Front Porch Radio - Southern Middle TN Today News with Tom Price | Southern Middle TN Today News with Tom Price 9-16-25

What is Front Porch Radio - Southern Middle TN Today News with Tom Price?

Daily News from MuleTown to Music City and beyond. Listen to Tom Price read the news of the day from Kennedy Broadcasting, WKOM & WKRM Radio.

WKOM/WKRM Radio
Southern Middle Tennessee Today
News Copy for September 16, 2025

All news stories are aggregated from various sources and modified for time and content. Original sources are cited.
We start with local news…
Tanker Spill (WSMV)
Hazmat crews and emergency personnel responded to a crash involving a tanker truck transporting hazardous materials early Monday morning near Hampshire.
According to the Lewis County Emergency Management Agency, a tanker overturned on Mt. Joy Road near Big Swan Creek Road in Hampshire, Tennessee.
The tanker was transporting more than 15,000 gallons of liquid nitrogen, which spilled all over the road as a result of the crash.
Multiple agencies from neighboring counties responded to assist with the crash.
It is unknown if the driver was injured in the crash.

Spring Hill Theft (MauryCountySource)
The Spring Hill Police Department is asking for the public’s help in identifying a suspect accused of stealing merchandise from a local store. You can view an image of the suspect at www.maurycountysource.com.
According to police, the individual allegedly took $2,600 worth of items from Old School Vapor early Friday morning.
Anyone with information about the incident is urged to contact Detective Thomas Gray at tgray@springhilltn.org

