Friday Herald-Citizen The Daily Newspaper of the Upper Cumberland 114th Year — No. 186 Cookeville, Tennessee, August 5, 2016 20 Pages — 2 Sections • 50¢ Weather Tonight Tomorrow Baxter mayor unseated By LINDSAY McREYNOLDS tin said Friday morning. “I’m look- biggest challenge, Martin said, “Coop- HERALD-CITIZEN Staff ing forward to working with the eration. Everyone needs to cooperate city.” and get along. We’re all going to do The only upsets in Thursday’s Putnam Martin, who first became mayor that. We’ve already met and talked 72º 86º County General Election were in Bax- as a write-in in the 1970s, said, “I about it. We want to work with the ter. want to work with all of our alder- business people downtown. I think Complete forecast, Page 2 Former Baxter Mayor John Martin men. I’ve already talked to the ones they’ve been forgotten. I think we need unseated longtime Mayor Jeff Wilhite Martin Stanton Herald seated now. We talked quite a bit to appreciate them more than they have by 47 votes, according to unofficial re- last night. We want to meet with been.” sults posted Thursday evening on the website. different companies or businesses.” Sports Putnam County Election Commission “It was just a wonderful night,” Mar- As far as what he sees as Baxter’s See BAXTER, Page 2 Black, other Thrills primary winners Looking better Cavs offense ramps up /B1 move on to November By LINDSAY McREYNOLDS HERALD-CITIZEN Staff Living Thursday’s election was only the first round for candidates in the state and U.S. House. U.S. 6th District Congresswoman Diane Black won handily in the Repub- lican primary against candidates Joe S. Carr, Donald Strong and Tommy N. Hay. “This is a great grassroots victory and a victory for the idea that we need a con- servative Congressman who gets re- sults,” Black said in a news release Thursday evening. “We had a committed team of volunteers knocking on doors all across this district, and we wouldn’t have New designs won without them.” Throughout the 17 counties in the dis- Parade of Homes Ty Kernea | Herald-Citizen trict, Black captured 33,110 votes or coming Aug 20-21 /A7 63.59 percent versus Carr with 16,662 or From left, Stella Richardson, Amiah Spake and Eli Braswell, all 7 years old, take a ride on the Trabant on 32 percent of the vote, according to un- the midway at this year’s Putnam County Fair. The fair continues tonight with lawn mower races in the official results on the Tennessee Election main arena at 7:30 p.m. Saturday’s events include the diesel truck and tractor pull at 7 p.m. Commission website. Strong and Hay re- ceived 1,353 and 945 votes, respectively. In the Democratic primary, David W. Nation Kent won the nomination over Flo Math- eson. Kent received 67 percent or 7,458 votes. Matheson received 32.9 percent or Improvements survey going out 3,712 votes. Black will face Kent as well as Independent candidate David Ross in By TRACEY HACKETT lish priorities for the issues or needs Surveys must be returned to city hall the November election. HERALD-CITIZEN Staff identified in the first phase of the vi- by Aug. 19 in the postage-paid en- The 6th District includes Putnam as sioning process. We want to find out velopes enclosed in the packet. well as Macon, Clay, DeKalb, Jackson, The city is mailing 500 surveys asking what is important to our residents and “The survey is completely anonymous Fentress, Pickett, Cannon, Overton, random Cookeville residents about im- how they think the city should grow in and all of the responses will be kept Robertson, Cumberland, White, Smith, provements they’d like to see. the future,” he said. strictly confidential,” Mills said. Sumner, Trousdale, Wilson and Coffee It’s the second phase in the Envision Councilman Dwight Henry said he In the first phase of the project, a focus counties. Cookeville long-range visioning hopes the majority of residents who re- group and email correspondence in- In the 25th District of the Tennessee process that began earlier this year — ceive the survey will participate. volving about 950 citizens identified House of Representatives, incumbent Iran flap and the surveys are going out this week. “Community participation is vital,” he specific issues for five development Rep. Cameron Sexton received 4,665 Obama denies $400M to Cookeville Planning Director James said, “especially since only 500 surveys factors. votes to become the Republican nominee Iran was ransom /A14 Mills told the city council at its Thurs- are being mailed. The responses will Those five factors are public infra- for the seat in the November election. day meeting that 500 envelopes have help the city develop a consensus on a structure, community facilities and pub- Likewise, Judy Barnett won the Demo- been stuffed with the surveys and