News 2011

High School Students who have 10 or more unexcused absences to a class orclasses may have their parking privileges removed or suspended until
attendance improves. In addition they will not be prom or senior trip
eligible and will not be field trip eligible. Students also face
suspension from extracurricular clubs such as Beta FFA HOSA and sports
teams. This is the new handbook change approved by the Cannon County
Board Of Education during Thursday nights meeting. There will be some
ways the student can get back in good standing with the attendance policy
on the 10 unexcused days such as simply showing a good attendance record
after their 10th unexcused day. In order to be eligible for Prom or
Senior Trip, the student would need to make 10 straight days of school
attendance to pay back one of their unexcused days
In other Board Of Education actions at the regular monthly meeting of the
Cannon County Board Of Education the board approved the policy changes of
the Community Use of School Facilities. The changes involved the
following: when school kitchens are used, at least one member of the
cafeteria staff must be present to supervise the use of the equipment; A
$90 fee per employee will be charged for up to 4 hours and $175 for more
than 4 hours. The Board will approve and periodically review a fee
schedule for the use of school facilities by community or civic
organizations and other non-profit, recreational, religious, political or
philosophical groups. Public service organizations (fire, police,
ambulance, rescue squad) are exempt from the $100 fee, but will be subject
to the employee fee for use of the kitchen.
The Teacher Effective Data Policy Changes were approved.
The change involved designated appropriate administrators will be the
principal of each respective school, supervisors who evaluate teachers
through observations, and the director of schools.
State guidelines for distribution, security and application of the teacher
effect data will be followed.
The policy changes for transfer students were also approved.
Bonnie Patterson, principal of Woodbury Grammar School approached the
board needing permission to develop a play area between the Jr. Lions
Football practice field and the existing Pre-K Playground. There is a
drainage problem coming from the practice field and upkeep is a problem.
The last couple of loads of dirt that was placed on the practice field
contained a lot of rock including some boulders making it dangerous for
children who walk in that area. Funding for developing the area will come
from a Pre-K Grant. The Board gave approval to develop this area into a
play area.
Because the School Budget has not been presented to the full Cannon County
Commission, it was decided that the Board Meeting needed to be tabled
until after the July 16th Cannon County Commissioner meeting so the Board
could go over the final budget pending that it is approved.
Director Of Schools Barbara Parker also talked about rezoning and wanted
the Board Members to consider rezoning the Westside and Woodbury Grammar
Schools area at the tabled meeting. Roads that Director Parker wants to
rezone back to the Westside School are Lonesome Dove Road, Ginas Road,
Riverview, Riverbend Road. Jill Lane, Mockingbird Lane, Hoover Mill,
Rolexi, Bush Haven, Hollis Creek Road N, Dickens Hill Road and Frank Holt
Road. Currently there are only 7 students in which the rezoning will
effect. Those 7 students will have a choice of attending the Woodbury
Grammar School in which they have been enrolled in, or going to Westside
School in which they are zoned. The rest of the students that would have
been effected by this change are already going to the Westside Grammar
School.
The Board Of Education will meet in a tabled session immediately following
the Cannon County Commissioners Meeting. The agenda will consist of the
rezoning issue as well as the schools budget. The meeting will take place
at the Central Offices in Woodbury.

Wings and Wheels Day at the Discovery Center in Murfreesboro Sunday from1:00-5:00 p.m. Participants can come see antique cars, design their own
wooden car, build paper and model airplanes. The event is possible
through a partnership with the Middle Tennesse Antique Automobile Club.
The Discovery Center is located at 502 SE Broad Street in Murfreesboro

The 34th Annual Uncle Dave Macon Days Festival, started last night andwill run through Sunday at Cannonsburgh Village in Murfreesboro
The festival is home to the National Old-Time Championships in banjo,
clogging and buckdancing as proclaimed in 1986 by the U.S. House of
Representatives. The family-oriented event, which annually draws more than
40,000 attendees, features heritage activities for children, local
concessions, arts and crafts and more. This year’s Trailblazer Award will
be presented in honor of the Delmore Brothers, Alton and Rabon Delmore of
Elkmont, Ala., considered one of the best examples of brother singing acts
in country music. The event’s Heritage Award will honor singer, musician,
television host and historian David Holt.
The festival was established first as a two-hour banjo picking on the lawn
of the historic Rutherford County Courthouse on the public square to honor
the memory of Uncle Dave Macon. Uncle Dave lived near Murfreesboro in the
Kittrell community, and is considered the first Grand Ole Opry superstar.
A master old-time banjo player and performer, he died in 1952, and was
elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1966.

