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Volume 110, Number 11, Wednesday, August 1, 2012
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Independent Appeal Making McNairy County headlines for more than 110 years
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“Take it outside” Parking lot altercation overshadows Bethel meeting By Jeff Whitten Head News Writer
An argument in the parking lot overshadowed a mostly peaceful special called meeting of the Bethel Springs Board of Aldermen last Thursday. The altercation was between Bethel Springs Police Chief T. E. “Pee Wee” Sowell and Jennifer Doles, who criticized Sowell in a letter to the editor in a previous edition of the Independent Appeal. Sowell got involved after an argument began between Sherry Smith and Doles. “When I came out the door there, they were arguing, and she was coming towards him, and she was talking, and I couldn’t hear her too much, and I moved where I could hear, and she was coming towards him, and he was trying to calm her down, whatever he was doing, and I couldn’t understand him, but I could understand her because she was looking towards me, and she kept saying ‘I will go home and get my gun,’” said T. C. Williams (a contributor for the Independent Appeal), who witnessed the altercation.
Doles denied saying this. “I don’t even have a gun in my home. That’s a bunch of baloney,” Doles said. “In the meeting, she (Doles) talked about firearms; when you talk about shooting, people get scared,” Williams continued. “It was a big old dispute,” Doles told the Independent Appeal last Monday. She said, after the meeting, Sherry Smith got in her face and called her an obscene name. “I just stood there. I didn’t say nothing to this woman...Here comes Pee Wee out the door and says, ‘You need to back up, you need to get off this property.’ I’m like, ‘I didn’t say nothing, Pee Wee,’” Doles said. Doles said Sowell told her, “It’s bad when trouble follows.” She admitted Sowell told her she needed to get off the property. “This ain’t your property. Anybody can stand on City Hall premises...I’m not doing nothing wrong,” Doles said. According to Doles, Mayor Kay Cox told Sowell to calm down.
See BETHEL, 4A
hold active shooter Preventing the next Aurora: Officers exercise at McNairy Central
INSIDE THIS WEEK
LET THERE BE LIGHT
C.R.U.N.K. FOR CHRIST
Local church holds C.R.U.N.K. Fest PAGE 3A
Adamsville hosts alumni game under new lights PAGE 2B
Robert Sibley Airport receives state grant By Christen Coulon Editor
State Senator Dolores Gresham (R-Somerville) said today she has been informed by the Tennessee Department of Transportation that the Robert Sibley Airport in McNairy County will receive a $1,306,250 state grant. The state grant is available through TDOT’s Division of Aeronautics and requires a 5 percent local match of $68,750. Gresham said the
funds will be used for runway maintenance. “This airport is important to many citizens and to welcome economic development,” said Senator Gresham. “I’m very pleased that these funds will enable us to make improvements.” Local leaders have been aware of and working to secure this grant for some time, and the announcement of its release comes as good news. See AIRPORT, 3A
Early voting results By Jeff Whitten Head News Writer Staff Photo by Christen Coulon
Sheriff’s Deputies, Jamie West and Amy Ballard and Selmer Officers, Tony Westbrooks and Blake Huckabee train in an active shooter exercise in response to the recent mass shooting in Aurora, Colo. The exercise was held last Monday at McNairy Central High School and worked within the school’s already established emergency protocols to ensure the best possible outcome in such a situation.
Fire destroys Michie residence By Christen Coulon Editor
A fire last Thursday afternoon destroyed a residence north of Michie at 5009 Pleasant Site Rd. According to McNairy County Fire Chief Darrell Goodrum, the residents claimed that a circuit breaker tripped, and when it was turned back on it caused the fire to start at a plug-in in a bedroom. Goodrum said that once the fire began, it engulfed the residence quickly. By the time fire units were on the scene it was too late to save the home or its contents. At that point, the owner of the property asked fire personnel to let the fire burn, presumably to make cleanup easier. Volunteer fire units from Michie, Eastview, and Pleasant Site assisted on scene. No firefighters or occupants were injured in the fire. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Over 1,700 people have voted so far in McNairy County, according to Pat Blanton of the McNairy County Election Commission. Over 1,500 voted early, and the rest voted by paper ballot. These are voters who meet the requirements of not having to vote in person and requested that the election commission send them a paper ballot. The most popular election was the general election, in which all early and paper ballot voters cast their votes. Of the party primaries, the most popular was the Republican primary, in which over 840 people voted. Less than 440 voters cast their ballots in the Democratic primary.