Columbia Dam (CDH)
The solution in addressing Maury County's need for additional water sources to combat growth and development is drawing different opinions about whether revisiting Columbia's former dam project is the answer.
The Columbia dam project, which originated in the early 1970s — a long dead project — has been resurrected as a possible solution, though a potential feasibility study is needed to determine if it can be done, or redone.
Columbia Dam Now, a nonprofit grassroots committee, has led the charge in raising awareness about revisiting the project, which was unprecedentedly scrapped in the 1980s after approximately $85 million was spent and nearly 400 families left without land, originally acquired by Tennessee Valley Authority.
Construction of the dam began in 1973, but was halted in 1983. As the dam stood more than halfway complete, a solid concrete wall, at The Duck River in southeast Columbia, TVA unprecedently demolished the structure, beginning in 1999.
The dam aimed to provide flood control, water supply, hydroelectric power and recreational opportunities for the region. However, the construction was abruptly stopped due to environmental concerns, particularly the potential impact on endangered freshwater mussel species, such as the birdwing pearly mussel and the Cumberland monkeyface, according to Columbia Dam documents.
"These ecological considerations, coupled with escalating costs and shifting political priorities, led to the project’s suspension," the Columbia Dam Now website says.
Jason Gilliam, who is spearheading Columbia Dam Now, says rebuilding a dam is the "only affordable solution."
Not new to the subject of the Dam and lingering confusion over the decades about its demolition, Gilliam's family relinquished part of their farm to TVA in the 1970s to make way for the original structure.
"It is absolutely, unequivocally, 110% the only affordable solution, and when I say 'affordable,' I'm talking about the people who pay for the water when it comes time to turn your faucet on, and we pay our water bills for these projects they are trying to do," Gilliam said.
"Columbia Power & Water has a $600 million intake they are trying to do, and there are ideas about building this billion-plus dollar pipeline. Then if we were to buy water from Mallory Valley Utility District, our bills here are going to go up four-to-five times what they are now. That's been my motivation."
Gilliam said he envisions the lake to be located adjacent to Fountain Creek southeast of Columbia, which abuts onto his family farm, one of many affected by the original project.
"TVA took part of my mother's land for that project, and there were 380 other families who lived around this area and this community who lost their farms, and that's a lot of people," Gilliam said. "And then to have the project halted and scrapped, it was just a bad deal all the way around."
Maury County Archivist Cindy Grimmitt has been compiling documents, newspaper articles and property deeds related to the former dam project, which now sit in multiple binders and folders at the Archives building.
Her research began, she said, when the Archives was temporarily shutdown for renovations and the staff was tasked with researching a "special project." She chose the Columbia Dam because of her family's ties to the project, as her father was one of its engineers.
"I was kind of on the opposite side of where Jason was, because he is looking at it from a family farm perspective," Grimmitt said. "But we have a family farm, and I could not imagine if they took that from us and then never did anything with it. That's insult to injury."
In addition, Spring Hill is also facing a potential water crisis, with the city's Board of Mayor and Aldermen finalizing plans to build a water reservoir, a project that began in 2023 after Assistant City Administrator Dan Allen determined the city's growth was estimated to exceed its water services "in three years."
On Aug. 27, 2024, the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation approved Spring Hill's Advanced Water Purification pilot project. This project, according to Spring Hill city staff, "outlines how the City of Spring Hill can maximize its fair share of water from the Duck River through extensive treatment processes at an expanded Wastewater Treatment Plant and an accompanying reservoir."
The proposed Columbia Dam feasibility study would require federal approval and be the only true indicator in the new dam's potential.
U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, R-Tennessee, 5th Congressional District, who has been in discussions with dam supporters, said he is actively pursuing the study, because it is what is needed to ensure momentum.
"We know we have a water crisis here in Southern Middle Tennessee and it's only going to get worse," Ogles told The Daily Herald. "The true long-term solution appears to be a reservoir and a dam, but we need data to back that up, which is why I am working on the feasibility study."
Rick Williams, Ogles' field representative for the 5th District, has also been a voice for pushing the feasibility study forward, especially on behalf of the families whose land was initially taken decades ago.
"People who had their land taken feel very strongly about seeing the dam built," Williams said. "It would be a completion to finally have what it was taken for. I would say the majority of the people feel that way, that the land was taken for a reason, and they would like to see that reason completed."
However, additional solutions have been suggested to allow for more water. After all, a dam project will take a lot of time and governmental approval, along with growth continuing, Gilliam said.
One immediate solution, Gilliam suggests, is raising the 3,048-acre reservoir at Normandy Lake, located in Normandy, Tennessee and resides on the Duck River. The TVA-owned lake's dam was completed in 1978.
"What we are really doing now is that everybody involved in trying to get this lake and reservoir built, the very first thing is we have to raise Normandy Lake," Gilliam said. "If not for that lake, the river here would be a trickle. Shelbyville and Columbia would not be anywhere near as successful without the water from Normandy Lake."
In 2024, American Rivers listed the Duck River among the most endangered rivers in the U.S. In his 2025 State of the State Address, Gov. Bill Lee proposed $100 million be budgeted to the Duck River Planning Partnership "to create a regional water supply strategy that will solve this problem once and for all."
Legislators would later approve $65 million of Lee's $100 million proposal for projects related to the river.
"Our state is home to the most biologically diverse freshwater river in all of North America. The Duck River is a scenic, natural treasure," Lee said in his address. "It’s also the sole water source for more than 250,000 Tennesseans who live in one of the fastest growing regions in the country. This presents a complex problem."
Gilliam says the $65 million budgeted, for example, could be used for a project like Normandy, as it utilizes the Duck River directly and is the kind of thing the funds were budgeted for.
"The money is already there to cover the expense, and it is an 18-month project (estimated)," Gilliam said. "It's $32.4 million, and the money is already sitting there, but it would put 21 million gallons of water every day in Columbia. That would help us for maybe the next 10-15 years."
While support for the dam project continues to gain momentum, so has the voices of those who oppose it.
Don't Dam The Duck, another grassroots committee, has been on the forefront in raising awareness about how the project could present many potential issues, such as environmental impact and additional roadway projects needed.
"When they originally built the dam, they spent $85 million, but they hadn't built the roads that have to go around it," said Gale Moore, one of the leading voices behind Don't Dam The Duck. "If this happens, three bridges will be under water. There are 25 roads that will be under water that have to be replaced, two bridges, six current access points to the river and then the interstate has to be raised, and that's on top of building it."
Though she agrees that there is a water crisis in Maury County, Moore said there are alternatives to consider, including the "more immediate solution" such as the raising of Normandy Lake.
"There are alternatives, such as building a pipeline to the Cumberland [River], a pipeline to the Tennessee River," Moore said. "Everyone agrees we should raise Normandy. That's got to happen and will get us 10 years."
There is also the land itself to consider, and whether it would be viable to hold water.
"The lake, if we have it, would be a use for our water supply, but in order to do that they draw it down during the winter, and there will be acres and acres and acres of mudflats when it is drawn down," Moore said.
A Change.org petition opposing the dam was also launched in July, which has garnered nearly 600 signatures by the start of September.
"Moreover, the construction of the dam could have dire consequences for our community and environment," the petition states.
"Inundation of the river's natural course would likely lead to increased flood risks in surrounding areas, potentially damaging homes, businesses, and agricultural land. It could also diminish the water quality, affecting not only the residents of Columbia but wildlife that depend on this essential resource."

