Category: News

Earlier in the school year New Union teachers Betsy Ratliff (Middle, in Purple T-shirt – Slide 1) and Taylor Frame (Right of the picture – Slide 1) made a deal with their students that they would go skydiving if their students met their reading goal of 6,000 Accelerated Reader points for the year.  Well, they met the goal, but at that same time, Mrs. Ratliff found out that she has Breast Cancer – with her treatments underway, she could not jump.
So school Principal Michelle Hummel stepped up to the challenge and took Mrs. Ratliff’s place on the skydive!
Click below to hear from Principal Hummel:
[/audio
Mrs. Frame and Principal Hummel jumped Sunday afternoon with about 60 of their students and family there to watch – It was a great experience for all involved!

Tennessee’s 129th Army Band will be performing a free concert at South Jackson Civic Center on Monday, May 29 at noon. “We want to invite all of Tullahoma and visitors from our surrounding communities to enjoy this patriotic concert,” said Mayor Lane Curlee.
“We are very fortunate to host the 129th Army Band for a second time,” said event organizer, Alan Harris. “They enjoyed their time in Tullahoma during last year’s Independence Day Celebration, and they wanted to return and treat our citizens to a free concert.”
The 129th is composed of musicians from all over Tennessee. Headquartered in Nashville, the band boasts many professional musicians, band directors and performing artists from the Nashville area. The 129th is led by Chief Warrant Officer William Stepp and First Sergeant is Richard Lutz.
The 129th Army Band is part of the Tennessee National Guard and has a long and distinguished history serving Tennessee and the United States both in peacetime and during armed conflicts.

A Manchester man has been arrested on multiple charges following an accident on the Old Manchester Highway on May 4.
Christopher Randall Bonner, 31, of Stacy Anny Road Manchester was charged with resisting arrest, resisting stop, halt, frisk, failure to obey an officer, leaving the scene of an accident, driving on revoked/suspended license and immediate notice of an accident.
According to a report by Coffee County Sheriff’s Corporal Harmon Campbell, the arrest followed Bonner not stopping when Deputy Ben Sneed attempted to stop him while directing traffic at an accident on the Old Manchester Highway. The deputy stated that when he saw Bonner, he remembered that there were warrants at the jail for his arrest. But the report states that Bonner failed to stop. He drove around the patrol car at a high rate of speed through a ditch. Sneed and Deputy Harmon Campbell gave pursuit.
The man lost control of his vehicle and crashed into a utility pole. He then jumped out of his vehicle and fled on foot with the deputies chasing him. After pursuing him for approximately 100 yards, the officers were able to apprehend Bonner.
Bonner was transported to Tennova—Harton Hospital after he complained of knee pain. He was treated and released and transported to the Coffee County Jail where he is being held under a bond of $86,500. He is to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court on May 22.
He also has warrants in Lewis County for his arrest.

On Monday just before noon, Coffee County Sherriff’s Department personnel responded to a house fire on Fredonia Road. New Union Fire Department had also responded to the scene.
A witness told authorities he drove by and saw smoke coming from the roof area of the house. He said he stopped and knocked on the door several time but got no response. The fire department was able to control the fire and cleared the home of smoke.
The home owner later arrived and told Corporal Harmon Campbell that his family was out of town since earlier in the day.

A resident of East Grundy Street reported to Tullahoma Police that on May 6 he was robbed by four males at gunpoint.
According to a report by Officer Tyler Walls, Andrew Johnson Mayton stated that he heard a knock at the door. When he looked out he saw a white female. He opened the door and two black males and a white male forced their way into his residence. He told the officer that one of the black males was carrying a shotgun while the other black male had a pistol. He says he was then forced to the ground and threatened. While he was on the ground the black males began going through the house. They took his wallet containing $100 and a rifle.
After officers Walls and Cpl Joshua Yates spoke with Mayton, they checked the house and found that it had been ransacked.

Tennessee’s U.S. senators are moving ahead with a bill providing protections for the state’s wilderness lands, even while the Trump administration works to remove protections elsewhere.
Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker introduced the Tennessee Wilderness Act – S.973 – to protect 20,000 acres of the Cherokee National Forest. Laura Hodge, campaign coordinator for Tennessee Wild, said the Republican-led legislation faces good odds in the Senate.
“This bill is huge because, with a Republican bill – conservation bill – being introduced in a Republican climate, we’ve got a great opportunity to get this bill passed,” Hodge said. “And it’s significant because it protects some of the most pristine places in the Southeast.”
Designating a place a wilderness area is the highest level of conservation protection for federal land.
This bill comes as President Trump announced an executive order last week prompting a review of several national monuments – most of which are located in the West. According to the latest numbers from the Outdoor Industry Association, outdoor recreation generates almost $4 billion in federal tax revenue per year, and about the same amount for states in the Southeast – a region that includes Kentucky, Alabama, Mississippi and Tennessee.
Mark McNight of Chattanooga has been active in public land conservation for the past decade. He said while designating additional lands as wilderness would be a win for the Volunteer State, threatening protections of national monuments in other parts of the country is indicative of a larger problem.
“If you start not following these rules and start trying to undo the process, it puts the whole public lands system at risk,” McNight said; “because, if you think about it, protecting land forever is a concept that requires us all to believe in the same thing.”
Bill Hodge, executive director of the Southern Appalachian Wilderness Stewards, said it’s important to pay attention to national policy changes, even if they don’t directly impact the state.
“While a place like the Smokies is not at risk because it is a national park and it’s not a national monument that’s been designated, this all starts to undermine this entire idea of the value of public lands,” Hodge said.
A number of national monuments across the country are threatened by Trump’s executive order.
This is the fifth time the Tennessee Wilderness Act has been introduced, but supporters are hopeful that, since it has the support of members of the majority party, this time it will pass.

On Friday (May 5, 2017) afternoon around 4pm there was a one-vehicle accident on Maple Springs Road in Coffee County. According to Tennessee Highway Patrolman Keith Summers’ report, 63 year-old Willberta Lynne Foster was driving a 2006 Ford Windstar van when it went off the right side of the road, rolling over, hitting a fence and a tree before coming to rest.
Foster was transported to Unity Medical Center for unknown injuries.
Apparently according to the troopers report, the van suffered disabling damage.

On Sunday (May 7th 2017) Manchester officers received a call of a suspicious person walking down Stroud Road. According to the arrest warrant, when officers made contact with the man he refused to stop and officers had to pull in front of him to get him to stop. The warrant goes onto say that the man refused to comply with officer demands and kept reaching into his right front pocket.
Officers were finally able to establish the subject’s ID as being Jermaine Thomas Reynolds age 33 of Cedar Lane Tullahoma from a female who had showed up on the scene and officers found an active warrant for Reynolds in Coffee County and other warrant in Franklin County with no bond.
Officers searched the man and allegedly located a steak knife hidden in Reynolds’ right front pocket. He allegedly stated that he had planned to stab the officer if he had rushed him.
Manchester Police Officer Jon Holland arrested Reynolds and charged him with public intoxication, aggravated assault and failure to obey an officer. His bond was set at $86,000 and he’ll appear in Coffee Court on June 27, 2017.