Hickman County TimesCounty Population 24,690 -- Centerville Population 3,644

(2010 Census)Aetna, Bon Aqua, Brushy, Bucksnort, Coble, Farmer’s Exchange, Gray’s Bend, Grinders Switch, Little Lot, Locust Creek, Lyles, Nunnelly, Only, Pinewood, Pleasantville, Primm Springs, Shady Grove, Shipp’s Bend, Spot, Swan, Totty’s Bend, Vernon, Wrigley

18 PAGES2 Sections

Monday, July 11, 2011

50¢

Banana Puddingdeadline July 18

page B4

Counted yourblessings?

See page B3

BestCheeseburger

See page A3

Volume 63 -- Number 26, Centerville, Tennessee

At Fairfield Church of Christ

BloodMobile

Monday; See page B2

Playwrightturns outthe lights

Playwright Clay Harrishas decided to leave thetheatre business and pursueother interests, he toldmembers of the local per-forming troupe last week.

“How hard was the deci-sion,” he said in an e-mail,responding to a question.“Like watching my fatherdie. Once resolved to theevent, numb, empty, hurt,sad, like burying my moth-er . . . gone.”

Harris and his wife, Judy,will devote their time tomaking sure their grand-daughter, Eames, has thefinances she needs to attendcollege in a few years.

Harris has created origi-nal drama, comedy andchildren’s works here for

Interlocal pact existsA 2004 agreement

between county and towngovernments spells out howthe two entities will shareresponsibilities and costsfor the emergency commu-nications center.

“That’s all right for now,”said Centerville Mayor BobBohn, who had consideredending service to the coun-ty, due to liability reasons,because he believed there

3 charged in murder, dismembermentBy SKYLER SWISHERThe Daily HeraldColumbia

Two people accused ofbeating a man to death witha sledgehammer, dismem-bering him, stashing hisparts in a freezer and thenburying his remains in aravine were after $15,000 incash, the victim’s twin

brother said.Brent L. Frazier, 27, and

Jessica M. Dotson, 25, bothof Centerville, werecharged on June 30 withhomicide and abuse of acorpse. Another man, DevinT. Simpson, 22, ofHohenwald, was chargedwith abuse of a corpse andaccessory after the fact.

The body of 19-year-oldAlphonso Waters was dis-covered June 29 afterauthorities were tipped offby an informant.Investigators believe Waterswas killed inside Dotsonand Frazier’s residence at324 Columbia Avenue.

Alonzo Waters, the vic-tim’s brother, said he does-

n’t know why his brotherwas carrying such a largesum of cash with him, buthe is certain that his killerswanted to rob him of hismoney.

He wants his brother’skillers to receive the deathpenalty, but he said he alsoforgives them.

“I forgive them because I

am a Christian and that iswhat the Lord wants,” hesaid.

Court affidavits, filed bythe Tennessee Bureau ofInvestigation, sheds light onwhat took place at theColumbia Avenue home. Inthe affidavit, investigatorsallege Waters was struck inthe face with a sledgeham-

mer while he slept on thecouch June 18.

Frazier and Dotsonaccused each other of deliv-ering the fatal blow, accord-ing to the affidavit.Investigators allege the twotook Waters to the bathtub,and Frazier cut off the vic-tim’s legs.

(Continued on page A5)

Flat tire, then crashinjures 11

A pick-up truck blew atire on I-40 lastWednesday morning,overturning and injuringits 11 riders, all fromCenterville, the TennesseeHighway Patrol reported.

Two of those wereflown to VanderbiltUniversity MedicalCenter in Nashville, whilethe other nine were car-ried to Horizon MedicalCenter.

Trooper BryantCampbell reported thatthe 10:37 a.m. accident onJuly 6 occurred at the 178-mile marker on the east-bound side. Anna Eaton,45, was the driver. Shelost control after the tirewent flat and the vehiclebegan to sway. The FordF-150 crew cab pickup,which was hauling aColeman camper, hit aguardrail and rolled over.

