Coffee County Mayor Gary Cordell issued a statement Monday, July 27. Cordell wanted to highlight and encourage Coffee Countians to follow the Tennessee pledge when it comes to social distancing and other sanitary steps to prevent and slow the spread of COVID-19.
Cordell stops short of requiring masks in Coffee County, but he strongly encourages it.
The full statement is as follows:
“In a few short days our children will be returning to school across the county. In order to keep our children in school, businesses open and keep our citizens at work, we strongly encourage everyone to follow the CDC’s guidelines and the Tennessee pledge. Data has shown that social distancing, regular handwashing and sanitizing surfaces help to prevent the spread of the virus. We also strongly encourage everyone to wear face masks when out in public or groups of people. The daily increase of active cases in Coffee County the last two days (July 25 and 26) together were 53 active cases. This brings the total up to 148 active cases in Coffee County on July 26. Of those cases 27 of these are from the ages of 5 to 18 years old. We feel that it is especially important to follow these guidelines to prevent the virus from traveling into our schools and to our vulnerable populations.”
An 11-year old Coffee County girl spent the better part of the weekend at Vanderbilt University Medical Center after she was electrocuted at Fred Deadman Park Friday night.
The girl was between the fence of the Babe Ruth Field on the first base side and one of the large light poles. The girl felt an electrical current and could not move from the location. Adults also reported feeling current when attempting to remove the child from the situation.
The girl was transported to Vanderbilt and remained in the ICU Saturday, before being discharged Sunday afternoon. She will follow up with doctors this week.
Bonnie Gamble with Manchester Parks and Recreation said that field is currently closed until a repair can be completed.
Gamble said all ball lighting at the park is being thoroughly inspected.
We are sad to report to you the unfortunate news that Dennis Weaver, longtime radio personality here at Thunder Radio, coach, teacher, mentor and friend to so many has passed away. He died on Friday, July 24. He was 58 years old.
Dennis, known simply as “Weave” could be heard everyday on Thunder Radio’s daily sports blasts, and most every night as the play-by-play voice of Red Raider football, basketball, volleyball, baseball, softball and soccer, as well as the voice of Westwood football, basketball, soccer, volleyball, and CMS football, soccer, volleyball and other various sports.
He was also the host of Friday Night Thunder, a syndicated high school football pre and postgame show for 11 years, and he started and grew the Coffee Coaches Show, which highlighted coaches and athletes every Saturday morning for the past six and a half years. The show is known for its inclusion, bringing on athletes from elementary basketball to high school shooting, bass club, football and everything in between.
Born and raised in Manchester, Weaver was an alum of Coffee County Central High School (Manchester Central). He later taught at the school and coached football and softball. In the early 90s, he joined Jeff Breeden and was integral in growing the Coffee County Lady Raider softball program from a one-win team to a state power. After the 2003 season, Weaver went with Breeden to Riverdale High School, where the two eventually won a TSSAA State Championship. Weaver worked at AEDC, and continued to broadcast sports on Thunder Radio, even while working at Riverdale. When Breeden left Riverdale for the MTSU softball job after the 2012 season, Weaver retired from coaching.
Thunder Radio will announce funeral arrangements when they are available.
As we reported to you last week on Thunder Radio News, the Coffee County Health Department COVID-19 testing will reside at a new location effective Monday, July 27. It will be located at 2050 Hillsboro Blvd, in Manchester at the old Southern Family Market. Testing will be conducted from 9:00 am to 11:30 am and 1:00 pm until 3:30 pm, Monday thru Friday.
Officials hope this will alleviate traffic concerns as well as allow normal operations for the two current Health departments in Manchester and Tullahoma.
The Coffee County Mayor in conjunction with the City of Manchester and Tullahoma have been working closely with Emergency Management, Public Safety, and Health Care providers to ensure the best path to keep our citizens healthy and safe.
As a collective group, local officials are respectfully urging businesses and citizens to follow the Tennessee Pledge and CDC Recommendations and adhere to the following guidelines.
• Wash your hands often with soap and water (or alcohol-based hand rub) for at least 20 seconds, especially after coughing or sneezing. Do not touch your eyes, nose or mouth with unwashed hands. • Stay at home when you are sick • Cover your coughs and sneezes with your arm or a tissue • Clean and disinfect objects (e.g., cell phone, computer) and high-touch surfaces regularly. • We are strongly encouraging the use of masks.
