Injunction Issued in Airbnb Suit

DRUCILLA MAKES CORNBREAD salad. A6

Herald-CitizenTHURSDAY,Herald-Citizen MARCH 14, 2019 | COOKEVILLE, TENNESSEE 117TH YEAR | NO. 52 75 CENTS Injunction issued in Airbnb suit

BY LINDSAY MCREYNOLDS the city’s ordinance and zon- Prescott South Middle School com, a service that allows movie theatre and steam HERALD-CITIZEN ing code. and west of Highway 111. homeowners to advertise room. The lawsuit is the fi rst of They bought the property their houses for short-term The Cookeville City Coun- A temporary injunction its kind for the city following in the Southern Woods sub- rentals. cil approved its fi rst set of has been issued against the complaints from neighboring division for $699,999 in 2014, The house, which includes regulations regarding short- owners of a short-term rental property owners that the but have since moved to St. six bedrooms, nine beds and term rentals in December property in Cookeville fol- short-term rental use of the Augustine, Florida. 5.5 bathrooms, according 2017 following changes in lowing a lawsuit fi led by city property is a disruption to The property is listed for to Airbnb.com, has been state law. offi cials. the neighborhood. sale online for $1.1 million. available for rent for $349 per The city regulations state City offi cials allege that the Michael J. Petrello and For at least the past few night for 16-plus guests. that only short-term rental lease of the property at 170 Michelle M. Petrello own months, the Petrellos have The property includes a properties occupied by the Southern Woods Court for the 6,700-square-foot home been renting the six-bed- pool, baseball fi eld, basket- short-term rentals violates on 8.46 acres just south of room house through airbnb. ball court, golf simulator, SEE SUIT, PAGE A2 Algood audit shows strong fi nancial position Other areas cited for improvement BY BEN WHEELER HERALD-CITIZEN

