Southern Middle TN Today News with Tom Price 1-15-26

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Southern Middle Tennessee Today

News Copy for January 15, 2026

All news stories are aggregated from various sources and modified for time and content. Original sources are cited.

We start with local news… City Earn Finance Reporting Recognition Again (Press Release)

The City of Columbia has once again been recognized for excellence in public finance, earning the Government Finance Officers Association’s (GFOA) prestigious Triple Crown designation for the sixth consecutive year.

The Triple Crown distinction is awarded to governments that receive all three of the GFOA’s top honors:

• the Certificate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reporting,

• the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award, and

• the Popular Annual Financial Reporting Award.

In the most recently reported year, Columbia remained one of only three cities in Tennessee to achieve this level of comprehensive financial recognition.

City Manager Tony Massey said, “This award underscores the City’s commitment to maintaining the highest standards of financial transparency and accountability for the benefit of Columbia’s residents and reflects the outstanding work of the City’s Finance Department in delivering clear and accurate financial reporting.”

As part of its GFOA Triple Crown recognition, the City of Columbia earned the Distinguished Budget Presentation Award for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2025. This distinction recognizes the City’s success in producing a budget that functions not only as a financial plan, but also as a clear and effective communication tool for residents and decision-makers.

The Distinguished Budget Presentation Award evaluates municipal budgets against 14 rigorous criteria, with an emphasis on policy direction, financial integrity, operational clarity, and long-term planning. Columbia’s budget met all required standards, underscoring its role as a strategic roadmap guiding City operations.

“The City’s Finance Department is committed to producing high quality and transparent financial documents that provide Columbia citizens with information on how the government is funded and where funds are spent,“ said Assistant City Manager and Finance Director Thad Jablonski. “Awards such as these demonstrate the hard work and commitment of City finance personnel again in 2025.”

Founded in 1906, the Government Finance Officers Association represents public finance professionals throughout the United States and Canada. Through its awards programs, the GFOA promotes excellence in governmental financial management and encourages transparency, accountability, and effective communication with the public.

Cepicky Announces Reelection Campaign (Press Release)

State Representative Scott Cepicky announced today that he is officially running for reelection for Tennessee’s 64th House District.

Speaking about the announcement, Rep. Cepicky said: “I love this district, and it has been the honor of my life to serve the people of Maury County. I’m running for reelection because our work isn’t finished. Having the support of Maury County shows that folks here believe in our mission, and they want us to keep pushing forward. I’m grateful beyond words for the trust and support.”

Rep. Cepicky, an avid supporter of education freedom, has focused much of his recent work on empowering parents, supporting students, and strengthening Tennessee classrooms. He is currently championing legislation to reintroduce the Presidential Fitness Test in public schools, which he believes will encourage healthier habits and improve student performance.

Last session, he sponsored legislation increasing the daily minutes of recess time for elementary students, giving kids more opportunity to learn, grow, and thrive. Outside of education, Rep. Cepicky spends his time serving as Co-Chair of the House Tennessee-Israel Caucus, where he works to strengthen Tennessee’s relationship with America’s strongest ally and stands firmly for shared values of freedom and security.

Learn more about State Representative Scott Cepicky’s campaign at https://www.scottcepicky.com

Water Rate Increase (MSM)

After seven hours of public comment, officials’ input and council deliberations, the Columbia city council voted 5-2 last week to raise the upper limit on municipal water rates by up to 20 percent per year.

If rates rise by the allowed amount each year, the final customer rates in five years would be 149 percent higher than the current ones, rising from $3.60 to $8.95 per 1,000 gallons of water for customers in the city, and from $4.60 to $11.44 for “suburban” customers outside city limits. Columbia Power and Water System (CPWS) plans to conduct cost-of-service studies every year after the first, to see if they can raise rates by lesser amounts.

