Category: News

At Monday’s Mayor of Board and Alderman meeting, Alderman Mike Stanton unveiled Dream Tullahoma’s new street banners that brand Tullahoma as an Aerospace Center of Excellence.
Dream Tullahoma Partnered with the Tullahoma Arts Council to coordinate a design contest.
The winning design was created by Allison Lee. Second place went to Gwen Diller.
The city purchased most of the 41 banners with United Technologies and Blood Assurance purchasing some as well. Alderman Mike Stanton wanted to thank the Tullahoma Utilities Board for installing them at various locations around town.

The Coffee County Commission met on Tuesday night to discuss the county budget.
The county school system had originally asked for $1.4 million above last year’s budget plus other departments were asking for extra funding. After budget and finance meetings took place it came down to the county school system looking at possibly getting $300,000 additional funding for the 2015-16 school year. With matching funds that are required by law to be split between the Manchester and Tullahoma school systems, the actual request was for $600,000.
On Tuesday night the county commission had on the agenda a possible wheel tax of $10 or a property tax increase of 6 cents. Commissioner Steven Jones made a motion to take those items off the agenda for consideration and the motion passed 15-5. So there will be no wheel tax or property tax increase at this time and the overall county budget was approved.
Dr LaDonna McFall Director of Schools for Coffee County had this to say in response to her request being denied. “I am concerned that our school system is consistently left out when funding is allocated in our county.” McFall added, “Educational equality should not depend on where a student is born or lives, however, in our case it does as we invest less per pupil than most any surrounding districts.” The director went on to say, “Our students are lucky to be served by some of the most dedicated educators with whom I have ever worked and they are the reason our students thrive.” McFall said, “We spend far more per inmate than we do per student in Coffee County.” “We need long term solutions, collaborative planning, and teamwork among our leaders to move our county forward.” She says that we don’t need individuals speaking half-truths, pointing fingers, and pretending to have all of the answers. “We need strong, courageous leadership to do what needs to be done so that we don’t continue to find ourselves in the same situation year after year.” McFall stressed, “We need to work together now to develop long term funding solutions.”
“This year will certainly be a financial struggle.” Director McFall finished up her response by saying, “However, I know that our teachers and staffs will continue to be a voice for children and in spite of circumstances, our students will be well served.”

Last July we reported that United Regional Medical Center (“URMC”) and Medical Center of Manchester (“MCM”) were taking the first steps towards a potential combination of the two hospitals. We can now report that the merger will take place on July 1.
According to the Manchester Times, most of the public has been asking about the services the hospitals would provide and what location will remain open. The report says, most hospital functions will take place at the Medical Center located on Interstate Drive including the emergency room and the 49 bed hospital. Hospital leaders say some imaging equipment will remain at the URMC building on McArthur Drive. Employees have been concerned over job losses, so management took on that task and eliminated less than 10 percent of the combined staff by this joint effort.
Officially the URMC ownership group (Coffee Medical Group) is acquiring Medical Center of Manchester.
A new name for the facility will be announced soon.

In a meeting this week the Manchester City Board of Education voted to totally dismiss the $1.4 million sales tax lawsuit against the Coffee County government.
The board voted to dismiss the litigation with prejudice so this means the Manchester city school eliminates the possibility of the lawsuit making another appearance in the future.
In the original suit the Manchester City Board of Education said that the county had improperly kept sales tax dollars from 1983 to 2007 that belongs to the city school system. The suit noted that the State Comptroller’s annual comprehensive audit of the county shows that a portion of the sales tax collected outside the municipalities was not allocated to the city school system. The suit then claims that the comptroller provided ways for the findings to be corrected, but the county had failed to take the steps to give the money to the city schools.

VIAM Manufacturing located in the Interstate Industrial Park is holding a job fair on Wednesday.
They are looking to fill over 50 openings for different positions including machine operators for the Manchester and Tullahoma areas.
If you are interested, interviews will be held, Wednesday, June 24th between 8:00 a.m. and 11 a.m. at VIAM located at 157 Parktower Road in Manchester.
You must first apply at www.resourcemfg.com before showing up for a personal interviews. They ask that you bring two forms of identification.

