Category: News

As the state’s population continues to age, a growing number of Tennesseans are realizing there’s much life to be lived after navigating adulthood and the traditional career path. Consumer health expert Janet Taylor explains there has been a steady shift over the years, as more people are determined to seek out meaningful life changes in their older years, from career to health to relationships. “In fact, the sentiment is that at 50-plus, 60-plus, 70-plus, we’re not done yet in terms of realizing our passion and our purpose, and how to incorporate more of that into our daily lives,” Taylor says. To help those seeking changes spark some ideas about what they want to accomplish and how to do it, Taylor will be joined by Dr. Bill Thomas this Wednesday for a performance in Memphis as part of what’s called the Second Wind Tour. Taylor says the production is free to attend and uses a unique blend of theater, video and music to challenge the conventional narrative of decline in midlife and beyond. “And you can come and get information and inspiration. There’s music. There’s a movie. It’s nonfiction theater, but really meant to inspire you,” she explains. Wednesday’s performance in Memphis is just one of many events connected to the AARP program known as http://lifereimagined.aarp.orgLife Reimagined. Taylor describes it as a sort of personalized guidance system, including online tools, to help people dust off their dreams. “As we get older, people start looking and saying, ‘You know, I have less time in front of me than behind me,’ but the reality is there’s more than enough time left to do what you want to do, as long as you make the most of it,” she says. “Life Reimagined helps you make the most of the time that you have left.” According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the aging of the baby boomer generation means the nation’s 65-and-older population will nearly double by the year 2050. More information is available at http://lifereimagined.aarp.org and at http://secondwindtour.org.

Motlow College alumnus Andy Baits has donated a pair of sports-related books to the Clayton-Glass Library and has joined with the Motlow College Foundation in creating the “Books for Binns” project.
Baits, an outstanding member of the Bucks’ basketball teams in 1983-84 and 84-85, holds multiple spots in the school’s all-time record book. He chose to honor the late Binns Jordan for Jordan’s contributions to the athletic history of the college. Jordan was the first radio broadcaster of Motlow athletics when the school opened in 1969, and also worked at the college bookstore in the late 1990s and early 2000s. Jordan, who passed away in February, was a sports analyst and talk show host on our sister station WHMT, The Ticket sports radio in Tullahoma.
“I think it is important to recognize Binns as being the first to broadcast Motlow athletics,” said Baits, who now lives in Christiana. “Furthermore, he was a pillar in the local sports community and was either broadcasting, umpiring, driving the bus, lining the field or keeping the stats at thousands of events. He is a Tullahoma sports legend.
The books Baits chose, Wooden: A Coach’s Life by Seth Davis and The College Football Book from Sports Illustrated, will be specially marked to indicate the project and then put into circulation.

A Manchester woman was cited into to Coffee County General Sessions Court after she allegedly took $183 worth of meat from a grocery store.
Melissa A. Brewer, 47, allegedly took the meat Friday, May 16, from Food Lion on West Lincoln Street in Tullahoma.
Store employee Jerry Franklin Bell reported to Tullahoma Police Officer Donnie Burnett that she observed Brewer taking the meat and when confronted she fled on foot to Wheeler Street. That’s where she was apprehended and taken back to the store for positive identification. Brewer is scheduled to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court June 26.

Manchester Police Department is joining departments all across the United States in stepping up high-visibility enforcement during the 2014 Click It or Ticket national mobilization Now to June 1.
Statistics show nighttime drivers are less likely to buckle up compared to daytime drivers. In 2012, 10,480 passenger vehicle occupants were killed in motor vehicle traffic crashes between the hours of 6:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m. Of those killed in nighttime crashes, 55 percent were not wearing seat belts; compared to 41 percent of occupants killed during daytime hours of 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
In 2012, the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) statistics show that 21,667 occupants of passenger cars, trucks, vans and SUV’s were killed in motor vehicle crashes nationwide – and 48 percent were NOT wearing seat belts at the time of the fatal crashes.
Among young adult occupants ages 18 to 34, who were killed in crashes, 56 percent were not buckled up – the highest percentage of any age group. The number jumps to 59 percent when only men in this age group are included.
According to NHTSA, between 2008 and 2012, 49 percent of the 114,102 passenger vehicle occupants who were killed on our roadways were not wearing their seat belts at the time of the fatal crashes. Wearing a seat belt is the single most effective way to reduce fatalities in motor vehicle crashes.
Please join Manchester Police Department by wearing your seat belt and encouraging others to do the same. Seat belts save lives!

