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Jackson County School Board approved the school system’s new memorandum of understanding Thursday night. Director of Schools Kristy Brown said that the process occurs every three years and updates the agreements between administration and teachers. She said that this year’s process went smoothly and resulted in some great wins for teachers. “We were able to update some of the pay ... Read More »

Cookeville will spend some $15,000 to update the engineering plans for sidewalks along Interstate Drive. The project has been delayed by T-DOT approvals and discussion. The city will contract with Knoxville-based Cannon and Cannon to include multiple changes along Interstate Drive since the project first began in 2017. The first contract on the project approved May 3, 2017. Council also ... Read More »

The Tennessee Municipal League has recognized Sparta with an Achievement Award for Excellence in Public Works. City Administrator Brad Hennessee said the honor shows the hard work of the department, Mayor and Board of Aldermen. “The department has been faithful in the undertaken of all of this,” Hennessee said. “We knew this it was heading into the right direction, but ... Read More »

Sparta will move forward on a wage study that will be conducted by city staff. Mayor Jeff Young proposed the item Thursday night to answer high turnover rates. Following Board of Aldermen approval, Young shared a message to department heads. “Be sure to pass along to your employees that we are looking at that,” Young said. “If we have someone ... Read More »

Jackson County School Board approved its budget Thursday night with some of the largest teacher salary increases in 20 years. Director of Schools Kristy Brown said that increase amounts to about $2,000 a year for certified personnel. “We want to do all that we can to recruit teachers and retain the ones we have,” Brown said. “My hope is that ... Read More »

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 »