Southern Middle TN Today News with Tom Price 8-7-25

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Southern Middle Tennessee Today

News Copy for August 7, 2025

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

We start with local news…

TDEC Imposes Sewer Moratorium on Spring Hill (MauryCountySource)

The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) has issued a Consent Order to the City of Spring Hill due to repeated violations at the Spring Hill Sewer Treatment Plant. On Tuesday, August 5, 2025, the Spring Hill Board of Mayor and Aldermen passed Resolution 25-183, accepting the terms of the Consent Order.

Over a two-year period from 2023-2025, the City of Spring Hill self-reported 29 effluent exceedance violations to TDEC.

As a result of the violations, TDEC has issued this Consent Order, assessing the City of Spring Hill a total civil penalty of $65,700 — $13,140 of which must be paid within 30 days.

Under this order, Spring Hill agrees to a moratorium placed into effect on sewer connections to the City’s collection system for all projects that do not have vested sewer rights under applicable Tennessee law, among other stipulations. The City is also working on a corrective action plan to remedy the violations at the Sewer Treatment Plant.

“Spring Hill takes full responsibility for these violations and have been transparent with TDEC throughout this process by self-reporting these issues. We are committed to bringing our sewer treatment plant into full compliance with state standards,” said Mayor Matt Fitterer. “Ensuring the safety and health of our community is our top priority. Our focus is on implementing lasting solutions to prevent future violations and deliver safe and reliable utility systems.”

This moratorium will remain in effect until the Sewer Treatment Plant meets the performance standards outlined in the Consent Order for a period of twelve consecutive months.

County Commission Mulls Zoning Changes (MSM)

The Maury County Commission dove into the most recent draft of the county’s new zoning ordinance last week, hoping to pass the ordinance in September. Building Director Robert Caldiraro stood for most of a three-and-a-half-hour meeting in front of a public-comment crowd, which spilled out of the meeting room and almost into the street.

The questions and comments of commissioners took up the bulk of the meeting, despite the number of public commenters. The officials first spoke against online “misinformation,” which has aroused strong emotions around the ordinance.

“So many of the questions… that we’ve gotten are [based on] misinformation,” Commission Chair Kevin Markham said. “What we want Robert to do initially is educate and inform, and hopefully that’ll answer a lot of questions.”

“Social media has reached a lot more of an audience than I was capable of… I’ve also heard some of the misinformation, and I’ve tried to incorporate a couple slides just to ease your minds,” Caldiraro said. “At the end of the day, we’re affording more property rights for the individual property owners and holding developers to a higher standard.”

The Building and Zoning director gave an eight-part presentation on the zoning code. Article 1, General Provisions, was meant to establish responsible patterns of land use and maintain the county’s rural character. To that end, the county plans to introduce new zoning categories.

“The nomenclatures you have now are changing, [but] the intent, the body and the uses will remain the same [and] the land densities will remain the same, to an extent,” Caldiraro reassured the public.

Agricultural, residential and commercial zones cover the bulk of the county. The new residential categories, about 90 percent of the county, are “general” (RG) zoning, which currently requires lots of an acre or more and has limits on accessory structures; “rural” (RR), which has a five-acre minimum; and “neighborhood” (RN), which has 6,500 square-foot lots and a maximum density of three dwellings per acre. Only two suburbs had ever received a smaller-lot residential zoning before.

Commercial zones would include “rural” (CR), an existing category with lots of 15,000 square feet or more; “neighborhood” (CN), a new zoning which would require 30-plus percent commercial property in an otherwise residential zone with up to seven structures per acre; “center” (CC), which holds office buildings and is the most requested zoning by developers; and “corridor” (CR), the big-box chain stores that line highways.

Planned developments (PDs) are more imaginative projects which couldn’t achieve all their goals in a normal zoning category. One of the most recent is Project Firefly, a gated luxury community under construction outside Spring Hill, with on-site amenities including pools and a 250-acre golf course.

Industrial lots can receive a Light (IL), Medium (IM) or Heavy (IH) designation depending on the intensity of the work and disturbance there. The county also created two new overlay districts, for floodplains (FP-O) and solid waste disposal (SW-O).

Several Commissioners asked whether they had the right to deny developments as they saw fit, fearing lawsuits from developers. Kristi Ransom, a lawyer who helped Building and Zoning draft the ordinance, reassured them several times that they have qualified immunity from being sued for rejecting certain developments, since their charter obliges them to work for the health, safety and welfare of their constituents.

“You all are deciding what is best for the community,” Ransom said. “So there is a certain deference that the courts are going to give to a legislative body, [because you] know better what is [best] for your constituents.”