There’s been yet another delay in the case against the former director of the Bedford County Emergency Communications District. She is accused of theft.
The Shelbyville Times-Gazette reports that Circuit Court Judge Lee Russell said Friday one piece of information is required from the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office “in order to complete a resolution” in the case against Cathey D. Mathis.
Russell is giving the office until June 20 to get the information to the court, at which point a settlement will be announced, he said.
In April, defense attorney Greg Reed told Russell that preliminary discussions were taking place with Coffee County Assistant District Attorney Felicia Walkup, adding there “was a possibility of some resolution,” but more time for discussion was needed.
Russell has previously said he can only accept a plea in the matter. If the case goes to trial, another judge must be selected because of Russell’s having worked with Mathis in her former position.
Mathis was charged with theft of property over $10,000 by direct indictment following an investigation by the Coffee County District Attorney’s Office. An audit by the state comptroller’s office found $46,807 in undocumented or “questionable purchases.”

Tennessee Labor & Workforce Development Commissioner Burns Phillips has announced the Tennessee preliminary unemployment rate for April is 6.3 percent, which is four tenths of one percentage point lower than the 6.7 percent March revised rate and equal to the national preliminary rate for April. The U.S. revised rate for March was also 6.7 percent.
Economic Summary:
• Over the past year, Tennessee’s unemployment rate decreased from 8.3 percent to 6.3 percent while the national rate decreased from 7.5 percent to 6.3 percent.
• The number of unemployed persons (192,000) is the lowest since May 2008 and is 11,700 lower than last month.
• Total nonfarm employment increased 2,400 jobs from March to April. The largest increases occurred in mining/logging/construction, leisure/hospitality, and durable goods manufacturing.
Over the year, nonfarm employment increased 48,000 jobs. The largest increases occurred in professional/business services, leisure/hospitality, and trade/transportation/utilities.

C. Thomas Robinson, CEcD, executive director of the Tullahoma (TN) Area Economic Development Corporation (TAEDC), has been awarded re-certification by the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) effective April 28, 2014.
Robinson first achieved the Certified Economic Developer designation in 1993. With 32 years of economic development experience, Robinson has served as director of the Tullahoma organization since August of last year.
The designation of Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) is a highly recognized national recognition that denotes a mastery of principal skills in economic development, professional attainment and a commitment to professional growth. Robinson first earned certification by passing a rigorous three-part, two-day examination, testing his knowledge, proficiency and judgment in the key areas of economic development.

Last week (May 14) Coffee County Deputies Daniel Ray and Stephen Sharketti were responding to a call of two men acting suspicious at the Dollar General Store on Woodbury Highway when they spotted a Nissan that the individuals were riding in and turned around to attempt to stop the vehicle.
The driver then drove in a “reckless manner onto the shoulder of the roadway” as well as driving through a red light at the intersection at Woodbury Highway and Interstate Drive.
The driver then pulled onto I-24 west bound ramp. When Deputy Sharketti pulled alongside the car, the driver crashed the car into the earth embankment and steel cable lining. The driver jumped out and began to run from officers and ran across the interstate with deputies in pursuit.
Cody James Shaffer, 19, of McMinnville was finally located in the area of Fredonia Rd and Murfreesboro Highway and taken into custody.
Deputies found numerous items used in the production of methamphetamines in the cab of the vehicle Shaffer was in. They found 2 lbs, of crystal drain cleaner, aluminum foil, plastic tubing, stripped lithium batteries, a glass jar, two plastic bottles, cold compress, ounce of acid in a plastic bottle, an 8 oz soft drink bottle with what appeared to be flammable liquid inside it.
Shaffer was charged with evading arrest, reckless driving, two counts of reckless endangerment, initiation of the process intended to result in the manufacture methamphetamines and possession of drug paraphernalia. He is being held under a bond of $106,000 and is to appear in Coffee County General Sessions Court on Monday (May 19).

Recently the Coffee County Budget and Finance Committee voted to present a resolution to the full commission. That resolution would be to include a wheel tax referendum on the Aug. 7 election ballot. Last week the vote was in favor by a vote of 10-8, but it takes an 11-vote majority of the commission to pass a motion. Three commissioners did not attend the meeting: Janet Fann, Gail Hines and Warren Walker.
The Budget and Finance Committee had recommended a $50 per vehicle tax to generate roughly $2 million to help run the new Coffee County Jail and the new Coffee County Middle School.
Commissioners are now looking into at major cuts in various departments. Residents could also be hit with a heavy property tax increase. An increase of a possible 30-40 cents would make Manchester and Tullahoma have two of the highest property tax rates in the state.
The Coffee County Budget and Finance Committee will meet again on Thursday.
(Portions of this story from the Tullahoma News)