On Sunday (June 21), a male subject was the operator of a vehicle that was stationary with his emergency flashers on located at Interstate 24 westbound near the 127 mile-marker in Coffee County.
Upon approaching the vehicle, Tennessee State Trooper Jason Boles observed a male and female performing an inappropriate act. Further investigation revealed the female to be 15 years of age and the male to be Johnnie C Weems, 35 of Oakgrove, Ky.
He was charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor by transporting the juvenile out of state without her mother’s consent or knowledge. Weems is also facing charges of indecent exposure, aggravated statutory rape, and driving on revoked/suspended license 2nd offense. He was booked at the Coffee County Jail on a $58,000 bond and has a court date set for August 18.

The national average price for regular unleaded gasoline slipped 1-cent since last week’s AAA Gas Price Brief and is currently $2.79 a gallon. The average remains significantly lower than on this same date last year (-89 cents).
The national average declined by fractions of a cent for six consecutive days. Meanwhile the price in Tennessee has also declined six consecutive days.
Last week, the price of oil averaged $59.89 – 20 cents cheaper than the week before, marking the first weekly decline in three weeks. During the week, WTI oil settled as high as $60.45 a barrel on the NYMEX, but settled at $59.61 per barrel on Friday. The highest settlement of 2015 was $61.43 a barrel on June 10.
In Tennessee the current average price is $2.58 per gallon and that is 89 cents cheaper than this time last year.
This week in Manchester the low price per gallon is $2.43 and in Tullahoma the low price is $2.45.

More than 5,000 airplanes are in Tennessee, and at this point their carbon emissions are unregulated by the federal government. Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency announced that greenhouse-gas emissions from airplanes should be regulated under the Clean Air Act. Vera Pardee, staff attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, said it’s about time. “They are a very large feature of American transportation, and they’re not regulated,” Pardee said. “Trucks are, buses, every car, every passenger car is currently regulated, but the airline industry has been able to just sneak under the radar screen.” Pardee added that while the EPA’s proposed action is welcome, it may be too little, too late in terms of the impact airplane carbon pollution has had on the environment. According to the International Council on Clean Transportation, if commercial aviation were a country, it would rank seventh after Germany in terms of carbon emissions. According to the EPA, while emissions should fall under the Clean Air Act, the agency plans to wait until the International Civil Aviation Organization sets a standard, which is likely only to apply to new aircraft that make up 5 percent of the world’s total aircraft. Pardee said some airlines in the United States already are operating airplanes with some reduced carbon emissions. “It is not that hard to get much more efficient,” she said. “Even if we just got all the airlines up to the standard that’s being implemented right now by the best airlines in the United States, we would cut carbon by more than 25 percent.” The EPA has invited the public and transportation industry to comment on the issue. The agency began regulating car pollution in the 1970s and recently announced it would regulate carbon emissions from power plants.

Brad Weir, the former Coffee County teacher and baseball coach recently had domestic violence charges conditionally dismissed in Franklin County.
Weir, 44 now living in East Ridge, TN was arrested on charges that were the result of an alleged incident that occurred May 3 at the Bluegill Grill on Tims Ford Lake.
Weir’s domestic violence charge was dismissed after a conference with the victims, Kellie Campbell and Larry Campbell.
Weir’s case will be continued on June 7, 2016, and if there are no further problems the case will be totally dismissed.
Weir was ordered to stay away from the Campbell’s family.
According to the report by Franklin County Sheriff’s Deputy Troy Parsons, Weir got into an argument with his ex-girlfriend’s husband on May 3 and also allegedly threatened to kill his ex-girlfriend, her husband and anyone who might be in the nearby restaurant.
Weir left the area, but was found a few days later in Hamilton County.
Weir is still facing a charge in Coffee County of statutory rape by an authority figure of a 15 year-old female.