Southern Middle TN Today News with Tom Price 8-7-26

WKOM/WKRM Radio

Southern Middle Tennessee Today

News Copy for August 7, 2026

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

We start with local news…

Election Results (WKOM)

State and Local Primary and General Elections came to a conclusion yesterday. WKOM radio covered the polls as they wound down last night, and the election saw its share of surprises including guaranteeing Tennessee to have its first female governor, and the 5th and 9th U.S. Congressional Districts will both send a new representative to Washington.

In the Republican primary race for Tennessee Governor, Senator Marsha Blackburn defeated John Rose and Monty Fritts. Blackburn garnered 43% of the vote in Maury County. She will face Democrat Jeri Green in the general election in November.

In the U.S. House District 5 race, incumbent Andy Ogles lost to Charlie Hatcher in his home county 4624 votes to 4831. Ogles lost in the full district by over six percentage points. Hatcher will face Columbia’s own Mayor Chaz Molder who won his primary by seven percentage points.

In U.S. House District 9, Brent Taylor won the Republican Primary handily and will face Justin Pearson who won the Democratic Primary with nearly 66% of the vote.

In the Maury County mayor’s race, incumbent Sheila Butt defeated County Commissioner Gabe Howard 9403 votes to 7331.

In the County Commissioner District 1 race, Tim Holt and Jerry Strahan will hold seats. In District 2 Patti Hollinsworth and Wayne Romesburg will take office. In District 3, Incumbent Gary Stovall and new-comer Winston Harlan will hold office, In District 4 incumbents Connie Green and Mike Kuzawinski will retain their seats. In District 5, newcomer Sam Barnes will join incumbent Scott Sumners. In District 6 Rebecca Haines and Cindy Hestla will hold seats. In District 7, incumbent Kenny Morrow will be joined by newcomer Richard Baud. In District 8 Steven Burford and Missy Smith Phillips will both be new commissioners, In District 9, incumbent Kevin Markham will be joined by newcomer Brent Coen. In District 10, Commission Chair Danny Grooms will be joined by new commissioner Greg Combs, and in District 11, incumbent Chad Brothers will be joined by newcomer Tim Mullen.

Finally, in the only contested Maury County school board race, Stave McGee won the District 9 seat over David Sisk.

Spring Hill State of the City (MSM)

Top leaders in the City of Spring Hill presented their annual State of the City Address to the Chamber of Commerce last Thursday. The address updated the Chamber’s stakeholders, from local businesspeople to government officials and employees, on the city’s operations, projects and goals for the near and distant future.

“‘History favors the doers, not the critics,'” said Mayor Matt Fitterer, quoting historian Sharon McMahon. “The board thinks the same thing: we’re going to be doers… You’re all doers too, that’s why you’re here… and we’re going to keep being doers together.”

Fitterer first presented the city’s largest and most important initiative, the Pure Water Spring Hill water-supply project. Pure Water Spring Hill consists of three enormous reservoirs holding a combined 200 million gallons of water, drawn from the Duck River and captured rain, that feed into cutting-edge, multi-stage treatment plants which will, the mayor promised, produce better water than what Spring Hill now drinks. The rest of the grounds of the 137-acre facility will become a city park where people can go fishing, boating, hiking, picnicking and other activities once the facility opens sometime in 2029 or 2030.

Fitterer explained that the water-reclamation technology involved is new to the state of Tennessee, and TDEC is interested in the results of Spring Hill’s project because of the potential it holds for other parts of the state. The mayor compared the scale and importance of Pure Water Spring Hill to the coming of the Saturn car factory in 1980.

“Purification is not new in the United States… [and] it is long overdue to come to the state of Tennessee,” he said. “It is not just a technology that’s needed in dry, arid climates, but it’s needed across the country, including in Tennessee, to be good stewards of our environmental resources… You may be able to repeat this project in other communities as well. We’re hearing lots of conversations in East and West Tennessee about water resources and long-term capacity and… supply.”