The project and permits

The rate increases are meant to fund $520 million worth of new intake, transportation and treatment infrastructure, which would allow Columbia Power and Water Services to draw an additional 12 million gallons per day (MGD) of water from the Duck River.

Since 2015 the city-owned utility has been making plans to install a new water-intake valve in the Duck near the rural community of Williamsport, approximately 17 miles from the new water-treatment plant they intend to build on the Nashville Highway in downtown Columbia. CPWS have reported that they’re currently closing land deals that will get them 75 percent of the easements they need, and now have all of the “critical easements” in the path of the pipeline. (The possibility of using eminent domain to get at least some of the remaining easements has raised some opposition.) For information on and justifications of the project and schedule, CPWS has published a webpage at https://www.communityh2o.org.

CPWS brought TDEC Water Resources Division Chief April Grippo, a Columbia native and resident of unincorporated Maury County, to the meetings to explain why her agency approved the new intake and pipeline, as well as CPWS’s new permit to draw up to 32 MGD from the Duck River.

Grippo told the city council and the assembled public that TDEC has found the Williamsport intake to be the “least [environmentally] impactful” project to get water for CPWS. The project satisfies TDEC’s limited mandate, which is to encourage efficient and responsible water use before issuing a permit for the least damaging water source.

“TDEC has stated many times that water is not a surrogate for growth planning, which is up to local governments,” Grippo said. “Our role at TDEC is to supply safe and plentiful drinking water, not to control growth.”

TDEC and CPWS opened the project to public comment in May 2024 and only closed the forum in May 2025. Many federal and state agencies, conservation groups and concerned individuals weighed in on the project, some with major concerns about the flow and ecological health of the Duck River. Environmental advocacy groups even filed a lawsuit to challenge the new CPWS permit among others, though the suit was dropped in February. In response to all stated concerns, the utility agreed to keep its water loss rate below 15% and put effort and money into river monitoring and conservation.

To satisfy environmental requirements, the intake was planned for a high-flow spot in the Duck River at Williamsport. Even with the higher intake volume, the flow in the area wouldn’t fall below 100 cubic feet per second (cfs), which is the threshold that maintains the river’s health and composition. CPWS also touted the benefits that would come from capturing and reusing its wastewater, which is released into the Duck several miles ahead of the new intake.

“There is so much more flow in the new intake that TDEC did not require flow requirements that we require for other permits up and down the river,” Grippo said. “One hundred cubic feet per second… is necessary for the assimilative capacity for the city of Columbia’s wastewater treatment plant discharge downstream… [and for] the multiple tributaries downstream… [to maintain] their groundwater inputs.”

Though the new permit to withdraw 32 MGD is a different matter from the intake, TDEC and CPWS officials say it’s related and no less urgent.

CPWS has issued conditional water availability letters for developments that will take up the rest of its old 20 MGD permit when they all come online in the next few years. Currently they’re treating and delivering 93 percent of the water they’re permitted for.

The new water can’t all come from the current intake on Riverside Drive, either. Increased intake threatens to bring the flow in that stretch of the River below 100 cfs, and CPWS CEO Jonathan Hardin predicted that in a severe drought (like those that have hit the area every 20 years for the last 40), they might be forced to shut off the Riverside intake and scramble to drop new straws in less vulnerable spots in the Duck River. The current intake also sits behind a century-old dam which CPWS has already spent millions to reinforce, and which could be destroyed by a natural disaster like Hurricane Helene.

“If we had a 1988 or 2007-08 drought again, we would have a very difficult time meeting that flow-by restriction,” Hardin hypothesized, “quite possibly wouldn’t be able to use the intake, [and] would have to incorporate drastic cutbacks in order to maintain service in a drought.”

To pay for it up front, CPWS have gotten generous 30-year federal WIFIA and State Revolving Fund (SRF) loans, with low interest rates set based on their ability to pay, typical local income and rural scaling limitations. A consulting firm set the rates in an independent study and projected the 149-percent increase as a worst-case scenario, in which growth was deliberately estimated below the rates that recent years have seen. On CPWS’s amortization schedule, the final repayment amount would be around $936 million, a bit less than double the initial loan.

