By David Fisher Staff Reporter

  

    Weakley County citizens cast their ballots in the State Democratic Primary, State Republican Primary and County General Election on Thursday, August 7, 2008.

    Although it was fair weather, because of the lack of contested political contests, the voter turnout was very low with a total of only 821 ballots cast out of 18,381 registered voters. This amounts to only 4.47 percent of registered voters. Of this number, 584 votes (71.13 percent) were listed as Democrat, 158 votes (19.24 percent) were Republican, and 79 votes (9.62 percent) were nonpartisan.

 

Weakley County General Elections

 

    In the only contested race on the ballot, which was for the District 7 Weakley County Commissioner’s seat left vacant by last year’s resignation of Commissioner James Barner. Beth Vancleave of Martin, who was appointed to fill Commissioner Barner’s unexpired term during the January meeting of the Weakley County Commission, ran for the seat as an independent candidate. She received 36 votes losing her bid for the post. Running against her was Bob Bell, who was selected to run for the District 7 seat by Weakley County Democratic Party members. Bell received 108 votes (74.48 percent), thus winning by 72 votes.

    In uncontested county races, Dale Overton, who was appointed to serve the unexpired term of District 6 Commissioner Don Malone following his death, ran for the office unopposed. Overton received 37 complimentary votes.

    Other county incumbents, who also ran unopposed in their bids for re-election in the August elections, are:

·    Assessor of Property - David Tuck, who received 602 complimentary votes.

·    School Board members – District 1 - Gath Meeks with 85 votes; District 3 - Jeff Perkins with 66 votes; District 5 – Barbara Trentham with 52 votes; District 7 - Doug Sims with 103 votes; and District 9 – Sarah Ann Pentecost with 94 votes.

·    Highway Commission member – Bobby Robinson, representing Districts 2,3 and 4 received 163 votes.

·    Constable for District 1 – although there were no candidates seeking this office, there was a total of 24 write-in votes cast, with the winner being Scottie D. Hodges, who received a total of 7 write-in votes in District 1-A, and 5 write-in votes in District 1-B. Coming in second was Bradley Wayne Coble, who received no votes in District 1-A and 2 votes in District 1-B.

·    Constable for District 6 – there was no candidate on the ballot and no votes were cast for a write-in candidate.

 

State Primary

 

    As for the State Primary, Democratic U.S. Congressman John Tanner, who is running unopposed for re-election to his 8^th Congressional District seat, received 530 complimentary votes (99.44 percent) from Weakley County voters, with write-in candidates receiving a total of 3 votes (0.56 percent).

    Republican U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander, who ran unchallenged in the Republican primary, received 136 votes (99.27 percent), with a write-in candidate receiving 1 vote (0.73 percent).

    Among the six Democratic candidates seeking their party’s bid for the nomination to run, Weakley County voters cast their ballots as follows: Mark E. Clayton received 106 votes (26.37 percent), Gary G. Davis received 57 votes (14.18 percent), Kenneth Eaton received 65 votes (16.17 percent), Leonard D. Ladner received 8 votes (1.99 percent), William Mike Padgett received 57 votes (14.18 percent), Robert D. Tuke received 105 votes (26.12 percent), and four write-in votes (1 percent). Although Clayton received one more vote than Tuke in Weakley County, Tuke, who is the former chairman of the Tennessee Democratic Party, won the party’s nomination in statewide balloting. Tuke picked up just over 28 percent of the more than 170,000 votes cast statewide and will face Alexander in the upcoming November elections.

 (Read the rest of this story in the August 13th print edition of the Dresden Enterprise.)

By David Fisher Staff Reporter

   

    The management and staff of Champion Homes of Tennessee’s new manufacturing plant in Dresden joined with Dresden city officials Thursday to celebrate the production of the first manufactured home to roll off the assembly line since the company moved to its new location.

