Channel 3- SODDY DAISY, TN (WRCB) -UPDATE: A search is underway in Soddy Daisy for a brother and sister. Soddy Daisy Police Chief Phillip Hamrick tel
Channel 3- SODDY DAISY, TN (WRCB) -UPDATE: A search is underway in Soddy Daisy for a brother and sister. Soddy Daisy Police Chief Phillip Hamrick tells our crew on the scene the boy and girl, ages 4 and 7, were reported missing around 8:30 Tuesday evening from Depot Street. Hannah Elizabeth Musgrave, 7. is described as a white girl with brown hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a purple shirt with a butterfly and a cream skirt. Matthew Gideon Musgrave, 4, is a white male with brown hair done in a crew cut style. He has brown eyes and was last seen wearing a pair of camo warm up pants and no shirt. They have a dog with them about 22 inches tall, cream colored and short hair.Police ask that people not go out and search. The surrounding area is wooded and can be treacherous especially in the dark. But if you do see two small children to call Soddy Daisy Police 423-332-3577 or 9-1-1. We will continue to update this story as information becomes available. From Channel 3- POLK COUNTY, TN (WRCB) – A Polk County man is charged with Possession of Methamphetamine with Intent for Resale following a federal indictment. Polk County Sheriff’s deputies served a search warrant at a home on Waters Road in Tumbling Creek back in December 2014. Deputies found nearly a pound of meth inside the home. The owner, Christopher Shawn Messer, was arrested August 21, 2015 by Fannin County deputies on this and other charges. The Chattanoogan reports- Earlier rainy weather has pushed back the promised completion date for the new Cleveland High School gymnasium by six days. The new date is March 2. Architect Brian Templeton said the rain caused delays in roofing and concrete work. But he said much of the roof is now complete, so rain will no longer be a construction factor. He said inside structural work is ongoing and some finishing work has started. The Cleveland School Board approved spending an extra $9,300 to add opaque rubberized sheets on the inside of windows at the gym so that audio-visual presentations will not be marred by window light. The windows will still appear as clear glass on the outside, it was stated. Jon Souders said the broadcast department at Cleveland High School was named tops in the nation at a recent convention. Students at CHS have their own news program each morning five days a week. Student crews also carry out live stream broadcasts of many school sporting events. Mr. Souders said the crew employs 6-8 cameras and features two commentators and a field reporter. Officials discussed problems with the deteriorating high school track and water runoff that pours off bleachers into the track and football field. An effort will be made to fix the runoff problem prior to tackling the track makeover. It was noted that $250,000 was spent on the track eight years ago, but it is sloping inward at several points. The dirt at the site was inadequate for a firm surface, the board was told. There are also needs at the Cleveland Middle School track. One estimate for repairs was $93,000 and another was $83,900, but with just a one-year warranty. Cleveland High School principal Autumn O’Bryan said new football coach Scott Cummings has made a number of improvements in the program, including rearranging the interior of the field house and cleaning under the gym stands. The latter area will be used for storage for the various sports. Bradley Concrete is donating $6,000 worth of concrete to pave under the stands. She said one need is for new lockers, saying they are old and were designed for basketball, not football. The cost would be around $40,000. Dr. Martin Ringstaff presented the new school system annual report, which lists city school spending at $40,547,000. It is now up to over $43 million due to growth. The city schools are up 55 students at the 10th-day enrollment. There are over 400 teachers in the Cleveland Schools. Board members were introduced to new teachers to the system at the opening of the meeting. Dr. Ringstaff said the make-up of students is 66 percent white, 16.14 percent Hispanic and 14.8 percent black. He said the number of Hispanic students is continually rising. It was at just three percent in 2005.The board voted to approve offering school personnel a fourth option for healthcare insurance. A consultant said the limited PPO can bring savings to both the school system and employees even after buying gap insurance to cover special needs. But the policy has some exemptions so it is not for everyone, he said. The Cleveland Daily Banner- It was 12:01 a.m. Sept. 1, 2014, when Eric Watson got to his new office at the Bradley County Sheriff’s Office. Accompanied by his wife, Tennille, Watson found more than 150 friends, supporters and BCSO employees there to greet him. “We came here at midnight with 150 people standing outside the front door,” Watson recalled. “It was exciting and energetic. Everyone was waiting for a new spirit and new direction for the department.” His first decision was to move his office space within the building from a large room to a smaller one. “That night, me and my wife started painting my new office,” Watson said. “We started moving my stuff in and I’ll never forget it. We were here until 4:30 that morning, went home, and came back at 8 in the morning on Labor Day.” The offices were closed except for staff members setting up their offices. “We gave the place a major, deep cleaning because that usually happens every four years, seeing problems that need to be fixed,” he said. Watson and his team spent the next two weeks starting right out of the gate in catching the bad guys. A fugitive from Georgia who was threatening to harm himself and others, an alleged rape on a Greyhound bus, two Detroit men charged with drugs, two burglary cases and the capture of a fugitive wanted in two states for child rape filled the BCSO’s calendar for those first 14 days. During that time, Watson was also making changes at the county jail. “We did have 15 people each on day and night shifts,” he said. “By my experience working as a former captain of the judicial services, I knew the day shift was always short of personnel because that shift has to do transports.” He said there are also court and medical appointments that have to be met during the day. There are now 23 on day shift and 12 on night shift. “We decided to beef up the day