Tennessee
In one Middle Tennessee town, all 677 water bills are lost in the mail, past due
Watertown is trying to get the bottom of a billing mystery that’s affecting hundreds of customers.
All of the city’s 677 water and sewer bills, taken to the post office on June 20 for mailing, have not been received by customers three weeks later, city officials report.
Payments were due on July 10.
The city has a receipt for payment and acknowledgement of delivery from the post office, saying the bills had been taken care of, Watertown City Recorder April Lamberson said.
Watertown’s mail typically goes to Nashville, even when recipients are in the Wilson County city. There is generally a 4-5 day period between when the water bills are mailed and when they arrive to customers, Mayor Mike Jennings said.
But as of Thursday morning – one day past the due date when a 20% late fee is supposed to be added – the bills still hadn’t arrived.
Jennings has announced an extension for payment without penalty for one week until July 17, he said Thursday morning.
Customers are usually subject to water being shut off for unpaid bills after the 20th of the following month after delivery.
The city will “take a look at all circumstances before we make any decisions about shutting off water,” Jennings said. He noted past exceptions to keep water on for customers with unpaid bills during times of extreme hot or cold weather.
Jennings and other city officials have tried to make Watertown’s residents aware of the missing bills through social media and simple word of mouth, the mayor said. And well over half of the city’s customers have paid their bills by coming to city call, calling in via phone or using automatic draft, which was not affected.
But, there were still 268 customers who still hadn’t paid their bill this month as of Thursday morning, Lamberson said.
Kim Vastola, owner of Barrett’s Barber Shop on the Watertown square, paid this month’s e-business’s water bill by phone.
“Some people like the security of having a bill,” Vastola said. “It got a lot of people up in arms. Now that everyone knows it wasn’t the city’s fault and it wasn’t (Watertown) post office’s fault, everyone is a little more understanding.”
Jennings and the city are still searching for answers from the postal service about what might have happened to the water bills.
Attempts to reach the postal service for comment on this story weren’t immediately successful.
“I feel good about the way people have handled it,” Jennings said. “But I want to find a way to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
Reach Andy Humbles at ahumbles@tennessean.com or 615-726-5939 and on X, formerly known as Twitter @ AndyHumbles.
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Things went sideways quickly at Lindsey Nelson Stadium on Friday as the No. 4 Texas Longhorns fell into an early hole and never recovered in a 5-1 loss to the Tennessee Volunteers that included another shoulder injury sustained by junior second baseman Ethan Mendoza.
After spending 15 games last year as the designated hitter following a shoulder injury sustained diving for a ground ball, Mendoza left the game in the first inning on a similar play, leaving head coach Jim Schlossnagle without much optimism that the Arizona State transfer will be able to return to action this weekend.
Without Mendoza in the lineup, Texas struggled at the plate against Tennessee ace Tegan Kuhns, who recorded a career-high 15 strikeouts in seven innings. Throwing 113 pitches, Kuhns allowed just four hits and one walk in his scoreless outing as the Horns ultimately struck out 19 times, leaving the bottom of the order without much production — sophomore shortstop Adrian Rodriguez struck out all four times he came to the plate and junior designated hitter Ashton Larson, junior infielder Casey Borba, and freshman center fielder Maddox Monsour all struck out three times apiece.
Junior right fielder Aiden Robbins did have two hits — a double and a solo home run in the eighth inning — but didn’t receive help from the rest of the lineup.
And sophomore left-hander Dylan Volantis looked human, a rare occurrence in his sterling career in burnt orange and white, allowing RBI doubles in the first and second innings and giving up another second-inning run on a wild pitch. Volantis recovered to throw three scoreless innings before redshirt senior right-hander Cody Howard pitched the final three innings, giving up two runs on two hits.
Texas tries to bounce back on Saturday with first pitch at 5 p.m. Central on SEC Network+.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – State Rep. Antonio Parkinson says Tennessee’s two blue cities, Memphis and Nashville, should break away and form their own state.
“I don’t think the state of Tennessee deserves a Memphis and Shelby County…or a Nashville, Davidson County,” Parkinson said on Action News 5’s A Better Memphis broadcast Friday.
Parkinson proposed creating a new state called West Tennessee, which would span from the eastern border of Nashville’s Davidson County to the Mississippi River.
“I’m not just talking about Memphis, I’m talking about the eastern border of Nashville, Davidson County and everything to the Mississippi River to create a new state called the new state of West Tennessee, the 51st state, West Tennessee,” Parkinson said.
Proposal follows new congressional map
Parkinson’s secession pitch follows the GOP supermajority approving a new congressional map Thursday that splits Shelby County into three districts, dismantling what was the state’s only majority-Black district.
“So this is about accountability. We’re paying all of this money, yet you remove our voice, so that is taxation without self-determination, taxation without actual representation,” Parkinson said.
Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton denies race was a factor when Republicans redrew the map.
“Look, at the end of the day we were able to draw a map based on population and based on politics, we did not use any racial data,” Sexton told Action News 5.
Sexton said Democrats did the same thing in the 1990s when they split Shelby County into three different congressional districts.
Secession requires state, federal approval
For Memphis to secede, it requires approval from the State of Tennessee and the U.S. Congress.
Parkinson said he’s willing to fight that uphill battle.
“Why should we stay in an abusive relationship where they’ve shown us the pattern over and over and over…where they do not see our value, and do not care about us,” Parkinson said.
This is not the first time Parkinson has suggested Memphis secede from Tennessee. He made the same call in 2018 after the Republican-controlled state legislature punished Memphis, cutting the city’s funding by $250,000, in retaliation for removing two Confederate statutes.
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