Finger hosts 117th annual BBQ 4A
Cardinals win homecoming 1B
Tennessee River Run Darryl Worley’s River Run a huge success PAGE 2A
Independent Appeal Making McNairy County headlines for more than 100 years
Volume 107, Number 18, Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Suspect Captured Photo of alleged bank robber Joseph Russ Carnathan of Mooreville Miss. as he exits the Selmer Walmart on the morning of Sept. 13. Carnathan was captured last Tuesday morning in Mississippi and has waived extradition. He is currently at the McNairy County Jail awaiting his court date.
Independent Appeal Staff
A suspect has been arrested in connection with the Selmer SouthBank robbery on the morning of Sept. 13. Joseph Russ Carnathan of Mooreville, Miss. (a small community just east of Tupelo) was arrested last Tuesday morning in Mississippi. According to Lt. Roger Rickman of the Selmer Police Department, Carnathan waived extradition in Mississippi and was transported to the McNairy County Jail. The suspect in the robbery left the bank with an undisclosed amount of $20 and $100 bills, and was spotted driving away in a red late 80’s or early 90’s model Mazda pick-up truck. The arrest follows an intensive week-long manhunt by the Selmer Police Department, the McNairy County Sheriff’s Department, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Authorities have circulated bank camera and Walmart photos of the suspect as well as photos of a vehicle of a similar make and model to the one the suspect was driving the day of the robbery. It is believed that the suspect purchased his sunglasses and his tan ball cap with a Mossy Oak symbol used as a disguise in the robbery at the Selmer Walmart prior to entering the bank. For further updates on this story visit our Facebook page and read upcoming editions of the Independent Appeal.
Head News Writer
Broomcorn Festival
Staff Photo by Jeff Whitten
Kacy Gagyi of Adamsville died in a one-car crash on Michie-Pebble Hill Rd. last Tuesday. Gagyi was trapped in her 2007 Nissan Altima and had to be removed. She was taken away by an Emergency Medical Services Ambulance to MRH where she was later pronounced dead. Further details were unavailable at press time. Follow the Independent Appeal on Facebook for further updates on this story.
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By Jeff Whitten
Submitted Photo
Fatal Michie car crash
Kirk, Jones, Hutton perform well at region PAGE 1A
Common Sense: Welcome to the jungle
Selmer SouthBank robbery suspect nabbed in Mississsippi By Christen Coulon and Jeff Whitten
Golfers Statebound
Submitted Photo by Fox Coulon
People enjoy the various booths available at the 16th annual Broomcorn Festival last Saturday at the Selmer City park. The festival, sponsored by Hockaday Handmade Brooms, along with Arts in McNairy and the McNairy Regional Alliance drew hundreds of people to McNairy County. See BROOMCORN, 3A
I went to my high school reunion a while back. I nearly didn’t go because those things have a bad rap. However, I did go and surprisingly, COMMON SENSE had a terrific time. I pretty much picked up where I left off with my classmates years ago. I may be atypical but I had a really good high school experience. In fact, Jeff Whitten those were the best years of my life. Everyone always tells you that high school will be the best time of your life and you usually don’t believe them at the time, but it was true in my case. From what I read and hear, students of today are not so lucky. Of course, different people’s experiences will be different, then as now, but the portrait that emerges of the conditions faced by the average high school student is not encouraging. One obvious problem that has worsened over the years is violence. There were fistfights and occasionally a knife or razor blade was pulled, but no one ever got cut, to my knowledge, when I was in school. There were no metal detectors because guns were unknown at my high school. The problem of guns in schools today arises in part as a response to the problem of bullying. There was bullying in my high school but never to the extent that anyone felt they had to come to school armed in order to defend themselves from it. In my day, usually, all you had to do was stand up to bullies once, and they would move on to an easier target. Today, bullies are much more vicious than they were back then. I am sickened by the videos I have seen of 15 kids beating up one. By telling students to respond by saying, “It hurts my feelings when you do that,” some school officials may well be making it worse. They might well do better to teach all students self-defense. The violence is part of a pattern of
See Jungle, 3A
Election commission votes to close precincts By Jeff Whitten Head News Writer
McNairy County Election Commission Chairman Paul Estes told a meeting of the McNairy County Commission redistricting committee that the commission had voted to close five precincts. These are McNairy, Lawton, Purdy, Leapwood and Cypress. The election commission took this action at its meeting on Sept. 6. Under the plan, McNairy will be merged into Finger, Lawton will be merged into Adamsville, Purdy and Leapwood will be merged into Northeast Selmer and Cypress will be merged into Ramer. According to a handout distributed by Estes at the meeting, the closures would save $2,500 to $3,000 per election. The same handout showed that McNairy has 510 voters, Lawton has 513, Purdy has 330, Leapwood has 523 and Cypress has 251. County Commissioner Jeff Lipford was critical of the decision and has sent a letter to the commission asking for a public hearing on the closings. “Past history shows that longer lines develop when precincts are merged. Voting times have certainly increased at the Selmer and Adamsville precincts in recent years during peak voting times.
I know there have been no discussions on the County Commission budget committee about excessive spending on elections and I can assure you the county can afford to keep five precincts open to accommodate folks in our small communities. The voters in our county deserve to be treated with respect and dignity with the decisions made concerning the most basic right of Americans, the right to vote,” Lipford said in an email to the Independent Appeal. “The county commission has absolutely no action in that at all. We have no authority, no responsibility. That’s totally the election commission. So if there’s complaints and I’m sure there will be, then that needs to be made to the election commission rather than this body,” County Mayor Wilburn Gene Ashe told the full county commission meeting. Commissioner Steve Browder also criticized the move. “It’s being closed for no good reason, in my opinion. To close these boxes saves $3,500 and that’s no great sum of money to displace that many citizens,” he told the commission meeting. Currently, Browder along with several others are circulating petitions in hopes of stopping the precinct closings. Browder represents the Second District, which includes Lawton.
Slated precinct closures present hardship for voters Precincts considered for closure
Purdy Leapwood McNairy Lawton Cypress Totals
Voters in precinct
Total additional miles for voters
Potential additional expense for drivers at $0.30/mile
8 30 12 20 18
330 523 510 513 251
2,640 15,690 6,120 10,260 4,518
$792 $4,707 $1,836 $3,078 $1,356
18.4
2,127
39,228
$11,768
Estimated additional round-trip miles per voter
Scheduled McNairy County Election Commission precinct closings would save the county a total of $3,500. However, the closings would impact a total of 2,127 voters, and would increase the average round-trip driving distance for affected voters by an estimated 18.442 miles. The total additional travel distance for affected voters would be approximately 39,228 miles. When measured at the modest rate of $0.30 per mile, the average voter would pay an additional $5.53 for their trip to the polls with the total price tag for affected voters measuring in at $11,768. (Formula – *Approximate distance between stations scheduled
to be closed and new station X 2 = additional round trip miles. Additional round trip miles X # of voters per precinct = total additional miles for voters. Total additional miles for voters X $0.30 per mile = potential additional expense for voters. *Assumes that stations scheduled to be closed are geographic population centers for precinct.)
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