Trent Ogilvie, who’s been on the CPWS Board since 2018, testified that when the intake project first came before them its cost was estimated at $225 million. With the explosion of construction inflation in the era after COVID, the price tag has more than doubled in hardly half a decade.

“I’m glad to be up here talking about a plan to continue providing safe, reliable, clean drinking water to the community that I’ve lived in for a long time,” Hardin said on the night of the last vote. “I’d rather be doing this than talking about why we didn’t plan, [or panicking if] something happens to compromise our service. That’s not an option in our business.”

Public reaction

The rate-increase resolution before the city attracted significant public attention from the time it was published. A large crowd of public commenters and spectators turned up to the December meetings, where it passed 4-3 on first reading, and the second-reading meetings in January.

Several county commissioners, including those who represent parts of the city of Columbia, spoke strongly against the rate increase. Some pointed out that the current residents hadn’t asked for the 17,000 new neighbors and large industrial water users that their town had received in the past few years, or for the associated costs of supplying them with city services; therefore, the rate increase shouldn’t burden them.

“We know how we got here: we’ve continually approved [developments]… [while] the mayor and vice-mayor have sat on the Planning Commission,” said Commissioner Gabe Howard.

“Growth should pay for growth,” said District 2 Commissioner Eric Previti, who supported the impact fees but not the rate increase, and decided to run for mayor of Columbia after the first rate-increase vote in December. “We should get a piece of [the profits] from the developers [and] the new people moving in.”

Others challenged the sufficiency of the water amount from the project. Commissioner Kenny Morrow claimed that the projected demand for water in 2040 is 40 million gallons, and local attorney Bart Whatley said that the 2000 TVA study that recommended the new intake predicted only half of the population growth that the county has actually seen. CPWS remains confident that the 32 MGD permit will last until about 2070.

Several commenters spoke movingly, from personal experience, about the burden that utility hikes put on elderly, fixed-income and poor households. Ryan Steele, a teacher in Maury County Public Schools, grew up in a household where his mother sometimes had to choose between bills each month.

“Many of my students live in circumstances that mirror the hardships that I once faced,” he said, adding that some have approached him, asking what the rate increase would mean for their families. Will their water get shut off? Will they get evicted? Will they get bullied for smelling bad at school, because their parents have forbidden them to shower at home?

“The impact [of failed coordination among levels of government] is not abstract,” said Bethany Torino, whose Friend Foundation provides direct aid to local homeless people and to those in danger of losing their housing. “It’s families sleeping in cars.”

“At the study session, not one average Joe was in favor,” said Ken Newell. “While the experts who spoke gave us technical answers, the ordinary citizens gave us ‘heart’ answers.”

“Those on fixed incomes have been scared into oblivion over… the potential increases,” said Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder, one of the two votes against the project. “That’s why I, tonight, cannot justify a vote in favor.”

At the city council’s request last week, CPWS CFO Ashley Maddux started working to help poor customers deal with current and future rates. Last week she arranged to expand their Good Samaritan program — in which customers can add $1 or more to their power bill each month, to help poorer customers pay for electricity — to cover water as well. She also reached out for help from federal programs that subsidize low-income households’ utilities. April Anderson, a juvenile probation officer for the county, reported that almost all of her clients’ families are already on similar plans.

Still others warned that it would greatly increase the burden on small businesses and farms, which use far more water than the average household and would have to either pass costs onto customers or go broke. County Commissioner Kathey Grodi pointed out that basically every service of which people avail themselves daily, from hospital bills to restaurant receipts, is affected by water prices.

“Do you know how much it’s going to cost our assisted living [facilities]? I do, I went and saw the other day,” said State Rep. Scott Cepicky, who spoke at all four city council meetings at the request of county leaders and constituents. “If you can’t answer that question as council members, how can you vote on this?”

