Jessica Gillespie.. Photo from the Warren County Sheriff’s Office
During this season of giving, some consumers will be making big-ticket gift purchases; unfortunately many don’t consider the possibility of theft.
AAA has some tips to keep from becoming a victim of theft this holiday season.
When leaving your vehicle in a parking lot, make sure shopping bags and gifts are not visible through the car window. Putting your bags in the trunk or another place where they are not visible can help prevent vehicle break-ins.
With more and more consumers shopping online, it’s important to take additional precautions to protect items that will be shipped to a destination. A few things that may help prevent home package theft include: using a lockbox service, requiring a signature for delivery or even installing a security camera on your porch.
AAA encourages consumers to contact their agent to go over potential discounts, discuss deductibles and see if additional coverage may be needed for big ticket purchases or unique gift items.
The Tennessee Aquarium has released 280 juvenile brook trout into Little Stony Creek, which flows through the Cherokee National Forest. (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)
Protecting the native brook trout population is an upstream battle for Tennessee conservation groups.
But things are looking up at year’s end. The Tennessee Aquarium has just received its largest single donation since it began seeking financial support for its brook trout restoration project.
The goal is to preserve this indigenous fish that has been reduced to 15 percent of its historic range.
Thom Benson, director of external affairs for the Tennessee Aquarium, explains why the Southern Appalachian brook trout is the focus.
“Because of deforestation, poor land management practices in the past, and the introduction of brown and rainbow trout into their streams, their numbers have really declined over the last 50 years or so,” he states.
Benson says the donation of more than $11,000 from the nonprofit group Trout Unlimited will go a long way in helping to preserve the native brook trout.
The restoration project encompasses every stage of its life cycle, including hatching and re-releasing fish into ancestral streams.
The brook trout’s range extends north into New England and Canada, and into the Midwest, but experts say the Southern Appalachia population is genetically distinct.
Benson says understanding the conservation needs of these fish requires cooperation among the U.S. Forest Service, Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, Trout Unlimited and a team of Aquarium biologists.
“State and federal budgets are declining, and nonprofit organizations like the Tennessee Aquarium don’t have a lot of resources,” he states.
“Collaborative efforts like this are great, because you can pool financial resources, you can pool expertise and you can also pool physical resources, such as the systems that we use to raise the trout.”
Benson adds fund raising has been slow since the project began in 2014, but this new momentum and the shared expertise of multiple groups will benefit the fish, long term.
“It’s sort of that multiplier effect of conservation, in that ‘two plus two equals five’ now, because you have all of this expertise and resources all pooled together – where individually, none of these organizations would be able to that work without the others,” he states.
The Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute says it is slowly making headway toward returning the brook trout to regional mountain streams, from which it had all but disappeared.
Last week we reported that Coffee County commissioners voted to make a settlement offer to a former employee who said she was wrongfully terminated from her job in 2010. Melinda Keeling took the county to court over losing her job, and now a financial settlement is in the works.
Last week county commissioners voted to approve a settlement with Keeling for nearly $1 million.
Here is a way the county is looking at to pay Keeling. Members of the Coffee County Budget and Finance Committee opted to fund roughly half the amount owed by using $447,878 from the county’s unassigned fund balance and $114,622 from the State Unclaimed Property Refund.
The unassigned fund balance is the money that’s set aside for emergencies, sometimes called the rainy-day fund.
The remaining cost will be paid by using $300,000 that was set aside for the case last fiscal year to prepare for the costs associated with this case.
The county’s insurance carrier will cover $120,000, which is more than county officials initially expected the coverage to pay.
The funds coming from the State Unclaimed Property Refund, $114,622, previously couldn’t be spent by the county, but a new law allows it.
We will keep you updated as this story as it progresses.
Gas prices in Tennessee now average the lowest of 2018.
Sunday’s state average of $2.24 is 10 cents less than a week ago.
Tennessee gas prices have declined the past seven weeks. The state average has slipped 52 consecutive days, for a total of 45 cents.
On average, gas prices in November were 21 cents less than October. The monthly average of $2.44/g was the lowest monthly average since March ($2.35). The state average declined a total of 31 cents last month.
Despite the decline, the monthly average was 14 cents more than November 2017, and the most expensive November in four years.
