Category: News

As a part of his audio/visual production classes, Scott Anderson, a teacher at Coffee County High School had his students create a 60-second public service announcement for the Drug Enforcement Administration Operation Prevention video challenge.
One of the groups from the level 3 class – consisting of Dalton Sherrill, Jackson Hamm, Brian Wang, and Yanely Luna – were selected as a finalist in the nationwide competition. On Thursday, Anderson announced that the group had won 1st place and were also selected as the People’s Choice winner.
Anderson gave us his thoughts on his students being honored in such a big way by winning the national contest…

Operation Prevention is a program created by the Drug Enforcement Administration and Discovery Education to help lessen the epidemic of the abuse of prescription drugs. Their goal is to jump-start a life-altering conversation about the dangers of abusing opioids and the damage it can cause to a life.
Congratulations to teacher Scott Anderson and his students for winning the nationwide competition. The name of the video is “What Could’ve Been.”
The 1st place win for Coffee County means a $10,000 prize and by being the People’s Choice winner a trip to Quantico, VA for an exclusive tour of DEA training. Click here to watch the video. Winning Video

The 27th annual Letter Carriers’ Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive is on Saturday, May 11, 2018. The food drive, sponsored by the National Association of Letter Carriers, is the world’s largest one-day food drive, taking place in more than 10,000 cities and towns in all 50 states, U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.
Participating in the food drive couldn’t be easier. Before your regular mail pick-up on Saturday, May 11, postal customers are asked to leave bags of non-perishable food items by their mailboxes. Letter carriers will pick up the bags and—with help from retired letter carriers, other postal employees and countless volunteers—deliver the bags to local food agencies.
In its 25 years, the Stamp Out Hunger food drive has collected more than 1.5 billion pounds of food; last year’s drive collected approximately 75 million pounds.
Food collected locally will go to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee.
1 in 8 Middle Tennesseans, including 1 in 5 children struggle with hunger.
In Coffee County, 12 percent of individuals, including over 2,600 children are considered food insecure.

Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn has announced that 18,560 students in 928 classrooms across Tennessee will benefit from the Voluntary Pre-K (VPK) program in the 2019-20 school year. 138 districts applied for and received VPK funding through the competitive grant designed to serve 4-year-old students who are at-risk and students in high-priority communities. Sixty-eight of these 138 districts are rural.
Revisions to the Tennessee Early Learning Developmental Standards (TN ELDS) aligned instructional expectations with Tennessee’s K-12 Academic Standards to ensure kindergarten readiness.
For the 2019-20 school year the Coffee County School system will continue to have 7 classes, Manchester City keeps their number at 3 and Tullahoma will have the same as 2018-19 with 4 classes.

McMinnville police are investigating break-ins at three businesses and at the civic center.
Police reports indicate someone broke into Taco Bell sometime early Tuesday morning. Entry is believed to have been gained by breaking a drive-thru window. An unknown amount of cash was taken in the break-in.
A break-in was reported at the Coffee Cat in the Northgate Shopping Center. Reports indicate the owner of the business came in Tuesday morning and discovered the place had been burglarized. An unknown amount of money was taken.
Police were also called to the McMinnville Civic Center, where someone had entered and had made off with some tools and batteries belonging to the construction company that is working on the renovation.
McMinnville Police are also investigating a break-in at the Sherwin-Williams store on Smithville Highway. Police reports indicate someone had used a piece of asphalt to break the glass in a side door to gain entry. Police say cabinet and desk drawers had been opened, several items had been stolen, including sprayers, a vacuum, a dolly and a cart. Several other items had been moved around.
Police were alerted to the break-in early Wednesday morning.

Despite not having a hotel or motel in rural Coffee County, the county government can now charge up to 2.5% hotel/motel tax countywide including the two cities.
The state approved legislation pushes the current city rates up. The new tax grows the hotel/motel tax in Manchester to 6% and 5% in Tullahoma.
Gov. Bill Lee signed the new bill that was sponsored in the Senate by (R)Sen. Janice Bowling and in the House by (R)Rep. Rush Bricken.
The possible starting date is said to be July 1, 2019.

A new study by SmartAsset ranked Coffee County among the top places in Tennessee to grow your short-term savings. The study analyzed data on savings account rates, household income, living expenses and taxes to determine where savings could be maximized over a one-year period.
Based on median income $46,614, Coffee County ranked 7th with a short-term interest earned amount of $43 with a return rate of .09%. Long-term Savings Interest Earned is $1,549. Long-term Savings Return Rate for Coffee County is 3.32% and the Short-term Savings Interest Earned Index is 16.68.
Sequatchie, TN ranked first in the survey.

Franklin County Sheriff’s Office Investigators are conducting an investigation concerning a theft of property that occurred at 213 Leatherwood Drive, Winchester, TN. According to a report filed by deputies, a person(s) unknown entered the residence between Thursday April 25th, 2019 and Saturday April 27th, 2019 and removed several items from the property and from the residence totaling approximately $43,000 in value.
Anyone having any information regarding this matter is asked to contact Investigator George Dyer at the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office at 931-962-0123.
List of the items taken:
1. Bass Tracker Pro Team 175XT
2. Bulgari Scuba Watch
3. Dewalt Cordless Drill
4. Various fishing poles
5. Flat Screen TV
6. Gipson Guitar with Jack Daniels Writing
7. Jack Daniels Collectables
8. JVC Home Stereo with speakers
9. Rayban Sunglasses with black medal frames
10. Vitamix Blender
11. Vizio Smartcast Crave 360 speaker

Early Tuesday morning Grundy County Sheriff deputies conducted a search warrant at 65th East Lee Drive in Palmer. The search came after Randy Boyd Layne (48) was arrested earlier for burglary.

Grundy County investigators recovered several thousand dollars of tools and other items they believe to be stolen including a speed limit sign.
Layne is scheduled for a bond hearing on Thursday at the Grundy County Court House.

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has declared May 2019 as Building Safety Month to increase public awareness of the critical role building codes play in ensuring fire and life safety.
Created 39 years ago by the International Code Council (ICC), Building Safety Month is an international campaign designed to raise awareness about the importance of code adoption and celebrate the work of state and local codes inspectors who help ensure the safety of communities. The Tennessee State Fire Marshal’s Office (SFMO) is proud to join Governor Lee and the ICC in promoting this annual campaign.
Codes officials in the SFMO’s Codes Enforcement Section as well as those in the Electrical, Residential and Marina Inspections Section work to ensure buildings are constructed safely and public marinas are operating safely. Building Safety Month brings recognition to the work of these professionals as they create safe, resilient, affordable, and energy efficient places for Tennesseans to live, work, learn, worship and play.
In 2018, the SFMO completed 2,873 inspections of residential structures, issued 135,011 electrical permits, reviewed 1,045 building plans, and conducted 211,131 total electrical inspections.
Additionally, the Tennessee Fire Service and Codes Enforcement Academy (TFACA) offers a progressive and challenging curriculum for the testing and certification of code enforcement officials.
Building codes address all aspects of construction, including fire prevention, structural integrity, and energy efficiency, to name a few.
For more information on Building Safety Month, visit the International Code Council’s website at iccsafe.org.