Southern Middle TN Today News with Tom Price 3-31-26

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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.

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Southern Middle Tennessee Today
News Copy for March 31, 2026

All news stories are aggregated from various sources and modified for time and content. Original sources are cited.
Residential Development on Old Monsanto Property (MSM)
The Maury County Planning Commission was presented for the first time with a long-rumored development proposal which was contested by public commenters.
Barge Design Solutions staff unveiled plans for Crosswaters, a planned community on 1,339 acres of the former Monsanto campus in Santa Fe. Certified Planner Ron Yearwood and project manager Ian Jay presented the plan as a concept, not seeking the Planning Commission’s approval for any particular part of it.
“We’re proposing… ecological and economic renewal,” Jay said.
The Crosswaters Planned Unit Development would feature approximately 1,300 housing units, a hotel, retail and a golf course and resort. They estimated a 20-year economic impact of $5.1 billion, 1,500 jobs created paying out $932 million in wages and tens of millions in development fees and sales, hotel and property taxes for the county.
“The vision is to create a destination, not just a subdivision… a live-work-play environment, rather than a single-use development,” added Yearwood.
The real attraction at Crosswaters would come from preserving 982 acres of land and the 325-acre body of water now popularly known as “Monsanto Lake” for profitable use, recreation and environmental preservation. The Barge representatives proposed to draw the development’s water, in case CPWS couldn’t deliver on its conditional-availability letter, from the lake, which they claim holds a billion gallons now and could hold up to 4.4 billion with the correct modifications.
Though the Monsanto Corporation mined and processed elemental phosphorus and other substances on its Santa Fe campus from the 1930s to the 1980s, the Barge representatives pointed out that the portion of the campus under review was put to agricultural and residential use long before industrial, and the character of the area continues to make it fit for its old uses. In 2007 TDEC restricted the possible uses for the site, though it was never put on the federal list of Superfund sites.
In 2022 Barge Design was brought in to conduct “phase one” environmental assessments of the 1,339 acres now proposed for Crosswaters. Since then, they’ve taken a total of 1,725 soil samples, one groundwater sample, six sediment samples, six surface water samples and 42 other water samples from the 325-acre body of water.
Monsanto Lake, which Yearwood and Jay proposed as “the reservoir” of the development, once served as a “tailings pond” where Monsanto dumped the clay-like byproducts of phosphorus refinement. Local attorney Ashley Posey later called it “Tailings Pond 15” during her public comment, and Apple Maps currently labels it as “Monsanto Number Fifteen Lake.” Jay described the tailings dumped in the pond as “fine-grained soils, washed dirt, silts and clays [with] high water content.”
“No significant findings were discovered after conducting extensive site investigations, property evaluations and environmental samplings,” Barge announced in the Crosswaters concept plan, which claims that the old “Monsanto Lake” has lower concentrations of metals and suspended solids than the EPA allows in tap water. “[In fact], the results of the sampling determined the water quality of the discharge [from the reservoir] to be equivalent or superior to the quality of the Duck River.”
In response to Barge’s testing, TDEC lifted the environmental restrictions on that tract of the old Monsanto property in 2024 and made a “brownfield voluntary agreement” with the developer. In a 2025 letter to Maury County Commission Mike Kuzawinski, Deputy Director Evan Spann explained that back in the day, Monsanto only investigated pollution in the acreage south of the Duck River, not the 1,339 acres north of the River set aside for Crosswaters, though Monsanto Lake was known to be a tailings pond.
“The largest tailings pond at the Monsanto site (pond number 15) was almost 200 feet deep in settled clay [tailings],” Spann wrote. However, “Pond 15 or Monsanto Lake… is located on the north side of the Duck River and was not associated with any phosphorous processing, [so] it was never considered part of the site during investigation but was included in the [use restrictions] recorded in 2007.”
Posey and Dustin Kittle, two environmental attorneys whose 160-acre ranch adjoins the proposed Crosswaters site, challenged not only the suitability of Crosswaters for the area, but also the accuracy of Barge’s testing.
“Tailings Pond Number 15 is not a ‘reservoir,’ it is a tailings pond,” Posey said. “They want to turn this legacy industrial waste pond into a recreational reservoir and use the water for irrigation, recreation, etc.”
During her research, Posey found that the EPA’s 1982 investigation of the Santa Fe site discovered radioactive uranium-238, thorium-232, lead-210 and polonium-210 in ponds on the property, and that Monsanto’s own internal documents mention “large volumes of PCBs at this plant from the 1940s to the 1980s.”
“I don’t believe [their statement that they tested for PCBs] because I believe [Monsanto Lake] would show PCBs, and nothing in their 2024 report [mentions] PCBs, dioxins or anything,” she said. “I haven’t seen anything in all of TDEC’s files or what they published online about PCBs.”
Meanwhile, she claimed that Barge’s own 2022 tests detected barium, chromium, lead and phosphorus, and that they didn’t test for all of the common phosphorus byproducts, nor in the most contaminated places.
“Composite sampling detected potential hotspots: the 2022 phase one [tests] detected barium, chromium and lead in the sediment,” she claimed at the meeting. “The June 2024 evaluation omits sediment samplings entirely. Sampling locations were shifted away from the source and towards diluted points. No analyses were done for PCBs, dioxins, asbestos, radionuclides or the full heavy-metal panel in 2024.”
Posey also noted that neither she nor her neighbors had received any notice when the hazard rating of the property was downgraded in 2024, though the developer was required to send notice of this by state law. She ended her filing by asking the Planning Commission to deny approval when Crosswaters would later come before them, and that the relevant authorities demand independent and more comprehensive tests.
“TDEC is captured, there is no question about it,” Kittle claimed, pointing out that Barge hired Bass, Berry & Sims, a law firm with a former TDEC deputy commissioner on staff. “Think of how you might get preferential treatment when it comes to getting certain things permitted through TDEC.”
“[At the beginning of my career in liability prevention], I evaluated plants exactly like this one,” he continued. “If… one of our clients asked, ‘Could we potentially turn that into a residential site?’, I would’ve said, ‘You have lost your mind. You will ultimately kill people.'”
Kittle hypothesized that Crosswaters wasn’t a serious proposal, and that it was meant to widen the window of possibility so that a landfill or other industrial use would seem relatively plausible.
“This is not a serious proposal,” he said. “They’re putting this out there to try to make people concerned, [then] circle back to something.”
“Who actually is the ownership of this company?” Planning Commissioner Peder Jensen asked owner representative Reed Martz earlier in the meeting. “Tell me a little bit about who we’re actually dealing with… Is it at all connected to Trinity [Business Group]?”
“Yes, there is some connection between Crosswaters and Trinity,” Martz confirmed, without specifying.
Trinity Group has previously attempted to build a landfill and other waste management facilities near the property in question.

