JOHN COFFELTEditor

Marijuana and mushrooms most offenses

Manchester Police Chief Bill Sipe reported there were 43 drug-related citations or arrests during the Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival June 14-18.

Sipe told members of the Manchester Safety Committee during its Aug. 28 meeting that there were 24 drug related citations issued on site during the festival that brought an estimated 80,000 people into Manchester last June.

“The predominate drugs were mushrooms and marijuana, although the whole smorgasbord was available out there,” Sipe said during the meeting.

Sipe said the availability of NARCAN helped tremendously with medical personnel’s treatment of “a few” individuals” under the influence.

“They practically had a NARCAN distributor out there, which helped out tremendously,” Sipe said.

“To our knowledge there were no recorded deaths.”

The department received 21 theft reports, mostly cellphones, along with 19 drug reports with associated arrests. There were also a large number of false 911 calls resulting from cell phone-related technology that auto reported traffic accidents.

Sipe said that the Manchester Police Department received just under 1,000 of those calls.

“They kept us really busy in the area,” Sipe said. “It’s kind of a bittersweet thing. These accelerometers in these new telephones, if you drop them or stop suddenly, they are automatically dialing 911.”

Sipe said one benefit of that is that it kept the Manchester Police active.

Festivalgoers with Apple Watches dancing and moving around registered the sudden gestures as possible crashes, then the owners couldn’t hear the watch asking for input if the crash was real, with no response, the device eventually initiating a 911 call.

A state public address alert helped reduce accidental calls by 40% by advising festivalgoers to shut off the feature.

Also reported at the meeting, the Codes Department issued 277 temporary business permits to vendors for $100 each.

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.