Category: News

The City of Manchester Street Department will be conducting some needed work on Tuesday (January 23. 2018). The work being done is to repair the tile under the roadway. This will have Rye St (from Hwy 41 to Hwy 55) closed for the time it takes to repair the tile.
The City of Manchester Street Department would like to thank the public for their cooperation, so the work can be done safely.
If you have any questions or concerns, please call the street department at 931-728-6903.

Coffee County has been awarded a grant from the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) for $6 million. The road construction project will widen New Bushy Branch and Ragsdale roads in Manchester. The work will widen a 2.9-mile section to three lanes. This is main road that attendees use to enter Bonnaroo each June.
The replacement of the bridge over Wolf Creek is expected to cost about $2 million, and the grant funds will cover 80 percent of that expense.
The road upgrade is expected to cost between $4 and $5 million, with the grant covering 50 percent.
Bonnaroo representatives say the objective is for the matching funds to be paid with funds collected from ticket fees. Festival representatives have proposed a $4 fee for each ticket sold to go to an infrastructure fund.
The contract between Coffee County and festival organizers ended June 30, 2017.
According to a new proposed agreement this would eliminate a $3 per ticket fee and the $30,000 annual flat fee that the county receives from Bonnaroo. The proposed $4 fee per each ticket sold will go to an infrastructure fund to be used for improvements on or around the festival’s grounds.
The new contract is still being negotiated.

A federal audit estimates Tennessee’s Medicaid program overpaid managed care organizations by $2.7 million over seven years for patients who were already deceased.
A December audit by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services inspector general says TennCare should recover the money and return a $1.8 million federal share.
TennCare Deputy Commissioner Wendy Long responded that the state has recouped a significant portion of the money through a software change, will recover the rest and will return the federal share. She said TennCare is working to understand why its death list differed from what auditors had.
TennCare spokeswoman Sarah Tanksley said the cases represent a small number of unique circumstances worth about $130,000 each year. She says TennCare paid $30 billion-plus to managed care organizations in that timeframe.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Department of Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips recently announced Tennessee ended 2017 with more than 28,000 new jobs across the state in the last year and an unemployment rate nearly 2 percentage points lower than 2016.
In 2017 a total of 28,700 nonfarm jobs were created across the state. The largest increases occurred in the leisure and hospitality industry, followed by education and health services. Since 2011, 391,300 net new private sector jobs have been created in Tennessee.
Tennessee first marked a historic low unemployment rate in June at 3.6 percent, which was bested by the July rate of 3.4 percent, and then fell even lower in August to 3.3 percent. It hit a new historic low of 3 percent in both September and October. November’s rate inched up to 3.1 percent.
Tennessee’s unemployment rate continues to post well below the national rate of 4.1 percent, which has remained unchanged since October.

On Friday night at 11:15pm Manchester Fire & Rescue received a report of a house fire at 412 W High Street. Crews arrived on the scene and the home was fully engulfed in flames. Firemen made an aggressive attack on the fire extinguishing it about an hour later.
Tullahoma Fire & Rescue responded to provide coverage for the city while crews were combatting the late-night blaze. Tullahoma also responded with their air truck to provide much needed air support on the scene during overhaul actions.
Coffee County EMS, Manchester Police and the Coffee County Communication Center provided excellent support and assistance. According to Fire Chief George Chambers, there were no injuries during then incident and the cause is under investigation.

Authorities captured a man who escaped from the Bedford County Jail.
Andrew Marshall was visiting his wife’s grandmother in Estill Springs when taken into custody by Franklin County deputies.
Marshall escaped the jail twice in 2017.
Marshall had just finished taking a shower around 1:30 a.m. Thursday when he ran out the door at the jail’s sally port. It had been left cracked open by a jailer taking a break.
The Bedford County Jail is to be replaced with a new facility within the next few years. The facility is extremely overcrowded and in poor condition.

State Senator Janice Bowling (R-Tullahoma) was appointed to a key leadership role in the Tennessee Senate by Lt. Governor Randy McNally. She will be the first woman to hold the position of Deputy Speaker of the Senate. The announcement was made on Friday on the floor of the Senate.
“Janice Bowling is a strong, valuable member of our caucus,” said Lt. Gov. McNally. “She is an excellent legislator who works tirelessly on behalf of her constituents. I am looking forward to her advice and counsel in this new role. She will be an outstanding Deputy Speaker.”
Preceding Senator Bowling, the position of Deputy Speaker was held by Senator Ferrell Haile (R-Gallatin), who is now Speaker Pro Tempore of the Senate.
The position of Deputy Speaker was created in 1987 by the Speaker of the Senate, Lt. Governor John Shelton Wilder.
The Deputy Speaker is appointed to a two-year term and serves at the pleasure of the Speaker of the Senate. Principle duties of the position include assisting the Speaker in regard to committee appointments and the assignment of bills to standing committees. The deputy speaker helps schedule and guide the flow of legislation on the floor and assists the speaker in the administrative decision-making of the Senate, and also serves as a liaison with regional and national legislative bodies. The Deputy Speaker often presides over the Senate and assists the Speaker on special projects.

Two Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation to make medical marijuana legal in Tennessee, but only in oil-based products.
Senator Steve Dickerson of Nashville and Representative Jeremy Faison of Cosby announced the bill’s filing Thursday amid wide support for medical marijuana in state polls.
The lawmakers said they believe the change could benefit 65,000 Tennesseans. Patients would have to have certain medical conditions, from cancer to post-traumatic stress disorder.
The legislation would not allow use of recreational marijuana.
The National Conference of State Legislatures said 29 states have medical marijuana programs, which vary in form.
State Republican lawmakers have been split on the issue. Senate Speaker Randy McNally of Oak Ridge has opposed any kind of marijuana legalization. House Speaker Beth Harwell of Nashville said she understands the need for medical marijuana, but has opposed recreational.