Kelley named dean of UTM department

Dr. R. Mark Kelley has been appointed as the new dean of the UT Mar-tin College of Education, Health and Behavioral Sciences, effective July 1.

“The search committee and I thought Dr. Kelley’s credentials and interview reflected an exceptional

record of t e a c h i n g , s c h o l a r -ship and administra-tive leader-ship,” said Dr. Jerald Ogg, uni-

versity provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. “Dr. Kelley grew up in Arkansas, and he and his wife, Sandy, are excited about moving to Martin and helping us advance the university’s mission.”

Kelley, a professor and chair of the Western Il-linois University Depart-ment of Health Sciences since 2008, earned his Ph.D. in health science from the University of Arkansas. He previously served on the faculty at Oklahoma State Univer-sity, the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Southeastern Louisiana University.

“I am excited to have the opportunity to join the UT Martin team and be a part of the College of Education, Health, and Behavioral Sciences,” Kelley said. “The vibrant growing nature of the col-lege, UTM and Martin communities was evident during my visit to cam-pus.”

Kelley succeeds Dr. Mary Lee Hall, who is retiring June 30 after serv-ing 10 years as dean of the college.

Eight arrested aftersecret indictments

A Weakley County Grand Jury, meeting for the May session, handed down secret indictments as a result of an under-cover drug operation conducted by the crimi-nal investigators of the Weakley County Sheriff’s Department.

Arrested were:• Timothy Neal Jack-

son, 37, of 301 S. 2nd St. in Greenfield on a charge of sale of schedule 2 methamphetamine.

• Cecil Dalton Williams, 40, of 2535 Boydsville Road on a charge of sale of schedule 4 valium.

• Joe Lafayette Moon, 72, of 1657 Travis Cha-pel Rd. in Dresden on a charge of sale of schedule 3 dihydrocodeinone.

• Samuel Joseph Puck-ett, 40, of 1220 Cotton Creek Rd. in Gleason on a charge of sale of schedule 2 hydrocodone.

• Diesha Lucinder Shane, 40, of 210 Ava-lon St. in Greenfield on a charge of sale of schedule 2 meth.

• Clarence James Far-ris, 26, of 170 Kester Rd. in Dresden on a charge of sale of schedule 6 mari-juana.

• James Aron Trull, 27, of 779 Gleason Pil-lowville Rd. in Gleason on a charge of sale of schedule 2 meth.

• Sabrina Montgomery, 27, also known as Sabrina Ricketts, of 570 Broad St. in Greenfield on a sale of schedule 2 meth.

Deputies are still at-tempting to locate one other person charged in a secret indictment.

Weakley County Presswww.nwtntoday.com 50 cents

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Vol. 129 No. 39

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INSIDE: Page 2: Obits/News Notes • 3: Society • 4: Senior Living • 5: Education • 6-7: Sports • 8: Classifieds • 9: Business • 10: Academic Bowl

Call us at (731) 587-3144 • General Manager: Lynette Wagster • Subscriptions/Classifieds: Linda Stockton • Advertising: Suzanne Peckham • www.nwtntoday.com

HISTORIC RIDE — During Saturday’s Airport Expo, Discovery Park of America will offer rides in a World War II PT-17 Stearman for a $100 donation. Local pilot Mike Rinker will fly the plane, which will soon be on per-manent display at Discovery Park’s military gallery.

JUNIOR FIREMAN — Jacob Rogers, a kindergarten student in Jean Thompson’s class at Martin Primary School, operates a fire hose with supervision from Martin fire-fighter Jason Haube. All of the kindergarten classes at MPS visited the fire station last week for Arson Awareness Week. The U.S. Fire Administration (USFA) dedicated this year’s campaign to the theme of reducing residential arson.

FIGHT CANCER — Honorary chairs for Relay for Life Weakley West are (from left) Betty Cheeseman, Roberta Peacock, Evelyn Blythe and Lynette Wagster. They will be introduced at the Survivor Dinner on May 30 at 6 p.m. in the Westview High School cafeteria. They will also be sharing their personal stories of their battles against can-cer during the Survivor Reception on June 14 at 5 p.m. at the UT Martin football stadium parking lot on the night of the Weakley West Relay for Life Event. They will also lead survivors during the Survivor Lap at 6 p.m..

Kelley

SOCIETYHannah Grace Rawls and Caleb Warren Haywood are getting married. Get the details on page 3.

EDUCATIONJoshua Floyd was one of many local stu-dents at UTM’s Academic Bowl. See page 10 for more.

By JOE LOFAROSpecial to The Press

MARTIN — Martin Mayor Randy Brundige and the Board of Alder-men voted Monday in fa-vor of a $1,500 grant to Hope of Martin, a com-munity organization that plans to ultimately build five duplexes on the prop-erty formerly known as Campbell Trailer Park on Highland Street.

“We build for low-in-come and special needs in-dividuals,” said Gene Bus-by, with Hope of Martin Community Development Corporation. “In conjunc-tion with CDS, we want to move some of our clients into this new community setting.”

Busby said Hope of Mar-

tin will initially build three duplexes and ultimately five on the site of the di-lapidated trailer park.

“We want this to be a nice, homey community,” Busby said. “We will have 24-hour maintenance and we will hire a company so all of the yards can be mowed on Mondays.”

