Region Digest: Girl, 3, burned in stove accident

WINCHESTER, Tenn.

City gets funding to landscape roads

Winchester is among six communities to get a share of more than half a million dollars in grant funding for roadway landscaping improvements, according to a state news release.

Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and John Schroer, commissioner of the state Department of Transportation, announced the awards Wednesday, including $120,000 for Winchester in Franklin County.

"Enhanced roadsides and attractive gateways create a welcoming environment for visitors and can provide a boost for local economies as we work to make Tennessee an even better place for families to live, work and play," Haslam states in the release.

Winchester will use its funding for landscaping, welcome signs and an overlook at U.S. Highway 41-A and Sharp Springs Road, officials said.

The Tennessee Roadscapes initiative, developed in 2006 as a partnership between community organizations and TDOT, aims to create inviting spaces through an integrated approach to roadside landscaping. The state agency funds 80 percent of the cost of a project with the local government funding the remaining 20 percent.

TRION, Ga.

Girl, 3, burned in stove accident

A 3-year-old girl was taken to the hospital after burning herself Wednesday, said Herbert Dodd, district commander of Redmond Emergency Medical Services.

The girl pulled a pan of boiling water off the stove and suffered second-degree burns, Dodd said.

She was airlifted to T.C. Thompson Children's Hospital at Erlanger, Dodd said.

BRADLEY COUNTY, Tenn.

Man gets 12 years in fatal crash

A Bradley County man has begun serving 12 years imprisonment on charges stemming from a fatal vehicle crash in 2009, Bradley County police spokesman Bob Gault said.

Johnson, 48, had pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide, Gault said Monday. After he was sentenced, Johnson was taken into custody to begin serving his sentence.

A police investigation found that, on Memorial Day 2009, Johnson was driving north on Ladd Springs Road when he collided with two other vehicles headed in the other direction, Gault said. The driver of one of those vehicles, Lala Denise Guthrie, 49, died from crash injuries.

ROGERSVILLE, Tenn.

Mom gets 60 days in spanking case

A Kingsport woman will serve 60 days in jail for what authorities said was the excessive spanking of her toddler son in a Church Hill city park.

The sentence is the result of a plea bargain under which 28-year-old Allison Marie Blevins no longer faces felony abuse charges. The settlement, however, requires that she serve all 60 days of the misdemeanor sentence, according to the Kingsport Times-News.

Police said Blevins paddled her son three separate times July 13, leaving bruises on his buttocks.

Hawkins County General Sessions Court Judge Jay Taylor accepted the deal this week. Prosecutor Kevin Keeton told the court the 19-month old boy and his 2-year-old sibling will remain in their grandparents' custody at the discretion of the Department of Children's Services.

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