Maury County Votes: Butt Holds the Mayor's Office, Ogles Loses His Own Backyard

From a decisive county mayor's race to a congressman's upset loss at home, Thursday's primary reshaped the political landscape across Maury County.

COLUMBIA, There is a reason this country still gathers at courthouses and fire halls to mark an X beside a name. The founders did not build a republic so that power would pass by inheritance or force. They built one so that it would pass by ballot, argued over and settled by neighbors, county by county, precinct by precinct. Thursday, Maury County did what it has done since the General Assembly established this county on November 16, 1807: it showed up, it voted, and it decided. All 22 of 22 precincts reported, and the results are worth sitting with carefully.

The marquee local race was settled clearly. Incumbent County Mayor Sheila Butt, a Republican, defeated independent challenger Gabe Howard, 9,403 votes to 7,331, securing another term at the helm of county government. It was a firm win, not a runaway, and it means the direction Butt has set for the county, from economic development wins to the water and growth questions dominating recent headlines, will continue under her leadership. The margin tells its own story: Howard made a real race of it, but Butt held her ground.

The night's biggest headline, though, played out on a broader stage. In the Republican primary for Tennessee's 5th Congressional District, former state Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher unseated incumbent Rep. Andy Ogles districtwide. The local wrinkle is what stings: Ogles, a former Maury County Mayor, lost his own home county too, 4,831 votes to 4,624. When a hometown candidate cannot hold his own courthouse square, that is a result worth sitting with. On the Democratic side, Columbia Mayor Chaz Molder made no such mistake at home, carrying Maury County with 2,167 of the 2,960 Democratic primary votes cast here, about 73 percent, well ahead of his nearest rival. Molder now advances to face Hatcher in November in a district redrawn this cycle to stretch from the Williamson County suburbs through West Tennessee into Memphis, a very different race than Maury County is used to watching.

Down the ballot, Maury County Republicans backed Sen. Marsha Blackburn for governor, 5,448 votes to Rep. John Rose's 4,282 and state Rep. Monty Fritts' 2,986. That preference held statewide: Blackburn won the Republican nomination for governor across Tennessee, setting up her November run to succeed term-limited Gov. Bill Lee. State House District 64 stayed in Republican hands, with incumbent Scott Cepicky winning his primary and advancing to a general election against Democrat Craig D'Apolito. Several county offices were decided without contest, including Sheriff Bucky L. Rowland, County Trustee Randy McNeece, County Clerk Joe H. Allen, Register of Deeds John Fleming, and Circuit Court Clerk Sandy D. McLain.

And for readers who appreciate a close finish: the tightest race on the entire ballot was County Commission District 8, where the second of two open seats came down to six votes. Steven Burford edged out Missy Smith Phillips, 827 to 821, with both winning seats over third-place finisher Andreas Eastep. Six votes. In a county of this size, that is as close as democracy gets, and it is a good reminder that every ballot truly counts. Voters also answered yes on every judicial retention question on the ballot, from the state Supreme Court through the Court of Appeals and the Court of Criminal Appeals, keeping the current bench intact. These results remain unofficial until certified by the Election Commission. Full precinct-by-precinct results are available at maurycounty-tn.gov/227/Election-Commission.

Swiss Medical Device Giant Picks Spring Hill for Its North American Home

Medacta International will bring 200 jobs and $85 million in investment to the I-65 corridor, adding a healthcare anchor to a county long dominated by automotive.

SPRING HILL, Maury County picked up another major economic announcement last week, and this one comes from a direction different from the automotive and manufacturing investments that have defined the county's recent growth. Medacta International, a Swiss medical device company founded in 1999 and listed on the Swiss stock exchange, announced July 31 that it will relocate its U.S. headquarters from Franklin to Spring Hill and build a new North American manufacturing hub on Jim Warren Road near the intersection of I-65 and Saturn Parkway. The project is expected to create more than 200 jobs across manufacturing, corporate operations, and other supporting roles, and represents an $85 million investment to be carried out in several stages. Site preparation is expected to begin later this year.

Medacta specializes in joint replacement, sports medicine, and spine surgery, designing and distributing medical devices used in orthopedic and spine procedures in more than 70 countries. The company describes its mission as improving the care and well-being of surgery patients. Its products are used in operating rooms around the world, and its arrival in Spring Hill plants a global brand squarely in the middle of Maury County's fastest-growing corridor.

