Cookeville Public Works Dept. Working To Mitigate Burning Mulch Pile

Cookeville’s Public Works Department experiencing difficulty with the city’s mulch pile near Cane Creek Park spontaneously combusting.

Director Blake Mayo said the issues started when the state informed the city it had stockpiled more mulch than was allowable. He said they currently have an estimated 20,000 yards of mulch at its facility.

“Hopefully the rains this weekend will extinguish the vast majority of the pile that we have more manageable,” Mayo said. “Once this fire ceases to exist, the long-term goal is to double grind it and give it away to the public or whoever wants to come take it.”

Mayo said the city currently has the fire department monitoring the pile and making sure it stays contained. He said due to safety concerns, they have paused giving away the mulch until the heat dies down.

Mayo said the issue is not entirely uncommon, and several local municipalities like Murfreesboro have been dealing with an overload of mulch. He said some ways to improve this include hiring a third party to carry off the excess material to another location.

“Murfreesboro has their own grinder and runs into the same issues with the stockpiling and getting too much to handle and they actually have to pay to have theirs removed also,” Mayo said. “(…) It’s kind of tough to find a proper solution for all this stuff.”

Mayo said once they get fully operational again they will alert the public.

“Once we get it covered up and system and established, we’ll give it all away,” Mayo said. “And if anybody wants to see what it looks like, the parking lot on Cedar is actually the finished product mulch, what it’s going to look like to put it around your house and things like that.”