County schools’ TCAP scores show growth By Christen Coulon Editor
Staff Photo by Christen Coulon
A fire last Thursday afternoon destroyed a residence north of Michie at 5009 Pleasant Site Rd.
The Tennessee State Board of Education released the district results for the 2011-12 Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program testing for grades 3-8 and the End of Course Achievement testing for high school students. Tennessee’s new accountability system replaces No Child Left Behind’s Annual Yearly Progress measures. Rather than expecting all districts to meet the same benchmarks year after year, the new system acknowledges that dis-
tricts are starting from different places and rewards those that show the most growth. The new system, adopted after Tennessee secured a waiver from part of NCLB earlier this year, looks to districts to increase achievement levels for all students and reduce achievement gaps that exist between certain groups. The overall results were a mixed bag of positives and negatives with significant strides being made in the TCAP testing and improvement needed in some of the EOC subjects. The
See TCAP, 4A
School Board votes to approve schools referendum By Jeff Whitten Head News Writer
The McNairy County Board of Education voted 5-1 in a special called meeting to ask the County Commission to approve a referendum to keep the wheel tax and add a one-half cent local option sales tax to be used to build a new school in Adamsville and Selmer. Frank Lacey, Lynn Baker, Tony Chapman, Jean Jones and Jarrell Stanfield voted yes. Larry Smith voted no. The referendum will now go to the County Commission for approval. If it is approved, it will appear on the Nov. 6 election ballot for approval by the voters. “It’s been a long time. I’m glad we finally got that done,” Chapman told the Independent Appeal last Monday. He said the process of choosing a site for the proposed new Selmer Elementary School is on hold pending the county commission’s action and the results of the referendum. A site has been chosen for the proposed new Adamsville school and plans have been drawn up for both. “I don’t like paying taxes any more than anyone else, but it’s part
of being a citizen. Any time we can better our schools that’s one of the better things we can use it for. I would encourage everyone to vote for it, and I will,” Chapman added. The wheel tax and the local option sales tax will probably be enough to fund the two, but Chapman said he hopes that Selmer dedicates it’s one-quarter cent share of the sales tax to the school building program, also. Larry Smith defended his vote against the referendum in a conversation with the Independent Appeal last Monday. “There’s no way we can pay the debt service on the new schools,” Smith said. He noted that the county commission paid bondholders $250,000 of debt service on behalf of the school district this year. Smith also estimated that operating costs of the new schools would be $500,000 each year. “If we can’t afford the $250,000, we sure can’t afford the $500,000,” Smith said. The $20-22 million estimated costs for the new schools do not include purchase costs for the site for the new Selmer school. In-
cluding this, site work, utilities, repairs to the McNairy Central High School roof, converting Selmer Elementary School to a central office and other costs, Smith estimates that total capital outlay will be $29 million. Smith estimated that the wheel tax would raise $480,000 a year and the county’s share of the sales tax would raise $300,000 a year. If all municipalities dedicated their half of this tax, that would raise an additional $300,000 a year, for a total of $1.08 million a year. Without the municipalities’ share of the sales tax, only $780,000 a year would be available. Smith estimated that the debt service on the $20 million would be $1.6 million a year for 30 years. Debt service on the $29 million would be $2.1 million for 30 years. The interest rate on the bonds is assumed to be between 4 and 5 percent, Smith said. “This is pie in the sky,” Smith said about the financing of the new schools. He said it was his opinion that the wheel tax would have to be tripled in order to finance the costs of building two new schools. Lacey failed to reply to a phone and Facebook messages. Stanfield and Baker declined comment on the vote.
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