Category: News

Hickerson Elementary School, located on the Old Manchester Highway, has received a $15,000 Let’s Play Community Construction Grant to replace outdated equipment on the school’s playground.
The grant, awarded by Dr Pepper Snapple (DPS) and national nonprofit KaBOOM! as part of the DPS-led Let’s Play effort, will allow the school to replace two pieces of old equipment with four new pieces.
The grant requires that the school spend no less than $24,000 on playground equipment.
The school’s PTO has raised the remaining $9,000 needed to purchase equipment.
In August, Hickerson Elementary was named a 2015 Tennessee Reward school, ranked in the top five percent of all Tennessee schools for year-over-year progress in student achievement.

On Saturday, October 24, the Third Annual Get Fit! Tullahoma Panther/Bobcat 5K Family Fun Run and Walk will be held at Frazier McEwen Park. Saturday’s 5K is a part of the Get Fit! Tullahoma program that was launched in March of 2013. Mayor Lane Curlee is behind the initiative that was created to encourage wellness and to reduce obesity and diabetes in the community.
The cost for the event is $25 for adults and $10 for students. Registration is currently ongoing at http://www.tullahomatn.gov/get-fit, http://www.active.com and both East and West middle schools. Registration will also be available on the day of the race. T-shirts are first come first serve the day of the race.
Registration begins at 8:30 am at Frazier McEwen Park, and the run will start at 9:30 am.

More than 1,100 smoke alarms have been installed in some Tennessee homes as the result of a challenge the State Fire Marshal’s Office made to 10 Tennessee fire departments.
As part of its “100 for 100” challenge on Oct. 10, the office chose 10 departments that believed they could install at least 100 alarms in a day – that’s 1,000 total newly installed smoke alarms.
Organizers say the departments exceeded their goal by installing 1,116 smoke alarms during the event. Tullahoma Fire Department was involved in the “100 for 100”.
In 2012, the Fire Marshal’s Office created the “Get Alarmed, Tennessee!” smoke alarm program to install free smoke alarms in high-risk areas across Tennessee to help reduce the state’s fire mortality rate.
More than 89,000 alarms have been distributed so far, and 106 lives have been saved in homes where fires later occurred and “Get Alarmed” smoke alarms were installed.

A small fire was reported early Tuesday morning at Russell Stover Candies store in Manchester. Manchester Fire Chief George Chambers says the fire was isolated to a light fixture and an area underneath the awning of the store on the Hillsboro Blvd. Firefighters responded and determined where the fire was and extinguished it. Firemen then looked thru the store and roof area for any fire extension and did not find any. Chambers added that there was minimum damage done, isolated to the awning area outside the store.
Chambers commended the Manchester Police Department for doing a great job of isolating the area in front of the store so that firemen could deploy their hose lines and vehicles.
Coffee County EMS responded and stood by in case any of the firefighters needed any assistance.
The store opened for regular hours on Tuesday.

Gas prices are declining again, falling 6 cents nationwide in the past week. Prices are also down 3 cents in Tennessee, falling to an average of $1.99 per gallon.
“Average prices rose about a nickel in the past couple weeks due to rising oil prices and elevated demand at the same time that refineries were conducting seasonal maintenance,” said Mark Jenkins, spokesman, AAA – The Auto Club Group. “More and more refineries are returning to full capacity, which will beef up supplies, helping to push gas prices lower in the coming weeks.”
The price of oil settled at $47.26 a barrel on the NYMEX last Friday – 88 cents higher than Thursday, but $2.37 lower than the closing price a week before.
In Coffee County as of Tuesday afternoon the low price per gallon was $1.83 and in Tullahoma the low price has dipped to $1.87.

Kevin Mooneyham, 47, former Chief of Police for the City of Woodbury, Tennessee, was sentenced on Monday by Chief U.S. District Judge Kevin H. Sharp to serve eight months in federal prison for theft of federal program funds, announced David Rivera, U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee. Mooneyham was also ordered to serve one year of supervised release and to pay restitution in the amount of $42,171.29. Mooneyham was indicted on April 22, 2015, and pleaded guilty on June 29, 2015.
In sentencing Mooneyham, Judge Sharp noted that there was an abuse of the public position that Mooneyham held which could not be ignored and should be reflected in the sentence imposed.
Mooneyham admitted during the plea hearing that from January 2013 through February 2015, while acting in his official capacity as the Woodbury Police Chief, he submitted fraudulent timesheets for more than $28,000 in overtime hours that he had not in fact worked. The funds used to pay the false overtime hours claimed by Mooneyham were derived from federal grants provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration through the Governor’s Highway Safety Office, specifically for the purpose of enhanced DUI enforcement efforts.
Mooneyham also admitted that he misrepresented to other officers of the Woodbury Police Department that federally-funded overtime was not available, despite the fact that he had been submitting and continued to submit timesheets for such overtime on his own behalf. He also disclosed that he had misrepresented to a Town of Woodbury official that he had received a large percentage of federally-funded overtime pay because no other officers of the Woodbury Police Department were willing to perform the overtime patrols. In fact, several Woodbury Police officers had expressed an interest in performing such overtime patrols.
The case was investigated by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Abely prosecuted the case.

The Tennessee Governor’s Highway Safety Office is encouraging parents and caregivers to talk to teenagers about driving safely.
The office is partnering with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to recognize national Teen Driver Safety Week.
Multiple state agencies are making teen driver safety a priority and encouraging parents and caregivers to set aside time this week to get involved.
Kendell Poole is director of the Governor’s Highway Safety Office. He says parents shouldn’t hand over the keys without having a discussion about safe driving practices.
Last year, officials said there were over 100 fatalities in Tennessee that involved a teen driver.
Parents and caregivers can find information about talking to young drivers at http://www.safercar.gov/parents .

49-year-old Jeffrey Eddy of Tullahoma died Friday night when he was struck by three vehicles as he walked across North Jackson Street.
According to a report by Tullahoma Police Sgt. Robert Weaver the accident occurred around 7:30 p.m.
The report states that a 22 year-old female from Tullahoma was traveling north on North Jackson Street and as she attempted to enter the turn lane she struck Eddy. She told police that she did not see the man.
Eddy was then struck by a car operated by a 21-year-old Manchester man. He was traveling south on North Jackson Street.
A 45-year-old woman from Tullahoma was traveling behind the man’s vehicle and also struck Eddy.
The 22-year-old female was charged with financial responsibility violation. The other drivers were not charged.