Five of the 11 peoplewere riding in the bed ofthe truck and were thrownout, as was one of the rid-ers in the truck.

Taken to Vanderbilt byhelicopter were CharityGoodwin, 13, who wasriding inside, and HarveyEaton, 42, who wasamong those riding in thebed. Both were in stablecondition on Thursday.

Carried to Horizon wereNicole Goodwin, 20;Virginia Goodwin, 44;Becky Buchler, 16; BertBuchler, 15; David Eaton,43; Joe Eaton, 40; EltonBuchler and DavidGoodwin, 19.

Dalya Qualls, informa-tion officer for theDepartment of Safety,reported that all the occu-pants were from a familyresidence that is home toseveral mentally handi-capped persons.

more than 20 years. Morerecently, the Clay HarrisTheatre has presented 23original plays and musicalsin four years.

The most recent produc-tion was “Beth,” aboutGoodrich songwriter BethSlater Whitson. It wasstaged at the Tennessee

Performing Arts Center inmid-June. The troupe alsowent to Nashville to present“Obituary,” a musical basedon newspaper death notices.

Harris would not cite oneproduction as the most shin-ing theatrical moment here.

“The whole thing. In asmall town in America a

theatre was created andattended by the most won-derful human kinds. A rarehappening to be treasured inmemory.”

Whether the local theatretroupe, which numbersabout 25, will decide tocontinue or disband isunclear.

Jumping in is the thing at the J.H. Barber Bridge over Beaverdam Creek, at Coble.

Where’s the coldest hole?By BRADLEYA. MARTIN

If you have access to anair-conditioning unit, thenyou know the most com-fortable way to avoid theotherwise inescapable heatof July and August.

But there’s one other wayto stay cool:

Find a shady creek andjump in.

Unlike air conditioning,though, creeks are free, ifyou can find one. Manyfolks already have enjoyeda lot of wading, floating,splashing, even nappingduring the 90-degree daysthat have passed here so farthis summer.

Given the amount of funthat creeks can provide, andrealizing that few places —if any — in Tennessee haveas many creeks as does

Hickman County, what fol-lows here is . . . well, aguide to local creeks, sure.

But the inquiring, over-heated weekend back-floater really needs to knowthe answer to this:

Where is the coldestswimming hole inHickman County?

Only one of our citizensis fully qualified to explorethat question, and the editorof this newspaper askedhim to conduct a tour ofsome of our coolest places.

David Anderson grew upright here, pretty much out-doors, earned a wildlifebiology degree, then spent

30 years as an officer of theTennessee WildlifeResources Agency. Hisknowledge of all those hid-den getaways isunmatched; he knows howto get to them -- and he hasan unbreakable stream ther-mometer.

So, are there other placeswith more natural waterthan Hickman?

“If there is,” he said, “it’dprobably be by volume inone of the lakes, some ofthese big lakes, but as far asfree-running surface water,I don’t know; there may be.This is just the one I amreally familiar with.

“They’d probably behard-pressed to find onewith this much free-run-ning surface water that is asgood a quality.”

We spent four hours tour-ing southern streams onJuly 1, then spent anotherfour hours toward the northside of the county on July 2.

Results — not overly sci-entific — are here.

If you want to knowwhether this survey isdefinitive, the answer isNo. In fact, we are sure thatthere are other holes thatare colder, other creeks thatwe may have missed —and that we’ll be hearing

about all of those verysoon.

But that will be a contro-versy that’s fun.

A note on the rules weobserved:

— Creeks with publicaccess points were all wewere looking for; many asite along our route wasfenced off or featured “NoTrespassing” signs. Therewas, however, one excep-tion to the rule.

— The temperature wastaken in a shady spot, ifpossible, and only readafter a five-minute submer-gence.

— We stayed out of thewater, avoiding all types oftemptation (like quittingthe survey on the spot toenjoy the peace and cool-ness).