shifts and make the night shift leaner where you just have to walk the pods and check on them,” Watson said. “During the night, the inmates are in the cells as opposed to during the day when they are out in open areas and more activity. It was a matter of better utilizing employees, and there is safety in numbers.” Watson said the department as a whole needed fine tuning. “We had resources and personnel in positions that were not being utilized. There was one person with very few responsibilities and a lot of time on their hands. There was another who was busy, busy, busy all the time,” he said. “We came in and distributed that weight more fairly.” He said all of the staff was asked to do a work analysis, or job description, of their position. “A lot of it was way off balance and that is why we went from 59 supervisors down to 34, because there were calls coming in and people were waiting sometimes 30 minutes for an officer to show up,” Watson said. “Now, it’s within four to five minutes depending on the type of call involved, because we’ve tripled the officers on patrol.” The sheriff notes when he came into office there were 199 positions. Now, the number has increased to 220 positions using the existing budget. Inmates at the jail now have access to GED?programs, anger management and faith-based programs. “[The jail] was only opened for those kind of programs one day a week. It’s seven days a week now,” he said. Watson said the focus of the jail is to have programs that help prevent inmates from making return visits. “We are already seeing an 8 percent decrease in recidivism. We know for a fact it’s working because we know inmates that came in here and learned a trade at our maintenance facility and are now off of government assistance and have jobs,” he said. “They are learning life skills from building to engine work. We’ve doubled our trustee force, which saves money and teaches them those life skills at the same time.” Watson said altercations within the jail have decreased 80 percent in the last year. Inmates who show themselves to be of good behavior and wanting to improve themselves are placed in “program pods” which makes them eligible for the special programs being made available. “You have to meet a minimum standard and your behavior has to be perfect,” Watson said. “This is a win-win for everybody.” The sheriff also said the turnover rate for the BCSO?has decreased. “I’ve only had two patrolmen to leave within 11 months,” he said. “That’s a rate I can take.” One of the things Watson takes the most pride in is the baptisms that are now being held at the jail. “It was in that first month, we had a man who wanted to be baptized,” he said. “We baptized 28, and it’s something I’m very proud of. It keeps the tension down because we try to treat our inmates like they are somebody. They are people like we are and they have made bad decisions. “I’ve learned if you try to treat them with respect, they’ll treat you back with respect most of the time,” he said. Watson said he is also building a strong association with the schools and now has a new memorandum of understanding with the Bradley County Schools. “Lt. Julie Quinn was the lieutenant over the school resource officers and, as part of my changes, I added an SRO to take her position at Bradley Central, which made it possible for her to actually travel to other schools and help where needed. That makes a total of 17 SROs now working,” he said. Watson campaigned for office promising to bring back the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program, and it is a promise he has kept. “People are excited over that,” he said. “750 kids have graduated.” He said there has been a $10,000 donor which has helped to buy DARE items for the students, and the two vehicles used in the program were also donated. “Even this year, I had a man come in with a $6,000 check toward this program,” he said. When asked why the BCSO is seeing a surge of private donations toward its programs, Watson says it is because “people believe in what we’re doing.” “It’s real simple,” he said. “People read about and they believe it’s making a difference, and it is. This DARE program does not cost the taxpayer one red cent. But, it’s an important program because we’re reaching kids that wouldn’t otherwise be reached. There wouldn’t be anything existing like it in the schools if it weren’t for that program. “If we win one, we’ve won,” Watson said. “But, we’re winning a lot more than one student. When you come to a DARE graduation and hear them speak and read their essays … they’re fantastic!” Watson said former students along with parents and grandparents come up to him to say thanks for the program. “People believe in what we are doing and the fruits bear witness when they bring those checks into the Sheriff’s Office, unsolicited, and say we believe in your drug and alcohol program.” Watson said the antidrug program has far exceeded his expectations. “We have one of our SROs who is so enthused, people at his school are wanting to give him money so he can buy a DARE car,” the sheriff said. “There is already $2,000 from those people.” He said throughout his years, both in law enforcement and in the state Legislature, he has never known of the public backing up a law enforcement agency like he has seen here. “People come in with $6,000 checks or $18,000 [worth] of new exercise equipment for our employees,” Watson said. “I’ve never worked for an agency where people want to be involved like they have here.” The sheriff added there are also small acts of kindness that are a constant for the members of the BCSO. “A lady brought in brownies and chocolate chips cookies just the other day and people are doing that kind of thing all of the time,” Watson said. “I have sent a stack of ‘Thank You’ cards just in the last few weeks.” Watson said BCSO deputies and other personnel treat people with respect and their connection with the people they serve has been a focus. “We’ve started back to community policing where officers get out of their patrol cars and get to know people,” he said. “The day of just riding around and pulling people over is not what I want our patrol to be doing. It’s part of it, but if you see a neighbor out in the yard, you wave at them and speak to them, ask how they are doing and what we can do for them. “At the end of the day, we work for the community,” Watson said. “They pay our salaries and we want to do everything we can to accommodate them and be nice to them.”
