Tag: Rutherford County

Rutherford County GOP Target of Apparent Bomb Scare

Chris Butler

  The Rutherford County Republican Party headquarters received a package Friday morning that party officials said was apparently a bomb, according to a Tennessee Republican Party press release. Officials contacted authorities and then evacuated the building on East Main Street in Murfreesboro. Murfreesboro Police Spokesman Larry Flowers said in a statement that authorities evacuated several other downtown businesses while they investigated the suspicious package. Later in the day, Flowers said authorities had rendered the package as safe. “Police K9 was brought in. Everything is safe, the scene is clear and employees have returned to work,” Flowers said. Flowers said someone found the package outside the building that housed the party headquarters. An employee took the box inside, opened it and saw what was a possible explosive device, Flowers said. “An all-clear was given and the evacuation was lifted after the device was rendered safe and the area cleared with the assistance of a Police K-9,” Flowers said in a statement. Murfreesboro Police and agents with the ATF U.S. Bomb Data Center are investigating, Flowers said. Flowers told The Tennessee Star Friday he had no other information to provide. The Nashville-based WKRN reported the package contained a note saying the following:…

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Rutherford County Mayor Bill Ketron Talks Trash at Community Forum

Chris Butler

MURFREESBORO, Tennessee — Although it’s hypothetical at this point, Rutherford County residents could have to pay a new monthly fee to handle the county’s growing trash problem, County Mayor Bill Ketron said last week. This could start a trend that reverberates across all of Middle Tennessee, said county residents who showed up for a meeting to discuss the matter. “One of our cities charges $5 on a local water bill per month. We may have to rethink the way we think about trash and the way we handle it. It may be that handling our trash becomes another utility bill with homeowners to look at,” Ketron told a gathering of about 100 people at Murfreesboro’s Patterson Park Community Center. “Now, I’m just saying maybe to this. Don’t quote me saying it will happen. These are all things that have to be considered. At some point in time, dealing with our trash is not going to be free. It’s getting to that point where we are all going to have to pay the price, but a lot of that will come from recycling and reeducating and now it’s time to be bold.” That boldness apparently will include stiffer penalties for people…

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Proposed New School in Rutherford County Near Potentially Hazardous Waste Site

Chris Butler

Members of the Rutherford County School Board are interested in building a school on farmland in the Walter Hill residential community, even though it’s near a landfill with a history of potential hazards. Multiple neighborhoods, businesses and churches surround the property, near the existing Walter Hill Elementary School, said Rutherford County School spokesman James Evans. “The land for the schools has undergone environmental and geotechnical testing and has been deemed suitable for school construction,” Evans said in an emailed statement. According to a 2011 Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation document, the landfill had aluminum waste deposited there between the 1990s and 2007. The landfill is on the north side of the East Stones River, one half mile east of Walter Hill and six miles north of Murfreesboro, according to the Consent Order between TDEC and BFI Waste Systems of Tennessee. In 2011, the document went on to say, this location had an apparent exothermic reaction, and that caused elevated temperatures. A series of piping was installed to draw off heat and pressure from the area. A hot void was discovered in the landfill. “The respondent has identified that aluminum waste within the Middle Point Landfill is undergoing an exothermic…

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Metro Nashville Public School Board Member Will Pinkston Reportedly Calls People ‘Nitwits’

Chris Butler

Metro Nashville Public School board member Will Pinkston reportedly thinks that people who complain to him about the latest goings-on at the school system are “nitwits.” This, according to the Nashville-based NewsChannel 5, which publicized a series of tweets Pinkston recently released. “An email sent to Metro School Board members on Tuesday criticizing MNPS leadership set off a flurry of tweets and responses from School Board member Will Pinkston, referring to apparent critics as ‘broke nitwits,’” the station reported. “The email sent to school board members by David Jones was later posted on Twitter, which prompted the response from Pinkston.” “’I like making nitwits meltdown on Twitter,” Pinkston wrote in a tweet. “It’s kind of a thing.” Pinkston, when tweeting again, said Jones has no right to criticize as he does not live in Davidson County. “I’ve got enough to do without fielding bone-headed missives from Rutherford County,” the station reported Pinkston as tweeting. Jones wife Katie, though, said she is a tenured teacher who works for the Metro Nashville Public Schools. “Your response to the email is both shocking and unprofessional,” the station reported Katie Jones as saying when she wrote back. “As a teacher, if I responded to…