On the topic of water, Fitterer was also glad to host the Duck River Watershed Planning Partnership’s July 13 meeting at the Spring Hill Police Department, where the Partnership voted (on Maury County Mayor Sheila Butt’s motion) to endorse Pure Water Spring Hill for the list of recommendations to the governor. While the vote doesn’t guarantee a final endorsement or funding, it is a meaningful vote of confidence.

Sewer treatment capacity, said Fitterer, will also be augmented with help from another municipality. Spring Hill is at work on an interlocal agreement with Columbia to send 1.5 million gallons per day (MGD) of its sewage through a force main to Columbia’s in-progress treatment plant, which will help free up Spring Hill’s development once the plant goes online.

The cost of the current sewer moratorium, said City Administrator Carter Napier during his budget presentation, shows up in dollars and cents, as lost development fees and sales taxes. Napier pointed out that all categories of business taxes and fees in FY 2026 were down by 59-67 percent apiece from 2025’s returns, and down by 70-75 percent from 2024, before a moratorium took effect.

FY 2027’s forecasted growth of $500,000 in sales taxes should be swallowed up by interest payments on the city’s capital projects, the city administrator said, but he reassured people that it wouldn’t sink the budget. Property tax revenue increased from $8.65 million to $11.5 million — thanks to the city’s decision to keep its old tax rate, instead of the revenue-neutral “certified rate” proposed by the state, in a reassessment year — and the state legislators representing Spring Hill helped to pass legislation that netted the city another $1.7 million in state-shared taxes. The city’s $151 million budget was also balanced this year and recognized as a “Distinguished Submission” by the Office of the Comptroller. 83 percent of it, Napier said, was allocated to public safety, utilities and roads.

“Which always fare very well when it comes to the… public’s opinion of where those dollars should go,” he said.

Vice-Mayor Trent Linville presented the city’s capital-projects list, which the Board of Mayor and Aldermen began compiling in 2025. First on the list, ranked by order of importance, was Spring Hill Fire Station No. 4, which by reports has already saved lives by its placement in the southeast end of town. The city is also at work widening the stretch of Buckner Lane between Duplex and Thompson Station Roads, and is hoping to wrap up traffic-flow improvements outside the new Battle Creek schools around the start of the academic year.

Upcoming capital projects, Linville said, include improvements to the intersection of Buckner Lane and Port Royal Road, to keep traffic from forming unworkably long lines; the Community Services Annex at Beechcroft Road and Town Center Parkway, to which government offices will be moved over time until it’s complete; and the new Spring Hill Library, to be built around the corner from the current one starting in 2030.

“We have a top-notch library, even though the facilities we currently have don’t currently match the quality of the programming and the community,” Linville said.

Finally, the city leaders praised both their teams and the citizens of Spring Hill. Alderwoman Jaimee Davis recapped the awards that the city bestowed on exceptional organizations: an award recognizing the Well Outreach for giving out food to those in need for 20 years; the Ladies’ Solo Club of Southern Springs, whom Davis called “the most lively residents in Spring Hill,” for donating $85,000 to various charities out of the proceeds from selling their handmade goods since 2021; and the Southern Springs Veterans’ Club for donating $400,000 to charitable organizations since 2018.

“That’s the kind of servant leadership that defines Spring Hill,” Davis said. She also showered praise on Spring Hill’s accomplished young people: the Lady Spartans at Spring Hill High School, for winning their first Division I AAA state volleyball championship; the Battle Creek High School boys’ soccer team for winning their district title and advancing to the state quarter-finals; and Dimitri Georgalos, a 16-year-old who received the city Fire Department’s Phoenix Award for using CPR to save his father, Frank Georgalos, from a heart attack.

“Frank is with us today because of his son’s courage and willingness to act. Thanks to his son for reminding us what true heroism looks like,” she said.

Finally, Davis highlighted the city personnel who made city programs and events possible, including the Citizens’ Academy which has graduated over 100 people since it started in 2024; the Hill Fest, which welcomed 4,000 attendees this year; the Christmas Parade; the Campin’ in the Park event, which hosted over 600 people; Experience Spring Hill which brought in 4,000 people; and the 250th anniversary of the country, which attracted almost 10,000.

