In a story we first reported on October 9, the Coffee County Election Commission (Chairman Sandra Soesbe, Secretary Frances Powers and members Bill Bates, Emily Thoma along with Barbara Arp) voted in an apparent secret ballot to give the position to current Coffee County Government Purchasing Agent Andy Farrar the job of Election Administrator. Current administrator Vernita Davis is set to retire at the end of the year.
According to a letter obtained by WMSR News, the Coffee County Election Commission was informed the letter dated October 19, 2018 from Justin P Wilson, State Comptroller, the Tennessee Open Meetings Act provides that all votes of any governing body shall be by public vote or public ballot or public roll call. No secret votes, or secret ballots, or secret roll calls shall be allowed. Accordingly, any voting by ballot conducted by the election commission must be by public ballot whereby the ballot results are open to public inspection.
Now in a press release from the Coffee County Election Commission, they will meet on Monday, Oct. 29, 2018, at 4:00 PM in the Election Commission office in the Administrative Plaza at 1329 McArthur Street, Suite 6 in Manchester. The purpose of the meeting will be to appoint a new Administrator of Elections. Apparently, this will be done to re-vote for the Administrator position in a public meeting.

The Manchester Police Department is looking for a vehicle that may have been involved or in the area of a fatal crash that occurred around 5:30 am on Oct. 8th on Hwy 55 near Coffee County High School. The vehicle was allegedly pulling a utility trailer with no lights and was supposedly near the accident scene at the time of the 2-vehicle crash.
If you know anything that could help with this investigation, please contact Assistant Police Chief Adam Floied, Manchester Police Department at 931-728-2099.

Five people have been arrested in Grundy County for a series of weekend thefts in Tracy City and Altamont.
Grundy County Sheriff’s Office deputies took reports on two separate incidents in the White City area Friday morning after an ATV and trailer were taken from a home.
An air compressor was taken from another residence on Hwy 150.
During the investigation, deputies learned several more suspects were involved in a string of thefts including one in Altamont where several guns had been stolen.
Arrested were: 18 year old Robert Allan Ekins of Altamont, 23 year old Garrett Williams of Monteagle, 31 year old Johnny William Stephens, Jr. of Tracy City, 18 year old Dakota Morris of Pelham and 33 year old Amanda Brooke Nunley of Tracy City.
Grundy County Sheriff Shrum asks that if anyone has purchased any items from these individuals in the past several weeks please contact Sgt. Larry Sims at 931-692-3466 as they attempt to recover the property and return it to the rightful owners.

Derrick Taylor, formerly of Manchester, an avid outdoorsman, was killed in a single-ATV accident over the weekend near his family’s home in McNairy County, according to a release from the Jackson-Madison County School System. Taylor was a teacher at Rose Hill School.
He is survived by his wife and two children along with his father and step-mother Charles and Martha Corlew Taylor of Manchester.
See more information on our obituary page.