Spring Hill Hears June Lake Development Proposal (MSM)
Two development proposals, including a new commercial retail project and a temporary facility plan for Spring Hill’s water department, were presented to the Planning Commission as staff and applicants work through details ahead of upcoming votes. 
A proposal for June Lake Collective was submitted by BCA as part of the Gateway Commercial Retail District, an area intended to accommodate a variety of commercial uses offering retail products and services. 
The property, located north of June Lake Boulevard and east of Buckner Lane, is zoned Planning Zoning District (PZD) Gateway Commercial Retail (G-CR) and spans approximately 1.73 acres. The applicant is requesting site plan approval to construct two one-story commercial buildings with associated infrastructure. One building would be approximately 7,590 square feet and the other about 8,030 square feet, with both intended for retail and restaurant use. 
City staff raised concerns with the site plan noting the design doesn’t fully align with the Pod K’s original vision and function. Additional recommendations included removing stairs in an area to ensure accessible pedestrian connections, finalize parking requirements, modify easements to align with city maintenance of water infrastructure and parking and clarify which building is used for restaurant use versus retail use. 
A representative for the project said that adjustments have been made to better align the development with the original vision and asked for guidance on how to structure parking for each building and its tenant. 
Following the meeting with staff on Feb. 4, and recommendations from the planning commission, the applicant is advised to address the changes and concerns in order to move forward with approval prior to the next voting meeting. 
In a separate item, Spring Hill Water Department is seeking to relocate operations to the existing Spring Hill Police Headquarters building located south of Royal Park Blvd and east of Kedron Road.
As part of the request, the department is proposing a design review for three temporary metal storage buildings totaling approximately 5,900 square feet. The site is about 12.04 acres, with the existing one-story building located at the front of the property and proposed for water department operations. The three additional buildings would be placed on the eastern portion of the site within the gated area. 
Staff requested feedback from the planning commission on the design of the storage buildings, with commissioners in agreement with the proposed color scheme. Following this meeting, revising the design standards and building evaluations related to exterior colors are required before moving forward with an approval before the next voting meeting.

