Stories from Thursday, August 16, 2007

Several Bedford County high school athletes who have graduated in recent years have possessed the athletic ability to play on the collegiate level. Some have signed letters of intent and scholarship papers. Others have decided to enter the "real world" shortly after flipping their tassel...

For the second time now, Dr. Ted Blanton is retiring. In 1997, Blanton retired from his medical practice as an ear, nose and throat specialist in Mississippi and moved to Shelbyville with his wife Barbara to be close to their daughter, Dr. Diane Watson, and her expanding family...

The intersection of U.S. 41-A with Unionville-Deason Road will be altered as a result of a deal approved Tuesday night by Bedford County Board of Commissioners. Currently, the roads do not meet at a 90-degree angle; right angle intersections are considered the safest from a traffic standpoint. The heavily-traveled intersection is right next to the Community School property, and a new high school will soon be built nearby...

Liberty Middle's new head football coach Justin Cole begins his tenure on Thursday against Cornersville Middle with a tough assignment, taking over a young team that finished 0-9 last season. Cole has been an assistant coach with the Patriots for the past three years under former coach Shane Shoemake. This is his first head coaching assignment. He does not look like your typical, prototype football coach, sporting below shoulder-length hair bound up in a ponytail...

Bedford County Board of Commissioners voted in principle Tuesday night to lease two vacant homes on Union Street to The Next Step Home, a transitional program for women who have been incarcerated or in substance abuse rehabilitation. County Mayor Eugene Ray and County Attorney John T. Bobo were directed to negotiate a lease agreement and bring it back to the commission for final approval...

Deputy Administrator of Elections Summer Leverette was chosen Wednesday by Bedford County Election Commission to succeed Administrator of Elections Anna Clanton when Clanton retires at the end of September. Leverette is a seven-year employee of the county election office...

County and city officials will have choices to make as it applies to planning for future growth, according to a consultant hired to assist in updating the county urban growth plan. Members of the Bedford County Planning Commission recently heard a presentation from Charles Goforth of the Nashville planning and engineering firm Barge Waggoner Sumner and Cannon...