Developers would also have to hold “neighborhood meetings” in which nearby property owners could register their complaints, concerns and suggestions for big developments.

A business attorney, William Koska of Primm Springs, challenged Ransom’s understanding during public comment, claiming that some of the text opened the county up to litigation. He offered to strengthen the language and legal position of the zoning ordinance in a charge-free consultation with County Attorney Daniel Murphy.

The minimum size of rural residential lots came up for debate. Caldiraro’s Building and Zoning Department proposed one-acre minimums, but commissioners pointed out that some of the zones allowed for even greater density, up to and including townhomes and multifamily housing in permitted Planned Developments.

Caldiraro explained that the county only intended to allow such developments on the fringes of the cities, as a transitional pattern between the urban residential zones and the rural county. He added that the zoning could serve to discipline a city that was too free in annexing contiguous county land, by cutting it off from undeveloped land if necessary. Commissioner Jerry Bridenbaugh likened it to the firefighting practice of setting a controlled burn in the path of a wildfire to starve it of fuel.

“These tools were put in there… to combat the municipal[ities] continuing to annex properties,” Caldiraro and others said candidly.

Commissioner Kathey Grodi suggested the text be amended to require such dense developments to be contiguous with a city.

Commissioner Aaron Miller, who earned a Ph.D. in municipal design, was supportive of the mixed-use neighborhood concept, which he said is the format for both traditional cities and classic American downtowns.

“With the historic rates of growth we’re seeing today, I would like to see more multi-use character built into this proposal,” he said. “[It would] relieve some of that pressure on grocery stores and schools… and we [wouldn’t] have what happened in Spring Hill happen here.”

Commissioner Gabe Howard took an opposite extreme stance to preserve the rurality of the county. He opposed putting any zones in the county code that allowed for somewhat dense residential, commercial or mixed development, pointing to the slow outward sprawl of Franklin as the inevitable result of allowing for such zoning at all.

“Rural Maury County needs to stay rural,” he said, to murmurs of agreement from the audience. “We don’t need to see a Berry Farms out in the middle of our community.”

Howard also drew attention to the extremely fast rate of farmland loss in the county, which public commenter Wilkes Halliday later estimated at more than 11,000 acres between 2014-2023. He urged the commission to think of the rural future they would be preserving for future generations, and brought the issue back to the question of which overall plan would guide development.

“I still really think we’re missing the vision part of the zoning rewrite,” he finished his remarks. “It’s hard to vote on the zoning rewrite if we don’t know what the vision is.”

While most of the commissioners who commented were inclined to put the denser suburban option in their “toolkit,” other commissioners and several public commenters sympathized with Howard’s flat denial and wanted lot minimums of three or five acres.

“I hear [commissioners] saying ‘We need to make these changes to protect these rural areas.’ Then in the same breath, somebody else [replies], ‘Well, we’ve got to throw these developers a bone.’ And it can’t be both ways,” said Dustin Kittle, a lawyer for environmental and agricultural causes. “We have, from an agricultural and rural-landscape standpoint, something that very few places across this country have… [Protecting] it is going to take some people that have some backbone.”

“You’re setting up a David versus Goliath situation, the developer versus the neighbors and the community,” said Teresa Sparks, who sits on the county’s Industrial Development Board and recently organized 40 people in a “Stop the Sprawl, Y’all” meeting at her house.

“I don’t think you need to give one permit more for a building, until you get our water situation straight,” said Bart Whatley, who has written county water reports that Eric Previti recommended his fellow commissioners read. “Out in the country, we don’t want high-density housing, period.”

He recommended the county institute a one-year moratorium on new water permits, and Caldiraro confirmed that the county’s water providers are at about 80 percent capacity and aren’t committing to any future increases.

Ultimately everyone wanted to preserve as much of the rural county as possible; they disagreed over whether a buffer zoning for county suburbs would contain or aggravate sprawl. Previti reminded everyone that last year, a General Assembly bill failed that would have given counties a “seat at the table” during annexations, and he urged people to call their legislators about supporting the bill in the next session.

Building and Zoning also unveiled the new “use tables” in the zoning codes, dictating the uses to which properties of various zones could be put. A range of principal uses are allowed, with or without a permit, on many residential properties, which can be seen in section 4.2 of the zoning code. Among principal uses, non-livestock agricultural uses are largely permitted, but other businesses are more regulated or not permitted, like event venues, child-care centers, pet services, agricultural processing and bars and restaurants.