  A fire destroyed Champion Homes’ production facility in Henry, Tennessee, in February of 2008, which displaced approximately 200 employees. After looking at buildings in several cities in the region, the management of Champion Enterprises, Inc. at the firm’s corporate headquarters in Troy, Michigan announced an agreement had been signed by Champion and Frog Properties, Inc. to lease a portion of the Calpaco Paper facility building (formerly Hall’s Printing Company) located at 2073 Evergreen Street in Dresden. Since that time, Champion has been busy setting up the facility in preparation for production of manufactured homes. That goal became a reality Thursday as the first home left the plant.

  Champion Homes General Manager Mike Terrian said, “We’re really happy to be here in Dresden and proud that our first home is coming off of the production line. We look forward to more homes coming off the production line for a very long time. We appreciate everything the folks in Weakley County and Dresden have done for us, and we hope that we will be partners for a very long time.” Terrian stated that Champion Homes is a multinational company, which operates approximately 25 manufacturing plants nationwide, with facilities also located in Canada and the United Kingdom.

   “It’s been a long time since we’ve been able to roll a home off the line,” said Champion Homes Production Manager Billy Taylor, who has been with the firm since 1978. “We’re glad to be in Dresden. Everybody here has been wonderful from the mayor to the Industrial Board, to Steve Pecktol and Andy Quillen, who own this building. We’re glad to be here. We’re excited. This building gives us a lot more opportunities than the previous building we were in. It has higher ceilings.” 

   Taylor stated that Champion Homes Quality Manager Otha Leech, who drove the truck that pulled out the first home at the Dresden plant, helped build the original plant at Henry in 1968.

   According to Taylor, there are currently 118 employees at the Dresden facility. “But, we’re just getting started as far as our production goes.” He stated that the plant is currently producing approximately seven or eight homes per week. However, he noted that the company plans to increase production once the certification process with HUD is completed.

 

(Read the rest of this story in the August 13th print edition of the Dresden Enterprise.)

By David Fisher Staff Reporter

  

    A Dresden man was airlifted as a result of injures sustained in a Monday night blaze that destroyed his home.

    According to Dresden Fire Chief Dickie Hart, the fire call came in for the home of Dakota Ellis, located at 206 Broad Street in Dresden, at approximately 6:28 p.m. Monday.

    “We had two engines on the scene, and we requested mutual aid from the City of Martin,” Hart said. “They sent manpower and an engine. We had approximately 15 people on the scene, including Martin. We kept a check on the house until around 12:30 a.m. Tuesday.”

    Hart stated that his department received another call around 5:30 a.m. Tuesday morning informing firefighters that the Ellis house, was “fully involved” with fire again. “When we arrived on the scene, there were three or four places where flames had already broken though the roofline. And it was a total loss this time.” Hart stated that it took firefighters approximately 2 ½ hours to extinguish the fire the second time it erupted.

    Chief Hart described the home as a two-story, wood-framed structure, covered by aluminum siding. He noted that it is hard to extinguish fires in older structures like this one, because they have wooden tongue-in-groove ceilings and walls, which makes it hard for firefighters to find all of the hot spots.

    Also, Hart stated that there was an adjoining home located south of the Ellis home that received heat damage to its vinyl windows.

    When asked about the cause of the blaze, Chief Hart replied, “As of right now, it’s still undetermined. We had a probable rekindle this morning. We’re not saying it was a rekindle. We’re just not sure. The structure is totally gone now. We can’t really say where it started or how it started, as of this time. We are receiving assistance from the State Arson Investigator - just for his assistance only – there is no probable cause of arson. But, because of the damage, it’s hard to determine anything.

   “Officers Danny Taylor and Stacey Bostwick were the police officers who arrived on the scene first,” Hart said. He stated that the officers found Mr. Ellis inside of his home on the west side of the house.

    The victim was reportedly removed from the back of the burning building by the two officers. Members of the Weakley County Rescue Squad and Weakley County Ambulance Service were also on the scene to provide emergency assistance.

 

(Read the rest of this story in the August 13th print edition of the Dresden Enterprise.)