The announcement matters for reasons beyond the job numbers. Maury County's economy has historically been concentrated in automotive manufacturing, a vulnerability that became painfully visible this spring when retooling layoffs at the GM and Ultium Cells plants drove the county to the highest unemployment rate in Tennessee. Medacta's arrival represents a different kind of employer: healthcare and medical devices tend to be more recession-resistant than automotive, less vulnerable to tariff disruption, and a source of higher-wage professional and skilled manufacturing positions. County Mayor Sheila Butt noted the announcement moves Maury County toward two stated economic development goals, saying the company "brings world-class medical device headquarters and production functions into the community." Spring Hill Mayor Matt Fitterer described it as an investment bringing high-quality corporate and manufacturing careers that will create opportunities for generations to come.

Medacta joins a growing roster of Swiss companies in Tennessee. The state currently hosts more than 40 Swiss firms accounting for more than 4,000 jobs and $1.2 billion in capital investment statewide. Switzerland is one of Tennessee's top partners for foreign direct investment, and the I-65 corridor through Maury County has become one of the state's most active zones for international manufacturing investment. Medacta CEO Francesco Siccardi said the Spring Hill project will strengthen the company's U.S. footprint and support its further growth strategy. In the span of a few weeks, Maury County has announced a $275 million GM investment in Spring Hill's existing assembly plant, a new GM Cadillac model coming to the line, and now an $85 million Swiss medical device headquarters and manufacturing hub, each a reminder that serious investment continues to find its way to this county even as it works through its growing pains.

Columbia's Water Future: One Loan Down, One $315 Million Question Still Waiting

The state approved a $75 million loan for the treatment plant expansion, but the larger Duck River intake project remains on hold while Nashville studies how to divide the river's water.

COLUMBIA, Columbia Power and Water Systems cleared a major financing hurdle last week, but the utility's larger and more expensive project is still waiting on Nashville. The Tennessee Local Development Authority approved a $75 million loan on July 27 for CPWS's expansion of its water treatment plant on Nashville Highway, adding roughly 12 million gallons a day of treatment capacity. The board had deferred the same request a month earlier, on June 22, sending CPWS back to make its case again. That delay came with a real price tag: CPWS Vice President Matt Wheeler told the board in June that every month of delay adds $2 million to the overall project cost.

The treatment plant expansion is one piece of a roughly $520 million program CPWS says it needs to keep water flowing to a fast-growing county. The rest of the plan centers on a new downstream intake on the Duck River capable of pulling up to 32 million gallons a day, well above the utility's current draw of around 20 million gallons a day, along with more than 16 miles of new raw water transmission main to move it. That piece carries its own price tag: a $315 million federal loan the utility needs to build the intake. Board members did not act on it at the July meeting, choosing to wait on findings from the governor's Duck River Watershed Planning Partnership, a group studying how the river's water should be divided among the communities that depend on it. CPWS President and CEO Jonathan Hardin has described the treatment plant loan as a way to keep moving while those larger regional questions get sorted out, saying it allows the utility to meet near-term needs while stakeholder discussions take shape.

The stakes are not abstract. CPWS serves more than 27,000 direct customers in Columbia, plus wholesale customers including the City of Spring Hill and the Maury County Water System, a combined service area the utility says tops 250,000 people who depend on the Duck River. Utility officials have said that without the expansion, Columbia could face mandatory water restrictions as soon as 2028 or 2029. Jason Gilliam, a board member for the Maury County Water System, has said the county is already at a point where it is turning away business and industry because of water constraints, a statement made before recent announcements including Medacta International's planned Spring Hill headquarters and GM's $275 million investment in its Spring Hill assembly complex.

Not everyone is on board with how fast CPWS wants to move. Doug Jones, president of the Duck River Conservancy, has raised concerns about how much water the river can safely give up. "The Duck River is fragile," he said. "We can't support another 32 million that TDEC's going to let Columbia Power drain right there at the edge of the river." That concern is not a small one. The Duck River is one of the most biodiverse waterways in North America, home to roughly 50 native mussel species, and any significant change to its flow carries consequences that extend well beyond water bills. Columbia's City Council already approved the ratepayer side of this equation back in January, voting for increases of up to 20 percent a year for five years, a cumulative jump of nearly 150 percent by 2030 or 2031. A typical residential bill inside city limits, based on 5,000 gallons a month, was $34.75 before the increases began; CPWS projects it could reach roughly $86.47 by 2030. State and federal loans are expected to cover roughly 80 percent of the total program cost, with the remaining share falling to ratepayers. The $315 million federal loan decision, and the watershed study behind it, will shape what that final bill looks like for every customer on the system.