“My costs continue to rise, and everyone knows that farmers’ and ranchers’ costs continue to rise,” said Trevor Pennington, a rancher whose cattle in Williamsport drink water that the county buys from Columbia. “I can’t say how many farmers are going to go out of business when this rate increase [maxes out] in five years, but they will.”

Others complained that customers of the Maury County Water System, who currently buy all their water from CPWS — though they have plans to start getting 3 MGD of treated water from the Harpeth River via a deal with the HB&TS Utility District — would pay even higher “suburban rates.”

Dustin Kittle, a local environmental attorney who’s taken an interest in the pipeline project and rate increase, argued that increasing the already higher “suburban” rates by the same proportion as “urban” rates could constitute illegal price discrimination, because it ends up widening the gap and increasing the numerical burden on the suburban rate-payers.

“You are using their funds to buy assets for the city… and requiring the county residents to pay a disproportionate allocation of the [debt],” he charged the city officials.

He also attacked the governments who buy water from CPWS for allowing their designated attorneys to hold conflicting roles, possibly preventing them from advocating against the rate increase.

Columbia Mayor Molder’s law firm Mounger & Molder holds the contract to represent the city of Mount Pleasant (which buys a small percentage of its water from CPWS), and one of his firm’s lawyers, Kori Jones, is the city attorney for Mount Pleasant. Maury County Attorney Daniel Murphy is also retained by CPWS, and his working relationship with the city utility caused the county commission to hold a recall vote against him in March, which failed by two votes.

“There has been nothing that has been filed on behalf of the county opposing this,” he declared, “[and Mounger & Molder] cannot protect the interests of the citizens [of Mount Pleasant] with the mayor serving on the [Columbia] City Council.”

Kittle also led the charge in questioning city councilor Kenny Marshall’s vote as a “conflict of interest,” since he represents the city council on the CPWS board. Marshall, the argument goes, could be construed as voting in the city’s interest, since CPWS forwards significant Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) to the city treasury. City Attorney Jake Hubbell replied that in a recent phone call, the state’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service saw nothing wrong with Marshall voting for the project, and a CPWS representative replied that the state attorney general has ruled that a city councilor on a utility board is managing city assets.

Maddux put forward the figure that 61 percent of CPWS customers have monthly water bills of $35 or less, a figure which public commenters and city councilor Charlie Huffman contested; some said that their monthly water bills exceeded $200 or $300, to which CPWS officials and other city councilors suggested that people may be misreading their monthly statements. To calculate the actual increase, they advised people to look at the water line item, not the combined total that includes other services. Ogilvie convinced the CPWS board to send out an individual mailer to each customer next month, breaking down how the projected rate increases would affect their typical bill. County water customers, they also said, could expect their water bills to increase by far less than 149 percent, since the rate increase would apply only to the CPWS charge, not to Maury County Water’s added charge per 1,000 gallons.

Several supporters of the project finally came out of the woodwork at the last meeting, after opposing commenters swept the board at the three previous public hearings.

“The work did not begin last year, last month or last week… Water supply, water rate and associated services have been discussed under several mayors in my 30 years as a public servant,” said former Vice Mayor Dr. Christa Martin, who also served in Kenny Marshall’s seat on the CPWS board.

Twenty-five years ago, she recalled, she was one of only two city councilors who voted for a steady rate increase of 3-4 cents per year, implying that they were only voting on a big, expensive increase all at once because previous city councils had refused to act.

“I’m going to listen to the people who have never let me down in 45 years… They have never once failed to provide an ample supply of clean, clear, odorless water,” Bruce Peden, a local attorney, said to the city council. “Sometimes being a leader or a decision-maker is extremely difficult. This is one of those times for you… It might cost you the next election, but that is the price of being a true leader.”

