Category: News

A fundraiser is to be held to aid Coffee County youths who are under the care of the Department of Children Services, and it will involve a unique, but much-needed donated item — underwear. The Coffee County Community Advisory Board, which aids the department’s efforts, is sponsoring Project UNDERaWEARness to gather undergarments for youths who have been taken into care from broken or bad family environments for their personal safety. When children are taken they usually have only the clothes they are wearing. In addition to new packaged undergarments, including socks and diapers, bras are also needed. The event will take place from Aug. 6 through Aug. 31 with drop locations at Tullahoma’s Kmart, Walmart, Big Lots, the Housing Authority resident services office, 1201 Cedar Lane, and Wesley Heights United Methodist Church, 2101 E. Lincoln St.,  and at the Manchester Walmart

The murder of Tullahoma resident Meagan Sharpton received added publicity Monday night when HLN’s Nancy Grace aired an hour-long show featuring the murder. Rita Cosby interviewed several individuals involved in the investigation of the murder of the 24-year-old woman whose partially burned body was found on the side of Awalt Road in Franklin County and her car was later found sitting in the middle of Three Forks Bridge Road in Bedford County. Her purse was found in Rock Creek in Estill Springs area.

The summer break for most children is soon coming to an end.  Coffee County Schools will have an abbreviated day on Aug. 2 from 7:45 a.m. to 10 a.m. with the first full day of classes on Aug. 6. Manchester City Schools will have an abbreviated day on Aug. 2, from 8 a.m. to 9 a.m., with regular classes beginning on Aug. 6.  Classes at Tullahoma City Schools will be back in session Aug. 1. Franklin County’s back to the drawing board on Aug. 7. Moore County Schools will have an abbreviated day on Aug. 2 with the first full day on Aug. 6.

Grundy County Schools will have an abbreviated day on Aug. 3 with the first full day of classes on Aug. 7

The new school year is about to start up and for the seventh-annual Sales Tax Holiday, which runs Friday through Sunday, Aug. 3-5. There will be no state or local sales tax on clothing with a price of $100 or less per item, school and art supplies with a price of $100 or less per item, and computers with a price of $1,500 or less. The Tennessee commissioner of revenue says that state officials are hopeful that all shoppers will take advantage of the tax relief provided by the 2012 Sales Tax Holiday,” said Revenue Commissioner Richard H. Roberts.

State officials are warning about a scam in which perpetrators offer to arrange payments of consumers’ utility bills. The Tennessee Regulatory Authority says scammers ask for Social Security numbers or other personal information. The scammers, in exchange, provide phony bank account numbers and bank routing numbers they say would be used to pay bills online. Officials say the perpetrators tell people it’s a special federal program to pay such bills. The bogus information is being disseminated through social media, email, text messages and in-person solicitations.

TRA chairman Kenneth Hill described the scammers as “bad actors in the marketplace.”

State and Regional Library officials recently sent a warning to Coffee County officials after the Budget and Finance Committee proposed a less than 1.4 percent reduction to the county libraries’ budget. Coffee County Library Board Chairwoman Kathy Rose informed last week’s budget meeting and said that the library received notification from the Regional Director, Betty Jo Jarvis, that the 39,000 patrons of the library stand to lose a substantial number of services from the state and regional library if we try to cut our budget by even as little as $12,100. She asked the committee to put the money back.
She distributed a letter that stated that due to the Maintenance of Effort clause requiring local government to fund and expend amount equal to or greater than prior years, the county had to fund the libraries at the same level as last year. The county’s director of Budgets and Accounts, Marianna Edinger, said she found it hard to believe that such a huge number of services would be cut over a mere $12,100 reduction in the total library budget of $878,235. While no action was taken at the meeting, Edinger said she would research the matter prior to the upcoming meeting of the full commission at tomorrow night at 6 p.m. at the Coffee County Plaza.

Record-setting temperatures and widespread drought are spelling disaster for the 2012 corn crop in Tennessee, and officials say there’s little chance of enough rain the rest of the summer to even raise hopes for a rebound.

If the county budget approved by the Coffee County Budget and Finance Committee is approved by the full county commission next week, there will not be a tax increase in the coming year. The new budget calls for the ambulance service to have a separate funding in the budget. At the beginning of the budget hearings, the director of the ambulance service presented a list that showed the overtime for the ambulance service in the coming year will be just above $644,000. Director John Cathey stated that the ambulance service is considering charging $67 for special events. Representatives of the Coffee County Library were also present to protest the $12,100 decrease in their budget, stating that under the Maintenance of Effort agreement with the state, the county’s library patrons would lose a long list of services if the county government did not keep funding at the same level as the previous year.

Aerospace Testing Alliance put out a call this week seeking employees interested in voluntarily giving up their positions. The lead contractor at Arnold Air Force Base announced the request for a voluntary reduction in workforce. Applications were sent to employees on Thursday afternoon, and submissions from interested parties will be accepted starting on July 23. Although similar requests in the past have been targeted at specific departments or projects, ATA Public Affairs official say this time, the necessary paperwork will be provided to employees throughout the company. Interested workers will have until Aug. 10 to submit the forms and those approved for layoffs will work their last day on Aug. 24.