CLAY HARRIS

Two cited for homicide

2 go to VU;5 in back end

Beat the heat with a cool creek

County’s abundance of water pays off in summertime

Take the creek toursee pages A6, A7

(continued on page A8)

Page A6, HICKMAN COUNTY TIMES, Monday, July 11, 2011

Looking for a creek?

Mill Creek, far out Bell Branch, offers a flat, wide place.

A tour of swimming holesA Hickman County creek

survey report, taken July 1-2, in order of travel:

BeaverdamCreek

The J.H. Barber Bridgeon Highway 438, about amile from Coble CountryStore, may be the most pop-ular swimming hole in thecounty, given that it isaccessible directly from thehighway.

About 15 folks, most ofthem young people, wereenjoying the summer funlate on a Friday afternoon.Note that the popularity isrelated to this fact: You canjump 15 feet or more into adeep hole, climb out and upand do it again. All day.Alternatively, you can jumpin, float under the bridgeand come up on a gravelbar, where a strategicallypositioned chair wouldallow the sun to really soakin.

David took two tempera-ture readings. The ther-mometer read 72 degreesafter three minutes; weagreed at that point to makefive minutes the standardlength. The second readingreported 74 degrees.

Officially: 74.

Blue WaterIn formulating this sur-

vey, a certain resident ofBlue Water Road, knownduring the week as the attor-ney Allston Vander Horst,theorized that Blue WaterCreek, which feedsBeaverdam, certainly is thecoldest water available.

The temperature weobserved bears him out —71 degrees, coldest of thetour — but it’s not quite thatsimple.

David was not familiarwith a way for the creekingpublic to easily enjoy someof this blue-skin coldness.Our temperature samplewas obtained by standingon a very short bridge thatcarries BacksideBeaverdam Road over thecreek. The spot where wepaused could have beenentered by humans, but noteasily, and the road wasthin, and there really was nobank to climb up, and jump-ing was pretty much out ofthe question, due to rocksand debris.

Coldest, but like RogerMaris’61st homer, it gets anasterisk.

Joe’s BranchAlso a tributary to

Beaverdam, this creek iseasily entered from a verylong gravel bar. On the daywe visited, there was noswimming — just a chapwho was collecting five-gallon buckets of creekrock. He had several buck-ets, though no noticeabledent in the supply was beingmade.

The temperature here was76 — a result, David sur-mised, of a long-sunnystretch of water, whichtends to add some warmth.

“I’m just saying, whenyou’re talking about cool,it’s a relative thing,” he said.“The hotter it gets out herein the summer, the cooler

that water feels. . . .”

Cane CreekGoshen Creek Road, off

DePriest Lane atPleasantville, runs along-side the creek and intoLewis County, offering along piece of roadside park-ing. Late on a Friday after-noon, there was no onethere but us and the rushingwater; two small falls werewithin sight. Had we chairs,we might have sat hereawhile.

“I don’t understand it,”says David, though weagreed it was suppertime.“You come here at middaytomorrow and you’ll getplenty of people.”

Glad they’re not heretoday.

The thermometer reads 76degrees — same as Joe’sBranch.

Though we didn’t jumpin, we noticed all along theway that tree-lined roadalong creeks were signifi-cantly cooler than . . . well,the concrete of the countyseat’s Public Square.

If most gauges wereshowing 96 on these lateafternoons (and it probablywas), we didn’t know aboutit.

Swan CreekYou should know that

Swan is my personalfavorite, though I did notreport that to the thermome-ter. We stopped just off theSwan Creek Road at theMayfield Road Bridge,from where we could see a

Near the Lewis County line, Cane Creek is full of relaxng water.

More than one can take a dive at Coble’s Barber Bridge. Mill Creek on Old Mill Creek Road is a popular jumping-off spot.

(Continued on page A7)

Monday, July 11, 2011, HICKMAN COUNTY TIMES, Page A7

Coldcreeks

(cont. from page A6)

ter. We stopped just off theSwan Creek Road at theMayfield Road Bridge,from where we could see acampfire wafting into thecanopy just downstream.

“They’re setting up campfor the weekend,” saidDavid.

