Category: News

Coffee County Schools confirmed to Thunder Radio news Friday that the school system has experienced its first confirmed COVID-19 case in an employee since the work calendar began for the 2020-2021 school year.

Director of Schools Dr. Charles Lawson said the school district is working with school personnel and the health department to identify and quarantine anyone who may be classified as a close contact to that person.

“The district has worked closely with our COVID liaison in order to establish a protocol for these situations and this path of notification is moving forward,” explained Lawson. “The district is implementing additional disinfection measures in the affected work areas. At this time, there is no reason to believe that this will affect the scheduled start to the school year.”

Coffee County Schools have an abbreviated day of school on Monday, Aug. 3, with the first full day on Wednesday, Aug. 5.

If anything does change with school schedules, Thunder Radio will inform the public.  

Lynchburg Music Fest, which is heading into its second year in existence, still intends to take place Oct. 2-4 in Moore County.

The festival began announcing performers recently, including country music star Josh Turner and Kip Moore.
Also confirmed to perform will be Manchester’s own Sarah Pearson, who recently released her second single: “Saddle up.”

(Pictured below are Josh Turner and Sarah Pearson)

Monday is an abbreviated day of school in the area, with Manchester and Coffee County School systems each beginning the 2020-2021 school year. Each system will return for a full day on Wednesday.

With schools returning to session for the first time since mid-March, local law enforcement officials want to remind drivers to be mindful of school zones, students who may be walking and stopped school buses.

1:35 p.m., July 31: Thunder Radio News has learned that Coffee County now has two COVID-19 related deaths. These are the first reported deaths related to COVID-19 virus in Coffee County since the pandemic began earlier this spring.

This information has not been released by the Tennessee Department of Health as of 1:30 p.m. Friday. However, Thunder Radio News was able to independently confirm this information with two officials privy to the data, but not authorized to speak to the media.

As of 2 p.m. Thursday, there were 188 active cases of COVID-19 in Coffee County, according to TDH. Friday’s numbers will be released at 2 p.m…

Update, 2:05 p.m., July 31: Tennessee Department of Health has confirmed two COVID-19 related deaths in Coffee County. 

As of 2 p.m. Friday afternoon, there are now 198 active cases of the virus in Coffee County.  There have been 370 positive cases since testing began in March. The population of Coffee County is approximately 57,000.  There have been 8,095 negative tests. 

Coffee County Schools and Manchester City Schools released a joint statement Thursday that explains what a hybrid school schedule will look like in the case that active COVID-19 cases are to reach .5 percent of Coffee County’s population.

As part of the re-entry plan to school, each system agreed that they will offer regular school schedule if the COVID-19 active cases remain below 0.5 percent of the active population of Coffee County. If the count reaches 0.5 percent through 1.0 percent, there will be a hybrid plan in place. If  the active count surpasses 1.0 percent, schools will not offer in-building learning. 

As long as active cases remain below about 0.5 percent (or about 285 cases), schools will be in session with an online learning option for students who choose. But if numbers reach .5 percent of the county’s estimated population, the school’s will make changes. There are 188 active cases of the virus in Coffee County as of 2 p.m. Thursday, July 30.

According to Manchester Schools and Coffee County Schools, on a hybrid schedule, students will be divided into two groups – Group A and Group B. The districts are working together to ensure that family groups attend schools on the same day to minimize disruption to families. A student’s presence in Group A or Group B will be communicated on the first full day of school, Aug. 5.

If there is a hybrid schedule, Group A will attend school on Mondays and Wednesdays, Group B will attend on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Fridays will be determined by each school district if a hybrid schedule is initiated.
The most vulnerable learners will be eligible to attend more days. These students include all students in prek through second grade, students with disabilities and English language learners.

There are now 188 total active cases of COVID-19 in Coffee County as of 2 p.m. Thursday, July 30. These numbers are according to the Tennessee Department of Health. This is 16 more than the previous day.

Meanwhile, across the state of Tennessee active cases actually declined slightly as of Thursday’s count. There are about 69 fewer active cases than the previous day.

There are approximately 36,498 active cases in Tennessee. There have been 996 confirmed deaths since March, and 4,572 hospitalizations in Tennessee.

According to data released by the Tennessee Department of Labor & Workforce, there were 19,461 new claims for unemployment filed in Tennessee for the week ending July 25. This was down over 6,000 from the prior week. There have now been 759,584 total claims for unemployment filed in Tennessee since COVID-19 pandemic began in March.

