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Monday, November 16th

Channel 3- A McMinn County man was killed Saturday while trying to cut down a tree. McMinn County Sheriff Joe Guy tells Channel 3 the accident happen

Channel 3- A McMinn County man was killed Saturday while trying to cut down a tree. McMinn County Sheriff Joe Guy tells Channel 3 the accident happened Saturdayafternoon along Highway 30 West. He says Clifford Drumwright was trying to pull down the tree with a chain attached to a backhoe when it fell. The Cleveland Daily Banner reports- 16 Bradley projects receiving grant funding, the grants are given each year to teachers in the Cleveland and Bradley County school systems by the Bradley-Cleveland Public Education Foundation. Executive Director Lynn Voelz and grants manager Jane Littlejohn announced the recipients determined by the Foundation’s grant committee. They reported a big increase in submissions to 51 this year, 30 from Bradley County educators and 21 from Cleveland teachers. There were only 31 submissions a year ago. Faced with a difficult task, the Foundation has awarded 31 grants for a total of $61,000 in funding. A year ago, the Foundation funded 19 grants for $53,000. There is a very even mix this year with 16 grants awarded to Bradley County teachers (or teacher teams), and 15 to Cleveland instructors. The following highlights the 15 grants awarded to Cleveland teachers, ranging from $350 to $5,000, and totaling $25,761. A majority of the grants are around $1,000. Cleveland Middle School teachers Grace Dyrek and Sandy Farlow were awarded $5,000 for an eTravelers proposal. Their plan is to bring world languages, e-books, films, audio-books and a new STEM collection to students in the sixth through the eighth grade. This digital library, initiated last year, will be accessible to students at home, and was funded by a previous grant to serve the total school population. Another large city grant ($4,457) is designated to E.L. Ross teachers Winona Patterson, Gwen Turpin and Kristen Morgan for a “Reading to Succeed” program. It will benefit struggling readers through a reading laboratory and digital programs. It will assist 117 students at the state-evaluated third-grade level. Another big grant was $3,895 to Cleveland High’s Kellye Huff and Leia Talley for SimPad Learning. This program will enable 285 Health Science students to exercise critical-thinking skills during CPR training by providing students with real-life scenarios using manikins in conjunction with SimPad feedback. One of the more interesting grants is $350 to Cleveland Middle School’s Frank Odom. Odom’s eighth-grade STEM Academy II students will design and build car models powered by various sun exposures (solar powered). These models will compete on a 50-foot track. Other Cleveland city grants: — Cleveland High’s Kathy Murphy will receive $750 for spreadsheets, documents and PDFs. This material will provide students with business technology introduction to gain dual credit at Cleveland State Community College. — A $1,000 grant will be used by Cleveland High’s Erin Hattabaugh. The funding will be used to help 25 to 50 diagnostic medicine (Honor) students to use and explore X-ray equipment for medicine, applicable physics and imaging. The teacher has developed a project that joins physics through representative art. — Mayfield Elementary teachers Gregory Towe, Ana Walters, Amanda Dia, Jennifer Morris and Anita Renshaw will receive $2,600 for BeeBots and ProBots coding and problem solving. This project will help 281 students apply team-building and math concepts to STEM-related projects as they code the movements of their BeeBots and ProBots in pre-determined patterns and synchronization with ‘bots from other teams. — Arnold teacher Siema Swartzel is continuing her sound program with an additional $1,000 grant. Students improved their math scores last year in her program. Swartzel will purchase four additional steel drums for fourth- and fifth-grade students to join percussion music with math. This will decrease the number of students having to share instruments. — Cleveland High School’s Holly Dunn will receive $1,000 for a sports medicine program. The grant will purchase two manikins and CDs for hands-on instruction of the movement of body parts through anatomical planes. Tenth through 12th-grade students in the Honors Science/Sports Medicine program will benefit. — Cleveland High teacher Gabriella Tallent is receiving a $995 grant to help 420 students (23 in special education) to make, package and promote a soap designed using chemistry principles and formulas. — A $1,000 grant was awarded Cleveland High’s Melissa Adams to develop a school coffee shop for juniors and seniors in the Entrepreneurship Dual Enrollment Program with Cleveland State Community College. Adams has already raised $1,700 of in-kind funds. — Jeannie Cuervo of Cleveland High is receiving an $817 grant. The funds will allow 150 Advanced Placement students, with hand-held devices, to monitor and analyze soil respiration, and compare the information to a global database determining the sample’s carbon cycle. — A $997 grant to Cleveland High teacher Will Godwin will support ninth- through 12th-grade students in maintenance and light auto repair. It will provide soldering equipment, kits, spools and diagnostic equipment for hands-on instruction. — Yates Primary teacher Mary Ann Poplin will receive $1,000 for