John Coffelt, Editor

Following two public hearings during the Dec. 16 meeting, the Manchester Planning Commission unanimously voted to reaffirm its prior recommendation to recommend annexes that will go before the Board of Mayor and Aldermen in January.

The annexes came before the commission and received a positive recommendation during the August meeting. Since that time, Codes Director Brittany Fiske was informed that public hearings should be held during the Planning Commission meeting as well as the public hearing held during the BOMA  meeting.

“To my knowledge they haven’t been done that way in the past, but we know better and try to do better,” Fiske said. “In the future we will do a public hearing on the annexation and the plans of service.”

Annexations are brought to the board for approval with a positive or negative recommendation from the Planning Commission.

The plans of service were connected to a request for annexation for 99 acres on The Murfreesboro Highway owned by Robert Gilley and 10.37 acres owned by Donald Parker on Sissom Lane. BOMA voted during the December meeting to reconsider the annex requests after the related matters failed during the November meeting.

During the public hearing held Dec. 16 no one spoke on 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.