The Arts Center of Cannon County presents the international smash-hitmusical Hairspray for the first time in July. This fun and fabulous
eight-time Tony Award-winning show is on stage for three weekends July 8th
– 24th.
Hairspray is directed by Darryl Deason with musical direction by Robert
Hiers and choreography by Kaleena DeVar. Songs include “Good Morning
Baltimore,” “Welcome to the „60s,” “Big, Blonde and Beautiful,” and “You
Can’t Stop The Beat.” Allison Barnett plays the role of Tracy, with Scott
Willis playing teen heartthrob Link Larkin. Arts Center favorite Matt
Smith is hilarious in the role of Edna Turnblad, with Robert Hiers as
Wilbur Turnblad, Scarlett Turney as Velma Von Tussle and Lindsay Mapes as
Amber Von Tussle. Drew Lyons plays the role of Seaweed with Zoe Phillips
as his sister, Little Inez. Matt Hunter plays the role of Corny Collins.
The performance schedule for all shows is Fridays and Saturdays at 7:30
p.m. and Sundays at 2:00 p.m. Tickets for Hairspray are $12 with discounts
available for students, seniors and groups and may be purchased by
calling the Arts Center box office at 615-563-(ARTS) 2787 or
1-800-235-9073. Tickets may also be purchased online atwww.artscenterofcc.com. The Kitchen at The Arts Center is open before all
performances.
The Arts Center is located on 1424 John Bragg Highway, just west of the
town of Woodbury, approximately 20 minutes from Murfreesboro, Manchester,
and McMinnville and one hour southeast of Nashville.

Donate blood with the American Red Cross and you could win free gas. Nomatter what, donors are winners for giving blood. In about an hour, one
can turn a typical summer day into an extraordinary gift for a patient in
need. A single donation can help save up to three lives. Thursday July
21st the Woodbury Lions Club will be sponsoring a blood drive at the
Woodbury Lions Club Building located at 540 West Adams Street in Woodbury
from 12 noon to 6 p.m. As an extra incentive this summer, anyone who
presents to donate blood with the Red Cross between now and September 5th
will be automatically entered into a drawing for a $250 gas card. Anyone
presenting to donate Friday-Monday of Labor Day weekend will be entered
into a drawing for a $1000 gas card.

The Cannon County Libraries are getting closer to starting the computerclasses. According to Library Director Rita Allen, the materials and
equipment have been ordered and the Libraries have been placed in a label
called Wave 2 for installation of software and preparation of wiring to
support the teaching lab. People are still encouraged to sign up by
providing their name along with preferences for classes needed and class
times. As soon as the schedules are available, the library staff will be
calling those wanting to take the classes to find out the times and dates
that the people would prefer.

