News 2011

Cannon County was represented in a prestigious pageant over the weekend.  The Miss Tennessee High School and Collegiate Pageant took place Saturday in Memphis at the Buckman Performing Arts Center.  This pageant serves as the state preliminaries for the National Miss High School America and Miss Collegiate America Pageants.  Cannon County resident and MTSU student Olivia Campbell came in at second Runner-Up in the pageant

Back to school time also means back to children’s story time at the Adams Memorial Library in Woodbury and the Auburntown Branch Library in Auburntown.  Miss Patti  Chappell will be ready and waiting with stories and plenty of fun on Thursdays in Woodbury at 10:30 a.m. and on Fridays in Auburntown at 10:00.  Please come and join her. The Libraries  have had lots of questions about when the computer classes will begin.  The answer is uncertain at this time.  There are delays with some of the equipment and software that has been ordered.  As soon as all of that arrives, we will be contacting those of you who signed up and we will begin to schedule classes.  It is not too late to sign up.

The Pre-Kindergarten Advisory Council met for its first meeting of the 2011-2012 school year Friday at the Offices of the Cannon County School Board.  The Advisory Council is composed of various members representing the entire community including parents, teachers, government officials, business leaders, and local child-care providers.  Cannon County’s pre-k program operates under the directorship of the Tennessee Department of Education’s Office of Early Learning.  Each year, the local school system applies for a grant allowing for the continuation of this program.  The purpose of the Advisory Council is to provide formal input into that application as well as reviewing yearly evaluations and making recommendations for program improvements.  At their recent meeting, four members were recognized for their service during 2010-2011.  These members were Mrs. Rhonda Brown, Mr. and Mrs. Charlie Harrell, and Ms. Reba Rackley..

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam  announced the 2011 Back to School CoverKids outreach campaign to help enroll Tennessee’s children in the state’s low-cost, comprehensive health insurance plan. Working with the Tennessee Department of Education, CoverKids is including a flier with program and enrollment details in the back to school packet of every public school student in Tennessee.
The annual campaign has enrolled tens of thousands of children in the low-cost health insurance plan, which provides coverage for everything from physician visits to hospitalization to dental and vision care.  The program’s current membership is just over 49,000, and there is room for more eligible children to enroll.
Launched in 2007, CoverKids is Tennessee’s plan under the Children’s Health Insurance Program, a federally-funded effort to provide coverage for children in families who do not qualify for Medicaid, but cannot afford private coverage and do not have access to state employee health insurance.
Tennessee families earning less than 250 percent of the federal poverty level, which is $55,875 per year for a family of four, can qualify for CoverKids.  Children must also be uninsured for three months, though exceptions apply for children coming off TennCare or in cases of an involuntary loss of other insurance coverage. CoverKids members have no monthly premiums or annual deductable to meet, and do not have to pay a co-pay for regular check-ups or vaccinations.  Members are required to pay a co-pay for some medical services and prescription drugs.
Signing up for the program is easy.  Families can apply online at www.CoverKids.com or request a paper application by calling 1-866-620-8864.

Recently Woodbury Police Officer John Fesmire was dispatched to the Cannon County Fairgrounds to investigate allegations that a dog had attacked a goat.  While conducting the investigation Officer Fesmire learned that the owners, Walter Bess and Wendy Mears, had taken the dog an went swimming at the Stones River behind the ball fields.  Upon finding Mr. Bess and MsMears, Officer Fesmire escorted them along with the dog back to the lot where the attack had occured.  Officer Fesmire had given permission to a group of people that had waited to go to the River  prior to him finding Bess and Mears.  After that group went to the River, they called authorities to report finding suspicious items.  After detaining Bess and Mears, Officer Fesmire along with Sgt. John House discovered that Bess and Mears had been allegedly cooking Methamphetamine when officer Fesmire walked up and interrupted the process.  Most of the items used for the process was thrown into the water.  A cooler containing more items essential to the manufacturing process of methamphetamine was fished out of the water.  The Tennessee Meth Task Force was contacted for a meth response truck driver to come to the scene.  Once there all harmful and hazardous material was neutralized and contained for disposal. Assisting in the investigation in addition to Officer Fesmire, Sgt. John House and Sgt. Randy Neal were deputies Reed Bryson, Steve McMillen, and Travis Turney as well as Transport Officer Todd Overcast.  More arrests may be pending.  Both Wendy Mears and Walter Bess were charged with initiation of process to manufacture meth, possession of paraphernalia and dog at large.  Bond was set at $53,000.00.  Both are set to appear in court on Sept 27th

The Auburntown Lions Club 5K Run taking place Saturday morning also serves as the start of the Walk Across Tennessee. Walk Across Tennessee is afive week program consisting of teams of five people per team which compete to see who can log the most miles walking, jogging or even biking.
Participating teams will keep track of their own miles. The miles will be posted in the County Extension office. People who are interested in
participating in the program must get a team together, name a captain and name the team. Registration forms are available at the UT Extension
Office on Lehman Street in Woodbury. The Red Apple Days 5K registration takes place at 6:30 Saturday morning, race starts at 7:30 and the fun run
follows the race. Red Apple Days takes place tomorrow and Saturday at CS Hawkins Park in Auburntown.

