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Fire chief job draws 69 applicants
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With the deadline passed to apply for the available fire chief position in the city of McMinnville, the process of weeding through the dozens of applications received and narrowing the field has begun.
By the Dec. 29 deadline, 69 applications were received.
“There are some extremely qualified individuals in the group,” said city administrator David Rutherford. “We did get some who were more qualified than others.”
When it comes to minimum qualifications, more than half of those who applied had what was necessary.
“We had between 40-45 who were qualified for the position,” Rutherford said. “The remaining did not meet the minimum requirements.”
The process to narrow the number down began with the establishment of three piles — those who do not meet the minimum requirements, those who just barely met all the requirements, and exceptional candidates.
When asked if the last pile will be under consideration first, Rutherford replied, “Of course. We will start there and work our way back.”
A meeting will be held between Rutherford, McMinnville Police Chief and interim Fire Chief Bryan Denton and human resource administrator Jennifer Rigsby to go through the exceptional pile of applicants.
“It’s not going to be easy,” said Rigsby, who was the first to review the applications as they were submitted. “There are some highly educated and highly trained individuals who have applied.”
 Rutherford says he is not going into interviews with a set idea of who he would like to see get the position. However, he does plan on a speedy process in order to move onto hiring for other open positions in the city.
“I want to move as fast as we can and get someone into the position,” he said. “We need to start looking for a new Parks and Recreation director. There are also some frozen positions in the city we need to take a look at and fill if necessary.”
When the applications are narrowed down to a few promising candidates, those names will be announced.

Local farm partnership brings fresh beef to Warren County Schools
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Warren County Schools has beefed up lunch menus this school year through a new community partnership. Thanks to a collaboration between the district’s School Nutrition Department and Barton Creek Farms, students at Warren County High School, Warren County Middle School, West Elementary, Eastside Elementary, and Dibrell Elementary are enjoying locally sourced, farm-fresh beef in their lunches as part of a pilot program.

The initiative, spearheaded by Terri Mullican, Director of School Nutrition, has already shown great promise in its first few months. The partnership with Barton Creek Farms, located in Rock Island, Tennessee, ensures that the beef served is not only local to Warren County but of the highest quality. Barton Creek Farms specializes in farm-to-fork beef, with grass-fed and grain-finished cattle. Each calf is born and raised in Rock Island and goes through USDA-inspected processing, ensuring it meets the strictest safety and quality standards.

“When the opportunity arose to provide fresh, local beef, we knew it was a no-brainer,” Mullican said. “The fact that it’s a product from right here in our community makes it even more special. We can’t wait to implement it district-wide.”

Barton Creek Farms delivers fresh ground beef to the district monthly, and the nutrition

department incorporates it into homemade recipes such as lasagna, meatloaf, chili, and tacos.

As of now, the beef is being served at five schools, but the ultimate goal is to expand the program to all ten lunch-serving schools in the district.

The pilot program originated from a conversation between Mary Roller of Barton Creek Farms and Mullican. Roller, recognizing the farm’s potential to support local schools, reached out to gauge the district’s interest in serving local beef to students. Around the same time, a Warren County school board member contacted Mullican to share information about a similar partnership in neighboring Dekalb County, which helped push the initiative forward.

The timing worked in the district’s favor, as the nutrition department was able to fund the purchase of the beef using existing resources, eliminating the need for additional funding. Now that the pilot program is enjoying a successful run, the department has budgeted to extend the partnership district-wide for the 2025-26 school year.

Dr. Grant Swallows, Director of Schools, praised the program’s economic approach to student nutrition.

“This pilot is a perfect example of how we can use local resources to continue providing nutritious, healthy meals for our students,” he said. “We are grateful for partnerships like this one that benefit both our students and our local community. We always strive to support our local businesses when we can because our community is so good to us.”

In addition to working with Warren County Schools, Barton Creek Farms also partners with local restaurants to offer farm-fresh beef on their menus. The farm’s offerings include ground beef, steaks, roasts, and custom cuts by the quarter, half, or whole cow, meeting diverse consumer needs.

As the program continues to grow, the district hopes to expand its focus on farm-to-school meals, benefiting students’ health and connecting them to the agricultural roots of the community