Matt Pickens had no chance to make the save. Again Nashville SC looked to score in the second half, but it was Charleston who struck again when Arthur Bosua took a through ball and slotted it into the net. Midway through the second Van Schaik struck again, putting in a free kick to give Charleston a 3-0 lead.

A late penalty for Nashville allowed it to get on the board as Daniel Ríos scored a PK for his fifth goal of the year.

Three Takeaways

Not Taking Advantage
In a game it looked on paper to have the advantage, Nashville couldn’t find the net in an offensively lackluster performance on the road. Using a similar lineup to its last two wins a 3-0 win at Ottawa and a 2-0 win at home against Memphis, Nashville saw flashbacks to its 2018 form in a loss to Charleston on the road. What worked the last two weeks didn’t work on Saturday night as Nashville lacked good service and good finishing.

Defense Missing
While the defense allowed few chances, Nashville couldn’t keep the few chances Charleston had out of the back of the net. Nashville allowed more than one goal for the first time this season. Charleston’s three goals were more than Nashville gave up through its five previous matches.

First Road Loss
Nashville had road woes at times throughout the 2018 season, and it looked like a more of the same in this loss in 2019. Despite a good start to the season, Nashville SC suffered a setback on Saturday night. It will need to turn it around quickly as the next two matches will also be on the road.

Up Next
Nashville SC will continue its roadtrip next Saturday night at Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 p.m. CT.

Friday Prep Results and Saturday Prep Schedule

Friday Prep Schedule

CCMS Boys’ Soccer at North Franklin – PPD, Makeup date is Monday April 22nd 

CHS Softball vs. Greenbrier at Lincoln Co Tournament – Cancelled

CHS Softball vs. Summertown at Lincoln Co Tournament – Cancelled

CHS Baseball at Warren Co – Cancelled

Saturday Prep Schedule

6:00 AM – CHS Bass Club in Region Championship at Percy Priest

9:00 AM – CHS Claybusters in SCTP Team Event at Big Springs

12:00 PM – CHS Softball vs. Summertown – Lincoln Co Tournament

3:00 PM – CHS Softball vs. Greenbrier – Lincoln Co Tournament

4:00 PM – CHS Baseball HOSTS Warren Co – Senior Day

6:00 PM – CHS Softball vs. Creek Wood – Lincoln Co Tournament

Community Meet & Greet Session Scheduled for Doug Greene

New Coffee County football coach Doug Greene talks to members of the Red Raider football team on Monday at CHS[Photo by Rebecca Koger]

The Coffee County Central High School athletic department invites the public to a “Meet and Greet” for new CHS head football coach Doug Greene.  The event will take place on Monday, April 29th at the Coffee County Board of Education office in the Coffee County Administrative Plaza.  The event will be held in the board room from 4:00 to 5:30 PM and the public is invited to attend.

Also, the Coffee County Central High School athletic department is hosting an Open House on Wednesday, April 24th at the CHS cafeteria.  Prospective student-athletes and their families are invited to come out and meet the coaches, get try-out information, visit the facilities and also get information about academic eligibility requirements and the NCAA Clearinghouse.  The Open House will be held from 5:30 to 7 PM and is open to the public.