What do I do if I am sick? • Call your primary care physician • Stay at home and follow your PCP or providers direction • Monitor your symptoms • Get rest and stay hydrated • If you have an appointment and you are feeling sick call ahead to your doctors office • Cover your cough and sneeze • Wash your hands often • Stay away from others (Social Distancing) • Avoid sharing personal items • Clean all surfaces often, especially door handles to cars, and homes, steering wheel in your car, and all other surfaces you come in contact with often (even your cell phone)
Parents with students enrolled in the Coffee County School System who intend to participate in distance learning to being the 2020-2021 school year, we have instruction information for you.
On Monday, Aug. 3 between the hours of 1 p.m. and 3:30 p.m. students along with a parent/guardian should collect all necessary materials and devices and sign checkout forms at the student’s assigned physical school. The student must be present in order to ensure that he/she can log into the device and the online platform. Parents or guardians must be present to sign school documents.
Social distancing and other precautions will be enforced. Masks will be required to enter the building to pick up items. See more information by clicking here.
Manchester Mayor Lonnie Norman’s office has released a response to a recent article published by the Manchester Times.
The article in question, titled “City sued over sewer” and first published online on July 16, stated that the city had been sued over violations of the Clean Water Act.
According to Norman’s office, the city has not been served any paperwork pertaining to a lawsuit in this matter, despite the article stating that a lawsuit was filed. Norman states that the city received a letter from the Tennessee Riverkeeper Inc. in March stating its intent to file suit against the city over its sewer discharge permit with the state of Tennessee.
But Norman states that the city has not been served lawsuit papers. Norman goes on to state that the city responded to the organization after receiving the original letter in March with information they requested with the position that the city is not in violation of the state permit.
The response goes on state that Manchester submits monthly reports to TDEC providing discharge data as well as usual discharge data from municipal treatment, that averages two million gallons per day.
“The City of Manchester, as with most every city in the state, does experience manhole overflows as a result of inflowing rainwater during large storm events,” Norman said. “In these large events, rainwater enters the sewer system in ways that include broken sewer service line cleanouts at houses, old cracked service lines at houses and in older city main lines within the city’s easements. The city has always adhered to the state requirements and reported all overflowing manhole events. While these overflows are considered sanitary sewer flow, it is mainly rainwater flowing in and out of the manholes.”
The city is currently in the middle of a $2.8 million rehabilitation project. In the past 25 years, the city has lowered its chronic overflow manholes from 20 to 5 – this out of 2,000 manholes in the system, Norman states.
The full statement is below:
Response from Mayor Lonnie Norman’s office: This is a response to the recent article in The Manchester Times titled ‘City sued over sewer” as published on July 22, 2020. The City of Manchester has received a letter from Tennessee Riverkeeper, Inc. in March 2020 stating its intent to file suit against the City over violations with its NPDES permit (sewer discharge permit) with the State of Tennessee. To my knowledge, the City has not received notice that a suit has actually been filed. After receipt of the initial letter from Riverkeeper, the City submitted a response to Riverkeeper with the information that they requested along with its position that it is not in violation with the State permit. No additional response from Riverkeeper has been received to date. The City of Manchester is required to adhere to the provisions of its NPDES permit with the State of Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC). The City submits monthly reports to TDEC providing discharge data to the Duck River which includes any overflows from manholes due to large storm events as well as its usual discharge data from the municipal treatment plant that averages over 2 million gallons per day. The City of Manchester, as with most every city in the state, does experience manhole overflows as a result of inflowing rainwater during large storm events. In these large events, rainwater enters the sewer system in ways that include broken sewer service line cleanouts at houses, old cracked service lines at houses, and in older city main lines within the City’s easements. The City has always adhered to the State requirements and reported all overflowing manhole events. While these overflows are considered sanitary sewer flow, it is mainly rainwater flowing in and out of manholes. The City has worked with TDEC continually over the last 25 years to meet the requirements of their NPDES permit and to address the inflow and infiltration of rain water (I&I). The City sewer system has many older sections of lines which went for years with no upgrades. During the last 25 years, the City has worked with TDEC and outlined annual projects and plans to upgrade its system. The