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Jail inmates could get larger TVs
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Updated: Jul 6, 2013, 6:49 PM
Published: Jul 6, 2013, 6:50 PM

Commissioners on the Jail Oversight Committee have discussed the possibility of replacing the TVs in the prisoners’ area with larger, flat-screen TVs.
TVs were recently placed in the men’s and women’s pods and are used as an incentive for good behavior from the jail inmates.
“Those TVs that we got donated didn’t cost us anything. It only cost us for the service that we signed up with Ben Lomand,” said County Executive John Pelham. “I was always under the impression, if you all have been back there and saw the TVs just sitting out on the tables in the exercise room, that the guys were just out in the exercise room, sitting on the picnic tables and gathered around the TV and watching it. But, that’s not the case. When they are watching TV, they are watching TV from their cells. They are locked in their cells maybe 50 feet or 60 feet away, standing in their cells trying to see that TV.”
“From as far away as they are watching TV, if we really want to say, OK you guys, if you are really going to try and behave better, we can go to Walmart and get a pretty good size flat screen that we can mount on the wall and they can see from their cells a whole lot better if you all think we are getting to that point where these guys are really going to take care of these things. We can go to Walmart and catch them on sale. You can buy a pretty good sized flat screen for around $300. But, we may not be to that point yet,” said Pelham.
Sheriff Jackie Matheny said, “We’ve thought about it and talked about it. That may be coming but, if I did something like that it would be toward the end of the year to see how we are doing financially. In most of our pods, it made a difference. But one men’s pod has been acting up and doesn’t have their TV right now.”
Matheny later said, “Having the TVs has been helpful. It is a good deterrent and so far they have been beneficial. I just don’t know about the budget.”
Committee members decided to wait and see if the 2013-14 budget will allow financing new TV sets for the inmates.
Replacing the TV sets would cost approximately $2,400 according to Pelham’s guestimate of being able to purchase sets for $300 each. There are currently eight TVs placed in the jail for inmates to watch, four in the men’s pods, three in the women’s pods, and one in an in-house trustee cell.
Local farm partnership brings fresh beef to Warren County Schools
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Published: Apr 2, 2025, 11:31 PM

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