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Rutherford County Officials Formally Oppose School Vouchers

Chris Butler

Rutherford County officials have joined their counterparts at five other Tennessee school systems to formally oppose school vouchers. Board members with the Rutherford County School System just unanimously passed a resolution to that effect, school system spokesman James Evans told The Tennessee Star Tuesday. Murfreesboro City School System board members, meanwhile, may vote on a formal resolution opposing school vouchers and Educational Savings Accounts at their next scheduled board meeting on Tuesday. Pending the outcome of that vote, school system officials will forward the resolution to the House and Senate Education Committees, said school system spokeswoman Lisa Trail. The Rutherford County School System covers most of the county, but the city of Murfreesboro also has a smaller school zone that covers grades K-6 for some parts of the city, Evans said. Murfreesboro City Schools board member Butch Campbell declined to comment on the matter Tuesday. Rutherford County School System board member Coy Young, though, said taxpayers should not fund a private entity. He also said board members have met with state legislators representing that district to discuss the matter. Those state legislators, Young went on to say, never offered comment as far as whether they are for or against school…

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Taxes Reportedly Might Go Up in Rutherford County

Chris Butler

Attention Rutherford County residents. The powers-that-be are out to raise your taxes, according to The Murfreesboro Daily News Journal. State Rep. Charlie Baum, R-Murfreesboro, reportedly told the paper that the county’s 19-year-old development tax rate of $1,500 per home should increase for inflation to help fund school construction. “The County Powers Relief Act gave Rutherford a choice to either keep a locked-in $1,500 development tax per dwelling or switch to a county school facilities tax of $1 per square foot on new livable residential space,” the paper reported. “The facilities tax could go up by 10 percent in four years after adoption.” Baum and other state legislators from the county met this week to discuss that matter as well as taxes and funding education, among other things. These legislators met with members of the county commission’s Steering, Legislative & Governmental Committee at the County Courthouse, the paper reported. “I realize in a growing county like Rutherford County we’re in position to build a new school a year,” The Daily News Journal quoted Baum as saying. Baum, the paper went on to say, used to serve on the County Commission. “Baum agreed to support the commission’s unanimous request to adjust the County Powers Relief Act…

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Rutherford County Mayoral Candidates Ketron and Jones Differ on Gas Tax As Early Voting Begins

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Tina Jones v Bill Ketron

State Senator Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro), who is running to replace the retiring Rutherford County Mayor Ernest Burgess, exchanged volleys with rival and former County Commissioner Tina Jones over the gas tax and the Nashville transit plan this week, just as early voting in the May 1 primary election began. Ketron has endorsed the idea of a monorail running from Nashville to Murfreesboro.  He has not “publicly endorsed” the Barry transit plan for Nashville, but he has  expressed support for her light rail plans by text as soon as she announced them. Ketron has not denied “privately” endorsing the Barry transit plan, as WKRN reported. Jones has pointed out that Nashville wouldn’t even be having a tax increase referendum had it not been authorized by the Ketron-supported IMPROVE Act, Governor Haslam’s gas tax increase that passed the Tennessee General Assembly and was signed into law last year, which would also enable a similar tax increase referendum in Rutherford County. In her statement voicing strong opposition to the $9 billion transit plan proposal “Let’s Move Nashville,” Jones asserted: When Senator Bill Ketron voted for the gasoline tax increase as part of the IMPROVE Act, he voted to allow local tax increases like…

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Rutherford County Mayoral Candidate Tina Jones Blasts $9 Billion Transit Plan, Calling It ‘A Wasteful Boondoggle of Epic Proportions’

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Tina Jones on the Transit Plan

