Category: News

SUV involved in crash... By Barry West

Motorcycle damaged in wreck... Photo by Barry West

Monday morning at 8:00, a motorcycle was traveling south near Wal-Mart in Manchester when a small SUV from Illinois came across several lanes to attempt to turn into Relco Drive and struck the bike. The local man was taken to an area hospital via personal vehicle after being checked out by Coffee County EMS personnel. He was not seriously hurt, and the driver of the SUV was uninjured. Manchester Police Department worked the crash.

Mary Faye Morrow

The former finance director for the City of Winchester has been ordered to pay $226,953.31 in restitution for the theft of money from the city coffers while she was serving in that official capacity. Mary Faye Morrow, 63, of Huntland, is also sentenced to serve 8 years in prison and is required to serve 30% of that sentence before being eligible for parole. Morrow retired from her post with the City of Winchester last year and auditors started finding the missing money. The TBI investigated the missing money and indicted Morrow.

Thunder Radio and the Manchester Times will host the Manchester Municipal political forum July 12 at the Coffee County Central High School Auditorium.
Carefully planned to take place one day prior to early voting – the forum will focus on the Manchester city election, which will see the mayor’s seat and five of the six aldermanic seats up for grabs.
The debates will be held at separate times – with aldermanic candidates taking the stage from 6-7:30 p.m. and mayoral candidates taking the stage from 8-9:30 p.m. Both will be aired live on Thunder Radio – WMSR AM-1320 and FM-107.9. The Times will also be providing live Tweets throughout the event.
WMSR radio commentator Lucky Knott and Manchester Times Editor Josh Peterson will moderate both forums.
Four candidates have qualified for the mayor’s race, including incumbent Betty Superstein, and 14 have qualified for the aldermanic race, including all incumbents with the exception of Janet Nettles, who was recently appointed to fill Lonnie Norman’s seat and said she would not be running for re-election.
Moderators will ask all of the questions, but citizens wishing to submit questions for consideration may do so by filling out a form at the Manchester Times office – 300 N. Spring St., Manchester, TN.
Questions must be submitted in person with a name. Questions in poor taste will not be considered.
Call the Times at 931-728-7577 or Thunder Radio at 931-728-1320 with any questions about the forum.

All affected water customers; 1200 block thru 1800 block of Ragsdale Rd.
On Thursday 6-21-12 beginning at approximately 8:00 p.m., the Manchester Water and Sewer Department will be performing routine maintenance and hydrant repair. Residents in the vicinity of Ragsdale Rd., New Bushy Branch, Circle Ave. and Swing Away Dr. may experience reduced pressures and flows during the scheduled maintenance. They apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.
Should you have any questions, please contact the MWSD at 728-1273.

The Tennessee Department of Education is joining a new network focused on career preparation for high school students.
The Pathways to Prosperity Network is a multi-state, multi-year initiative promoting school partnerships with public and private sector leaders in Tennessee, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Missouri and North Carolina. The network aims to address unemployment among students without high school or college diplomas by combining academics with technical education needed in the labor market.
The network was created in collaboration with national education nonprofit Jobs for the Future and Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.
The new partnership builds on existing career preparation programs such as the Highlands of Tennessee in the upper Cumberland area and another one that works with Volkswagen in Chattanooga.

As awareness spreads about the abusive treatment of Tennessee Walking Horses in the top levels of show competition, The Humane Society of the United States is continuing its commitment to help bring violators to justice through the offering of a reward to crack down on abuse of these animals. The standing reward of up to $10,000 will be paid for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any violator of the Horse Protection Act or any state law which prohibits horse “soring,” the deliberate infliction of pain to force horses to perform an artificially high-stepping gait for the show ring.

Outside Animal Control in Manchester... By Barry West

Emotions were high during the Coffee County Health, Welfare and Recreation committee meeting on Monday (June 18, 2012) afternoon. The meeting was held to discuss the handling of a recent Coffee County Animal Control dog euthanization of Bryan Pennington’s dog, “Toby” .
Many people of the near 100 in attendance questioned Charlie Brown, the officer who euthanized the animal by gunshot last week. Brown said he did what he thought was best for the dog. Brown said he received a call from Coffee County Communications that a dog had been run over. He added he looked for the dog’s owner by going door to door. Brown said he believed the animal was suffering and that’s why he did what he did. The animal control officer was asked about the three day waiting period before an animal can be put down, and Brown said he felt this was an emergency. County Attorney Bob Huskey disagreed with this being an emergency under a county resolution. Brown said the dog’s breathing was very shallow after a sedative was given and reiterated that he did what he thought was best and told the Pennington family that he was very sorry for what had happened.
A lack of funding was brought up; 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 big question was money for training, which was $1,000 in the 2011-12 budget, and the same proposed in the upcoming budget. Committee Chairman Jackie Duncan said the county tries to give as much as they can to departments, but sometimes the money is just not there.
Bryan Pennington told the committee that he does not want to see Brown lose his job. His hope is that Coffee County Animal Control will reconsider the way they euthanize. Pennington requested that animal control officers sign a letter of understanding of policies set by the county.
Commissioner Barry West made a motion for the county to form a study committee to plan out new protocol for animal control to follow, and that was approved.
At the end of the meeting, Brown and Pennington shook hands and agreed to move forward.

Family fortunate after vehicle goes up in flames... Photo by Barry West

We have an update on the accident that occurred Sunday afternoon on Gowen Road.
8-year-old Parker Jones was riding in his mother’s Toyota SUV when the vehicle went off the roadway and hit a row of trees.
Parker’s mom, 35-year-old Amber Jones, got the SUV back onto the road, and her vehicle burst into flames. Jones was able to get out safely but her son was trapped.
The boy’s mother was attempting to get the child out of the burning vehicle. A Manchester man, who asked Thunder Radio to not give his name, was visiting a home on Gowen Road when the accident occurred.  He saw the flames and rushed over to save the boy from the burning car. WMSR News does have the name of the local hero, but we are choosing to honor the man’s wishes by not giving his name.
The child was transported by helicopter to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. Parker Jones suffered facial trauma, a leg injury, and third degree burns. He is being treated at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.
The investigation is closed ,and there will be no charges.

Two Tullahoma businesses were issued citations to appear in city court for selling beer to a minor. Investigator Sgt. Dale Stone issued the citations to The Sportsman Store on South Anderson Street and Southeast Discount Tobacco Company on North Jackson Street for selling beer to a 14-year-old female last week. Wilson Stahlhood of Murfreesboro (the clerk at The Sportman) and Mikhail Georges at the tobacco store were each cited to appear in city court July 10 to answer the charges. The actions of the two stores will be presented to the Tullahoma Beer Board for a determination of whether the beer permit holders should be required to appear before the city beer board.

A national study puts Grundy County at the bottom of Tennessee’s 95 counties when it comes to factors affecting health and life expectancy, including death rates, access to health care and healthy foods, economic and education factors, diet and smoking rates.
The study, released in April by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, analyzes factors within four categories — health behaviors, clinical care, social and economic factors and physical environment — each of which contain several measures.
Coffee County ranks 48th in the study. Bedford County is 61st, Moore County did very well ranking 9th, Franklin County was 27th, Warren County was 73rd, Cannon County 37th and Rutherford County was outstanding at number 2. Williamson was number 1 overall.