Accessory use allows for other activities, though with important exceptions like day-care and outdoor activity centers, and residential businesses are by-permit only. Accessory structures also have to follow certain guidelines set out in 4.3.3 and 4.3.4. The temporary-use section gives permission for produce, seasonal and holiday stands in section 4.4.

Commissioner Miller appreciated the use tables, but wanted to further loosen owner rights to erect buildings and start businesses.

“That’s going to cut down on the number of people commuting into Nashville, it’s going to create more jobs in the cottage industry,” he said, “and it helps people make ends meet.”

Public commenters registered their displeasure with the regulations on primary-use home businesses and small-scale agriculture.

“We had to leave Franklin, because they made it impossible for us to live there with the regulations and restrictions,” said Heather Watts, who had to meet many requirements to move her infirm mother into her 1,100-square-foot house. “We should be living communally with our families… [and] have businesses on [our] property, and you’re telling [us that we]… have to apply for special exceptions?”

“As Americans, we should have the right to do pretty much what we want with our property, as long as we’re not injuring our neighbors,” said Michael Knox of Mt. Pleasant.

Caldiraro replied that the law’s intent wasn’t to stifle cottage industry.

“That just doesn’t make good common sense to me, to regulate something that is not a nuisance,” he said.

The commission and commenters all loved the new Agricultural Preservation zoning. Drafted to comply with the state’s new Farmland Preservation Act (Public Chapter 470), the AP zoning allows property owners to put 15 or more agricultural acres in an easement, which keeps them agricultural for at least 15 years in return for state grants. Caldiraro plans to put his own 15-acre farm in such an easement.

Neil Delk brought news of the Farm Bureau’s support for farmland preservation and certain other parts of the code.

“We applaud the new tool of agricultural protective zoning,” Delk read from the Bureau’s letter, which also spoke in favor of the “family subdivision” of existing 15-plus-acre farms for immediate family members to live on and the five-acre minimum residential lots. “[Please] provide the funding and resources for any required studies, community research or planning input.”

Wilkes Halliday, a descendant of several dynastic farming families in Maury County, read off statistics from UT Knoxville’s Direct Agricultural Impact Study. Agriculture directly generated $389 million in Maury County in 2021, which became $475 million when “multipliers” — other industries that it made possible — were factored into the calculations, and directly employed 2,124 people — which “multipliers” also transformed into 2,734.

The planning commission is planning a study session on the zoning ordinance on Aug. 14 or 21, and the county commission will host at least one more public hearing before mid-September, the earliest opportunity to vote on the proposed zoning ordinance.

Caldiraro told the public that they could register their thoughts or questions online, through a contact form or Caldiraro’s own email address on the county website, or contact their commissioners with special concerns. He also reminded them throughout the meeting that Building and Zoning personnel were taking people’s suggestions very seriously for the next draft, especially from commissioners.

Elephant Sanctuary Receives Environmental Award (CDH)

The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee has been selected as the 2025 Governor’s Environmental Stewardship Award winner for Sustainable Performance.

The award is one of nine in different categories by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, according to a news release.

The sanctuary, already known globally as a safe haven for captive elephants, has expanded its mission to lead in sustainability through composting, recycling, solar energy, water conservation and more.

"Nestled in the scenic hills of Hohenwald, the Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee is now recognized for animal care, and its commitment to environmental stewardship, serving as a model of what’s possible when conservation and sustainability go hand in hand," the release said.

From massive waste reduction to renewable energy generation and water conservation, the sanctuary is proving that protecting animals and the planet are deeply interconnected goals, the release says.

In 2023 and 2024, the sanctuary achieved a landfill diversion rate of over 98%, thanks to a robust on-site composting program. Over 854,000 pounds of organic material, including elephant manure and food scraps, are processed annually and used to enrich the sanctuary’s soil. This eliminates the need for chemical fertilizers and supports ecological land restoration.

The sanctuary also recycled over 134,000 pounds of cardboard, plastics, metals and glass in 2024.

Through partnerships with TerraCycle, a company focused on recycling hard-to-recycle materials, even materials such as medical waste and batteries are diverted from landfills.

The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee has made other significant investments such as solar energy infrastructure, installing solar arrays across four facilities totaling 119.5 kilowatts. Together, these systems now provide 25% of the sanctuary’s annual electricity needs, a new release explained.

Battery backups at select locations offer additional energy resilience and grid independence, contributing to reduced carbon emissions and operational costs.

The sanctuary has also made considerable investments in sustainability measures to conserve water.

More than 90% of the sanctuary’s water usage now comes from harvested rainwater, collected in cisterns with over 40,000 gallons of storage capacity.

The sanctuary also prevents soil erosion and protects local waterways by managing stormwater runoff through advanced filtration and sustainable landscape design.

