Enchem America Inc. officials announced Monday that the company will invest $152.5 million to establish electrolyte manufacturing operations in Haywood County, which is categorized as an “economically distressed” county by the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (TNECD).
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Ford broke ground on BlueOval City, a new electric vehicle and battery manufacturing facility, on Friday less than a year after the company first announced the project.
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A Tennessee Comptroller Office’s annual financial report of Haywood County had nine findings of deficiency for the second consecutive year.
Four of the findings in the report were a repeat of last year’s audit, which had found five of the nine findings were repeated from the previous year.
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The Tennessee Comptroller Office released a statement last week alleging a California woman was stealing money from a Tennessee Library. The state’s comptroller’s audit determined that Shekinah Edwards stole $32,366.89 from the Elma Ross Public Library in Haywood County by issuing fraudulent checks addressed to herself. The allegations were referred to a Haywood County Grand Jury, who returned an indictment in November against Edwards of one count of theft of over $10,000.
From May 22, 2020, through July 10, 2020, the Comptroller’s office alleges, Edwards issued herself 14 checks with the forged signatures of the library officials. The fraudulent checks were discovered in July 2020, when the library director was reconciling the library’s bank account and realized the font on the checks was not the same as the checks routinely issued by the library.
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Friday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Tennessee State Representative (R-82) Chris Hurt to the newsmakers line to discuss the success of the Ford Megasite deal while working through session.
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Thursday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Tennessee State House Representative Scott Cepicky to the newsmakers line to explain why he voted no on Ford mega-site deal.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to weigh in on the Ford Motor Company’s new Mega Site location outside of Memphis.
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Former Haywood County Mayor Franklin Smith filed a false accident claim after his wife was involved in an auto accident in May 2018 while she drove a county-owned vehicle, according to Tennessee Comptrollers.
Comptrollers did not identify the former county mayor by name in a report they submitted this week.
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It’s too easy to get inside certain parts of the Haywood County Courthouse, according to an audit Tennessee Comptrollers released this week. While the audit itself doesn’t explicitly say so, this could pose security concerns. “Our examination disclosed that county officials did not adequately control access to the courthouse offices. One key will open multiple doors in the courthouse: at least one exterior door to the courthouse, a conference room, and the Offices of the Trustee, County Mayor, and Budget Director,” Comptrollers wrote. “Individuals who are not office employees could potentially enter one of the offices unsupervised. Sound business practices dictate that unsupervised access to offices weakens internal controls over assets. This deficiency is the result of management’s decision, management’s failure to correct the finding noted in the prior-year audit report, and management’s failure to implement their corrective action plan.” Comptrollers recommended county officials control access to the courthouse offices. Former County Mayor Franklin Smith told Comptrollers he concurred with the finding. According to The National Center for State Courts’ website, “because courthouses must be accessible and in centralized locations, they are vulnerable to acts of random violence.” “Courts must have proper security procedures, technology, personnel, and architectural features, to…
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There’s a big stink brewing in northwest Tennessee. Whether that stink is an unpleasant odor or whether the stink is a figure of speech depends upon whom you ask. Residents of Haywood County recently assembled to discuss how chicken farms could pose health hazards to their community. These chicken farms are not in Haywood. They are, however, likely coming to the adjacent Gibson County. Haywood residents say chicken farmers in Gibson will sign contracts with Tyson Foods. Tyson already has plans to open a processing plant in Gibson. People in Haywood County told The Tennessee Star they suspect either Tyson or the chicken farmers eventually will want to set up shop on their home turf. If allowed, they say that will degrade their quality of life. “Gibson County gets the jobs and we get the manure,” said Haywood County Mayor-elect David Livingston, adding the indecent smell will waft its way down into his territory. “It’s true that these concentrated feed lots are not Tyson-owned. This is where the liability is. Every one of these (chicken) houses produces a tremendous tonnage of manure.” Haywood County residents, he went on, have protested and made it clear they want neither Tyson nor the…
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