The 17th annual Dusty Elam Foundation Benefit to serve underprivileged children will be held Saturday and tickets are still available.
Featured will be a $5,000 grand prize, food, fun, games and live music. The event will be held at The Elam Farm on Highway 53. Gates open at noon with live music beginning at 6 p.m. There will be inflatables and games for kids. You can purchase tickets at John Roberts Toyota or at Peoples Bank & Trust. Your ticket includes the raffle, your food the games and entertainment.
The escort for “Dusty’s Kids” will be held at approximately 9:50 a.m. on Friday and businesses and individuals are encouraged to line the route to support the kids on their way to a fun day at the Elam Farm.
Parade route is below:
H&R BLOCK STUDENT OF THE WEEK
Join us at Thunder Radio and Rosalyn Partin of the Manchester H&R Block and congratulate our student of the week – Jacob Barlow.
Jacob is a freshman at Coffee County Raider Academy. He is the son of MaryBeth Barlow and Roger Barlow. His favorite subject is social studies. After school, he would like to join the military. During his free time Jacob enjoys fishing and wrestling.
All students of the week are selected for their work ethic and excellent attitudes in and out of the classroom. Rosalyn Partin, owner of the Manchester H&R Block, has been inspired to recognize great kids in our community all year long. H&R Block gives each Student of the Week a gift card, a commemorative plaque, as well as a special letter of recognition. Job well done, Jacob
Andrew Taylor named CHS head boys basketball coach
Andrew Taylor has been named the head boys basketball coach at Coffee County Central High School.
“Coach Taylor has significant experience as both assistant and head men’s coach here at CCCHS,” Coffee County principal Paul Parsley said in a press release. “There is a mutual respect between coach Taylor and our student-athhletes, and his competence in coaching the game is recognized in our community and within basketball circles in the surrounding area. We are happy to entrust leadership in our men’s basketball program to coach Taylor as we move forward.”
It will be Taylor’s second stint as the basketball program head coach. He previously served as head basketball coach from 1998 through 2008, when he resigned. He has served as the head volleyball coach since 2008, building the Lady Raider volleyball team into a perennial power. He will remain as head volleyball coach. He has served as an assistant boys basketball coach the past 5 years with head coach Micah Williams, who resigned last month to take a head coaching job at Webb School.
Taylor is a graduate and former player at CHS.
Taylor will be a guest on The Coffee Coaches Show Saturday – which airs from 10-11 a.m. live at Al White Ford Lincoln.
Former Winchester Police Officer arrested on multiple charges
An investigation by special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has resulted in the indictment and arrest of a former Winchester police officer.
On October 2, 2020, 12th District Attorney General J. Michael Taylor requested the TBI to investigate Tristan Delacruz, who was at the time a Winchester police officer, on sexual assault allegations. During the course of the investigation, agents developed information that identified Delacruz as the individual responsible for multiple incidents of sexual assault during March 2020. He is no longer an employee of the Winchester Police Department
On May 3rd, the Franklin County Grand Jury returned indictments charging Tristan Xavier Delacruz (DOB 02/13/1993) with six counts of Rape, six counts of Sexual Battery, two counts of Domestic Assault, one count of False Imprisonment, two counts of Aggravated Kidnapping, and one count of Aggravated Assault. With the assistance of the Lincoln County and Franklin County Sheriffs’ Departments, Delacruz was arrested Tuesday in Lincoln County. He was transported to the Franklin County Jail, where he was booked on a $1,000,000 bond.
Previously, Delacruz was arrested twice in October of 2020 for domestic assault related charges. He was fired in October of 2020.
17-year cicadas emerging in Tennessee
By now you’ve heard the cicadas are coming. In fact, they are practically here. Entomologists predict the periodical cicada that are on a 17-year reproduction cycle will start emerging from the soil in mass within the next several days, and some early emergence has been documented in parts of Tennessee. What you may not have heard is that those young fruit trees you planted this year, or maybe in the last few years, are in danger if you have a large cicada population in your area.
After all the noisy mating, the female periodical cicada will select woody shoots on trees and cut slits in the bark in which she will lay her eggs. The cicada prefers woody growth from the previous year that has relatively thin, smooth and soft bark and which is about the same diameter as a pencil. “Even a single female cicada may cause a lot of injury,” says David Lockwood, a University of Tennessee Extension specialist who works with fruit and nut tree growers. “However, the high cicada populations that are expected to appear can magnify damage expectations immensely.”
Lockwood says injury from cicadas on mature trees, vines or bushes may result in death or breakage of shoot tips, which, while not pleasing to look at, may cause relatively little actual damage. However, the potential impact on young plants is much greater. “Entire branches that would grow into permanent scaffold limbs for fruit and bear a large portion of future crops may be severely injured by the damage to their bark, thus affecting their productive potential throughout the tree’s life. Preventing damage from occurring on young trees is much preferred over coping with damage after it has occurred.”