MRMG Opens Retail Pharmacy (Press Release)
On March 27, Maury Regional Health celebrated the grand opening of its new retail pharmacy location now open and serving patients at the Maury Regional Medical Plaza in Columbia.
Designed with patients’ health and convenience in mind, the new location offers streamlined pharmacy services for the community, patients and employees of Maury Regional Health. The opening of the Medical Plaza pharmacy location marks another milestone in the health system’s ongoing commitment to providing expert care that is both accessible and seamless for patients.
“The opening of this new full-service outpatient pharmacy in our Medical Plaza further strengthens the continuity of care we provide,” said Maury Regional Health CEO Martin Chaney, MD. “By offering these services in the same building where many patients already receive care, we are making it easier for them to fill prescriptions following their appointments. This helps to support timely medication use, improve adherence to treatment plans and ultimately contribute to a smoother recovery process. As always, our objective is to remove barriers and to deliver truly seamless, patient-centered care.”
Located at 854 W. James Campbell Blvd., Suite 102, the Maury Regional Health Pharmacy offers full prescription services along with a wide variety of over-the-counter medications and home-delivery options. The location is designed to simplify the process of managing ongoing medication needs while providing patients with direct access to trusted pharmacy professionals. The pharmacy is open Monday–Friday from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. and may be reached at 931.919.1193.
The Maury Regional Health Pharmacy is staffed by clinical pharmacists available for one-on-one medication counseling, comprehensive medication reviews and expert guidance on drug interactions or side effects. 
The Columbia Medical Plaza marks the first in a series of new pharmacy locations intended to bring expert care closer to home for residents across the region. Following this Columbia opening, Maury Regional Health will soon debut an additional pharmacy location at the new Lawrence Health Center in Lawrenceburg, with plans to open other pharmacy locations later this year. These secondary locations complement the existing on-campus pharmacy currently located on the first floor of Maury Regional Medical Center, which continues to serve discharging patients, employees and volunteers.
These new pharmacy locations are being launched in partnership with VytlOne, a leading provider of comprehensive pharmacy solutions for health care organizations nationwide.
“Providing world-class medicine means ensuring it is within reach for everyone in our community,” said Maury Regional Medical Group President Nathan Miller. “We know that when pharmacy services are conveniently located and easy to navigate, patients are better able to stay on track with their health goals. This expansion is a major advancement in how we serve Columbia, providing a one-stop resource where patients have the option to find everything from their prescription medicines to specialized counseling to over-the-counter essentials. We are proud to bring this level of convenience to our patients.”
For more information about Maury Regional Health’s current and upcoming pharmacy locations, hours and services, visit MauryRegional.com/Pharmacy.

Where’s Maury the Mule (Press Release)
Maury Alliance’s annual “Where’s Maury the Mule?” shop local passport adventure starts on Wednesday, April 1st. The rules are simple: pick up a passport, find Maury the Mule hidden in as many businesses as possible, and turn your passport in at the Maury Alliance office located at 106 West 6th St in Columbia by 5:00 pm on Tuesday, April 14th. Share your adventure on social media using the hashtag “maurythemule” so everyone can follow along!
Ways to Win
• Visit 30 businesses for a single entry into the GRAND PRIZE DRAWING
• Visit 35 businesses for a double entry into the GRAND PRIZE DRAWING
• Visit 40 businesses for a triple entry into the GRAND PRIZE DRAWING
• Visit at least 5 businesses for a chance to win Local First gift cards and other prizes
• There will be two Grand Prize winners, each will receive $500 in gift cards from participating businesses.

For complete rules and details visit www.mauryalliance.com.

Mt. Pleasant Organizes Final Friday (MSM)
Last week Mount Pleasant launched a new monthly Final Friday (Shop Hop) event series in its historic downtown.
Downtown shops stayed open late, and visitors scanned a QR code to collect entries by visiting stores and making purchases. Each entry gives participants a chance to win a $250 prize during the first event.
“In the coming months we hope to expand the evenings with additional prizes, food trucks, music, and other activities,” said Caroline Rash, director of the Mount Pleasant Forward Foundation, “to make Final Friday a fun monthly tradition on the square.”

Spring Hill’s Coffee With A Cop (MauryCountySource)
Community members in Spring Hill will have a chance to meet and speak with local police officers during an upcoming outreach event.
The Spring Hill Police Department is hosting “Coffee with a Cop” on Friday, April 17, from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. The event will take place at Target, located at 1033 Crossing Boulevard.
Organizers say the event is designed to give residents an opportunity to ask questions, share concerns, and build relationships with the officers who serve their community—all in a relaxed, informal setting.
Attendees are invited to stop by, enjoy a cup of coffee, and engage in conversation with local law enforcement.

And now, Your Hometown Memorials, Sponsored by Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home…
Dolly Marie Primm Henson, 65, a resident of Columbia, passed away peacefully at her residence on Thursday, March 26, 2026.
Funeral services will be conducted Tuesday, March 31, 2026 at 2:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home. Burial will follow in Morton Cemetery. The family will visit with friends on Tuesday from 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM at Oakes & Nichols Funeral Home. Online condolences may be extended at www.oakesandnichols.com.