Republican business owner and Rutherford County Mayoral hopeful Tina Jones made news Thursday with her strong statement against neighboring Davidson County’s $9 billion transit plan, “Let’s Go Nashville.” “The transit scheme initiated by Mayor Megan Barry, before she was forced from office, is a wasteful boondoggle of epic proportions and I urge Rutherford County voters to call their family and friends in Nashville to encourage them to vote “NO” on that huge and unnecessary tax increase that will make the sales tax in Davidson County among the highest in the country,” Jones said in a statement. “Advocates of that tax increase have noted that about HALF of the tax will be paid by residents of surrounding counties, which means Rutherford county citizens will be paying a big portion of a tax increase we don’t even get to vote on!” Turning her attention to fellow Republican State Senator Bill Kentron – who is also running Rutherford County Mayor, Jones said: When Senator Bill Ketron voted for the gasoline tax increase as part of the IMPROVE Act, he voted to allow local tax increases like the one being considered by voters in Nashville. His support for that transit tax in Nashville, and his…

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JC Bowman Commentary: The Role of a School Board

JC Bowman
Tennessee Star

Local school boards reflect the needs and aspirations of the communities as well as the interests and concerns of professional and nonprofessional employees. We believe non-partisan control is what is best for our communities. This is best ensured when educational policy is made by representatives vested in the community they live, and whose undivided attention and interests are devoted strictly to education of the children in that district. What we stress in a nutshell: Public education is a federal concern, a state responsibility, and a local operation.

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State Senator Bill Ketron Announces Bid for Rutherford County Mayor

Tina LaFleur
Tennessee Star

  State Senator Bill Ketron (R-Murfreesboro) is running Rutherford County Mayor, the Daily News Journal reports. It will be the fourth run for the office since his first bid in the 1990s. Via the DNJ: A Republican from Murfreesboro, Ketron ran for the office (once called county executive) in 1990, 1994 and 1998. He served on the Rutherford County Commission from 1990 to 1998 and has served in the state Senate since 2002. Ketron’s current term ends in November 2018. Ketron’s announcement is another indication the 2018 election could see a massive turnover in the Tennessee General Assembly. “Senator Ketron is just the latest in an increasingly long list of legislators who will be leaving to seek other offices or retiring. I wouldn’t be surprised if 2018 gives us as many as two dozen State House and Senate open seats. 2018 could be one of the most tumultuous years we have seen in Tennessee politics in a long time,” media consultant and political analyst Steve Gill tells The Tennessee Star. Immediately after Ketron’s announcement, “State Representative Dawn White announced that she will be a candidate for the District 13 State Senate seat in the August 2018 Republican Primary,” WGNS reported on Sunday:…

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Former Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold To Be Sentenced May 4

Wendy Wilson
Tennessee Star

  Former Rutherford County Sheriff Robert Arnold will be sentenced in May, three months earlier than previously scheduled, WKRN News 2 reports. Arnold, who will now be sentenced May 4, wanted his sentence date moved up, according to a previous WKRN report. Arnold was convicted in federal court of scheming to profit from the sale of electronic cigarettes at the Rutherford County Jail. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud, honest services fraud and extortion. Each carries a five- to 20-year sentence, as well as a $250,000 fine. Arnold has been jailed since last fall. He was moved from a county jail in Kentucky to a federal holding facility in West Tennessee. John Vanderveer, who also pleaded guilty in the case, will be sentenced in early September.    

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Trump-Hating Teacher Fired in Rutherford County

Wendy Wilson

A substitute teacher in Rutherford County is no longer allowed to work in the district because of inflammatory comments he made on social media about President Trump. He joins a growing list of educators across the country in trouble for engaging in or allowing inappropriate commentary about the recent election. The local teacher is accused of writing on Facebook that “the only good Trump supporter is a dead Trump supporter,” according to WZTV Fox 17. David Colin is said to have made the comments in a post at 9:29 a.m. on Nov. 9. Rutherford County Schools took action after receiving messages about Colin on Wednesday. The district contracts with Professional Educational Services Group (PESG) to provide substitute teachers. The district informed PESG that Colin is no longer permitted to be substitute in Rutherford County. PESG is conducting an internal investigation. An art teacher in Dallas, Texas was placed on administrative leave in January for posting a video on social media depicting her in a classroom shooting a water gun at an image of President Trump and yelling “Die!” There is laughter in the background but it is unknown whether students were in the classroom at the time, according to The Dallas Morning News.…

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