Category: News

With no city elections in Manchester this year, Tullahoma will be the only election.
Four candidates have qualified to run for two aldermen seats; Robin Dunn, Stephen Landers, Paige Prescott Lashlee and incumbent Jerry Mathis, the sitting mayor pro tem. Aldermen are elected to three-year terms.
Current Alderman Mike Stanton has opted not to seek re-election.
Voters will also cast votes for mayor, city judge and school board members. Candidates in those races are running unopposed; Mayor Lane Curlee will continue to serve for his sixth, nonconsecutive, three-year term.
Tullahoma City Judge James Conley will run unopposed along with Tullahoma city school board incumbents Jessica Fogarty and Teresa Lawson.

Franklin County’s director of schools, Dr. Amie Lonas will be resigning from her job effective June 30.
Lonas has accepted a position as dean of academic affairs at the Joint Forces Staff College at Norfolk, Virginia. She will be overseeing faculty, academics and curriculum operations at the Department of Defense institution of higher learning.
Before accepting the job as director of schools in Franklin County in 2015, Lonas was a Major in the Air National Guard and was dean of academics, acting vice president for academic affairs at Joint Special Operations University at MacDill Air Force Base at Tampa, Florida.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center officials are warning that doctors are already treating numerous people injured in accidents involving all-terrain vehicles and it’s not even the peak trauma season of summer yet.
VUMC officials say staff has treated nearly 50 ATV accident victims since the beginning of the year, including 34 adults and an additional 14 children.
Officials, in their press release, say two common problems doctor see with the injuries are the result of not wearing helmets and from having more than one rider on a vehicle equipped for only one person.
Hospital officials say children under 16 should not ride ATVs due to the risk of serious injuries, especially head trauma. They also recommend wearing a helmet certified by the U.S. Department of Transportation or the Snell Memorial Foundation.

There is a new phone scam report. This time it happened in Rutherford County when a 30-year-old woman was called by a man named “Jimmy,” who told her she was eligible for a $5,000 loan. The man convinced the victim that the money would be deposited into her bank account if she would only pay him $802 in a transaction fee.
To pay the fee, the man told her to buy iTunes gift cards and then give him the card numbers over the phone. That being said, the woman followed his directions after she bought the cards.
After the man had access to her $802, he told the victim that she needed to pay another $300. At that point, she called the police only to confirm that she had been scammed.
The caller ID showed that the scammer called from 773-942-2651, a number that is shown to be tied to previous scams after a simple Google search. (WGNS Radio)

What you can access on the internet may soon change with the Federal Communications Commission’s vote to begin rolling back net neutrality regulations late last week.
“Net neutrality” refers to the expectation that internet service providers will provide equal access to all content regardless of source. Opponents say it will limit access to information.
But right now in Tennessee, plans are underway that could increase the speed at which customers access information on the web. This month, TVA announced it was upgrading its network, installing 3,500 fiber optic lines across its seven-state region. The Electric Power Board of Chattanooga installed fiber lines seven years ago.
Eric Friedman, managing member at Broadband Collective, explained that, aside from improving online access, it also is helping when homes lose power.
“The savings by this fiber being laid – which has created a smart electrical grid for the community and the way they were able to solve this problem by redirecting electricity – is saving them money,” Friedman said; “and it’s saving the community money in terms of downtime.”
Last week, Gov. Bill Haslam signed the Tennessee Broadband Accessibility Act, allowing the state’s nonprofit electric cooperatives to offer retail broadband services and providing $45 million in grants and tax credits to assist in making the technology available to under-served homes and communities.
Tennessee currently ranks 29th in the country for broadband access, with 34 percent of rural residents in the state lacking access to the internet at recognized minimum standards. Friedman said technology such as fiber optic and broadband can change entire communities.
“We need to learn how to use these technologies to be more competitive, more effective and to really serve our citizens,” he said. “And this is a way to do a lot of things we could be doing if we had better connectivity for all people, particularly under-served communities.”
Reliable access to high speed internet can enable services such as online education, home-based jobs and businesses, and even telemedicine.

The Coffee County Sheriff’s Department is asking for the public’s help. Sometime between Friday night around 8pm and 8am Sunday morning a person(s) stole items from the Hillsboro ballpark. The items taken were two rakes plus wheels and tires off a lawn mower used for upkeep of the ball field.
If anyone has information that could assist authorities, contact Coffee County Sheriff’s Department Investigator Jason Dendy at 931-570-4427, if busy or no answer, please leave a detailed message. Your name can remain anonymous.

Winchester Police Department has recovered several items of stolen property. This property would have been taken in vehicle burglaries anywhere in the area of 14th Ave. NW to South Shepherd St., between December of last year until the first of May of this year.
If your car was broken into and items stolen and you did not report it, please contact Winchester Police Department and speak with Detective Robert Morris or Captain Kelly Gass at 931-967-3840.

Gov. Bill Haslam has signed a bill creating a new Tennessee license plate design featuring the phrase “In God We Trust.”
The original version of the bill would have required the phrase to be printed on all license plates issued in the state. But after the State Attorney General raised constitutional concerns, sponsors agreed to make the new design optional.
The new law requires the Department of Revenue to design plates to include the optional “In God We Trust” language once current stocks are exhausted.
Senate Democratic leader Lee Harris of Memphis was the only lawmaker in either chamber to vote against the bill after questioning why the new plates will not require the same extra fees as other specialty plates.

Almost 40 million Americans will travel 50 miles or more away from home this Memorial Day weekend, according to AAA’s annual forecast for the holiday.
That’s one million more travelers than last year and the highest Memorial Day travel volume since 2005.
AAA expects 34.6 million Americans to drive to their destinations this year. That’s an increase of 2.4 percent over last year, despite the fact that motorists will be paying the highest Memorial Day gas prices since 2015.
AAA expects 2.9 million Americans to fly to their destinations over this holiday weekend; an increase of 5.5 percent over last year.

The 2017 National Safe Boating Week is this week. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency is participating to promote the wear of life jackets as the summer boating season begins.
This past Friday was Wear Your Life Jacket to Work Day with the goal of demonstrating how easy it is to wear a life jacket. Participants wore a life jacket to work, demonstrating how easy to wear one, even while at work.
It was just one of the events to help usher in National Safe Boating Week which is annually held the week prior to Memorial Day Weekend. Boating partners across the United States and Canada are teaming to promote safe boating practices, including the wear of life jackets for National Safe Boating Week and throughout the 2017 boating season.
The goal of National Safe Boating Week is to educate the public about the importance of safe boating practices and wearing life jackets while on the water.