“These events continue to grow because our residents show up, our sponsors show up, and our staff works tirelessly behind the scenes to make them happen,” she said. “[The sponsored events] would not have been possible without the incredible partnership between the City of Spring Hill, the Spring Hill Chamber of Commerce, General Motors, the Crossings, and our local business sponsors and many volunteers.”

CPWS Gets $75M Loan (MSM)

A state financing board approved a $75 million loan July 27 to help Columbia Power & Water Systems begin work on a water treatment plant expansion, but deferred a separate decision on a $315 million federal loan for the utility’s proposed downstream intake project until the governor’s Duck River Watershed Planning Partnership issues an official recommendation.

The Tennessee Local Development Authority board voted to approve the first loan at 3.06 percent interest, allowing CPWS to begin construction on a plant addition capable of treating up to 12 million gallons per day. The utility plans to draw down additional loans totaling $130 million to complete the plant. Repayment plans negotiated with lenders are projected, according to project advocates, to save rate-payers about $50 million over the 30-year repayment term.

The board declined, however, to place the $315 million loan from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act fund — which would finance most of the pipeline and intake portions of CPWS’s larger downstream intake project — “on parity” with the State Revolving Fund loan until the Partnership formally endorses the downstream intake. In the event of default, parity ensures all lenders are repaid simultaneously; the EPA has made parity a condition of its $315 million loan.

At its previous meeting, the TLDA board had deferred both considerations to July to hear from the project’s proponents and opponents. Most board members agreed in July that the $205 million water treatment plant is a genuine “public-health need” and that work should begin as soon as possible. CPWS is reportedly drawing nearly all of the 20 million gallons per day allowed under its state Aquatic Resource Alteration Permit and cannot treat additional water at its current plant.

“There’s not a doubt that Columbia needs a water treatment plant,” said Finance and Administration Commissioner Jim Bryson. “My understanding is that this water treatment plant is agnostic to where its water comes from.”

“Whether the broader project moves forward or not, this particular issue is absolutely necessary from a public health standpoint,” said state Comptroller Jason Mumpower. “[Because] the present water treatment plant is … beyond safe capacity.”

The bulk of the 100-minute meeting focused on CPWS’s second request: that the TLDA place the $315 million WIFIA loan — which would fund most of the pipeline and intake, the other two parts of the downstream project — on parity with the SRF loan.

Defenders of the project from CPWS, the cities of Columbia and Spring Hill, and state agencies offered public comment and expert testimony. They described the pipeline and new intake as a way to meet Maury County’s growing water needs for several decades, until a long-term regional solution is pursued.

“This downstream project is nothing new. It has been recommended in feasibility studies since 2000 by the Tennessee Valley Authority. It rose to the top as a cornerstone alternative in 2011 in the Comprehensive Regional Water Supply Plan,” said David Money, executive director of the Duck River Agency and a Partnership member. “This pipeline will meet the needs of Maury County for the next 50 years, [including after] we revisited that plan in 2025 … The DRA has been supporting CPWS in the project since 2015.”

Other officials told the board that the new capacity should serve CPWS and its customers 35 to 50 years, depending on the pace of development.

“Our mayor and our board … passed a resolution in support of this project,” said Spring Hill City Administrator Carter Napier, whose city stands to claim up to five MGD from the downstream intake. “I support it as well, with respect to the SRF loan being asked for by the city of Columbia.”

Project advocates argued the new intake and pipeline are also required for environmental and regulatory reasons. To draw water under the new 32-million-gallon-per-day permit granted by the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, the utility must pull from a deep, resilient stretch of the Duck River that environmental oversight agencies agreed upon during permitting — near Williamsport, 17 miles west of the current treatment plant. CPWS and TDEC officials have previously described the current intake as vulnerable to being overdrawn, particularly during droughts, leading TDEC to cap withdrawal at 20 million gallons per day.