And now, news from around the state…
School Immigration Bill Stuck in Legislature (Tennessean)
More than $1 billion in federal education funding could hang in the balance as the Tennessee House and Senate clash over a controversial bill that would require all K-12 students to submit proof of their immigration status when enrolling in public school, and require schools to report the number of undocumented students to the state.
Senate sponsor Bo Watson, R-Hixson, on March 26 delayed a vote for a third consecutive Senate session to either substitute the watered-down House version of the bill or stick with the more radical Senate version.
Following the session, Watson said he delayed action on the bill again because sending it back to the House before more negotiations with both the House and members of the Senate Republican caucus “would really jeopardize the bill.”
“The original bill passed with 19 affirmative votes. Some members prefer our bill, and so I don’t know that they would stick with me on the House version. Some members prefer the House version,” Watson said. “I don’t know if that adds up enough to get where we need to be.”
It's becoming unclear whether either version of the bill has a path forward this year, after sparking controversy and protests over the last 14 months.
Last year, the Senate passed a draconian bill allowing Tennessee public schools to disenroll or charge tuition to students that cannot prove their legal presence in the country, and requiring schools to verify citizenship or legal immigration status, reporting those who cannot to the state.

From the beginning, sponsors framed the bill as a direct challenge to the U.S. Supreme Court’s Plyler v. Doe decision, which barred schools from discriminating against children based on immigration status.
But at the end of last year, questions were raised in the House about whether passing the bill could endanger the $1.1 billion in K-12 education funding Tennessee receives from the federal government each year.
So, House Majority Leader William Lamberth, R-Portland, this year amended House Bill 793 to require only data collection — no longer offering schools the option to refuse to educate undocumented children.
House Republicans passed that scaled-back version earlier this month.
Despite concerns raised by the House, the Senate has “never worried” about putting federal funding in jeopardy. 

House GOP Calls for Reduced Freedom Scholarships (Tennessean)
House Republicans are moving to temper expectations on the number of new Education Freedom Scholarships the state may be able to fund this year.
But they’re also moving to loosen testing requirements, oversight and income restrictions for the state’s earlier voucher program, Education Savings Accounts — and expand it to applicants in 18 new counties.
Last week, Rep. Ryan Williams, R-Cookeville, filed amendments to cap the number of new Education Freedom Scholarships available at 35,000.
Gov. Bill Lee has called on the legislature to “at least” double the number of slots in the program by adding 20,000 more this year. He has since said he’d prefer to “fully fund” the program by funding all of the 56,000 applications the state received.
“Funding 20,000 additional scholarships is an important step forward in meeting existing demand — but it still leaves nearly half of new applicants on the waitlist," Lee spokesperson Elizabeth Johnson said.
Williams’ 5,000-slot reduction to the EFS program would save the state about $37.7 million, according to state fiscal analysts.
Another Williams amendment could make about 10,000 Education Savings Accounts available to applicants in 18 new counties.
Currently there are only about 5,000 students enrolled in the ESA program, which operates only in Shelby, Davidson and Hamilton counties. Next year, by law, the ESA program can accept up to 15,000 students.
Until now, demand has never approached supply because of geographical restrictions and income requirements. 
Another Williams amendment to be tacked onto the EFS expansion bill would make sweeping changes to the state’s ESA program by:
• Expanding the ESA program that currently operates in Shelby, Davidson and Hamilton counties to operate in 18 more counties.
• Raising the income cap for the program from the current $81,120 to $173,160 for a family of four.
• Wrapping in testing changes introduced last week that would stifle accountability for the program by ending the TCAP testing and reporting requirement for ESA recipients. Instead, ESA students would take a nationally standardized achievement test and a select sample of those test results would be reported to the state.
But the dramatic ESA expansion would also hit school districts financially. 
The ESA program’s “hold harmless” provision that maintained per-pupil state funding for school districts to offset revenue lost as students left public schools has now expired. Districts will see less state and local dollars if students leave to participate in the ESA program this year.
Votes on these proposed changes are scheduled in both House and Senate committees this week.

Final Story of the Day (Maury County Source)
Ascend Federal Credit Union Amphitheater is kicking off its 2026 concert season by giving fans the chance to win tickets to every show.
“Season of Tickets” allows fans to enter for a chance to win two tickets to every concert at Ascend Federal Credit Union Amphitheater during its 2026 season.
One fan will be randomly selected on April 22. 
The 2026 Ascend Federal Credit Union Amphitheater lineup currently includes performances from:
Bailey Zimmerman (May 1 & May 2)
Russell Dickerson (May 8)
An Evening with David Byrne (May 9)
Yellowcard (June 8)
Charlie Puth (June 9)
Yacht Rock Symphony in Concert (June 23)
Young The Giant (June 27)
Lindsey Stirling (July 22)
Turnpike Troubadors (July 24)
Zeds Dead (July 25)
The Pussycat Dolls (July 29)
Hilary Duff (July 30)
Train (July 31)
Jack Johnson (August 25)
Dermot Kennedy (October 11)
Fans can enter the giveaway and view
the full 2026 lineup at ascendamphitheater.com.