Columbia Police Crack First Child Exploitation Case After Joining State Task Force

Less than a month after joining the Tennessee ICAC Task Force, Columbia officers arrested a registered sex offender on felony exploitation charges.

COLUMBIA, The Columbia Police Department joined the Tennessee Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force in July 2026, and it did not take long for the partnership to produce results. On Friday, July 31, investigators and officers with the Columbia Police Department, working alongside the ICAC Task Force, executed a search warrant in Columbia related to the alleged sexual exploitation of a minor. The case had come to the department through the ICAC Information Center, the tip line that connects member agencies with leads from across the state and country.

The investigation resulted in the arrest of a 46-year-old man who had previously been convicted of sexual-related crimes against children and is listed on the Tennessee Sex Offender Registry. He has been charged with Aggravated Sexual Exploitation of a Minor and Especially Aggravated Sexual Exploitation of a Minor, and is currently incarcerated in the Maury County Jail. Police say additional charges are expected as investigators work through the evidence collected during the search warrant's execution.

Chief Jeremy Haywood said he is pleased to announce the department's membership in the task force and proud of the work the investigators and partner agencies put into the case. "This step will aid our investigators in their efforts to locate and hold accountable those individuals who are targeting innocent children," Haywood said. "An abundance of investigative effort and time goes into these types of cases, and I am proud of the work of the investigators and partner agencies involved with this first ICAC case."

The ICAC Task Force operates in every state and connects local law enforcement agencies with specialized training, technology, and intelligence to pursue those who prey on children online. Columbia's membership expands the department's reach and gives local investigators access to resources that would otherwise be unavailable at the city level. For a community that continues to grow rapidly, with more families, more children, and more digital access in every home, that kind of capacity matters. The swift result on the first case is an encouraging sign for what the partnership can mean going forward.

Maury County Schools Post Five Years of Academic Gains as New Year Begins

Proficiency scores are up sharply since 2021 across every tested subject, and a new instruction coordinator with nearly 30 years of experience is stepping in to keep the momentum going.

COLUMBIA, Maury County students returned to class on Monday, August 3, and they came back to a district with a measurably stronger academic record than the one they left five years ago. In a July 27 news release, Maury County Public Schools announced significant gains on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, the standardized test that measures grade-level proficiency. English Language Arts proficiency climbed from 21 percent in 2021 to 35.6 percent in 2026. Math proficiency nearly doubled, from 17.8 percent to 33.5 percent. Social studies posted the largest jump of all, rising from 21.3 percent to 43.3 percent.

Some of the grade-level numbers are even more striking. Fourth grade math proficiency rose 20 points to 51 percent. Seventh grade math climbed 20.6 points to 32.6 percent. English II scores were up 19.5 points to 49.5 percent. District-wide, 18 of 21 comparable measures improved year-over-year between 2025 and 2026 alone. Superintendent Lisa Ventura said the district is encouraged by the growth its students have demonstrated, and that the work is not finished.

That commitment now has a new name attached to it. The district also announced the appointment of Dr. Michele Murray as instruction coordinator, a role that puts her directly in charge of the curriculum and classroom support work behind numbers like these. Murray brings nearly 30 years in education, beginning her career in 1997 as a classroom teacher before moving through roles as a K-8 interventionist, academic coach, and student teaching supervisor. She has a decade of administrative experience including two years as a K-8 assistant principal, five years as an elementary principal in Sullivan County, and three years as an elementary principal in Williamson County. She holds a bachelor's degree in elementary education, a master's in early childhood education, and a doctorate in educational leadership, all from East Tennessee State University.

Ventura said Murray's extensive experience in curriculum, instruction, and school leadership, combined with her passion for supporting educators and student achievement, makes her an outstanding addition to the district. Murray steps into the role at a meaningful moment. The five-year comparison the district is highlighting begins in 2021, the tail end of the pandemic disruptions that hit schools across Tennessee and the country hard. Climbing steadily out of that hole, and continuing to climb, is not something that happens by accident. Whoever leads curriculum and instruction now inherits both credit for that trend and the responsibility to sustain it into the 2026-2027 school year and beyond.

County Commission to Consider Pause on Data Centers Before the First One Ever Arrives

The Regional Planning Commission is recommending a temporary moratorium to give Maury County time to write the rules before a wave of AI-driven data center demand reaches its doorstep.

