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Dad of tot says he was rarely home

The Roane County Sheriff’s Office has released more information about the death of 2-year-old Clifford Dotson.

Clifford lived with his parents, Amanda and Matthew Dotson, at 180 Lerchen Road in East Roane County.

According to an incident report, an officer was dispatched to the address at 4:47 a.m. May 3 to investigate a suspicious death.

“Fort Loudoun hospital in Lenoir City called in that Amanda Dotson had come to the hospital with a dead child,” the report said.

Aytes getting lower salary, short contract

The Roane County Board of Education approved a contract for new Director of Schools Gary Aytes at last week’s meeting.

Aytes will take over for retiring director Toni McGriff on July 1.

His contract is only for two years. McGriff, by comparison, started with a four-year contract when she was hired in 2005.  

The board does have the option to grant Aytes an extension before the contract expires on June 30, 2014.

“It’s fine with me,” Aytes said about his contract.

Change a common theme among state House candidates

Room C of Kingston Community Center was packed full of folks from both sides of the political spectrum as candidates for Tennessee House of Representatives sounded off Thursday during a Roane County Tea Party forum.

Members of the group were concerned about each of the candidates’ stands on the issues — and they were ready with opinions of their own.

Embattled Rockwood administrator offers budget

Rockwood Mayor James Watts’ proposed budget for 2012-13 eliminates Rockwood City Administrator Jack Miller’s job and calls for a 25-cent increase in the city’s tax rate.

Miller, however, had previously made a budget proposal that would begin to solve the city’s dire financial straights but without quite the pinch to taxpayers. His suggestions were distributed to city officials prior to Watts’ proposal last week.

Ex-Buckinghams singer to perform for the Princess

The Princess Theatre Foundation is having another fundraising event, this time with entertainer Dennis Tufano, one-time lead vocalist for the Buckinghams.

Tufano will appear at the downtown Harriman theater starting at 7 p.m. May 24.

A flyer said he will be singing favorites such as “Kind of a Drag,” “Hey Baby, They Playing Our Song,” “Susan,” “Mercy, Mercy, Mercy,” “Don’t You Care” and “Back in Love Again.

Tip foils prank at Rockwood High

A group of Rockwood teens must have been disappointed when their small prank went awry last week.
A school employee was tipped off that there would be a prank at Rockwood High School on the night of Thursday, May 10. The employee kept an eye on security cameras and saw the group of pranksters enter through the boiler room, move into the hallway and drop what a Rockwood police report characterized as “inappropriate pictures.”
No damage was done to the school and the male teens ran out of the building after dropping the pictures.

Kids call fowl on Fun Day

Samuel Corum proves he’s no chicken by getting up close with a fine-feathered friend during the recent Roane County United Way Famly Fun Day celebration.

This chick was just one of the critters in the Extension Service exhibit that proved to be a popular draw for the event at Roane State Community College.

Longtime Rockwood employee’s position cut

Rockwood officials have cut a longtime employee in response to the city’s financial woes
Finance officer Joby Lancaster, the person Vice Mayor Peggy Evans continually placed blame on for failure to pay payroll tax and Tennessee Consolidated Retirement System payments on time, was let go on Thursday, May 10. The city paid thousands of dollars in fines for the late payments.
Auditors at one meeting said the fines from the IRS were the result from at least 10 different penalties.

School board takes tax increase off the table

Two things about the 2012-13 school budget bothered longtime Roane County Board of Education Member Mike “Brillo” Miller.

One was some support employees were excluded from getting a 2-percent raise.

The other was having to ask the Roane County Commission for a 6-cent property-tax rate increase to fund the budget.    

Those two issues were addressed at last week’s board meeting. Miller made a motion to give all support employees a 2-percent raise and use $739,233 of surplus to balance the budget.

Officials believe Dyllis Springs will be a cost-saving school

Construction on the new Dyllis Springs Elementary School is coming along.

“We’re hoping by the first of the (2012-13 school) year everything is cleared up, ready to go and we’re moving kids in to start teaching,” Roane County Board of Education Chairman Sam Cox said.

Cox and other board members toured the school earlier this month.

“I hope it will help us save money on utilities and so forth,” Cox said. “With money as tight as it is right now, that’s going to be very important.”