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New highway necessitates address changes for some
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Lisa Hobbs
Updated: Dec 26, 2015, 6:56 PM
Published: Dec 26, 2015, 7:56 PM

Some residents in the area of Centertown should prepare for an address change.
The full Warren County Commission met Monday and unanimously agreed to establish names for three county roads due to the completion of the new U.S. Highway 70, designated as Sen. Jerry W. Cooper Highway.
Included in the measure:
• Old Nashville Highway, which begins at the new highway and extends to the Warren/ Cannon County line.
• Airport Road, which is the section of road beginning at the intersection of the new highway and Spring Valley Road and running until it meets Old Nashville Highway.
• Holder Lane, which is the section of road beginning at the intersection of Airport Road and Old Nashville – the section of C Rody Road that now dead ends after the completion of the new highway.
The resolution to name the roads passed 21-0. Absent from the meeting were commissioners David Rhea and Wayne Copeland.
Highway and Bridge Committee members had attempted to prevent the numerous residents on Old Nashville Highway from having to change their addresses due to the new highway. However, Chuck Haston, E-911 director, informed the committee an address change is unavoidable due to his department having to renumber the homes and businesses along the street and that leaving the old road as Nashville Highway will create confusion for emergency personnel.
“This is an issue of safety,” said Haston.
According to Haston, there is a section of the four-lane inside the city limits and it is still called Nashville Highway. It was unaffected by the county’s decision to name the four-lane after Sen. Jerry Cooper.
“Once you hit Robinson Road coming back into town, that’s still Nashville Highway,” he said. “Once you hit Robinson Road leaving town, it turns to Sen. Jerry Cooper Highway.”
Having two streets named Nashville Highway will eventually create confusion, says Haston.
“Our recommendation will be from an emergency services perspective,” said Haston. “What creates confusion for ambulance service, fire department or law enforcement is duplicate road names.”
Haston continued, “Two roads that don’t connect, but have the same name, causes problems. It does. I would ask you to consider naming that Old Nashville Highway or totally rename it. That would give the two separate roads two separate names.”
To prevent a safety issue, committee members recommended the names to the full Warren County Commission.
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