Stories from Friday, July 15, 2011

Wayne Thomas Carter, 61, of Shelbyville, formerly of Vero Beach, Fla., died suddenly Wednesday evening at Heritage Medical Center. A gathering of family and friends will be held at 1 p.m. Saturday, July 30, at 525 Sun Circle in Shelbyville. Doak-Howell Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Gov. Bill Haslam offered rewards Tuesday in three separate criminal cases involving Tennessee women, including a $10,000 reward in the case of Shelbyville teacher Shelley Mook. But the announcement was bittersweet for the families of two other missing persons from Shelbyville. Bobby Smelcer, 52, went missing last November. Antonio Taylor, 21, hasn't been seen since September 1999...

Bessie Eugene Adcock Bingham, 92, of Bell Buckle died Thursday at her home after an extended illness. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Doak-Howell Funeral Home with Paul Elam, Don Powell, Bob Young and Bill Doak officiating. Burial will follow at Hazel Cemetery in Bell Buckle. Visitation will be held from 4-8 p.m. Saturday.

Shelbyville's city council welcomed a new city manager and gave a warm farewell to a long-serving city recorder at Thursday night's meeting. Recorder Betty Lamb was given a key to the city with the meeting dedicated to her and a proclamation read in her honor. Lamb is retiring effective Monday...

The director of drug court for the 12th Judicial District told Bedford County commissioners this week that the program there has been a success, with 92 percent of participants remaining out of legal trouble for at least two years after completion, and that it is a dramatic cost savings when compared to jail...

With the economy in its current state there are not a lot of construction projects going on in Shelbyville so when one starts up, people take notice. Crews have been busy cutting a road and doing grading work off North Main Street just past Walmart for a mixed use project that's been in the works for the past three years...