Stories from Thursday, January 21, 2016

Bedford County Board of Commissioners' rules and legislative committee voted Tuesday night to recommend rezoning property at 1837 U.S. 41A North from A-1 (agriculture) to C-2 (commercial) for an automobile auction, repair, sales and towing business...

Charles Edward Casteel, 80, of Hillsboro died Thursday, Jan. 21, 2015. Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Manchester Funeral Home with Chris Haynes officiating. Visitation will begin at 1 p.m.

Sandra Kay Russell, 67, of Shelbyville died Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016. Funeral services will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday at Feldhaus Memorial Chapel with Mark Pierce officiating. Burial will follow at Willow Mount Cemetery. Visitation will be held from 4-8 p.m. Saturday.

Starting times for Shelbyville Central High's basketball games Friday at Coffee County have been moved up due to expected snow. The girls game is now scheduled to begin at 4:30 p.m. followed by the boys game. Several weather forecasters predict snow will have already begun by that time. Check conditions carefully before departing...

Brenda Ann Adcock Upton, 71, of Shelbyville died Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2016 after an extended illness. Funeral services will be held at 11:45 a.m. Friday at Doak-Howell Funeral Home with Scott Reed officiating. Burial will follow at Mountain View Cemetery in McMinnville. Visitation will begin at 10:30 a.m.

Once again: There is NOT a victim visible in the Times-Gazette photo of a truck involved in a fatal crash Monday on U.S. 231 North. The Times-Gazette has a firm policy that we will never publish, or post online, photographs showing victims of an accident or crime...

Whenever schools are closed -- or not closed -- during a winter weather scare, there's always a host of second-guessing on Facebook. "I drove to work just fine this morning -- I don't understand why they had to close the schools." "I used to live in [cold Northern state], and they'd laugh at the idea of closing school for this puny amount of snow."...

School visitors soon will have to show their ID -- and carry their pictures around on their shirts. Bedford County schools will start conducting sex-offender background checks in February, Superintendent Don Embry told the Board of Education on Tuesday...

The Rev. Herbert Stewart talks of the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr. during the celebration of King's birthday at the Shelbyville/Bedford County Senior Center on Tuesday. (T-G Photos by Jim Davis)

Bedford County's first snow of 2016 is on the horizon. A winter storm watch will be in effect from 6 a.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday. Two to three inches of snow "with locally higher amounts" are possible, according to the National Weather Service. "Snow on roads and bridges will create hazardous travel conditions," the NWS said, citing that as the main expected impact...

The Middle Tennessee Spay and Neuter Clinic (MTSNC) has received a $3,000 grant to spay and neuter pets of those on fixed incomes at no charge to the approved recipient. The grant is from The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, a charitable organization dedicated to enriching the quality of life in the 40 Middle Tennessee counties it serves, which recently announced more than $1.79 million in grants to 280 nonprofit organizations as part of The Foundation's annual discretionary grantmaking process.. ...

The Fairview FCE Club met on Wednesday, Dec. 16, at the home of Gay Ervin, who prepared a wonderful Christmas meal. The devotion was given by Patsy Parker. Betty Brown was the reporter. There were eight members present, as well as four guests: Janie Pickle, Florence Reed, Donna Allen and Mary Garfinkle, all of Shelbyville...

The 24th annual FMF Indoor Motocross Winter Series will be held Friday and Saturday at Calsonic Arena on the Celebration grounds. This will be rounds seven and eight of the 2015-2016 winter series. Hundreds of riders will be on hand competing on the indoor track full of enormous jumps, whoops, and turns. ...

Tennessee's economy is thriving. Business is booming with major national and international companies like Nissan, Bridgestone and American Standard announcing expansions or relocation projects that will employ thousands of Tennesseans. Tennessee is attractive to companies because we have a business-friendly environment. ...

Dear Editor, Recently, I idly pondered over names describing a "group of animals, birds and people." Over a century of naming these groups by others before me, I've never forgotten most of them so decided to see how many I could recall, thus here they be: a murder of crows, a gaggle of geese, a wake of buzzards, on land a flock of ducks but on water a paddling of ducks, a leash of foxes, an army of frogs, a cauldron of bats, a sleuth of bears, a troop of apes, a colony of beavers, a swarm of butterflies, an intrusion of roaches, a concoction of eagles, a cloud of grasshoppers, a rafter of turkeys, a confusion of guinea fowl, a company of moles, a grin of opossums, a gaze of raccoons, a kindle of kittens, a scurry of squirrels and lastly, fat men that arrive in groups are called a "bloat.". ...

Four people have been charged with the Jan. 2 vandalism of Bell Buckle Park, the Bedford County Sheriff's Office said. Sawyer Nash George Curevich, 18, of Puncheon Camp Road, Dylan Randal Farrar, 18, of Wildcreek Road, and Kanya Taelor Renner and Jessie Hugh Rigdon, 19, of separate Country Estates Road addresses, were charged with vandalism under $500, Detective Sgt. Scott Jones said...

The Beta Nu Chapter of Delta Kappa Gamma, an international society for key women educators, met at Spring Hill Farm, home of member Missy Eakin, for the society's holiday meeting. Kathy Eakin, retired senior editor at Oxmoor House-Birmingham and founding editor of Cooking Light Magazine, prepared the holiday meal served by Margaret Eakin and Carlene Smith...

UNIONVILLE -- The Community Viqueens outscored the Nashville Central Christian Warriors 19-2 in the second quarter en route to a 67-50 victory over the Warriors in a non-district contest Monday night. The Viqueens (17-2), led by six points from Lacey Reed, got off to an early lead, but a 6-0 run by the Warriors gave NCC a 14-11 lead after the first quarter...

SEWANEE -- The Shelbyville Central wrestling team participated in the Mountain Top Invitational, held at St. Andrews-Sewanee over the weekend and saw a relative level of success in the tournament. As a team, the Eagles took third overall and were able to place nine wrestlers in the top four final standings...

UNIONVILLE -- The Community Vikings survived a 22-point fourth quarter by Webb's Robert Windham, including six treys, in defeating the Feet 65-61 in an intra-county contest Monday night. In a low-scoring first quarter, the Vikings (8-13) used five points from Tyler Bushnell to jump out to a 13-8 lead...

Board members of the Bedford Cancer Foundation hold a "check" for $11,500, the amount raised from the Veterans Day 5K run last November. Pictured (in no particular order): Connie Allen, Kim Allison, Angela Hayes, Pam Ingraham, Karen Inman, Cathy Mercer, Navid Monajjem, Barbara Pate, Iris Schumann and Virginia Stewart. (T-G Photo by Jim Davis)