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Cookeville City Manager James Mills received a 4.9 out of 5 on his annual evaluation by city council members. City Attorney Dan Rader compiled the numbers based on council member evaluations in six different categories. “This is one of the highest, if not the highest, evaluations I’ve ever received for a public official,” Rader said. “So I think it would ... Read More »

Monterey hoping to rebid the depot roofing project after rejecting the previous bids. Mayor Nathan Walker said those bids were not specific enough, so the city had to reject the bids they received to fix the issue and rebid the work. “We didn’t take into account taking off the old roof or taking off the old shingles or what it ... Read More »

High temperatures in the Upper Cumberland can be cause for concern for livestock. Overton UT Extension Agent Jason Garrett said that the two most important factors for keeping livestock healthy are having plenty of water and plenty of shade. He said heat stress can lead to illness, shock, or sometimes death. “Most beef producers with what it costs of the ... Read More »

Cookeville Electric Department hoping to start the process of getting automated meter readers. Director Carl Haney said currently, the city has readers that go out once a month and manually read some 19,000 meters across the city. “Every time that happens we have to send out a truck and a person out to those sites, either read the meter, turn ... Read More »

A Sparta woman sentenced five and half years for concealing resources intended to be provided to a Foreign Terrorist Organization. 37-year-old Georgianna Giampietro was indicted in 2019 on the charges. She pled guilty to the charges in January. According to court documents, an undercover agent approached Giampietro seeking information on joining a foreign. terrorist group. She provided the agent instructions ... Read More »

Putnam County Commissioner candidate Robert Owens has pulled out of the District 10 race happening next month. Owens said he decided to remove his name after accepting the director position for Boys State. “My wife and I had a conversation and said you’re going to have to choose between the two, and I felt like my reach and my impact ... Read More »

Fentress County roads are back open following Thursday morning’s weather. County Executive Jimmy Johnson said that compared to 3,300 people without power early this morning, just about 100 customers are still without power as of 2 p.m. He said that debris was cleared from the roadways and that Jamestown’s maintenance crew will work to clear it from the side of ... Read More »

Fentress County seeing significant widespread damage after early Thursday morning storms. According to the National Weather Service, approximately 100 trees were downed. EMS Director James Bilbrey said at one point about 3,000 Volunteer Electric customers were without power due to downed powerlines. “We’d had all the emergency services department out, Sheriff’s Office, Fire, Rescue, EMA,” Bilbrey said. “Everybody’s been working ... Read More »

Flooding in Byrdstown lead to a partial building collapse early Thursday morning. Sheriff Dana Dowdy said damage still being assessed at the West Main Street commercial location. “We had a lot of flooding,” Dowdy said. “We had some flooding in town around the post office parking lot,” Dowdy said. “Had some trees down and had one building damaged. We had ... Read More »

A stranded vehicle on a flooded Willow Avenue caused a water rescue by local fire crews Thursday morning. Putnam County EMA Director Tyler Smith said a single driver tried to drive through high water levels. Smith said the car started floating and taking in water. “Around 3:00 to 4:00 a.m. some street flooding on Willow,” Smith said. “A car got ... Read More »