“In order to remove [that] amount of water from the Duck River … it has to be located at that particular spot,” said TDEC Commissioner David Salyers, also a Partnership member. “[The planned new intake] is at a location where you have … [a] significant [enough amount of] water to allow the intake CPWS is proposing.”

CPWS had planned to sign the EPA’s $315 million loan agreement in early September, before the Partnership’s official recommendations are expected in mid-September. Officials said they were uncertain whether missing that signing deadline would jeopardize the loan.

“If you get to the second week of September and you say, ‘I’m sorry, we have hurdles and administrative approvals that we have yet to get,’ I don’t know how the EPA and Office of Management and Budget would react,” said Jeff Oldham, a bond lawyer with Bass, Berry & Sims.

“In my opinion, approval of [loan] parity today would not prejudge nor diminish the work the Partnership is doing, nor … the final report,” said Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder. “What we’re pleading for is to be able to capture $50 million in savings for our rate-payers on what is a very expensive project.”

“Our concern is with the WIFIA loan closing … That’s really our unknown,” CPWS interim CEO Jack Baxter told the board. “It’s really important that we don’t risk losing any of these loans.”

Still, Baxter said, barring significant complications, construction will move forward on the approved portions of the project, and the utility expects to begin drawing water from the downstream intake by summer 2029. “We feel like we’re in good shape if we can start by late September, October,” he said.

“The project is going forward either way,” Molder agreed.

Opponents of the project also addressed the board. Jason Gilliam, one of the most prominent advocates for a competing water-supply option — the Columbia Dam — spoke on behalf of “thousands [of people who] … do not support this exorbitantly expensive, under-serving [pipeline] project.”

“Don’t buy into the narrative from the city of Columbia or CPWS that this has to be done right now,” Gilliam said during public comment. “It has been apparent for quite some time that neither the City of Columbia nor CPWS are interested in whether this project is the best option for the rate-payers of Maury County. It seems that their only concern is completing the project at all costs.”

Mumpower said many others — particularly county residents who are CPWS customers but not city of Columbia constituents — share those concerns about how the downstream intake was approved.

“What we do not see at all [from the city and utility] is even a desire to have a broader audience engaged in the discussion or the outcome. This creates a feeling for a lot of people that this is being decided for them, and they are being subjected to it,” Mumpower told city and utility leaders. “This is clearly an issue that is tearing your community [in two]. That’s evident to me from the unprecedented amount of outreach that I have received … This is very unusual that we’re even having this type of discussion.”

Mumpower ultimately declined to make what he considered a policy decision that belongs to the Partnership. Though the Partnership unanimously voted in mid-July to place the pipeline on an unofficial draft list of recommendations — and board members said they would be “shocked” if the Partnership did not endorse it — they agreed it was not their place to pre-empt that decision.

“If Governor Lee thought it was so important to establish this DRWPP and bring together a board that is broader than just a city, and we’re within 30 to 60 days of a recommendation … why does it not make common sense to say, ‘Let’s defer this and at least see the recommendation?'” Mumpower asked.

“I don’t want to risk losing the WIFIA loan … but I want to reiterate that … we need to wait until the Partnership recommendation comes out,” Bryson agreed.

Mumpower sought to reassure city and utility leaders that the federal government was unlikely to pull the financing offer simply because the utility needed a few extra weeks to secure state approval. “As somebody who’s involved in a lot of this type of financing deal, I do think there’s more wiggle room than that [in closing the WIFIA loan]. I’ve not seen a situation where they say, ‘By golly, it’s this day or the highway,'” he said.

The majority of the TLDA board agreed, voting to defer the parity decision to its August meeting. Salyers offered to ask the Partnership to either issue an early recommendation or specifically endorse the pipeline at its Aug. 10 meeting. Mumpower suggested the TLDA could then call a special meeting to approve loan parity if the Partnership acts early.

