Category: News

Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth has announced that Coffee County Judge Timothy R. Brock, has received the Tennessee Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges (TCJFCJ) McCain-Abernathy Award for exceptional service in advancing juvenile justice.
Judge Brock presides over the Coffee County Drug Recovery, Coffee County Mental Health, Coffee County Family Treatment and Coffee County Juvenile Recovery courts. He is a former member of the Tennessee State Drug Recovery Court Advisory Board.

Something the Coffee County Sheriff’s Department and the county court system have been working on for some time became reality on Tuesday (August 22, 2017). Video arraignments began with 27 inmates seeing Judge L. Craig Johnson. The proceedings took only one hour to complete.
Jail Captain Rick Gentry says having arraignments at the Justice Center, including transportation, takes all day to complete. He says that the video arraignments will save taxpayers money and creates better security.
District Attorney Craig Northcott added that he is very pleased with the process and hopes that one day more court proceedings can take place over video.
Coffee County Sheriff Steve Graves says this provides a much more controlled environment and is safer for all people involved.
Administrative Captain Frank Watkins, who set up the video equipment, said he was excited to see the new equipment work so well.

Area law enforcement continues to receive tips about IRS imposters threatening arrests, lawsuits, and property seizures unless the victim pays up. Law enforcement says they’re investigating alongside several other agencies across the United States. Police say these calls are NOT coming from the IRS.
The Internal Revenue Service will never demand payment over the telephone. Typical IRS communication comes in the form of U.S. Mail. If you receive a phone call that you suspect is a tax scam, hang up and report it to the US Treasury, Office of Inspector General at 1-800-366-4484. To help avoid becoming the victim of a scam, area law enforcement recommend to never transfer funds through third-party wire or card services. People in Coffee County have fallen for this scam in the past, so please don’t become the next victim.

The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD) has released the 2017 list of hot jobs across the state. The list is a projection of what occupations will be most in-demand through the year 2024.
Topping this year’s recently revised hot jobs list is the occupation of team assemblers in the manufacturing field, with a projection of 1,845 openings over the next seven years. Accountants and auditors are the second most in-demand occupation, with 1,460 potential job openings. With an estimated 1,390 new positions, office supervisors take the third spot on the list, followed by nursing assistants, licensed vocational and practical nurses, and elementary school teachers. Several dozen occupations, requiring varying skill levels, are part of the list.
“This list is very helpful for several reasons,” said TDLWD Commissioner Burns Phillips. “It gives someone who may be looking for a new career valuable insight when choosing which type of career they may want to pursue. It also provides information to our state’s educators they can use to identify courses of study needed to meet the projected demand.”
The data projects careers expected to grow, what skills they require, and average salary ranges for each occupation. The statewide data on the site is also available on a local basis for each of the 13 local workforce development areas across the state.
Occupations included on the list meet the following criteria:
* Require more than short-term on-the-job training
* Expected to have positive job growth
* Expected to be in-demand with employers
* Forecasted to have at least 10 annual average job openings in the area
Tennessee’s workforce website, Jobs4TN.gov, is a one-stop location for job resources across the state. There are more than 157,000 current job openings listed on the site.

The City of Tullahoma is proud to announce that Publix Super Markets, Inc. will open its first store in Tullahoma at Northgate Mall on North Jackson Street. The 46,000-square-foot store is expected to open in late 2018.
“This is great news for Tullahoma and the region,” stated Tullahoma Mayor Lane Curlee. “I’m excited that one of the most respected companies in America is coming to town. I appreciate their investment and confidence in our community as it represents a new season of retail and commercial development for our City, and the entire area.” “We have been working with the Northgate LLC partners and Brookside Properties for some time now, and the results of the hard work by all involved has resulted in this new development,” said the mayor.
“I want to especially thank Joe Lester and Jim Woodard, and partners of Northgate LLC, and David Crabtree, executive vice president of Brookside Properties, for their continuing efforts to bring this project to life,” Curlee continued. “Announcements like this don’t just happen. Many, many hours of hard work, and I’m sure a few sleepless nights, preceded this announcement. The developers have invested a great deal of money and shown a great deal of patience and perseverance. I commend them and thank them for their efforts.”
The Mayor continued by thanking many other people involved in the process, including the City’s Retail Consulting firm and the local support team that worked behind the scenes to make Publix and other prospective retailers aware of the advantages of the Tullahoma marketplace.
The grand opening dates for the new location will depend on several factors, including permitting and completion of the store’s construction.