planning with TDEC is done in five-year increments and the City commits to that agency to constructing the rehabilitation projects. Since 1995, the City has had on-going repair projects in place, spent over $23,590,611 on 17 capital projects performed by private construction companies, and spent many additional dollars directly with MWSD forces on line repairs, replacements, smoke testing, dye testing, and flow metering to reduce the I&I. The City currently has a $2.8 million dollar rehabilitation project underway. Upon completion of this current project, the City will have completed a permit period with the State, and it will prepare another 5-year plan of projects to further upgrade its sewer system. Of the $23.5 million cost, the City has acquired over $6.5 million in state and federal grant funds and applied these funds to the cost of the rehabilitation program. Over the last 25 years, the City has made progress in removing rainwater from its system and lowered its chronic overflowing manholes from approximately 20 manholes to 5 manholes. There are approximately 2,000 manholes in the system and hundreds of miles of lines. This rehabilitation effort never ends as new sewer lines are installed daily as growth of our City occurs and existing lines continue to age and deteriorate. The City has never been complacent in reporting sewer discharges to the Duck River and it has taken a very active role in trying to protect the Duck River. Staff of the Manchester Water & Sewer Department are active members in the Duck River Agency which serves to protect the Duck River system and ensure its use for drinking water for the residents in Middle Tennessee. While these sewer rehabilitation projects are costly and have a direct impact on the sewer rates for the residents of Manchester, the City has worked hard to reduce operating costs year after year in an effort to minimize rate increases in sewer bills. For over 25 years, the sewer rates the citizens pay have been held to a reasonable rate, and the City of Manchester will continue to maintain the balance between reasonable sewer rates and the costly but necessary capital rehabilitation projects. With the awareness that this article has raised over the need to protect the Duck River, the City takes the opportunity to ask all citizens of Manchester to do their part in helping reduce rain water discharge into the sewer system by checking their own private sewer lines in their yards. Please replace broken or missing cleanout caps, replace sewer service lines when problems are experienced with those private lines, and report any open sewer manholes whether they are on your property or on public locations. Never place any objects into your sewer cleanouts or city manholes as rocks, sticks, and construction debris are a large source of sewer line blockages and the cause of overflows. Please report any misuse, abuse, or overflows to the Manchester Water and Sewer Department at (931) 728-1273.
Active COVID-19 cases in Coffee County jumped up on Saturday. According to the Tennessee Department of Health, there are now 121 active cases in Coffee County. This is up from 95 the previous day.
Since testing began in March, there have been 261 positive tests in Coffee County, with 140 recoveries this leaves 121 active cases. There have been zero reported deaths.
Meanwhile, across the state there are now approximately 35,112 active cases. There have been 89,850 confirmed total cases since testing began in March, with 930 confirmed deaths. There have been 53,808 recoveries and 4,196 hospitalizations, according to TDH.
Dennis Weaver, longtime broadcaster, coach and lifelong Manchester resident, passed away Friday afternoon, July 24.
He was 58 years old.
Below is a column from Thunder Radio ownership about his passing:
Coffee County sports has lost its voice.
Dennis Weaver epitomized sports in Coffee County. His microphone went silent Friday,
July 24, 2020. He unexpectedly passed away after complications from a routine
surgery. We loved him. We will miss him forever.
Dennis Weaver spent decades bringing football games and volleyball matches from pastures and dimly-lit gymnasiums to vivid color on a radio – an unteachable art and talent blessed to only a select few. Weave was one of them, although he would say he was no better than anyone else at it.
He loved broadcasting games on Thunder Radio. He carried an overwhelming sense of pride about his sports coverage. This was not pride born from selfishness. This was good pride, it was Raider pride and Rocket pride. It was community and a giving pride – a sense of accomplishment that he was able to broadcast sports for every student athlete in Coffee County to the masses. It was his gift to the world, a gift that will forever be appreciated and certainly reciprocated by the many lives he touched.
Dennis Weaver took sports coverage that was at first built around high school football, basketball, baseball and softball and didn’t only raise the bar, he rebuilt the entire standard to one unmatched by any other market in the state. He took the “minor” sports and made each one as important as the next. He took sports like Westwood volleyball, Coffee Middle soccer, Lady Raider volleyball and so many others into living rooms, car radios and old work shop garage radios across Coffee County. Every game was important to him – because he knew each game was important to every kid, every parent, every coach, every grandparent and fan.