Algood audit results showed a strong cash position; however, high turnover and errors show room for improvement. Carley Ezzell, of Carr, Riggs & Ingram LLC, told council members at the city’s Mon- day night work session that the city has high numbers when it comes to its cash reserves. PAIGE STANAGE | HERALD-CITIZEN “Your cash position is still very strong. Ashley Parks with the Cookeville Regional Medical Center and Brent Carr and Zac Crickenberger with The cash equivalents are nearly $5.7 million the Putnam County EMS examine a blood culture. dollars,” Ezzell said. “The city has a strong fi nancial position overall. We look at how many days you have in your fund balance. “We normally say if you have 180 days in Fighting sepsis, one patient at a time operating expenses in fund balance, that’s a normal industry standard. Well, the city’s got over 500 days, so that’s defi nitely a CRMC, EMS partnership having an impact strong position.” One area highlighted as a need for im- BY PAIGE STANAGE sepsis is a huge concern. even reach CRMC, according to a provement, but a common area for cities of HERALD-CITIZEN “We see patients coming into joint release from CRMC and EMS. Algood’s size, is the separation of duties. the EMS system and emergency Angela Craig, clinical nurse “This is repeated for many years, and Cookeville Regional Medical department with infections that specialist in the CRMC intensive that’s just because (the city has) a small Center and Putnam County EMS are untreated or just aren’t going care unit and sepsis team chair, accounting department,” Ezzell said. “This have partnered together to combat away,” Smith said. “When the said lives are being saved by the is something that we fi nd common in a lot of sepsis in patients. body can no longer perform its cultures being collected early on. cities and entities of this size. It is an issue, Sepsis is a body’s extreme normal functions, because it is “Blood cultures allow us to but it’s a common issue.” response to an infection, and can using all its resources to fi ght the check the patient’s blood for infec- Ezzell said the city needs improvement become life-threatening if left un- infection, patients become critical- tion, and since it takes time to al- on day-to-day operations which is a larger treated, according to the Centers ly ill in a short period of time.” low those tests to develop, having issue. Some of the errors were attributed to for Disease Control and Preven- With the new Code Sepsis proto- them drawn by EMS, and antibiot- the high turnover of employees during the tion. col, EMS providers are collecting ics given immediately in the fi eld fi scal year. Putnam County EMS medical blood cultures and administering director Sullivan Smith, M.D. said antibiotics to patients before they SEE SEPSIS, PAGE A2 SEE AUDIT, PAGE A2 Man arrested for RAM clinic returns Cumberland murders this weekend TBI — Special agents into the crimes BY BEN WHEELER Tickets will be distributed from the Tennessee Bu- on Tuesday HERALD-CITIZEN at 3 a.m., and patients will reau of Investigation have night at the be seen in order at 6 a.m. charged a Pikeville man in request of Remote Area Medical Services that will be connection to the deaths of 13th District (RAM) is returning to provided to patients will two people in two related Attorney Gen- Cookeville Saturday and include dental cleanings, incidents in Cumberland eral Bryant Sunday for its fourth confi llings, extractions and County. Fields Dunaway. secutive year in town. x-rays, eye exams, prescrip- John Patrick Fields, 46, The fi rst RAM will be off ering free tions and glasses, general is charged with two counts incident occurred earli- medical, dental and vision medical exams and women’s of fi rst degree murder and er in the day at a home care to uninsured and health exams. two counts of attempted in the 80 block of Critter underserved patients in the “This will be our fourth fi rst degree murder. He’s Creek Road in Crossville, Upper Cumberland area. annual RAM clinic in being held in the Cumber- where Cumberland County JIM HERRIN | HERALD-CITIZEN FILE The mobile clinic will be Cookeville, and we couldn’t land County Jail on a $5 deputies responded to a Volunteer medical personnel at Cookeville High School. be more proud to be return- million bond. 911 call from a citizen who work on a dental patient last Attendees are encouraged to ing, said Jeff Eastman, RAM TBI Special Agents year at the Cookeville Remote arrive no later than mid- joined the investigation SEE ARREST, PAGE A2 Area Medical Clinic. night Saturday (morning). SEE RAM, PAGE A2 herald-citizen.com INDEX 2 sections | 14 pages OBITUARIES Page A5 DEAR ABBY A6 COMICS A7 OPINION A4 Dolores Kelly, Cookeville Billy H. Reed, Rickman CALENDAR A5 CROSSWORD A7 SPORTS B1 Mary Thompson, Livingston Charlene Hays, Cravenstown CLASSIFIED B4 LIVING A6 SUDOKU A7 Fred W. Smith, Gainesboro James Ledbetter, Cookeville A2 HERALD-CITIZEN FROM PAGE 1 THURSDAY, MARCH 14, 2019 herald-citizen.com 0LOTTERY0 Wednesday Governor Cash 3 Evening 2-3-7, LS: 12 Midday 9-0-8, LS: 17 proposes $60 Morning 7-0-3, LS: 10 Cash 4 Evening 5-6-6-6, LS: 23 Midday 2-7-6-1, LS: 16 million for Tech Morning 0-1-9-5, LS: 15 Lotto America BY BEN WHEELER support Gov. Lee and his 18-42-44-48-52, Star Ball: HERALD-CITIZEN focus on rural education, 8, ASB: 3 jobs, and this funding Est. jackpot: $16.73M Tennessee Governor is proof of that focus,” Powerball Bill Lee’s proposed bud- Williams wrote on Face- 18-36-45-47-69, Power- get for 2019-2020 includes book. ball: 14, Power Play: 3 Est. jackpot: $448M nearly $60 million dol- The proposed budget Tennessee Cash lars for Tennessee Tech. appropriations for Tech 06-09-17-19-20, Bonus: 1 The investment would includes $3.25 million for Estimated jackpot: be a 10.4 increase over planning on the new en- $400,000 last year. gineering building and “Governor Lee’s bud- $7.91 million for facilities get shows his confi dence maintenance, allowing Coff ee club in Tennessee Tech,” said additional roofi ng and 0READER SERVICES0 Tech President Phil Old- building renovation. Address: ham in a press release. Gov.