Category: News

An Alto man is dead, and a Winchester man is being held in the Franklin County Jail following a shooting in downtown Winchester. According to Winchester Police Chief Dennis Young, the shooting occurred around 9:30 p.m.
Wednesday Gregory Morris Booton, 49, of North Jefferson had a verbal altercation with John Franklin Tucker, 46, of Alto in the 200 block of North Jefferson street. After a few words were exchanged, Booton allegedly shot Tucker multiple times. Tucker was first transported to Southern Tennessee Medical Center and then transferred to Vanderbilt Medical Center where he died Thursday morning. Booton was taken into custody and transferred to the Franklin County Jail and charged with criminal homicide. He is being held on a $150,000 bond. Police returned to the crime scene Thursday morning drawing diagrams of the scene as well as taking pictures of the scene.

Representatives from Manchester and Tullahoma city boards, along with members of the county commission, have been invited to a joint meeting Wednesday from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Tullahoma City Hall. Tullahoma mayor Lane Curlee said that he thought that it is important to get the leaders together and start concentrating on our strengths. Curlee said Tullahoma depends on the county and Manchester for certain things, and the county and Manchester depend on Tullahoma for things they need. The mayor said that if the three governments work together instead of against each other, they can make the area more attractive for economic and community development.

City of Tullahoma and National HealthCare Corporation (NYSE MKT: NHC) are pleased to announce the official groundbreaking of the new facility. The event will be held Tuesday, October 23 at 2:00 pm at the Cedar Lane site.
The new skilled nursing and rehabilitation facility, which will be located on Cedar Lane, will have 90 beds and at full operation will directly employ over 100 employees. Projected capital investment of the project will be $10.75 million. Construction is expected to take approximately 12 months.
Jody Baltz, III, City Manager for Tullahoma said, “We have worked well with their staff and will continue to work with them to make sure the implementation and construction of this project continues to go smoothly. Our staff stands ready to assist any company who wants to locate in Tullahoma and create jobs. NHC is a welcome addition to our community.
In the event of inclement weather, the groundbreaking will meet at the Tullahoma Municipal Airport at 807 William Northern Blvd.

Have you ever dreamed of owning your own business? The City of Tullahoma, in partnership with the Tullahoma Chamber of Commerce and the Tullahoma Area Economic Development Corporation, will be sponsoring a Franchise Forum on Thursday, October 30th from 5 pm to 7 pm for anyone interested in owning a franchise. The event will be held at the Tullahoma Utilities Board, 901 South Jackson Avenue.
Several regional and national franchisors have been invited to speak about their franchises and the requirements and process to becoming a potential franchisee. In addition, the panel of speakers will also feature several local citizens who have owned and operated successful businesses as franchisees. Franchisors will include Firehouse Subs, Dunkin Donuts, McDonalds and others.
Area investors and representatives from local financial institutions have also been invited and will be available to meet with potential business owners.
Selecting a franchise can be confusing and difficult. “People can become overwhelmed when considering the start of a franchise business,” said Tullahoma Chamber of Commerce Executive Director, Diane Bryant. “This forum will help you understand why franchise ownership can be a great opportunity,” Bryant explained.
The free Franchise Forum will be held in the community meeting room at Tullahoma Utilities Board at 901 South Jackson Avenue. For more information, contact Winston Brooks, Community Coordinator (931) 455-2648.

The Great Smoky Mountains National Park entered the fall foliage season with nearly 9% more visitors, year to date.
Figures released by the National Park Service showed 963,317 people came to the park in September – a 9.2% increase over September 2011.
Through the first nine months of this year, visits were up 8.9%, meaning 602,000 more people have come to the Smokies this year than in the first three quarters of 2011.
Park officials say September is a transition month that usually sees a slight lull in visits between Labor Day and the start of the “leaf peeper” season late in the month.
The park covers 500,000 acres on the Tennessee-North Carolina border and is the most-visited of the national parks.

This week the Manchester Head Start program went on field trip to visit the Manchester Fire & Rescue. On Wednesday morning (Oct. 17, 2012) over 25 children made the trip to the department’s Main Fire Station on the Hillsboro Blvd to learn about fire safety, tour the facility and look at the fire engines. Firefighter Keith Henderson talked to the children about fire safety.

Investigators are continuing to wait on evidence from the state crime lab in the murder of 24-year-old Megan Sharpton. The burned body of the young Tullahoma nursing student was found July 2 on the side of Awalt Road in Franklin County. Her Ford Mustang was found later that day sitting the middle of Three Forks Bridge Road in Bedford County. Since then, investigators have interviewed a number of individuals and collected a several pieces of evidence involved with the case and have sent that evidence to the TBI Crime Lab in Nashville for analysis. Franklin County District attorney Mike Taylor has stated several times that he has received test results on some of the evidence but not all of the evidence and he is waiting for that testing to be completed. Meanwhile, the man whom Franklin County Sheriff Tim Fuller described as the “target” of the investigation, Donnie Jones, remains in the Coffee County Jail on charges of a felon being possession of a weapon. This after a search was conducted at his residence on Bel Aire Drive in Tullahoma by authorities.

District Attorney Mickey Layne of Coffee County and fellow Tennessee district attorneys have kicked off a statewide campaign to fight the rising rates of prescription medication and synthetic drug abuse among Tennessee’s youth. The campaign is called Deceptive Danger, because Tennessee’s youth is deceived into thinking that any substance prescribed by a doctor or purchased in a convenience store is safe. The campaign also follows an increase in prescription medication and synthetic drug abuse in Tennessee. The rise in prescription drug abuse prompted law enforcement to focus their attention on fraudulent prescriptions, the operations of pain management clinics or “pill mills,” and those dealing prescription medications illegally.

Democrat Eric Stewart’s campaign says their new poll shows the 4th Congressional District hopeful in a statistical “dead heat” with Republican U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais. Pollster Andrew Myers said the survey of 400 likely voters shows DesJarlais, a Jasper physician, leading State Sen. Stewart of Winchester by 49-45 percent. The pollster says that it’s now a “dead heat” because it falls within the poll’s 4.9 percent margin of error. The polling was conducted Sunday and Monday in the wake of revelations that DesJarlais in 2000 encouraged a former patient with whom he had had a sexual relationship to get an abortion.
In transcripts the pro-life congressman states that he wants the unnamed woman to get an ultrasound.

The Beechcraft Heritage Museum in Tullahoma plans to celebrate Beechcraft’s birthday as well as the 80th anniversary of the Staggerwing, 65th anniversary of the Bonanza, and 75th anniversary of the Beech 18 aircraft. This weekend Beech Party 2012 will commemorate these historical planes as well as other vintage aircraft from the “Golden Age of Flight.”