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WEAKLEY COUNTY INFORMATION

     A two-year undercover operation involving officers from the Weakley County Sheriff's Department, the 27th Judicial Drug Task Force and the Dresden Police Department resulted in the arrest of four suspects.

     On Friday, Michael A. Ellison, 36, of 433 Red Hill Road, located north of Dresden, was arrested on charges stemming from the sale of crack cocaine. According to Weakley County Sheriff's Investigator Randall McGowan, Ellison was charged with drug trafficking in a sealed indictment handed down on November 20 by a federal grand jury in Jackson, Tenn. Mr. Ellison is scheduled to appear in Federal Court in Jackson on Thursday

     Also arrested was Selena D. Ellison, 30, of 433 Red Hill Road on charges of criminal attempt to sell morphine and conspiracy to sell cocaine. Mrs. Ellison, who is also known as Selena D. McDonald, was arraigned Monday afternoon and is being held until her preliminary hearing in Weakley County General Sessions Court on Wednesday, December 6. According to an affidavit filed in Weakley County General Sessions Court by Sheriff's Investigator Marty Plunk, "On September 20, 2006, the defendant did participate in the sale of crack cocaine to an undercover agent working with the Weakley County Sheriff's Department at the defendant's home . . . the defendant then offered to sell the undercover agent several pills, that the defendant identified as morphine. This offense was monitored by agents with the Weakley County Sheriff's Department and agents of the 27th Judicial Task Force, with a digital recording device."

     Officers spent the day Friday, executing a search warrant at the Ellison residence and seized cash, guns, vehicles and personal property.

 

(Read the rest of the story in the December 6th print edition of the Dresden Enterprise!)

By David Fisher david@dresdenenterprise.com

    

     Tennessee Valley Authority officials announced Thursday that the TVA Board has approved the purchase of the Gleason power plant as part of a system-wide expansion of power-generating sources to meet demand while keeping prices as low as possible.

     The TVA budgeted $90 million this year to purchase peak-power plants, after its 34,000-megawatt system came up about 5,700 megawatts short of meeting its highest demands this summer, forcing it to buy power from other utilities.

     In response, the nation's largest public utility announced plans to purchase two combustion turbine plants to help meet growing peak power demands.

     In October, TVA agreed to buy a 680-megawatt combustion turbine plant near Calvert City, Kentucky. The three-unit plant was built by Duke Energy in 2002 and sold to TVA by investment firm KGen Partners.

     Last Thursday, TVA approved the purchase of the 546-megawatt gas-fired plant located on Jane's Mill Road near Gleason. The three-unit plant was built by Enron Corp. in 2001 and is currently owned by Greensburg, Pennsylvania-based Allegheny Energy Supply Generating Facility, LLC. The facility consists of three natural gas-fueled Westinghouse simple-cycle combustion turbines rated at 180 megawatts each.

     The Gleason plant, like the Calvert City plant, is already connected to the TVA power grid. It is also located on an interstate gas pipeline and, according to TVA officials, is capable of being upgraded to a combined cycle plant to boost output to 870 megawatts.

     Both the Gleason and Calvert City plants operated only a few months before natural gas prices spiked a few years ago and they were no longer cost effective as power sources during most periods of the year.

(Read the rest of the story in the December 6th print edition of the Dresden Enterprise!)

     The Martin Police Department arrested a Halls man last week for allegedly committing identity theft.

     Martin Police Investigator Randal Walker arrested 34-year-old Randall McKinney of Halls Tennessee last Tuesday for two counts of identity theft after learning Lauderdale County authorities had charged McKinney with similar cases.  McKinney allegedly used information from two Martin residents to create accounts using their identities in order to obtain merchandise from the Dell computer company.  These offenses occurred between August and October of this year.  McKinney faces charges in several jurisdictions for similar thefts.  The investigation continues to determine other possible victims both local and in other regions. Because warrants were issued by Lauderdale County, McKinney, he is currently being held there to face charges. However, Weakley County has a hold on him with no definite court date set at this time.

     In an unrelated case, Keon McDonald, 20, from Jackson was arrested last Tuesday for theft of property after officers Scott Diehl and Stacey Bostwick investigated a complaint of a missing billfold from an employee of H&R Block on Hawks Road in Martin.  After receiving the complaint, the officers identified McDonald as the person meeting the description of a construction worker who was near the location of the billfold at the time of its disappearance.  Officers found the stolen billfold in the vehicle occupied by McDonald and recovered stolen money from his person as well as a small amount of marijuana. McDonald's preliminary hearing was set for January 3 and his bond was set at $1,500.

(Read the rest of this story, plus many more in this week's edition of the Dresden Enterprise!)