a Jungle Mosaic Adventure. Some 260 students will design and create a mosaic wall with glass squares, grout, and adhesives. — Blythe-Bower’s Aloha Buffington was awarded $1,000 for a “Faces and Stories” proposal. Clay, molds and glaze will be used by 88 fifth-graders, who will write stories and design character faces. This will be hands-on art, combined with creative writing. Voelz and Littlejohn emphasized the standards of the grant requests have increased year to year. Grant proposals are written in the spring, and granted in the fall. A standardized scoring system is used. Dr. Rodney Fitzgerald, a member of the Foundation’s Executive Board, chairs a three-person grants committee which approves recipients. The Foundation’s Executive Board for the past year includes President Matt Bentley, Vice President Vanessa Hammond, Secretary/Treasurer Chari Buckner, Keith Barrett, Catherine Boettner, Ron Braam, Sherry Keller Brown, Linda Cash, Dr. Rodney Fitzgerald, John Haile, Brenda Lawson, Don Lorton, Rebecca McIntire, Dr. Martin Ringstaff, Art Rhodes, Steve Robinson, Margaret Schenck, Robert Thompson and James O. Williams. The Cleveland Daily Banner- As Tennessee grapples with the question of how to adequately fund its highway transportation system, details have been released on the backlog’s effect on Bradley County. Gov. Bill Haslam recently completed his second “listening” tour of cities where he said he wanted to start a “thoughtful discussion on what Tennesseans want from their transportation system today and for their children and grandchildren.” Haslam visited Cleveland in September as part of his tour, and Bradley County has done very well by projects from the Tennessee Department of Transportation. Local officials noted having ongoing projects such as the new interchange and the Exit 20 bridge is “a rare breed,” as state Rep. Kevin Brooks noted. During that same visit, Cleveland/Bradley County Chamber of Commerce CEO/President Gary Farlow said the county expects to see 34,000 more residents in the next 20 years — something which will increase the traffic around the area. In a list provided by TDOT, Bradley County has one major transportation project that has been approved by the state legislature and under development. That backlogged project is State Route 60 from the four-lane north of Interstate 75 (Westlake Drive) to State Route 306 at a cost of $13,800,000. TDOT has also identified 11 new projects within the county labeled as “identified needs.” The total costs of the projects exceeds $124,000,000. visit our website to see the complete list mymix1041.com They include: – Chatata Valley Road bridge over Chatata Creek: cost — $1,052,000. – 20th St. N.E bridge over Little Chatata Creek: cost —$625,000. – Lead Mine Valley Road bridge over Black Fox Creek: cost — $470,000. n Brymer Creek Road bridge over Brymer Creek: cost —$595,000. – Pleasant Grove Place bridge over Candies Creek: cost —$961,000. – Tunnel Hill Road bridge over Black Fox Creek: cost —$167,000. – Cleveland Urban Boundary to Bradley-McMinn county line on I-75: cost — $26,624,000. – Truck climbing lane on southbound I-75 at White Oak Mountain: cost — $18,000,000. – U.S.-11 (State Route 2 from near Anatole Lane to State Route 308 in Charleston: cost — $36,708,000. – Georgetown Road N.W. bridge over Candies Creek: cost — $5,480,000. – From State Route 306 to State Route 58 in Hamilton county: cost — $20,000,000. “Each of these projects is vitally important to these communities, whether the issue is safety, congestion, or enhancing economic development opportunities,” TDOT Commissioner John Schroer said. “The stark reality is that it could be nearly two decades before we’re able to pay for these needed improvements, and further delays will only have negative impacts on Tennesseans.” The governor noted Tennessee has not passed a roads plan since 1986. “So if history is any indication, it could be another 30 years before the state has another plan,” Haslam said. “Tennessee has a debt-free system that is the third highest ranked in the country and spends the third least per capita. But looking ahead five years, there are very real challenges that will affect the conditions of our roads and bridges, our ability to recruit the jobs we want in Tennessee, and our quality of life.” Channel 3- BRADLEY COUNTY, TN (WRCB) – Members of the youth group at Wesley Memorial United Methodist Church are warm after spending more than 12 hours out in the cold to raise awareness of homelessness in our community. They spent the night raising awareness about the homelessness in Bradley County. This church is one of the few which opens their doors during the cold months to neighbors in need so no one lives in fear of freezing to death. “When it gets 30 degrees or below we invite people in and give them food, give them a place to sleep until the next morning,”said a church official. Each teen was assigned a different persona to represent throughout the night– really making them live the homeless lifestyle. “They got to walk in their shoes for a few hours just to see what it felt like. They had to think though what their next steps would be if they were homeless,” said the Youth Minister Leah Walker. All the proceeds raised from this weekends event will go to benefit the church’s “Cold Weather Shelter.” The funds raised from the event will go to buy supplies, food, and other items needed to run the shelter during the winter months.