John Coffelt, Editor

At least one nonprofit and some Coffee County Commissioners were surprised to find out that the county contributions to five local nonprofits have been cut from the 2025-26 fiscal budget.

The cuts used to offset the budget’s deficit and avoid raising property taxes, amounted to a total of $31,000 from what was allocated last budget.

Coffee County women’s shelter, Haven of Hope, will not receive the $6,000 that it received last year. The mental healthcare provider Centerstone, Coffee County Children’s Advocacy Center and the Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) will each take a hit of $5,000.  Coffee County Humane Society took the biggest one, losing its $10,000 contribution.

Haven of Hope Director Kellye Gilbert told the Times this is the first she’d heard of the cuts.

“I have not seen the county budget on contributions to non-profits yet,” she said. “Loss of funding always effects a non-profit organization, it usually means some service will have to be reduced, limited, or unavailable. While often we try to find funds elsewhere, that isn’t always possible.”

Likewise, some members of the County Commission were surprised to learn that these services were cut even though they approved the budget with the cuts in place.

The budget discussions leading up to the final approval of the budget are always hectic and with this year’s budget taking a swing from being proposed with a $2 million deficit or a property tax increase, the budget was particularly fluid leading up to its passing.

According to the approved minutes from the June 17 Budget and Finance Meeting, a motion was made by Commissioner Tim Stubblefield for a no tax Increase, and to add $446,000 to the Sheriff’s Office for deputy raises, and a 5% raise for County employees to be distributed by their department  heads and not for Dept. heads to exceed the 5% amount and to be evaluated by the mayor.

$755,000 would also be pulled from the Debt service fund and moved to the general fund to decrease the deficit.

The budget passed 10-6 with Commissioners Dowe Jones, Jimmy Hollandsworth, Benton Brown, Roger Chambers, Jo Mike Hodge, and Dwight Miller voting no, and Todd Malone abstaining. Commissioner Tim Morris was absent.

An email requesting comment was sent to each member of the commission. Chambers said that he was unaware of the removal of the contributions and was looking into the matter.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.