Columbia Remembers 9/11 (CDH)
Columbia's Patriot Day tradition to honor the victims of Sept. 11, 2001, has grown into a new event that not only remembers the fallen, but is creating better outreach for veterans.
The first Columbia Heroes Breakfast took place exactly 24 years after that fateful day, when nearly 3,000 lives were lost after two commercial passenger planes were flown into the World Trade Center's twin towers.
Hosted by Operation Stand Down Tennessee, a nonprofit which services veterans in 20 Tennessee counties, including Maury County, the breakfast featured multiple speakers, including Maury County Mayor Sheila Butt, Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder, as well as keynote U.S. Army Command Sgt. Major Mario Vigil.
"These are the people who stood up for our rights, our freedom of speech, the freedom to live in a country where we are not harmed or molested for standing up for things that we believe in," Butt said. "Everybody has a right to their beliefs, and we need to thank our veterans for helping us be this kind of a country."
Molder commented that, of all the 9/11 events he has attended as mayor, this was by far the biggest, not only in the turnout, but in how it will help further Maury County's veteran services efforts.
"This is a day we pause and remember, and is a particularly meaningful day for our country," Molder said. "One of the important things to remember and take away is that 'United We Stand,' because after such a blow we came together as a country in ways I hadn't seen before or since. Hopefully, this day will provide a reminder that we need to come together, and that we are stronger when united no matter what our differences may be."
Molder later addressed the recent shooting of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk, who was fatally shot at a Utah college campus the day prior.
"We need to tone down our political discourse, remember that scripture teaches us to love our neighbors as though we love ourselves, and to have better, positive conversations with one another," Molder said.
"I think we owe that to our veterans who have fought for our country, who have died for our country, and I am so grateful for this organization Operation Stand Down being here today. We are a better country because of our veterans who fight for our country on a daily basis."
Vigil, The Columbia Heroes Breakfast keynote, spoke about his career as a soldier, which he said was about to wrap up just before the 9/11 attacks.
"My remarks [center on the idea of] service," Vigil said. "I was already looking to retirement the following year, but things changed for me."
Later becoming a Green Beret, Vigil served as a Special Forces medic. His first wartime experience occurred during Operation: Desert Storm, where he was sent deep behind Iraqi lines, his team enduring an entire day of gunfire, as well as traversing the Middle Eastern terrain via horseback.
"The war for us quickly kicked off the morning we were on the ground ... we were riding the front lines," Vigil said.
On the topic of service, Vigil said there is a cost that comes with it, and it isn't only paid by the soldiers on the battlefield.
"That cost is paid not just by servicemembers in uniform, but paid by our families," Vigil said. "If you have ever worn a uniform, or have a family member in uniform, a first responder, law enforcement officer, a firefighter or paramedic, you have a sense of service and that service should continue for all of us as Americans, to our country, to our communities and our families. We are Americans first and foremost."
Operation Stand Down provides a wide range of services, though at its heart the goal is to create a path to a better life for veterans.
This includes providing financial aid, therapy services, as well as outreach for helping homeless veterans get off the street.
"We find homeless veterans, and we get them housed, and we find people that are at risk of homelessness, and we help keep them housed," Operation Stand Down Chief Development Officer Penny Anderson said. "Veterans that are at risk of taking their own lives, we help them find mental health services. We also literally deliver non-perishable foods to the 20 counties we serve, instead of having them drive in for a to-go bag."
Operation Stand Down CEO Arlie Haddix added the nonprofit also works with veterans who have been discharged recently.
"We want to make sure they have a smoother career transition, and so that way you transition well and don't have problems five, 10, 20 years later," Haddix said.
Haddix added that Operation Stand Down is now planning a major expansion in 2026.
"The Columbia office will become the eastern hub for an 11-county expansion that will take us east of Shelbyville to Fayetteville, as well as west along Highway 64 to Savannah and to the outskirts of Memphis," Haddix said.
"This community in Maury County is more important than ever because it will be one of the key launching points for us to do that expansion."

Women in Business (Press Release)
Join Maury Alliance for their Women in Business Luncheon called “Strong Women; Stronger Health. The event will take place on September 30th at 11:00am at the Spring Hill Events Center located at 1018 Parkway Drive.
Maury Alliance and the Spring Hill Chamber of Commerce invite you to a special Lunch & Learn featuring a dynamic panel of women healthcare professionals.