He shied away from any recognition anyone attempted to bestow upon him for the tireless dedication he provided for Coffee County sports. It was never about Dennis Weaver. Instead, it was about the Jimmy’s and the Joe’s, the Sally’s and the Sue’s. He did what he did for those student athletes, for those coaches and for those programs – never for himself.
Many will never know the depths of his generosity. He even
aided the “competition,” often giving scores, information and contacts to other
sports writers. It was the mentor and the coach inside of him, and it was his
desire to see exceptional sports coverage for Coffee County, regardless of the
outlet or the person. He was selfless.
He single-handedly launched the Coffee Coaches Show six years ago, offering the opportunity for hundreds of student-athletes to be on the air every Saturday. Weave would cover a basketball game on Friday night, write the story and post it online, be awake for the Coffee Coaches Show Saturday morning (which he undoubtedly organized down to the second earlier in the week), and then drive to Fayetteville for an afternoon of more basketball games on the radio. It was never work to him. It certainly wasn’t for the money. It wasn’t even his full-time job – it was just what he loved to do. He was living his life doing exactly what he wanted to do. Many will never be able to say that.
He loved it until the very end. Thursday afternoon, he sent me a text:
“Got sick at work.
Going to Harton. Can you call Bernard Childress for interview?”
He had scheduled an interview with TSSAA executive director Bernard Childress to record and air this Saturday on the Coffee Coaches Show. Down to the end, he was working on bringing the best sports coverage to Coffee County.
Sadly, I can’t text him back. But If I could, I would tell
him: “I’m sorry that the interview certainly isn’t up to your level. But don’t
worry, Weave. The interview is done, it’s recorded, and it will air on the
coaches show this week.”
Because that is absolutely what he would have wanted.
We will miss his daily sports updates on the air. His excitement before a big game and his adrenaline after his Red Raiders (his Alma mater) beat Tullahoma at anything.
Coffee County will forever miss his voice. But if I know him like I think I do, he’s already set up his new broadcast location. He has his laptop in place and a Facebook post going out with a photo of “his office for the night.”
And he has the best view for the call.
The Best of Dennis Weaver – on the mic for Thunder Radio.
Unemployment rates in a vast majority of Tennessee’s 95 counties continued to drop in June, according to new data from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
In Coffee County, the unemployment rate for June was 10.5 percent, which is down 3.3 percent from the 13.8 percent in May, but remains significantly higher than the 3.8 percent from June of last year due to COVID-19 pandemic. There were 2,628 people unemployed last month in Coffee County, according to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce.
Seventy-four counties had lower jobless rates for the month, as Tennessee continues to reopen after many businesses closed in the spring to help curb the spread of COVID-19.
Unemployment did increase slightly in 17 counties during the month and remained the same in four counties.
Williamson County recorded the lowest unemployment rate in June. At 6.7%, the rate dropped 0.4 of a percentage point when compared to May’s rate.
Crockett County’s rate of 6.8% was Tennessee’s second-lowest figure for the month, down 0.3 of a percentage point from May. Pickett County had the third-lowest rate at 7.2%, down a 0.5 of a percentage point. Shelby County had the state’s highest rate of unemployment in June. Its figure jumped 1.8 percentage points to 13.2%.
Grundy County was just below Shelby County at 13.1%, which represents a 3.8 percentage point drop from May’s rate of 16.9%.
For 2020 only, the Tennessee General Assembly has approved two separate sales tax holiday weekends. During these weekends, certain goods may be purchased tax free.
The first tax-free holiday weekend focuses on clothing and other back-to-school items. It begins at 12:01 a.m. on Friday, July 31 and ends Sunday, August 2 at 11:59 p.m. During this time, clothing, school supplies, and computers and other qualifying electronic devices may be purchased tax-free.
Certain price restrictions apply. Exempt items sold online are also eligible. Items must be purchased for personal use, not for business or trade.
Second Tax Free Weekend:
The second tax-free holiday weekend focuses on restaurant sales. It begins at 12:01 a.m. on August 7 and ends Sunday, August 9 at 11:59 p.m.
During this time, the retail sale of food and drink by restaurants and limited service restaurants, as defined in Tenn. Code Ann. § 57-4-102, is exempt from sales tax.