Busby said while the new community will in-clude some CDS clients, it would not include all CDS clients. “If we move all the clients out there, it defeats our purpose,” Busby said. “We want some of our cli-ents in the community set-ting.”

Brundige told the Mar-tin aldermen at this past Tuesday’s informal board

By JOE LOFAROSpecial to The Press

The Martin Historic Business District (MHBD) will host its first Family Night Out of 2013 from 6-9 p.m. Saturday in Festival Park downtown. The City of Martin has partnered with the MHBD.

The highlight of the eve-ning promises to be the concert by Stormgate, a well-known local band.

“Stormgate opened the very first Family Night Out for us,” said Lynn Harper, Family Fun Nights events

coordinator. “They are Southern rock with a hint of Blues.”

Harper said this will be the first year that people can take advantage of the splash pad in Festival Park.

“We would encourage people to come out,” Harp-er said.

“People can come out and enjoy the concert and let their kids play in the splash pad.”

MHBD events chairper-son Lynette Wagster said the city of Martin has part-

nered with the MHBD. “We are excited and thrilled the City of Martin has part-nered with us to bring a well-known and popular band to our first event of the season.”

Oogie & Oodles Piddle-pops (balloons and face painting); Nikki Lee’s Con-cessions (featuring fresh lemonade, corn dogs and funnel cakes); Cajun Sno-Balls (snow cones); Magi-cal Mink’s Entertainment with inflatables; the Ten-nessee National Guard’s

By RANDY CAVINPress Sports

MARTIN — The mes-sages were different, but the meaning was the same.

Two well-known ath-letes spoke to 100 Mar-tin Middle eighth-grad-ers and 150 Martin El-e m e n t a r y

fifth-graders at the D.A.R.E (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) graduation on Friday at the Martin Mid-dle School.

Former Green Bay Pack-ers and now retired offen-

sive tackle Chad Clifton and UT Martin women’s basketball standout Heather Butler spoke at the gradua-tion with different messag-

es, but with both having the same meaning – do not give in to the tempta-tion to drugs.

Clifton, a Martin na-

tive, and Butler, who has called Martin her home for the last three years, took the opportunity to give back to the community and spoke about the temptations and peer pressure athletes go

through on daily basis and how to conquer it.

Clifton showed the stu-dents his Super Bowl ring and then talked about his dream of playing in the NFL and a chance to play in the Super Bowl. He asked the kids about their dreams and told them the quickest way to smash your dreams is to get involved with drugs and alcohol.

“Let me tell you one thing,” Clifton said. “To get to where you want to go, to accomplish these dreams, one of the fastes ways to derail yourself, to keep yourself from accom-

By KEVIN BOWDENSpecial to The Press

Gordon Wade knows a thing or two about aviation, and he’d like to share his knowledge with local high school students who might be considering a career in aviation.

At a time when many se-niors are preparing for col-lege and underclassmen are looking forward to summer vacation, Wade has sched-uled an aviation careers workshop as part of the upcoming Airport Expo at Everett-Stewart Regional Airport.

“I’ve always had a pas-sion for working with teen-agers and I’d like to edu-cate them about some of

the careers available in the aviation field,” Wade said.

The Airport Expo is scheduled for Saturday at the local airport. Wade will host the workshop at 1 p.m. inside his commercial hangar at West Tennessee Aviation.

Wade has 35 years of experience in aviation, as a pilot and a mechanic. He owns and operates West Tennessee Aviation and is actively involved in airport events such as the upcom-ing expo.

His workshop is free and open to any high school student. The program will begin with a presentation by Wade, who will have at least one airplane and an

airplane engine on display.“We’d like to introduce

high school students to potential careers in avia-tion, whether its in the me-chanical field or as a pilot,” Wade said.

Parents of teenagers are welcome to attend the workshop, too.

Wade will be joined at the workshop by experi-enced pilot and flight in-structor Stoney Orton, who is a member of the local airport board, and commer-cial pilot Ben Hagar.

The workshop will begin with a general introduction to aviation careers and will include break-out sessions focused on flight training,

Everett-Stewart ready for Airport Expo

See Dare, Page 2

See expo, Page 2

Hope of Martin grant approved

Clifton Butler

Clifton, Butler tell kids to say ‘no’

By BRAD GASKINSNews Editor

DRESDEN — The al-leged ringleader of a No-vember armed robbery and kidnapping on the Univer-sity of Tennessee at Martin campus was back in court Thursday.

Richard Taylor, through a public defender, said he recently hired a Nashville attorney who needs more time to prepare and was unable to attend the hear-ing because of a schedul-ing conflict.

The case was continued until May 30.

Taylor is considering whether to take a plea deal from the state. If he pleads guilty to the lesser charge of robbery, he would be

sentenced to six years in prison and would serve 30 percent of that term.

If the case goes trial and he is convicted, he faces eight to 12 years in prison and would serve at least 80 percent of that term.

Jeremy Anderson, Cor-tez Bowen and Quinton McClerkin pleaded guilty and were sentenced April 18.

In a previously held preliminary hearing, testi-mony alleged Taylor was the ringleader in the Nov. 12 robbery, carjacking and kidnapping of two other UTM students.

Taylor was dismissed from the UTM football team in September for vio-lation of team rules.

Taylor hires a lawyer, weighs his options in campus robbery case

See Fun, Page 2

Family Night Out returns Saturday

See BoarD, Page 2