Nice place for it.This stretch of Swan

Creek was along the areawhere the growth known asMilfoil was, just a fewyears ago, preparing to clogthe whole creek, heating theflow to temperatures thatwould damage the life therenow. TWRA was chargedwith trying to fix the prob-lem, which consisted ofwaiting on Mother Natureto do her job.

She did.Temperature: 76, for the

third stop in a row, in threedifferent creeks. I was won-dering what was going on.David wasn’t.

“You figure it’s 22degrees cooler than yourbody temperature,” he says.

That’s cold enough.

Lick Creek, 1This picturesque stream

was our initial destinationon Saturday afternoon’srun, and our first of twostops along it was on TomPatten Road, currently notopen to through traffic dueto the 2010 flood.

From the Primm SpringsRoad side, there’s a road-side stretch with a prettygood hole where we founda family of four passing aslow afternoon.

“You’re really doingthat?” asked the Dad, whowondered what we were upto.

The spot, which lookedinvitingly deep, was prettysunny, too, and David saidthat contributed to the 79-degree reading.

Lick Creek, 2This second stop was on

an unnamed bridge after asharp bend on Beech ValleyRoad, which heads up toHighway 7. The wide, flatvista was another spotmade for an inner tube . . .or a beach chair set straightdown in a little shade on aslight bend. A lady down-stream — we saw eachother, but we were wellapart — was doing just that.

The thermometer reachedits highest number here: 80degrees, though the beautyof the spot should be goodfor three or four degrees.

This big Lick Creek hole is alongside Tom Patten Road.

Retired TWRA officer David Anderson hasbeen taking stream samples, and tempera-tures, for quite a few years.

This mirror can be found on Sugar Creek, on Bucksnort Road.Swan Creek has several access points.

Get to this Lick Creek bridge, and view, from Beech Valley Road, off Highway 7.

Mill Creek, 1Back down to the center

of the county and a ridealong Old Mill Creek, onWasher Road, where wepulled off in the lot thatused to lead to the old BonAqua-Lyles Utility Districtintake site, where the water-works has been removed,though the base of the oldbuilding remains.

This is a real swimminghole, up against a bluff witha rope and plenty of placesto park. The young peopleon hand were having ablast, though the obviouslypopular site draws morethan just folks seeking tocool off:

Recent visitors had left aparty’s worth of beer bottlesand other trash; the youngpeople we met in the waterpledged to pick it all up.

The water was worth theeffort, measuring 74degrees, according toDavid’s thermometer.

Mill Creek, 2Our second stop on this

winding creek was far outBell Branch Road, down ahill that opened out to awide, low place with creek-rock parking and severalways to reach the water.

On the lower side was aswing, and a hole made foryounger kids. We stayed upa ways at the bridge across,and enjoyed the sound ofsome mini-rapids. Unlikethe earlier Mill Creek stop,trash was rarer, though stillvisible; this one was farther

off the popular path.The temperature was a

fine 75 degrees.

Sugar CreekThis was a bit of a time

stretch — as befits both ofour careers, David and Ihave wives who aretremendously understand-ing of our jobs (though thisparticular assignment waspretty far away from actualwork). But we had a tip thatthis particular creek hadsome cold water, so . . .

As usual, David knew thespot, going from Mill Creekto Graham and then out then o w - s p a r s e l y - u s e d

Highway 230 to Bucksnort,crossing the interstate andturning left on BucksnortRoad.

Another mile or so andwe reached a clearing andthe creek, which was sofine that the sound of pass-ing I-40 traffic became anafterthought very quickly.

The bridge bisected acouple of holes that wouldprovide plenty of coolingon a hot day. But the down-stream site was restricted:barbed wire and a couple of“No Trespassing” signsprovided the deterrent.

Upstream, near thebridge? Not a bad hole —clear enough that you couldsee the stump snagged inthe middle of it.

And the verdict on thetemperature? A chilly 72degrees.

“That’s cold water,”David said.

Lot of that aroundHickman County.