Category: News

Mayor Bill Ketron announced Monday afternoon that the Rutherford County Face Covering Order will be reinstated effective Wednesday, October 28, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. CDT.

“This is not a decision that I make lightly,” said Ketron. “Our cases in this county hit a record spike over the weekend, with the data indicating a higher transmission rate than that we experienced in late July.”

Local data shows that current cases are 2.8 times the level in early September, with the 7-day average positive rate also doubling since that time.

“These figures are too significant to overlook,” said Ketron. “Hospital officials are beginning to see the number of cases in-house similar to the height of the first wave. We have to act NOW!”

Governor Lee’s Executive Order 63 authorizing County Mayors to require face coverings within their jurisdictions expires on October 30 at 11:59 p.m.; however, Gov. Lee’s office has announced anticipation of the order being extended through the end of the calendar year. Therefore, the Rutherford County Face Covering Order will be in effect until further notice.

“We will continue to monitor our local data daily, assess trends, and consult experts to determine the duration of the order,” said Ketron. “We must do everything we possibly can to keep our schools and our businesses open and our hospitals functioning at normal capacity.”

Ketron reminds citizens that face coverings are not the only protective health measures that should be practiced regularly to slow the spread of COVID-19 in the community. “We need to be vigilant about washing our hands frequently, social distancing, cleaning and disinfecting high contact surfaces, and staying at home when sick. It takes all of these measures together to cut our risks of getting or spreading the virus.”

“While I understand that there are conflicting opinions on face coverings, there is overwhelming evidence supporting that masking, in combination with other preventative actions, is the key to slowing the spread.”.

Story by WGNS Radio

The Winchester Police Department is putting out a call to ask for the public’s help.

The department is investigating only what it is calling “an incident” and is asking for help identifying an individual. This person appears to be a white male with short hair and tattoos on his arms and wearing eye glasses (see photos below). Anyone with more information is asked to contact Detective Brin Wilder at 931-967-3840 or Crimestoppers at 931-962-4636.

Friday is the deadline for applications to be turned in for consideration to be appointed to fill Manchester’s vacant alderman seat.

With last week’s appointment of Marilyn Howard to Mayor of Manchester, the city is now needing to fill the alderman seat that was vacated by Howard.

Howard, who was elected alderman in 2018, was appointed Manchester Mayor Monday, Oct. 19 by a unanimous vote of the city board to take over for Lonnie Norman, who passed away Oct. 12. Howard will serve as mayor until the next regular city election, which is August of 2022.

The alderman seat vacated by Howard also expires in August of 2022, meaning whoever is appointed to this seat will serve until that date.

The seat will be filled by a majority vote of remaining members of the board of Mayor and Aldermen.

To be eligible for consideration for the open alderman seat, this person must be a registered voter of the city of Manchester, be a citizen of the State of Tennessee and a resident of the City of Manchester for one year and must be 18 years old. No person shall be eligible who has been convicted of malfeasance in office, bribery or other corrupt practice or crime.

Anyone meeting these requirements who would like to be considered should fill out an Alderman Appointment form. The deadline for a returned form is Friday, Oct. 30. You can pick up forms at the Manchester city hall at 200 W. Fort St. in Manchester. The form is also below:

The inaugural Halloween Bash in Manchester is set for Friday night at the old Southern Family Markets building at 2050 Hillsboro Blvd. in Manchester.

The event will be from 6-9 p.m. on Friday.

Everyone is welcome to the free event – trunk-or-treating, a “not so haunted” house, food trucks and more fun. There will be first, second and third place prizes for best decorated trunk and a prize for best costume.

Thunder Radio will be on hand to provide music. Everyone is welcome and the event is free to the public.

Open Enrollment for health insurance coverage in 2021 begins on Sunday, November 1, 2020!

That means now’s the time to comparison shop and gather more details about plans and coverage for next year.

What should you do? Carefully review plans when shopping on the exchange during Open Enrollment. Review a policy to ensure it provides the coverage for services you are seeking. While it may be tempting to enroll in a plan with the lowest premium, consumers should take into account other potential costs such as co-pays and deductibles.

Open Enrollment ends December 15, 2020. Questions? Contact the TDCI team at 1-800-342-4029 or 615-741-2218.

Enjoy the sunlight as much as you can this week.

Daylight savings time will end next weekend, as clocks will “fall back” at 2 a.m. on the morning of Sunday, Nov. 1
This means a little more sun in the morning, but dark will be setting in around 5-5:30 p.m. in the afternoon.

For those who dread the early darkness, daylight savings time begins again on Sunday, March 14, 2021.

A police officer who worked for the Winchester Police Department has lost his job after an arrest that happened in Manchester.

According to the Herald Chronicle, officer Tristan Delacruz was fired after he was arrested on Tuesday and charged with domestic assault. He made $2,000 bond and will appear in court Monday.

The unemployment rates in each of Tennessee’s 95 counties decreased in September, according to new data released by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Twenty-seven counties recorded unemployment rates below 5%, while 68 counties have a rate of 5% or higher. There are no counties with an unemployment rate higher than 10% in September.

Coffee County unemployment rate is 5.3% according to TDH. This is a drop of 1.9 from the 7.2% in August. As the economy recovers from COVID-19 pandemic, this number remains up from the previous year, when the rate was 3.3%

Once again, Moore County has the state’s lowest unemployment rate. Its September figure of 3.2% is 1.9 percentage points lower than the previous month’s rate.

Shelby County continues to have Tennessee’s highest unemployment. While its September rate is 9.9%, the new figure represents a drop of 3.7 percentage points from where it was in August.

The rate in Memphis dropped 4.2 percentage points to 12.1%. Nashville’s September rate is down 3.1 percentage points and sits at 7.5%. Knoxville saw a 2.4 percentage point drop in its rate which is now 5.8%. Unemployment in the Tri-Cities area stands at 5.3% for the month, down 1.9 percentage points from its revised August rate.

A complete analysis of the September 2020 unemployment data for each county and statistical area in Tennessee is available here (https://www.us13.list-manage.com/track/click?u=166478db53c066a7d114ea462&id=416a161ad5&e=29851e7b63) .
Statewide, unemployment dropped to its lowest level in September since hitting an all-time high in April during the peak of COVID-19 business closures. The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for the month is 6.3%, a decrease of 2.3 percentage points from the revised August rate of 8.6%.

Unemployment also decreased nationally in September. The seasonally adjusted rate for the United States is 7.9%, down 0.5 of a percentage point from August’s revised rate of 8.4%. Tennessee’s unemployment rate is now 1.6 percentage points lower than the national rate.

Businesses across Tennessee are ready to help the state’s economy rebound by reemploying out of work individuals. Jobs4TN.gov, Tennessee’s workforce development website, currently has 219,000 open positions for all job skill levels.

Jobs4TN.gov also offers online assistance with writing a resume that will catch the attention of employers, advice on how to engage and impress during job interviews, and details about potential job training opportunities.

There are more than 80 American Job Centers across Tennessee that are open for business and offering job seekers one-on-one personalized assistance. Career specialists are ready to work with individuals to devise a reemployment plan that will help them rejoin the state’s workforce.

All the assistance is free to anyone who needs help finding a new job or career path.