Category: News

The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development announced Friday that 12 Tennessee communities have been selected to participate in the fifth round of the Tennessee Downtowns program. The communities selected include Ashland City, Crossville, Dickson, Gainesboro, Hohenwald, Humboldt, Lenoir City, Livingston, Lynchburg, Manchester, Wartburg and Woodbury.
Each of the 12 communities selected this round has downtown commercial districts established at least 50 years ago and have demonstrated their readiness to organize efforts for downtown revitalization. The highly competitive selection process was based on historic commercial resources, economic and physical need, demonstrated local effort, overall presentation and probability of success.
Tennessee Downtowns is an affiliated program of Tennessee Main Street and is a community improvement program for towns and cities seeking to revitalize traditional commercial districts. The communities chosen to participate work through volunteer committees of local citizens who participate in a two-year program supported by the National Main Street Center. They also receive a $15,000 grant to complete a downtown improvement project upon completion of the training based on the successful Main Street Four-Point Approach.

On Thursday night just before 9pm Coffee County deputies and the Hillsboro Volunteer Fire Department responded to 544 Dean Shop Rd in reference to a house fire. Apparently no one lived in the home. The house was allegedly used to store items, but the electric power was still on at the residence.
The value of the house was estimated to be $10,000. The home was said to be over fifty-years old.
No one was injured in the fire.

Duck River Electric Membership Corporation (DREMC) members who are Comcast cable TV or internet subscribers in Franklin and Moore counties could experience a service interruption if the electric co-op is forced to disconnect power supplies and remove equipment for non-payment of pole attachment rental fees.
Notice was sent to Comcast that its facilities on DREMC poles are subject to removal unless overdue fees are paid prior to June 24.
Approximately 7,000 Comcast customers could be affected.
Almost two years ago, Comcast allowed a similar situation to develop by not paying annual pole attachment fees. The company averted loss of service to customers by finally making payment of the past-due amount and promising to enter into a new contract.
Comcast is still attached to DREMC poles without a contract and has allowed another past-due balance to accrue.
“We presume that over this period Comcast used these attachments to derive profit from services sold to customers in Franklin and Moore counties. Over the same period, we presume Comcast terminated service to its own customers for non-payment. Our contention is that no matter how large the companies might be that use our poles, they are subject to the same rules,” says DREMC President/CEO Michael Watson.
To ensure that DREMC members do not subsidize Comcast or others, the co-op charges an attachment fee that fairly reflects the cost of dedicating a portion of each pole for use by telephone, cable TV or other non-electric service providers.
Duck River sent notice to Comcast that, unless the delinquent pole attachment fees are paid, electric service will be disconnected to Comcast power supplies, and the process of Comcast equipment removal will begin under the co-op’s direction. Comcast will be billed for the expense of equipment removal.
Watson said, “We hope it does not become necessary for Duck River to take these steps. But it is unfair for tens of thousands of electric co-op members without access to cable TV or high-speed internet to subsidize the profits of a company like Comcast.”

Tennessee’s unemployment rate for May was 4.1 percent, a slight decrease from the April rate of 4.3 percent. That’s according to Tennessee Labor Commissioner Burns Phillips. The U.S unemployment rate for May was 4.7 percent, down three-tenths of a percentage point from the previous month. Over the past year, Tennessee’s unemployment rate decreased from 5.8 percent to 4.1 percent while the national rate declined from 5.5 percent to 4.7 percent.

According to Coffee County Emergency Management Agency Director Allen Lendley, storms Wednesday evening blew tree limbs down across the area but no serious damage was reported. Lendley said that there were several limbs down in the Manchester area and the Barton Springs area. One tree fell, just missing a home on Summer St in Manchester. Lendley noted that most of the limbs that were blown down were Bradford Pear trees and those he described as being brittle.
There was also a power outage in the area that lasted for around 2 hours.
There were no injuries reported.

Winchester Police Detectives Jamie Cox and Sgt. Kelly Gass made two more arrests in connection to an armed robbery that occurred Sunday night at the Creekside Market located on North High Street in Winchester.
Myles Kincaid and Timothy Marshall, both of Monteagle, were arrested on armed robbery and theft of property charges. The two men are the latest arrests made in the Creekside case. David Michael Jordan of Ovoca Road Tullahoma was arrested Sunday in relation to the robbery.

If you haven’t driven in downtown Tullahoma you have missed some of the construction work going on in the area. Recently the area of Atlantic was closed off while work was being done as part of the downtown revitalization effort. This week crews have had a section of East Lincoln in the downtown area blocked off while they installed some brick work at the intersection of Lincoln and Jackson Street. The work will continue for several more weeks in the downtown area as the workers continue to revitalize the area. The work is being done through a state grant.

The wackiness that only Bell Buckle can perfect is back THIS SATURDAY (June 18,2016)! There’s not a better day during the year than the day of the Bell Buckle Chamber of Commerce’s annual RC-MoonPie Festival held the 3rd Saturday in June for 22 years! They are very excited to announce that the April 2016 USA Today’s food and wine guide chose the Bell Buckle RC-MoonPie Festival as one of the sweetest festivals in the nation.
There’s so much for everyone to enjoy with a large selection of arts and crafts booths, music, cloggers, contests, and gobs of good Southern food fare! The grand finale of the day is the cutting and serving of the World’s Largest MoonPie – where Bell Buckle says “Let them eat PIE!”
This old fashioned celebration of the South’s first fast food is truly a bucket list experience with the down home atmosphere and entertaining quirkiness that shines most brightly in Bell Buckle.

A federal court has upheld the Federal Communication Commission’s decision to treat the Internet like a utility – a victory for consumers say advocates of net neutrality. The 2-to-1 ruling came Tuesday from the U.S. Court of Appeals for Washington, D.C. Marty Newell, a member of the Rural Broadband Policy Group, says the court ruling is “part of the march” to treating broadband the same way we treat telephone service. “It’s not optional,” he stresses. “It’s not a luxury. There was a time when Internet access might have been considered a luxury, but it’s not now. That time has passed. “It’s a necessity in the same way that we looked at the telephone once upon a time.” The cable and telecom industries and their allies argue that the FCC’s rule is overreaching and would stifle investment and customer choice. But Newell and other advocates say web users need more protections from providers. Newell says the ruling is especially important in rural areas of the country that are underserved by broadband. Take Kentucky for example, where Newell says around one out of every four households does not have access to broadband services. “We don’t have as much choice,” he points out. “The competition is not nearly as great. “It is critical that this communications tool that it is absolutely essential to do business in the 21st century, that it be an open system.” The Rural Broadband Policy Group says of the 19 million Americans who don’t have broadband, more than 14 million live in rural parts of the country. Noting a lot of money is at stake, Newell says he knows the legal challenges will continue, something the industry giants have promised.