This engaging session will explore women’s health from a holistic perspective—addressing the physical, mental, and emotional dimensions of wellness at every stage of life.

Our panelists bring expertise in psychiatry, holistic medicine, fitness, and women’s health to provide actionable tools and empowering insights on:

• Mental well-being & stress management
• Hormonal health
• Movement & nutrition
• Proactive approaches to care

Whether you’re focused on your own wellness journey or supporting others, this conversation will leave you with practical takeaways and fresh perspectives to help women thrive both personally and professionally.

Moderator: Cathy Malone, MMHC, BSN, RN, CNML

Reserve your seat today and join us for this inspiring event!

Learn more at www.mauryalliance.com.

And now, Your Hometown Memorials, Sponsored by Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home…
Mr. Martin Deen, 100, retired carpenter and a resident of Columbia, died Sunday at his residence. Funeral services will be conducted Tuesday at 1:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Wilson Cemetery. The family will visit with friends Tuesday from 11:00 AM until time of the services at the funeral home.

Cindy Lane Hallmark West, 68, resident of Columbia, died Sunday, September 14, 2025 at Maury Regional Medical Center.
Funeral services will be conducted Thursday, September 18, 2025 at 2:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home. Burial will follow at Polk Memorial Gardens. The family will visit with friends Thursday from 12:00 noon until 2:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home.

Now, news from around the state…
Tennessee’s Tallest Building (Tennessean)
After four grueling years of "miserable" stress from financial setbacks and scrapped deals, Tony Giarratana and his team are starting construction on Paramount, a 60-story residential high-rise set to claim the title of Tennessee's tallest building.
The Sept. 15 groundbreaking marks a hard-won victory for one of Nashville's most ambitious urban developers.
Giarratana said the financing journey was punishing. He walked away from a much-needed loan after realizing it couldn't support the full scope of the project. That left him and his executive vice president, Morgan Stengel, with no path forward.
"We were getting pummeled," Giarratana said. "Everybody wrote us off."
But they secured a new financing deal in August, and Giarratana said the years of stress suddenly felt justified. The tower project includes the redevelopment of the downtown location of the YMCA of Middle Tennessee, at 10th Avenue and Church Street.
At a Sept. 15 groundbreaking ceremony, Nashville Mayor Freddie O'Connell said the development comes at an extraordinary time in Nashville's history.
"When we look at this skyline, two-thirds of what we see has emerged over the past decade," O'Connell said. "At 60 stories and more than 700 feet tall, what we're about to see and behold is something that will produce the tallest building in the state of Tennessee and continue to add to Nashville's incredible urban residential fabric."
Paramount will include 360 luxury apartment units, 140 condominiums and 517 parking spaces and will take just over two years to build.
Giarratana has built multiple residential buildings on Church Street, most recently the architecturally distinct Alcove and Prime towers.
His plan for a 60-story residential building at 1010 Church St. came into focus when he realized the downtown YMCA had extra land next to their campus available for redevelopment.
He bought the small, empty parcel for $26 million in late 2022. The YMCA retained ownership of its facilities but used the proceeds of the sale to fund their massive renovation project, which was led by Giarratana's development team after they were selected through an RFP process.
Despite the plot being irregularly shaped and sloping, making it difficult to develop, Giarratana planned his tallest tower. He called his architect, Vladimir Andrejevic, principal and senior project designer at Goettsch Partners.
"We need something visually stimulating," Giarratana told Andrejevic, who also designed Alcove, Giarratana's apartment building at 900 Church Street, to look like offset, stacked cubes creating dramatic open-air alcoves. Andrejevic sent initial sketches back quickly. The Paramount building will have a glass facade with angled surfaces reflecting light in various directions.
"And then we're off to the races," Giarratana said.

Final Story of the Day (Maury County Source)
Like running or walking? Love wine? This race is for you! Amber Falls will host a Haunted Wine Run 5k on Saturday, October 18, 2025, at 10:00 am, another annual “Halloween-themed” event that features the amazing scenery and landscape of Amber Falls Winery & Cellars (794 Ridgetop Rd, Hampshire, TN 38461)!
Located in beautiful Hampshire, TN, this winery produces premier, international award-winning wines.
So, whether you are looking to run, walk, or just enjoy the wine, this race is a sure thing for a great time and an incredible experience!
For more information, look up Amber Falls Haunted 5k on facebook.

Front Porch Radio - Southern Middle TN Today News with Tom Price

More episodes

Chapters

What is Front Porch Radio - Southern Middle TN Today News with Tom Price?