Frank Hale, UT Extension entomologist, adds that some insecticides can be used to protect plants, but physical exclusion of cicadas is more effective. “Covering the canopy of young plants with netting having a mesh size of a quarter inch or less and tying it around the trunk under the lowest limbs will provide a physical barrier to cicada egg laying,” he recommends. Note that the gauge for most bird netting is too large to prevent cicadas from entering the netting. Hale recommends mosquito netting, nylon tulle fabric or light-weight spun fabric such as tobacco shade cloth or floating row covers. The coverings can be safely removed when the male cicadas have stopped their loud calling and all the cicadas have died off — about six weeks after they emerge.
But wait! Netting alone is not enough to prevent damage to young trees. Lockwood says that unless a frame is used to suspend the netting so that it does not touch the plant canopy, some young limbs may be damaged where the net lays directly on small branches. “These areas should be pruned off once nets are removed as this could cause problems for the trees as they grow,” he says. “These branches should be removed during fall and winter dormant pruning and new shoots encouraged to grow and take their place. Even if just the terminal portion of a new scaffold limb is damaged, removing the entire branch and encouraging the growth of a new replacement shoot is preferable to heading a branch back to just below the damaged area as this could cause problems in developing a good scaffold limb.”
Lockwood adds that owners should remove and destroy damaged tips from branches within four to six weeks following egg laying. This will prevent nymphs hatched from eggs on the infested tree from entering the soil and feeding on tree roots.
Both experts say that over time the slits made by the egg-laying cicadas can serve as openings to a number of diseases and pests that can damage the tree or fruit. Secondary issues that may develop include woolly apple aphids on apple trees and lesser peach tree borers on stone fruit trees.
-Story provided by news partners WGNS Radio.
Tennessee House passes Firearm Information Protection act
The Tennessee House last week approved legislation designed to protect the privacy of citizens related to firearm ownership. Republican lawmakers say this bill is similar to the protections guaranteed by the Health Information Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), House Bill 1171, also known as the Firearm Information Privacy Protection Act (FIPPA), will protect Tennesseans who are exercising their right to own and purchase firearms.
This legislation will create a Class A misdemeanor for any public personnel that intentionally discloses information about an owner of a firearm for the purpose of compiling a federal firearms registry or confiscation of firearms. The bill will create a cause of action for a gun owner to pursue civil action against an individual that releases information about gun ownership to facilitate any federal government effort to confiscate or register firearms.
House Bill 1171 is expected to be heard for consideration in the Senate chamber this week. If passed there, it will go to Governor Bill Lee’s desk for his signature.
House Bill 37 prohibits local governments from classifying workers as essential or nonessential
Both chambers of the TN General Assembly passed legislation recognizing that every job in Tennessee is essential to the state’s economy. House Bill 37 protects Tennessee citizens and businesses from burdensome government restrictions.
House Bill 37 prohibits a local government body from classifying a category of workers as essential or nonessential, citing that Government should not be allowed to impose restrictions and inequities that threaten the livelihood of millions of Tennesseans. The bill states that all workers are essential and ensures government does not impede on any individual’s right to work or earn a living.
This legislation clarifies a local governmental entity may not create categories or classes of essential and nonessential businesses, trades, professions, or industries for the purpose of suspending lawful commerce, encumber trade, or denying citizens the right to work. The bill now heads to the governor’s desk for his signature.
Tuesday morning storms knock out power to over 4,000 DREMC customers
Storms that featured 60-plus mile per hour winds and hail swept through our listening area Tuesday during the morning commute, causing some damage.
According to Duck River Electric, more than 4,000 DREMC members were without power early in the day across the Coffee, Bedford, Maury and Marshall County areas.
One of the hardest hit areas in Coffee County was near Hickerson Rd., which was closed due to multiple down trees and power lines in the area.
Over 21% of Coffee County fully vaccinated for COVID- 19
Over 1 in 5 people in Coffee County have received full vaccination for COVID-19, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.
In total, there have been 28,145 doses of COVID-19 administered in Coffee County. Two doses of the vaccine have been administered to 21.49% of the Coffee County population – which is estimated over 50,000. Meanwhile, 28.56 percent of the population has received at least one dose.
For more information on receiving a vaccine, click here.
The General Assembly passes the Mercenary Rioter Act
The Tennessee House chamber last week approved the Mercenary Rioter Act which aims to ensure protests remain peaceful. House Bill 881 increases penalties for those who are paid to participate in riots and those who come from outside the state with intent to commit a criminal offense and riot.
This legislation makes it a Class E felony and increases the punishment for aggravated rioting to a mandatory minimum sentence of 45 days imprisonment for one offense or 60 days for two or more offenses.
Tennessee law defines a riot as three or more individuals inciting a violent disturbance that creates grave danger of substantial property damage, serious bodily injury, or obstruction of law enforcement or government functions. The bill passed in the Senate chamber in March. It now heads to the governor’s desk for his signature.