And now, news from around the state…

Blood Needed Critically (Press Release)

As the American Red Cross reports only the second national blood crisis in its history, Ascension Saint Thomas is urging Middle Tennesseans to donate blood now to help ensure lifesaving care remains available for patients across the region.

Ascension Saint Thomas relies on the American Red Cross as its primary supplier of blood products. The current shortage is affecting hospitals nationwide as blood donations have fallen to a four-year summer low while demand for lifesaving transfusions remains steady. Like many hospitals across the country, Ascension Saint Thomas has had to reschedule some elective surgeries and could be forced to cancel or delay additional cases because of shortages of blood products, particularly platelets.

Ascension Saint Thomas encourages eligible donors of all blood types to schedule an appointment as soon as possible, with an especially urgent need for type O donors. If appointments are not immediately available, donors are encouraged to schedule one in the coming days or weeks to help rebuild the blood supply.

Clinicians at Ascension Saint Thomas Hospital West and Ascension Saint Thomas Midtown hospitals will host blood drives from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Aug. 10. Walk-in donors are welcome, or appointments can be made using the links above.

Blood products are used every day in hospitals to treat trauma patients, support emergency surgeries, care for mothers experiencing childbirth complications, and provide lifesaving treatment for patients with cancer, blood disorders such as sickle cell disease, and other serious medical conditions. Blood also plays a critical role during organ transplants, heart procedures and other complex surgeries.

“Blood is one of the few medical resources that cannot be manufactured,” said Dr. Brian Wilcox, Chief Clinical Officer for Ascension Saint Thomas. “Every unit transfused comes from someone who took the time to donate. Every day, our physicians and care teams depend on a stable blood supply to provide timely, lifesaving care. When that supply becomes limited, it can affect patients throughout our hospitals.”

The American Red Cross announced a national blood and platelet shortage July 13 after the nation's blood supply declined by 25% in June. Extreme heat, poor air quality and widespread foodborne illnesses have contributed to fewer donations this summer, even as hospitals continue to require blood products every day.

The shortage is especially critical for type O blood. Type O positive blood has fallen below a one-day supply, prompting the Red Cross to limit distribution of certain blood products to hospitals. Type O blood is often the first choice during emergencies because it can be transfused before a patient's blood type is confirmed.

Platelets also remain in critically short supply. Because they have a shelf life of only five days, platelet inventories are especially vulnerable to declines in donations. Nearly half of all platelet transfusions support patients receiving cancer treatment, making platelet donations essential to ensuring those therapies continue without delay.

“Blood is needed every two seconds somewhere in the United States,” Wilcox said. “Whether someone is recovering from a serious injury, undergoing surgery, or receiving cancer treatment, blood donors make those treatments possible. Donating blood is one of the most meaningful ways people can support the health of their community.”

The American Red Cross estimates that if just three additional people donated at every blood drive this summer, it could help stabilize the nation's blood supply and end the current crisis.

To schedule a blood donation appointment, download the American Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit RedCrossBlood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767).

As a thank-you, donors who give blood during August will receive a $20 Amazon gift card by email through the American Red Cross.

Final Story of the Day (Maury County Source)

Come out for the Let’s Hike 5-Mile Challenge at Chickasaw Trace Park hosted by Maury County Parks and Rec.

This month, Parks and Rec is turning up the difficulty level with a more strenuous trail around the perimeter of Chickasaw Trace Park. This is a great experience for anyone interested in building hiking skills and increasing mileage on future adventures. Bring your day pack, sturdy shoes, water, and a snack. You’re also welcome to bring a picnic lunch for after the hike—you might work up an appetite!

Mileage, Duration, and Difficulty: 5 miles, 3 hours, Moderate (230 ft elevation gain)

Date/Time: Saturday, September 26th, 2026 | 8:00 am

Location: Chickasaw Trace Park | Meet at Trailhead Near Boat Ramp

Address: 1419 New Hwy 7, Columbia, TN 38401

This is a FREE program; however, participants are asked to register in advance.

For details, contact Maury County Parks at 931-375-6106 or jmiller@maurycounty-tn.gov