The County Budget Committee passed the actual budget for the 2011-2012fiscal year. The challenge though was working to find an agreeable way to
fund the budget. The Committee made up of Chairman Mark Barker, Clint
Higgins, Kevin George, James Adkins and Bill Jennings sat at the round
table and discussed the various ways to fund the budget. According to the
updated budget figures report, the Estimated Ending Fund Balance was
$502,900.00. If revenues do not increase during the 2011-2012 fiscal
year, the fund balance will end up in a estimated low $2,698.00. The
State Auditors suggest that a county stores 3 months of operating expenses
in the General Fund Balance.
Cannon County easily spends more money than the revenues they take in.
Estimated Expenditures for the 2010-2011 year totals $6,063,243.00 while
total estimated revenue for the fiscal year equaled out to be
$5,865,338.00. Estimated Revenues for the 2011-2012 fiscal year will only
be $5,008,460.00 while the expenditures total out at $5,514.058.40. One
small minor cut was made to the budget Thursday night and that was in the
line item of Maintenance Agreements of the Election Commission Office
which was scaled back to the $11,611.00 figure that was budgeted last
year. The Committee went over their thoughts on some of the larger
budgeted departments in the county. Once again it was brought out that
the County Ambulance Service has had a high expense going out to revenue
coming in issue. Ambulance Director Ricky Cope attended the meeting and
assured the Committee, he was doing the best job he could do but because
of the low call volume, low costs of Medicare payments, and ambulances
having to transport patients outside of Cannon County the issues would
still exist. There is a collection agency that is working to collect some
of the money owed to the Ambulance Service by patients and insurance
companies. This should have a positive impact on bringing in more revenue
for the Ambulance Department.
County Solid Waste was talked about. Per the report total estimated
revenues for the 2010-2011 fiscal year came out to be $505,488.00 with
expenditures estimated at $515,757.00. Estimated Ending Fund Balance for
Solid Waste for the 2011-2012 fiscal year shows a negative $41,509.00
balance
The Committee then started talking about ways to increase revenue as
almost all County Departments either retained the same amount of money as
last year’s budget or made more cuts to turn in figures showing a decrease
in their budgets than from the year before. This in itself showed the
issue was one of revenue. The Committee mentioned looking into increasing
local sales tax to the level it is in neighboring counties. The possible
solution would have to be put on a referendum in order for the public to
vote. Next solution was a possible increase in property taxes. The
Committee members debated on the solution, but in the end all agreed that
in order for the budget to be funded, a property tax increase had to be in
order. The current property tax rate is $2.32 which broke down to 16
cents going to solid waste, 4 cents to the Debt Services, $1.22 going to
County General with the remaining 89 cents going toward schools. It was
voted on amongst the committee members to request a 20 cent property tax
increase which will add 3 cents to solid waste bringing the total to 19
cents. Debt Services will remain the same at 4 cents while the County
General fund will get 16 cents of the increase totalling $1.38. The
Schools will receive a penny totalling 90 cents. The property tax rate
would then be $2.52 but as the Committee pointed out on an average
property valued at $100,000 the property tax would only increase $50.00
breaking down even further to $1.00 a week. The Committee will present
the budget request for approval along with the separate request of budget
funding to the full Cannon County Commissioners on July 16th. County
Executive Mike Gannon states there have been Commissioners in the past
that have been all for the budget requests but when it came time to vote
for funding the budget, the same commissioners turned it down. Both
budget and funding of the budget will be voted on separately at the
Saturday meeting.

Over 100 law enforcement officials from Cannon and Rutherford Counties continued the search for two men who escaped from the Cannon County Jail around noon yesterday. The two escapees James W. Hill from Liberty and Aubrey Sanders of Murfreesboro escaped the facility after pulling up wire at a gate and crawling through. James Hill was caught behind the Rite Aid Drug Store here in Woodbury, while Aubrey Sanders was found near Sunny Slope Road around 11:00 last night. Other law enforcement agencies helping in the search was special units of the Murfreesboro Police Department, The Tennessee Highway Patrol and United States Marshalls

Although the Cannon County Reach Program had to reschedule their horseshow this Saturday to a later date, the Horse shows will continue
throuhgout the month of July. The Cannon County SAVE 2nd Annual National
Spotted Saddle Horse Association Show will be held at the Cannon County
Fairgrounds on Saturday July 16th. Gates will open at 4:00 in the
afternoon with the horse show starting at 7. Cost is $5.00 with children
6 and under getting in free. All proceeds from the event will help go
toward supporting Cannon County SAVE a non profit agency geared to
stopping domestic violence in Cannon County

Two other meeting are on the schedule tonight here in Woodbury. TheAmerican Legion Post 279 Executive Board Meeting will be tonight at the
Cannon County Senior Center Meeting starts at 6:30. The Cannon County
Republican Party will also meet tonight at the Cannon County Courthouse
starting at 6:00