Category: News

The American Legion Gold Star Post 78 in Manchester will be hosting the annual Patriot Day ceremony on the square in Manchester on Sept 11. The event will begin at 11am. The American Legion will be honoring local first responders as well as the many who died on 9-11-2001. The American Legion members invite everyone to come to square for the ceremony. They will be presenting plaques to deserving first responders.

Motlow State Community College will host its annual area-wide College and Career Fair on Thursday, Sept. 7, from 9:00-11:30 a.m. inside Nisbett Center on the Moore County campus. The event is held in cooperation with the Tennessee Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers. The dual fair targets area public and private high school and homeschool students, Motlow students, as well as the general public. Admission is free and over 50 vendors will be participating.

During the early morning hours of August 1st, 2017, Bedford County deputies responded to a home invasion in the Deason Community on Hwy 231 North. Deputies and other law enforcement officials apprehended one of the suspects involved, John Gooch.

On August 18th, 2017, Investigators with the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office obtained arrest warrants on two other suspects involved in the home invasion, Olin Kicklighter III and Olin Kicklighter IV. On Wednesday morning US Marshals were able to take Olin Kicklighter IV into custody in Savannah, GA. Law enforcement is still searching for Kicklighter III. He’s wanted for aggravated robbery and aggravated burglary.

All three suspects are from the Antioch area in Nashville, TN. If anyone knows the whereabouts of Olin Kicklighter III please contact the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office or your local law enforcement agency. The suspect is considered armed and dangerous.

Soldiers and Airmen of the Tenn. National Guard stand ready to assist the citizens of Texas, if called upon, with their relief efforts in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey. However, to date there have been no official requests for such assistance.
“We’ve conducted the necessary planning to ready our forces on what we think we could best provide by way of support to our brothers and sisters in Texas but must wait patiently for the call”, said Maj. Gen. Max Haston, Tennessee’s Adjutant General. “I have been in constant contact with the national command authority and have kept Governor Haslam and his staff informed on possible deployments.”
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency is the link between the Guard and Texas on the facilitation of state controlled resources dedicated for disaster relief response, especially when those resources cross borders. TEMA is the lead agency for the Emergency Management Assistance Compact process which allows any state to request needed disaster support.
TEMA Director, Patrick Sheehan, said, “We are in constant communication with local, state, and federal entities and are ready to coordinate and deploy resources to Texas if and when they are requested.”
The Tenn. National Guard, that includes a location in Tullahoma, is the sixth largest Guard state among the 54 states and territories with a wide range of Army and Air capability. This capability is properly balanced to accomplish both aspects of the Guard’s dual mission at home and abroad.
Harvey is expected to dump up to 4 inches of rain in Coffee County and up to 7 inches in Rutherford County.

More than 260,000 people purchased private health care plans through the Health Care Exchange in Tennessee, but navigators report an uphill battle this year because people feel uncertain about the future of the Affordable Care Act.
Mary Moore is program coordinator with Get Covered Tennessee and is a health care navigator. She’s been telling people she encounters it’s better to have coverage, regardless of whether the ACA is short-lived.
“It is a contract when you sign up for a plan between you and the insurer,” Moore said. “It’s more important than ever to make sure you do have coverage so that if and when anything does change, you know that you’ve had continuous coverage.”
There have been reports that the federal government won’t run any ads to promote enrollment this year, unlike in years past under the Obama administration.
The open enrollment period is also shortened this year, from November 1 through December 15.
Moore said she knows it can be discouraging as large insurers pull out of Tennessee cities, but there remain people who don’t have another way to secure health coverage.
“It’s very important for those people to still be able to buy affordable, individual coverage that again is not going to penalize them for having a pre-existing condition,” she said.
Earlier this year, the government ended funding to 18 cities intended to help people sign up for coverage, though none of them were in Tennessee.

Tennessee organization has established a recovery fund to help those affected by Hurricane Harvey.
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee says in a statement that the fund will be an extensive, ongoing relief effort that will grant money to nonprofits providing immediate and long-term aid.
Harvey has caused catastrophic flooding in South Texas and largely paralyzed the city of Houston. The storm has stalled over the area and the National Weather Service says some parts of Houston and its suburbs have over 50 inches of rain.
The statement says Middle Tennessee residents understand the trauma of floods. The region suffered flooding in 2010 that left 26 people dead and caused an estimated $2 billion worth of damage when it rained 13.5 inches over two days.
The Tullahoma Community Foundation is an affiliate of the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee.

The Coffee County Sheriff’s Department continues to search for a missing teen.
Keana Watters age 17 of Coffee County has been missing since June 30, 2017. Watters was last seen at her residence in Coffee County on June 30th, but was spotted in July in Marshall County.
She is a white female standing 5’4″ and weighing 118lbs with brown hair and eyes.
If you have any information please contact Investigator Jason Dendy at the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department at 931-570-4427. Your call can remain anonymous.

A Tullahoma man has been arrested again for taking money to perform construction work and not performing it.
Elmer Ray Church, 46, of East Grundy Street, Tullahoma was arrested last week for taking $44,000 to make home repairs to a residence at 105 Point Circle and didn’t perform the work.
According to a Tullahoma Police report, Church was hired to make home repairs and perform other outside work at the residence. But he did not perform any of the job. The homeowner was unable to contact Church after receiving the money.
He was arrested at a construction site in Manchester Thursday morning by Tullahoma Police Investigator Johnny Gore.
In earlier warrants between June 1 and July 10 Church was hired to do construction work at 100 Point Drive but failed to perform it. According to warrants obtained by Gore, Church was paid $84,000 in January and February to perform work on the residence but he did not do it.
In another warrant, between June 1 and July 20 Church was hired to perform construction work at a residence on South Polk Street in Tullahoma. The work was never performed there and Church was paid $5,000 for the work.
He was also arrested on another warrant, Church is accused of taking five checks that were to pay other subcontractors and cashed the checks without paying the contractors to whom they were intended. The checks totaled $44,750.
In the warrant, Gore alleges that Church forged his name on a check to Window Work in the amount of $9,010. He then allegedly deposited the check into his account at Ascend Federal credit Union.
He is also accused of forging his name on a check made to Mark Baker for $8,000 and deposited at Traders National Bank in Tullahoma and then withdrawn.
He also allegedly forged his name on a check made to Roscoe Brown for $6,000 and deposited in Traders National Bank and then withdrawn.
He is also accused of forging his name on a check written to Joel Winton for $4,250 and deposited at Traders National Bank in Tullahoma and then withdrawn.
On Tuesday (August 29, 2017) Coffee County Sheriff’s Investigator Kelly Smith took out another warrant on Church. The warrant says that on August 15, 2017 a person came to the Coffee County Jail to report the theft of 2 box trailers valued at $12,000 from a location on the Old Manchester Hwy. The trailers were allegedly rented to Church, then he apparently sold the trailers without the permission of the owner.
Church is now being held at the Coffee County Jail under a bond of $200,000.

Hurricane Harvey is causing gas prices to experience a dramatic increase.
AAA spokesman Mark Jenkins said the hurricane hit a major supply line in Florida and along the eastern seaboard. Multiple refineries and drilling rigs had to be evacuated ahead of the storm. A minimum increase of 10 to 30 cents is expected. Some gas stations around Coffee County saw an increase of 16 cents on Tuesday.
The low price as of late Tuesday was $2.06 per gallon in Manchester and $2.18 in Tullahoma.
Tennessee gas prices averaged $2.18 on Tuesday. The state average is 4 cents more than this time last week.
The national average on Sunday was $2.36, which is 15 cents higher than a year ago.