It came, it went and it was INCREDIBLE! The ECLIPSE!
Eclipse totality will not occur in Tennessee for many, many years so what we witnessed on Monday was truly a once in a lifetime experience.
Many eclipse watchers came to the state from several states that could see it in their location.
The total solar eclipse was visible across a 70-mile path through Tennessee, and the rest of the state was treated to a minimum 90 percent eclipse experience.
The last time a total solar eclipse swept the whole width of the U.S. was in 1918.
In the U.S., the next total solar eclipse will occur on April 8, 2024. The line of totality will cross from Texas, up through the Midwest, almost directly over Indianapolis, Cleveland and Buffalo, New York, up over New England and out over Maine and New Brunswick, Canada.
We will see a partial eclipse in Coffee County on October 17, 2153, so make your plans.

High electricity demand is predicted Tuesday afternoon (August 22, 2017). Forecasts indicate that Tuesday’s temperatures and humidity levels will be some of the highest for the month so far. Projected afternoon highs of around 91-92 degrees for Tuesday with relative humidity levels around 64%, will make it feel like 99-104 outside, combined with higher electricity demand due to home cooling, could produce a monthly peak for Duck River Electric Membership Corporation (DREMC).
The electric co-op plans to activate Beat the Peak™ and implement other power conservation measures to lower the impact of spiking Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) wholesale rates during the hour of greatest demand. DREMC pays TVA millions of dollars each month in demand charges, but during a peak the price of wholesale power is the most expensive; the cost of electricity purchased by DREMC can increase to almost $10 per kilowatt-hour during peak.
The Beat the Peak™ alert window on Tuesday, August 22 is from 4:00- 6:00 PM.

Tennessee has launched a national search for a Title IX coordinator to oversee the entire University of Tennessee system.
This was one of the recommendations an independent commission made this summer on how Tennessee could improve its Title IX compliance.
The commission was formed after Tennessee reached a $2.48 million settlement last year in a Title IX lawsuit filed by eight women who had said the school fostered a “hostile sexual environment” through a policy of indifference toward assault complaints against athletes.
This coordinator would oversee Title IX compliance for the entire University of Tennessee system. Earlier this month, Ashley Blamey was named Title IX coordinator for Tennessee’s Knoxville campus.
Title IX is the federal law that guides schools on their responses to sexual harassment and sexual violence.

Someone from Erin, Tennessee, in Houston County won $2 million in Saturday’s Powerball drawing.
There was also a $200,000 winner in Memphis among the 96,127 winners across the entire state.
Lottery officials say the $2 million winner matched 5 of the white numbers drawn, just one shy of a jackpot win, and the $200,000 winner matched four of the white numbers.
Both players added the “Power Play” option for an extra dollar, which multiplied their winnings.
The current jackpot stands at $650 million, which is the second largest in Powerball’s history and the third largest in North American lottery history. The next drawing is Wednesday night.

Tennessee residents are allowed to hunt without a license on Saturday, Aug. 26 which coincides with the opening day of squirrel season.
Free Hunting Day is an event the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency annually provides in hopes of increasing interest in hunting.
The TWRA offers a reminder that hunter education requirements are not waived for Free Hunting Day. Anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 1969 is required to have successfully completed a hunter education course. An apprentice license is required for those born on or after Jan. 1, 1969 if the hunter education course has not been completed. This license exempts the hunter from the mandatory hunter education law for one year from the date of purchase, but may only be purchased for up to three consecutive years during the lifetime of the hunter.