The Coffee County Sheriff’s Department and Manchester Police reported that they wrote a combined 303 citations people during the 2019 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival. That’s down from the numbers we reported from 2018, which were 381. Officers, deputies and state troopers made 20 Bonnaroo-related arrests this year, down from 45 in 2018. Despite some cooler weather during most of Bonnaroo 2019 medical transports were up. Paramedics and medical staff transported 62 festival-goers to area hospitals, including two who were taken by helicopter during the four-day event. The ground transports by Coffee County EMS were for a possible ankle...

Deb Wimberley is a 7th Grade Teacher at Coffee County Middle School. Wimberly was recently selected to participate in the highly competitive Tennessee Educator Fellowship by the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) organization. The Tennessee Educator Fellowship is a yearlong program that equips teachers, school counselors, interventionists, and librarians to learn about education policy and advocate for their students and profession. Since the inception of SCORE’s Educator Fellowship program, cohorts have led new education initiatives, advocated for high-quality instructional materials, engaged community stakeholders in conversations centered around literacy and post-secondary opportunities, along with amplifying the voice, presence, and...

Grundy County Sheriff Clint Shrum says Jacky Wayne Bean is in custody as of Thursday night. Bean was wanted for aggravated sexual battery and false imprisonment of a child. The man was out of jail on probation after pleading guilty to felony reckless endangerment. Bean was found late Thursday in Franklin County. He was previously arrested and sentenced in 2017 after a deadly car chase in Grundy County. Bean was driving with 20-year-old Shelby Comer in the car when Grundy County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Holmes tried to make a traffic stop. Officials said Bean failed to stop and led...

Tennessee’s statewide seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for May 2019 inched up slightly to 3.3 percent after remaining at an all-time historic low for three consecutive months, according to data released by the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development (TDLWD). May’s preliminary rate of 3.3 percent is 0.1 of a percentage point higher than the previous month’s rate. Since February, unemployment across the state had held steady at a record 3.2 percent. When comparing year-to-year statistics, the current rate is 0.3 of a percentage point lower than it was in May 2018. Total nonfarm employment in Tennessee grew by...

Nearly 1,800 high schoolers from rural America packed their suitcases and boarded airplanes and buses bound for Washington, D.C., to learn about the political process, meet elected officials and gained an up-close understanding of U.S. history as they toured numerous monuments and memorials and visited renown sites in and around the D.C. area. It’s all part of the Electric Cooperative Youth Tour, and DREMC sent students from its coverage area to the event, which ran June 14-20 for Tennessee participants. With around 2,000 national participants, including 10 from DREMC’s service area, and about 250 are adult chaperones, this year’s...

A strong storm with straight-line winds passed through Coffee County Wednesday night causing power outages affecting approximately 3,500 members in the northeast part of the county. At least seven poles were broken, five of which were in a row, and damage was reported in several other areas. With Duck River Electric Membership Corporation’s (DREMC) alternate line feeds, all but approximately 750 members were restored quickly. Pole replacements are time-consuming; therefore, extended outages remained for several hours. DREMC brought in five contract construction crews immediately to aid in power restoration. As of Thursday morning, about 200 DREMC members remained without...