The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee’s sustainability efforts extend far beyond the fence line at the sanctuary. At the Elephant Discovery Center, the public is invited to learn about renewable energy; recycling and composting; climate action; and biodiversity.

The sanctuary was recently recognized by the Tennessee General Assembly for its 30-year anniversary serving distressed elephants or those retired from performance by providing a safe environment and habitat.

House Joint Resolution 508, introduced by Rep. Jody Barrett, R-Dickson, and co-sponsored by Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald, was passed and signed by Gov. Bill Lee, recognizing the Sanctuary’s 30th anniversary and ongoing impact in animal welfare, conservation, and education.

The resolution commends The Elephant Sanctuary for providing “refuge and care for elephants in need” since its founding in 1995, growing to become the largest natural-habitat refuge for African and Asian elephants in North America.

The 3,060-acre sanctuary is currently home to 14 elephants retired from performance and exhibition, with room for future residents.

To learn more, visit https://www.elephants.com/.

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

William Franklin Tankersley, age 98, a longtime resident of Columbia, died Saturday, August 2, 2025 in Lewisburg.

Funeral services will be conducted Saturday, August 9, 2025 at 2:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Rose Hill Cemetery with military honors provided by Herbert Griffin American Legion Post 19. The family will visit with friends Saturday from 12:00 noon until 2:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home. Online condolences may be extended at www.oakesandnichols.com.

Now, news from around the state…

Blackburn to Run for Governor (Tennessean)

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn announced she is running for Tennessee governor, ending months of speculation. The senior senator, a Republican who lives in Brentwood, made the announcement Aug. 6.

"I'm running for governor to ensure Tennessee is America's conservative leader for this generation and the next," she said.

The primary election to replace term-limited Gov. Bill Lee is Aug. 6, 2026, and fellow Republican U.S. Rep. John Rose is the only other declared candidate. He announced his candidacy March 20.

In her announcement video, Blackburn shared priorities to "make Tennessee America's number 1 job-creating, energy-producing powerhouse, to deliver a world class education for our children by empowering parents" and to "deport illegal aliens."

Chris Devany, the chair of Rose’s campaign, predicted in a statement Blackburn would spend much of the campaign talking about issues that don't have much to do with Tennessee.

“Tennessee is at a crossroads and now we get to have a 365-day conversation about who would make the best CEO of the state,” Devany said. “Senator Blackburn is going to talk a lot about Washington. John is going to talk about his record as a CEO, an outsider, and a reformer.”

Blackburn was the recipient of endorsements from across the state even before she announced she's running, including from gubernatorial hopeful Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs, who backed Blackburn instead of running, and U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann of Chattanooga.

Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee, an influential conservative policy group that helped the state's school choice voucher program across the finish line, is mobilizing to knock on 200,000 doors to "share how Marsha Blackburn led the way in the U.S. Senate to secure major WINS for President Donald Trump & TN taxpayers."

Blackburn became the first woman elected to represent Tennessee in the U.S. Senate when she won in 2018. If she is elected governor, she will be the first woman to serve in that role.

In the Senate, she's been a fierce defender of President Donald Trump's policies. Recently, she successfully passed legislation to change the federal framework for reporting crimes involving the online sexual exploitation of children.

Blackburn was elected to the Tennessee Senate in 1998. She served there until 2003, then was elected to represent part of Middle Tennessee in the U.S. House of Representatives until her 2018 election to the U.S. Senate. She was reelected to the U.S. Senate in 2024 with 89.5% of the Republican primary vote. In the general election, she received 63.8%.

Final Story of the Day (Maury County Source)

Artville, Nashville’s only public visual arts festival, is entering its third year with plans to be bigger, bolder, and more immersive than ever. Taking place from September 26 – 28, the festival is expanding from its original location in the Wedgewood Houston and Chestnut Hill neighborhoods to a city-wide event featuring multiple locations.

The festival’s home base will be in the Walk of Fame Park in downtown Nashville, featuring immersive, large-scale public art installations, alongside the American Artisan Festival featuring 65 contemporary handcraft and fine artisans, as well as food, live music, kids’ activities, and more. Artville 2025 will also feature several Artville After Dark events each evening with activations throughout the city, including The Arcade 5th Ave of the Arts, The Neuhoff District in Germantown, and Wedgewood Houston.

Over the past two years, Artville has awarded more than $320,000 to over 50 artists to create temporary, site-specific public art, murals, and immersive experiences for the festival. Over 75 artists will be exhibiting throughout the weekend across various events. More details about exhibiting artists will be announced at a later date.

Learn more at www.artville.org.