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City to get Park Theatre update
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Lisa Hobbs
Updated: Dec 8, 2012, 8:10 PM
Published: Dec 8, 2012, 8:11 PM

McMinnville officials will be getting an update Tuesday night on the Park Theatre during the regular session of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
Mayor Jimmy Haley says he is meeting with the architect prior to the board meeting.
“I would like to know where we stand in the process,” said Haley. “I’m meeting with the architect earlier that afternoon.”
The city is in the beginning stages of the project. The beginning stages determine what the city wants in the finished product. Once the scope of the work is done, documents can be drawn so the city can go out for bids.
Haley says he wants to know how close the city is to moving from designing plans to bidding the project.
“I want to know how close we are to going out for bids,” he said. “Until we get bids, we do not know how much renovation will cost.”
While a cost estimate put the project at $2 million, the actual cost will be unknown until bids are received from companies interested in contracting to do the work.
Haley says he will be assigning new members to the Park Theatre Committee to continue discussions about a management agreement between the city and the nonprofit Park Theatre Group once the project is complete.
The committee was assigned by the former mayor Dr. Norman Rone. It consisted of Rone and former alderman Everett Brock, and Park Theatre Group members David Marttala and Steve Phillips with Jeff Golden as chairman. Rone and Brock are no longer with the city.
“I would like the city to figure out a management agreement with the Park Theatre Group,” said Haley.
When questioned about objections from the Comptroller of the Treasury’s office regarding a contract between the two, Haley stated, “Comptrollers never said we couldn’t. Some individuals said we couldn’t, but comptrollers did not. I believe there is a way to work out an agreement. If that’s the wishes of the board, that’s what we are going to do.”
McMinnville officials have been trying to work out a financial agreement between the city and Park Theatre Group since last year when Marttala came before the board saying the group had exhausted all avenues and couldn’t obtain financing for renovation.
In August of 2011, the board directed city attorney Tim Pirtle to work with Marttala on a lease agreement with the group with the city obtaining financial backing necessary for renovation. Pirtle suggested a 20-year lease to the group with “rent” matching the annual payments on the debt incurred by the city for financing renovation.
The suggestion was squashed by Tennessee Municipal Bond Fund on preliminary approval. In a letter to the board, Pirtle said “financing violates the lending of credit provision of the state constitution.”
Under Section 29 of the Constitution of Tennessee, it states, “The credit of no county, city or town shall be given or loaned to or in aid of any person, company, association or corporation, except upon an election to be first held by the qualified voters of such county, city or town, and the assent of three-fourths of the votes cast at said election. Nor shall any county, city or town become a stockholder with others in any company, association or corporation except upon a like election, and the assent of a like majority.”
Pirtle says the legal coordinator of the TML Bond Fund said the proposal would not obtain the state’s approval for financing.
In May 2012, Pirtle sat down with an attorney for the Comptroller’s office and presented a proposed agreement that would have allowed Park Theatre Group to lease the property from the city and operate the facility once renovated. After the debt service for renovation is paid in full, the city would sell the property to the group for $1.
Pirtle said, during that meeting, the comptroller’s attorney said the city could enter into a management agreement with a company, association or corporation, but only after it opens the project for bids.
“He told us if the city enters into a management agreement for Park Theatre, it would have to use a competitive bidding process,” Pirtle said. “The city cannot use tax dollars to renovate the building, then arbitrarily select a group to operate it.”
A fair bidding process means the Park Theatre Group would have to submit a bid and be considered among other applicants, with the agreement going to the best offer.
The update of Park Theatre will be given during the board’s regular session at 7 p.m.
Local law enforcement on the lookout for distracted driving
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Nikki Childers
Published: Apr 9, 2025, 2:43 AM

April is National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) Distracted Driving Awareness Month and McMinnville Police Department (MPD) is on the roads to educate motorists about appropriate hands-free driving.

The amplified focus of cracking down on distracted driving is a nationwide initiative, with many states taking part. MPD Officer Mark Mara indicated the local department is increasing patrols, funded by overtime grants, to enforce and educate about Tennessee’s Hands Free Law.

“We’re trying to get people to change their habits,” Mara said. “There’s a lot of people that are distracted while driving, whether its their cell phones or not. When driving, there are already so many distractions, so having electronics in your hands while you’re driving down the road is dangerous. We need to focus on getting where we need to go and getting there safely.”

According to its records, NHTSA estimates 3,308 lives were lost in crashes involving distracted drivers in 2022 and 8% of all fatal crashes could be attributed to the same. To illustrate the point on a larger scale, it approximates over 32,000 people have died and nearly 290,000 were left injured from crashes attributed to distracted motorists between 2013 and 2022.

Violation of the Tennessee Hands Free Law is a Class C misdemeanor and traffic citations based on the violation are considered moving traffic violations. A first-time offense is typically $50 with third-time offenses and violations resulting in a crash rising to $100; citations received in a work zone while workers or present or in a marked school zone while flashes are in operation carry a penalty of $200. Three points are also added to a motorist’s driving record for each violation with 12 points leading to license suspension.

While the law specifically mentions hands in its name, it is similarly illegal to prop the phone up with any other part of their body.

“We’re going to be stopping vehicles whose operators are distracted by using their cell phones or other electronic devices,” Mara said. “It is against the law for a motorist to be holding their electronic device or having it on their body, so if you’re holding it to your ear or with your shoulder, it’s against the law all the same.”

When using GPS technology, Mara recommends investing in windshield-, vent- or dash-mounted mobile device holder to support the phone while using it for those purposes so your hands can remain on the wheel without compromising your ability to navigate to a destination.

“I understand that your cell phones are a lifeline and we get that — we use them ourselves for GPS. If you have an important phone call that’s coming in and you really need to focus on talking to that person, just pull over to the side of the road and turn on your emergency lights,” Mara said. “When you’re on a phone call, you’re not paying attention to all of the things you need to. You’re going to be concentrating on that conversation and you’re going to find yourself drifting in your lane, going through a stop sign or not stopping properly before a red light.”

Mara additionally recommended drivers sync their phones to their vehicles in models with Bluetooth capabilities and to use phone mounts that do not obstruct vision of the roadways through the windshield.

“The greatest danger of distracted driving is ending up in a crash that was absolutely avoidable, which might hurt yourself or someone else,” Mara said. “You’ve got a lot in front of you when you’re driving and a vehicle is a piece of machinery. We want all motorists to be driving safely on the roads and getting to their destinations without misadventure.”

Warnings and citations will be rendered at officers’ discretion during the increased patrols.