The Mayor and all councilpersons were present for their regular monthly meeting. The City Recorder presented the previous month’s minutes for approval. The minutes were approved without dissent. The financial sheet for the period ending July31, 2011 was passed out for review and comments. Following a few items of explanation the report was approved as presented.A representative from the State Planning Division met recently with the officials of the Cities of Woodbury and Auburntown along with those of Cannon County. He was very complementary of the cooperation exhibited among the above entities in making the celebration of “Cannon Communities 4th of July Celebration” a reality. He emphasized this kind of cooperation is very rare, but very beneficial, in fostering commerce and building community spirit. Tina Fletcher, Councilperson, gave a report on the upcoming Red Apple Day Celebration in Auburntown. Some of the items mention were: there are 42 vendors who have rented booth spaces, programs for both days are complete and can be found on our website at wbry.com in the cannon calendar section, water and electric utilities have been cut on, and the Red Apples will be ready for the beginning program Friday night.
Theresa Raines address the Council with a concern of everyone – the possible closing of the Post Office here in Auburntown. She spoke at length and handed out material on how to contact individuals who may be of help in keeping the PO open. She said it is not a sure thing that the PO will be closed but now is the time to act (to do all we can) to keep it open.
This meeting was delayed in opening one hour as the Mayor had a family emergency that needed his presence. The meeting ended at 7:35 PM.

The 2nd Annual Cannon County Cattlemen’s Association Beef Field Day scheduled for Saturday, August 6th beginning at 9:00 a.m. The Field Day is hosted by Fred and Cindy Adams farm in Readyville. The event will begin with a Junior Calf Show beginning at 9:00. The Show is open to any youth wishing to exhibit a beef animal. Materials will be provided for Field Day attendees to make a halter following the Junior Show. Following lunch,there will be a Live Beef Quality Assurance demonstration.Participants will get the chance to see firsthand the damage caused from improper use of vaccines and antibiotics. Throughout the day, producers will have the opportunity to visit the commercial exhibits. Product representatives representing Pharmaceuticals, Feed and Service Companies is sponsoring the meal and will have product information available.
There is no cost to attend the Cannon County Cattlemen Beef Field Day. For more information, contact Bruce Steelman at 563-2554, Davy Sneed
(563-4056) or Shirley Dennis (563-4123).

The weekend is finally here and with it brings the Red Apple Days Celebration at CS Hawkins Park. Friday night’s Gospel lineup starts at 5:00 with music from David Asbury, followed by Harold Duggin at 6 and Men of Grace at 7. Tina Marie Fletcher and friends Marie Nichols, Bobby Nichols, David Otts, and David and Susan England will perform starting at 8. Saturday, the Auburntown Lions Club 5k Run kicks off a full day of festivities. The schedule has been filled out with performances by Amy Buckner and Family, Williamson County Bluegrass and Full Steam Bluegrass from 2-5. Complete Schedule can be found in the Community Calendar section of wbry.comWBRY AM 1540 FM 96.7 will broadcast live from Red Apple Days tonight from 5 to 8 and Saturday from 2-5.

Just as Cannon County Budget Chairman Mark Barker suggested, there was not much difference in the estimated revenue of the 2010-2011 fiscal year compared to the actual revenue figures of the same year. The Cannon County Budget Committee met one more time to go over the actual figures Thursday night at the Cannon County Courthouse. Revenues during the 2010-2011 fiscal year were estimated at $5,732,852.00 while the final figures showed county revenues coming in at 5,795,227.00. Estimated and final figures on County Expenses totaled $5,920,020.00. This carried a fund balance of $579,664.00 at the end of the fiscal year. The estimateRevenue for the fiscal year 2011-2012 which were worked out based on the final revenue figures of this past year totaled $5,102,617.00 with the expenditures estimated at $5,357,833.00. This means the County will have to dip into their fund balance and will be left with an estimated ending fund balance of $324,448.00 which was only a $33,000 increase from the estimated fund balance before the final figures were in.Seven county commissioners were present for the meeting including Kevin George, Mark Barker, and Clint Higgins all of whom in addition to Bill
Jennings and James Atkins serve on the Budget Committee. Other Commissioners in the audience included Kevin Mooneyham, Russell Reed, Todd
Hollandsworth, and Tony Neal. The budget was gone through twice for the committee members and audience to make comments when compelled. After the second time of going through the budget and not making any more cuts, Chairman Mark Barker asked for a recommendation to be put on the table. The motion was made to recommend the budget as presented to the budget committee, with the same 20 cent property tax increase since the final numbers were in and there was no significant difference than what was in the estimated figures. After a brief heated exchange between County
Executive Mike Gannon and Kevin George The motion passed 4 to 1 with Committee member Kevin George voting against the recommendation.