“Columbia Power and Water have to provide water for us,” said Gale Courtney Moore, who’s worked to preserve the Duck River since she learned about the landfill that Trinity Business Group intended to dig on the old Monsanto property. “I’ve been in [many] meetings with all the different groups, and if we don’t do this, we’re going to be sorry in two or three years.”

And now, Your Hometown Memorials, Sponsored by Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home…

Mrs. Delvene Warren Beard, 93, longtime resident of the Santa Fe community, died January 13 at The Bridge assisted living.

Funeral services will be conducted Friday at 2:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Santa Fe Cemetery. The family will visit with friends Friday from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home.

Mr. Bobby Donald Neese, 87, a resident of Columbia, died January 11 at Maury Regional Medical. Funeral services will be conducted Sunday at 3:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Polk Memorial Gardens. The family will visit with friends Saturday from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home.

Thomas “Tom” Allen Anderson, 61, resident of Columbia, died January 14, 2026 at his residence.

Funeral services will be conducted Sunday, January 25, 2026 at 2:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home with Rev. Stephen Souls and Rev. Dedra Campbell officiating. Burial will follow in Polk Memorial Gardens. The family will visit with friends Sunday, January 25, 2026 from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home.

Mayor Dean Dickey, a devoted public servant, respected business leader, and lifelong advocate for his community, passed away on January 8, 2026.

Mayor Dickey’s family will receive friends January 22, 2026 from 3:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m. at First Family Church in Columbia, Tennessee. Friends can visit prior to the service from 9:00 a.m. until 10:00 a.m., January 23, 2026 at First Family Church.

Now, news from around the state…

Natchez Trace Shooting (Tennessean)

A fatal officer-involved shooting on Jan. 9 at Natchez Trace State Park involving a park ranger is under inquiry by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, according to a TBI news release.

The park ranger shot and killed Bradley D. Kondor, 26, after Kondor reportedly tried to drive a stolen vehicle toward law enforcement, the TBI said. The agency is not naming the ranger as is procedure. Natchez Trace State Park is in Wildersville, not far from Jackson.

The incident began at 6:20 p.m. when firefighters and rangers found Kondor at the site of a vehicle fire, the TBI news release said. Then, Kondor reportedly stole a ranger’s car and drove off. Kondor exited that vehicle but apparently stole a second state vehicle, which is what he was driving toward the law enforcement when the ranger shot him.

District Attorney Jody Pickens, who represents Tennessee’s 26th Judicial District, asked TBI to independently investigate the officer-involved shooting. The agency often steps in to deal with officer-involved shootings, though the decision is up to the local district attorney.

Gas Prices (MSM)

Gas prices across the state moved lower over last week, falling six cents, on average. The Tennessee Gas Price average is now $2.44 which is 15 cents less expensive than one month ago and 29 cents less than one year ago.  

“Right now, Tennesseans are seeing seasonally low gas prices that we would expect this time of year,” said Megan Cooper, spokeswoman for AAA – The Auto Club Group. “It’s likely that pricing will remain low in the short term thanks to ample supply and lower demand this time of year.” 

Tennessee now ninth least-expensive market in the nation

Final Story of the Day (Maury County Source)

The Duck River Trail Run 5k & 15k will take place along the scenic trails of Chickasaw Trace Park located just northwest of the city of Columbia, Tennessee. Net proceeds from this event benefit Maury County Parks & Recreation and efforts to continue the preservation and care of Chickasaw Trace Park, which provides a quality place for families and individuals to gather and recreate. Come out, run the trails, and enjoy the beauty of Chickasaw Trace Park!

Date/Time: Saturday, March 28, 2026 | Run begins at 8:00am

Location: Chickasaw Trace Park | 1419 New Hwy 7 Columbia, TN 38401

Registration: $27 for 5K | $32 for 15K

*price increase to $35 for 5K and $40 for 15K on event day

Register at: www.duckrivertrailrun.com