Meanwhile, continued claims fell for the 11^th consecutive week, but only slightly. There were 242,397 continued claims for unemployment, down only 1,000 from the previous week.

In Coffee County, there were 167 total initial claims filed last week, and 1,762 continued claims.

FACTS ABOUT HONEY BEES

–Planting nectar-bearing flowers for decorative purposes on balconies, terraces, and gardens draws honey bees.

–Honey bees are super-important pollinators for flowers, fruits and vegetables. Bees transfer pollen between the male and female parts, allowing plants to grow seeds and fruit.

–Honey bees live in mostly in hives. The members of the hive are divided into three types. The queen runs the entire hive. Her job is to lay the eggs that will spawn the hive’s next generation of bees. The queen also produces chemicals that guide the behavior of the other bees. The workers are all female and their roles are to forage for food (pollen and nectar from flowers), build and protect the hive, and clean and circulate air by beating their wings. Workers are the only bees most people ever see flying around outside the hive. The drones are the male bees, and their purpose is to mate with the new queen. Several hundred live in each hive during the spring and summer.

–Honey bees produce 2-3 time more honey than they need.

–If the queen bee dies, workers will create a new queen by selecting a young larva (the newly hatched baby insects) and feeding it a special food called “royal jelly.” This enables the larva to develop into a fertile queen.

–Honey bees beat their wings 200 times per second.

–Each bee has 170 odorant receptors, which they use to communicate within the hive and to recognize different types of flowers.

–The average worker bee lives for just five to six weeks. During this time, she’ll produce around a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.

–The queen can live up to five years. She is busiest in the summer months, when she can lay up to 2,500 eggs a day.

–Source: National Geograpic

TSP HONEY PROJECT
Last year, Tennessee State Parks and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation launched the TSP Honey Project at 31 state parks with at least two hives at each park. In 2020, apiaries will be added at 10 additional parks. Many parks sell the honey in the gift shops based on the hive’s production. If a park’s hives have produced enough honey, bottling usually occurs sometime between May and September. Learn more by clicking here. 

Participants in this year’s National Honey Bee Day celebration set for Aug. 15 at Old Stone Fort State Archaeological Park will create bee houses similar to these that can be placed in gardens to encourage bees to stay. Material cost is $5. To learn more, email Ranger Leigh Gardner at leigh.gardner@tn.gov.

The Teen Actors Guild reopens the Millennium Repertory Company’s 2020
season at the Manchester Arts Center with *War of the Worlds: The Panic
Broadcast, *beginning August 7.

In 1948, the WBFR radio ensemble recreates the colorful events surrounding
Orson Welles’s 1938 radio adaptation of the science-fiction classic,
including the full original broadcast. Complete with commercials and live
sound effects, this radio-play-within-a-radio-play is a thrilling homage to
the golden age of radio and a timely reminder of what fear can do to a
society.

Directed by Landon Spangler, the cast includes Carter Cantrell, Ethan
Cusick, Nik Dunavant, Karisha Glover, Madelyn Hansen, Maddison Helms,
Travis Lawson, Tanner Maccaganone, Zach Smith, Zoe Stinson, and Sarah
Turner. Stage manager is Colleen Wainright.

See it live (with limited seating) or watch from any device with video on
demand. Information on both is at millenniumrep.org or by calling
931.570.4489.

*War of the Worlds* runs August 7 – 9, Friday and Saturday at 7:30 pm and
Sunday at 2:00 pm. Tickets are $15 for adults, $13 for seniors and
military, and $10 for students; video streaming is $10.95. The MAC is
located just off the Manchester square at 128 E. Main St.

PICTURED BELOW:
Photo credit: RMS Photography

Photo 2 l-r: Tanner Maccaganone, Nik Dunavant, Karisha Glover, Zoe Stinson,
Travis Lawson, Zach Smith, Carter Cantrell, Sarah Turner, Maddison Helms,
Madelyn Hansen, Ethan Cusick

The Coffee County Fair Association has announced that the 2020 fair will continue forward this year on its original dates: Sept. 19-26.

The board met late into the night Tuesday, July 28, and agreed to continue with the fair despite other fairs in the area cancelling, including Warren County.

“We met until about midnight last night getting this all worked out,” said Stewart Little with the fair board. 

In a Facebook post, the fair said: “This year’s fair will look a little different, but we wanted to try to bring back some normalcy to our community.”

Little said that the board will meet again on Monday, Aug. 3, to work out final details of what this year’s event might look like.

“We will figure out what we will keep and what we might have to do away with to keep up with social distancing guidelines,” explained Little.