are vision for the future. Please get it back lic services, community growth and cratic nomination as the only candidate ready to be sent. to us because everyone’s voice mat- “The purpose of the survey is to estab- ters.” See SUERVEY, Page 2 See STATE, Page 3 Index Abby............................A7 Calendar......................A6 Crossword .................A13 Nine elected to local Incumbents retain seats Living ..........................A7 Obituaries ...................A5 office without opposition on Algood council Juda McNabb Judith Griffy By LINDSAY McREYNOLDS tively. School board newcomer Lynn By LINDSAY McREYNOLDS ceived HERALD-CITIZEN Staff McHenry of the 5th District received HERALD-CITIZEN Staff 195 Wanda Vaughn 794 votes. Incumbent Eric Brown did votes. James Thomas Thursday’s Putnam County General not seek re-election. Algood City Council members Jen- “I’m Opinion.......................A4 Election was just a formality for can- In Monterey, Mayor Bill Wiggins re- nifer Robinson Green and Carolyn just didates in a handful of elections. ceived 139 votes and incumbents Norris managed to hold onto their seats thankful Sports ..........................B1 The county property assessor, three Dale Welch of Ward 1 and Mark E. in a heavily contested election Thurs- that we Sudoku ......................A13 seats on the school board and Mon- Farley of Ward 2 received 128 and day night. Green Norris won,” Weather ......................A2 terey’s mayor and four aldermen were 125 votes, respectively. James Green and Norris received 294 and said all elected without opposition. “Coonie” Foster was elected as alder- 240 votes, respectively, defeating candi- Norris, who along with Green was Putnam Property Assessor Steve man of Ward 3 with 119 votes. dates Bo Murphy and Ruby Hawkins. elected to a second term on Thursday. Pierce received 3,950 votes. In the Charles “Pokey” Looper was elected In a low voter turnout where a few “We want to thank everybody who Putnam School Board election, in- to Ward 4 with 132 votes. Incumbents votes made a big difference, only 34 voted for us. We really appreciate it.” cumbents Dawn Fry of the 1st District Amy Clark of Ward 3 and Clarice votes separated Norris and Hawkins, and Kim Cravens of the 3rd District Weist of Ward 4 did not seek re-elec- who received 206 votes. Murphy re- See ALGOOD, Page 2 received 596 and 833 votes, respec- tion. A-2 — HERALD-CITIZEN, Cookeville, Tenn. — www.herald-citizen.com — Friday, August 5, 2016 LOCAL READER SERVICES Questions loom for school budget By AMY DAVIS McCormick said the board improvement funds for all Contact us: HERALD-CITIZEN Staff would be approving something schools, with allocations going Address: “we know is not feasible.” from $17.50 to $25 per student Uncertainty. Mark McReynolds, chief fi- based on enrollment. 1300 Neal St. That’s what Putnam County nancial officer for Putnam Other big-dollar items to be Cookeville, Tenn. School Board members face as County Schools, assured them, considered are additional per- they attempt to close a gap of “This is not the final draft.” sonnel and maintenance posi- Mailing Address: more than $2.3 million for a McReynolds also said that tions and employee raises. budget that has to be approved even though the budget com- “There are a lot of items, and P.O. Box 2729 by the county commission and mittee recommended additional some of them are essential to Cookeville TN 38502 submitted to the state by Aug. revenues for schools, the mat- operations in our school sys- 31. ter still has to go before the full tem,” Boyd said. “We still have a lot of work to county commission. “That’s why we are asking $1 Phone: 931-526-9715 do, but we’re dealing with “At this point, it’s kind of million from the fund balance.” Fax: 931-526-1209 some unknowns,” Director of hard to make a final decision One of the largest proposed Schools Jerry Boyd said Thurs- when we really don’t know expenditures is a 3-percent Email: day. where we are,” he said. “We re- raise for all employees. News The school board ultimately ally don’t know what the com- “We’ll have to make some dif- [email protected] approved the fourth draft of the mission is going to give us.” ficult decisions and not Sports $82 million budget as pre- In initial suggestions on ways progress in some areas we had [email protected] sented by Boyd when the board Amy Davis | Herald-Citizen to trim the budget, Boyd sought to make progress,” he Advertising met Thursday, but members are looked at cutting several ex- said. [email protected] planning to reconvene for a Director of Schools Jerry Boyd discusses the proposed penditures for school-level im- “But we believe with the use Living special-called meeting after budget with school board members Thursday.