Category: News

Coffee County Schools and Manchester City Schools are both closed Friday, Jan. 24 and Monday, Jan. 27 due to widespread illness in both school systems that is keeping students and teachers at home.

ESP for both school systems is also closed in an attempt to slow the spread of disease from student to student.

According to Dr. Charles Lawson, director of Coffee County Schools, principals at each school are coordinating with custodial staff to disinfect each school during the four-day shutdown.

Dr. Joey Vaughn, director of Manchester City Schools, said his staff has a plan in place to thoroughly disinfect each building.

“We work daily to make sure our facilities are in great shape for our students,” said Vaughn. “Hopefully the combination of schools being closed and time for additional precautions will help shut down the spread of some of the illnesses going through the community.”

According to a story from the Manchester Times, the Tennessee Comptroller of the Treasury is investigating an issue of a Manchester alderman casting a vote and participating in discussion where a conflict of interest may have been present.

Alderman Bill Nickels, who also serves as the city’s appointed vice mayor, voted on January 7 to replace Sequoyah Group (which served as the city’s insurance broker since 2015) and voted to replace them with Lester, Greene, McCord and Thoma. But Sequoyah Group ownership claims that Lester, Greene, McCord and Thoma actually owns a portion of Bill Nickels’ insurance agency – Nickels Insurance, which has an office location in downtown Manchester.  According to Sequoyah Group ownership, Sequoyah was the lowest bidder of four possible bids.

According to the Manchester Times, Nickels responded that he voted and participated in the discussion because of his insurance knowledge.

Thunder Radio reached out to Mr. Nickels for response but has not received one at the time of this story.

After almost three years of planning, anticipation and delays, contractors expect to break ground on the Love’s Travel Stop and Country Store off of Interstate-24 exit 117 sometime in mid to late February of 2020.

When Love’s officials originally announced the project in the summer of 2017, the anticipated cost was to be $20 million with the expectation of bringing 40 full-time jobs. There will be a Hardee’s restaurant going in with the store, according to local officials. Coffee County Mayor Gary Cordell is excited about the prospect of tax revenues the new business will bring to the county’s coffers.

“We anticipate that this will be a good amount of sales tax dollars generated for the county,” explained Cordell.

After months of back and forth to gain approval for the project from the county commission due to resident concerns of illegal activities related to the truck stop (such as human trafficking, prostitution and other drug-related crimes), construction was then delayed because of what Cordell described as a “wetlands issue” on the property.

The Love’s Travel Stop will be located in Coffee County off of exit 117 of Interstate 24 on an approximate 20-acre plot of land.

The Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency has issued a scam alert when it comes to hunting and fishing license purchases. There is a new bogus website that appears when you Google Tennessee fishing license.

The scam website appears as an advertisement during a Google Search for “Tennessee Fishing License.” The site then allows you to enter your personal information, such as name, date of birth, social security number, driver’s license number, phone number, email address and residential address. It gathers this info, but never asks for payment for the license.

This website appears to have been created outside the United States, and the TWRA is working to get the site shut down. TWRA encourages anyone who has submitted information through this scamming site to monitor or freeze their credit.

The only legitimate place to purchase a hunting and fishing license online in the State of Tennessee is at https://gooutdoorstennessee.com/.

State Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) announced this week that she has signed on as a prime co-sponsor of Senate Joint Resolution 648 which would add Tennessee’s Right to Work law to the state constitution. The Right to Work statute, established in 1947, protects the rights of those who choose not to join a union. It provides workers cannot be hired or fired based on their affiliation with any labor union or employee organization.

The bill advanced out of the Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday by a vote of 7 to 2 with Sen. Bowling’s support.

“This resolution allows the people of Tennessee to preserve the rights of workers to make their own decisions in the workplace,” said Sen. Bowling.  “It ensures that our right to work status will remain in place into the future.”

Twenty-seven other states have Right to Work laws, and nine of those have passed constitutional amendments, including neighboring states Arkansas, Mississippi, and Alabama. The Alabama amendment passed most recently in 2016. Another neighbor, Virginia, is presently considering repealing its Right to Work statute. A constitutional amendment would offer greater protection for workers against such repeal efforts.

“The Tennessee Chamber and our business community has remained strongly supportive of our status as a Right to Work state which is a key component establishing the Volunteer state as friendly to business,” said Bradley Jackson, President and CEO of the Tennessee Chamber of Commerce and Industry. “Embedding Right to Work permanently in our constitution sends a strong message moving forward that Tennessee is and always will be ready for business.”

If passed by the General Assembly in 2020, SJR 648 would need to pass by a two-thirds majority during the 2021 or 2022 legislative session in order to appear on the ballot for a statewide referendum in November 2022. The amendment would become part of the state constitution if adopted by a majority vote in the governor’s election.

There is also strong public support for the resolution. An October 2019 Beacon Center survey reported that 68 percent of Tennesseans favor the Right to Work policy, while 13 percent are opposed, and 19 percent remain undecided.