In Coffee County as of Tuesday evening the low price for a gallon of gas could be found in Manchester at $1.97 and in Tullahoma the low price was $2.17.
Robert Ray Yates
Shatika Renee Floyd
Antonio Andre Johnson
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital says a $50 million donation from a research-based pharmaceutical company is the largest one-time gift in its history.
The Memphis, Tennessee-based hospital said Monday that the donation from the AbbVie company will support construction of a treatment-free floor where families can “relax, recover and connect in a centralized location.”
Named the Family Commons, the floor will include a preschool program, a play area including an outdoor patio, living room area and resting nooks, and a private area offering snacks and a general store for patient families.
St. Jude is considered a leading researcher of cancer and other life-threatening diseases that affect children. Families with children being cared for at the hospital never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing and food.
Congratulations to Manchester resident Rob Moreland, he is the recipient of South Cumberland State Park Manager George Shinn’s 2018 “Golden Shell” Award, given annually to the State Parks Friends volunteer who exhibits exceptional dedication to the environmental, interpretive and recreational mission of South Cumberland State Park. Rob is currently heading up the Friends’ effort to rehab and interpret the site of a 1930s-era Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) work camp in the Grundy Forest area of the Park.
Please join your local VFW post 10904 members in singing Christmas songs and/or carols with codename “Operation Joy” at various locations.
One of our events will be at Autumn Oaks in Manchester. This event will be held Monday, 10 December at 1 pm. Autumn Oaks is an assisted living center right next to All God’s Creatures vet clinic in Manchester. All are welcome to join the VFW. It is extremely fun!
The Public Building Authority (PBA) oversees the financially troubled Manchester-Coffee County Conference Center (MCCCC). You might remember that the PBA voted at its Sept. 14 meeting to amend the bylaws of the authority. Tennessee County Technical Assistance Service Writes Opinion Against Public Building Authority By-Law Change
The change allows for three members from Manchester and the other four can be from anywhere in the county. Before the change the City of Manchester had two, two representatives from Tullahoma, two represented rural Coffee County, and one member was designated at-large.
PBA Board Member Greg Sandlin, who represents Tullahoma, believes that the vote went against PBA bylaws. Sandlin believes the PBA is not a joint venture, rather, that is a singular county entity that oversees a joint venture.
According to a letter the University of Tennessee County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) addressed to county Attorney Bob Huskey, Sandlin is correct. According to CTAS, based on their review of the information submitted, it is CTAS’s opinion that the Coffee County PBA was formed by Coffee County acting alone. The documents submitted to them included a resolution approving the application to form the Coffee County PBA adopted by the Coffee County Commission, dated September 5, 2000, as required under Tennessee law. There was no corresponding resolution adopted by the City of Manchester. On the same date, the Coffee County Commission passed a resolution appointing the initial board of directors. There is no mention of the City of Manchester’s participation in forming the Coffee County PBA in any of the documentation that was submitted to CTAS. Under the law, when two or more municipalities incorporate a PBA, ‘teach and every requisite pertaining to the application for incorporation, qualification of applicants, certificate of incorporation and amendment of certificate shall, as nearly as may be practicable, be incumbent in like manner upon each municipality joining in the creation of such public building authority.” In the documents submitted to CTAS they found no evidence of any action taken on the part of the City of
Manchester in the formation of the Coffee County PBA, and no mention of the City of Manchester in any of the documents evidencing the formation of the Coffee County PBA. Accordingly, it is their opinion that the county acted alone in forming the Coffee County PBA.
The appointment of the board of directors is governed by law, which provides, for PBA’s created by a single municipality, that the directors shall be appointed by the chief executive officer, in this case the county mayor, subject to confirmation of the governing body of the municipality, and they shall be so appointed that they shall hold office for staggered terms.” Accordingly, CTAS’s opinion that the Coffee County PBA should be appointed by the Coffee County Mayor with confirmation by the Coffee County Commission.
CTAS does not believe that the action of Coffee County and the City of Manchester, evidenced by an agreement dated November 21, 2000, to form a joint venture for the acquisition and operational funding of a conference center has any effect on the status of the Coffee County PBA as a single municipality PBA.