COLUMBIA, No company has come to Maury County asking to build a data center. That is precisely the point of a resolution the Maury County Regional Planning Commission is sending to the county commission for a vote. The planning commission has recommended a temporary, up to 12-month moratorium on accepting, reviewing, or approving any new data center proposal in the unincorporated parts of Maury County. If commissioners adopt it, the pause would run until the county finishes updating its zoning rules for these facilities, or through July 19, 2027, whichever comes first. This is not a fight with a specific developer. It is a county trying to get ahead of a wave already washing across Tennessee.

According to the resolution itself, roughly 60 data centers are already operating or under construction across the state, with demand climbing fast alongside the growth of artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and cryptocurrency mining. Maury County's current zoning ordinance has only limited language addressing these facilities, written before today's scale of demand existed. County officials say the existing rules do not seriously account for how much electricity and water a modern data center can draw, what it might do to nearby property owners, or how to handle noise, stormwater, and heat discharge from a facility that can run around the clock. The county is also in the middle of rewriting its broader Comprehensive Land Use Plan, the same document that played a central role in the commission's recent unanimous denial of the Crosswaters Reserve development, and officials want data center policy folded into that same public process rather than written in a rush after a specific proposal arrives.

It is worth laying out plainly what supporters of data center development argue. Done well, these facilities can be a genuine fiscal anchor. In Grant County, Washington, property tax revenue from data centers climbed more than twelvefold, funding a new school in the town of Quincy. Loudoun County, Virginia, has said data center tax revenue covers a meaningful share of its entire general operations budget. Supporters also point to construction jobs, long-term anchor investment, and the argument that if this infrastructure is going to be built somewhere in America, rural and post-industrial counties have as much claim to that investment as anywhere else.

The concerns on the other side are equally real. Modern hyperscale data centers draw enormous amounts of electricity and water, sometimes enough to strain a local grid or water system built for much smaller demand. The permanent on-site workforce for a data center is typically small relative to the size and cost of the facility. And water and electrical infrastructure built to serve a large facility is often financed to last 30 years, if a company downsizes, relocates, or does not renew its lease, the community can be left holding infrastructure, and the debt behind it, sized for a tenant that is no longer there. A county already wrestling with a $520 million water infrastructure challenge and a comprehensive land use overhaul has good reason to want these questions answered before the first application lands on a desk. The commission's vote will determine whether Maury County gets that time.

Orthopedic Care Options Expand on Both Ends of Maury County

A new Spring Hill clinic and a hospital system's fifth consecutive national ranking signal that Maury County is becoming a destination for orthopedic care, not just a place people leave to find it.

SPRING HILL, Maury County residents dealing with a bad knee, a stubborn back, or a sports injury now have more options close to home than they did a year ago, and recent weeks brought fresh evidence of just how much that landscape is filling in. Tennessee Orthopaedic Alliance held a ribbon-cutting on Friday, July 24, for its new Spring Hill clinic at 2160 Reserve Blvd., Suite 100. The event was co-hosted by the Spring Hill Chamber of Commerce and the Maury Alliance. The clinic is staffed by nine physicians and five licensed physical therapists, and offers orthopedic urgent care with walk-in availability, sports medicine, joint replacement, spine care, foot and ankle treatment, hand therapy, and physical therapy.

The Spring Hill clinic also features on-site X-ray and MRI imaging and a full-service cast center, meaning a broken bone can be diagnosed and cast in a single visit without a separate trip across town. A sports performance team including dieticians and sports performance specialists rounds out the staff, serving athletes on training and nutrition, not just injury recovery. For a city of more than 60,000 residents that has grown 340 percent since 2000, having that level of orthopedic capacity within city limits is a meaningful shift.

The timing is notable. Just ten weeks earlier, on May 13, Maury Regional Health opened its own Orthopedic Surgical Institute, a 34,000-square-foot outpatient facility in Columbia equipped with four operating rooms and the Mako robotic-assisted platform for knee and hip replacements. Maury Regional Medical Center has been named among America's 100 Best Hospitals for Orthopedic Surgery by Healthgrades for five consecutive years and was ranked among the top three hospitals in Tennessee for orthopedic surgery in 2026.

Put those two developments side by side and a pattern emerges. Between a hospital system with a five-year national recognition streak investing in a new outpatient surgical institute and a private practice group planting a new flag in Spring Hill with walk-in urgent care and same-day imaging, Maury County is not just keeping up with its own growth in orthopedic demand. It is positioning itself as a place people from surrounding counties, Marshall, Lawrence, Giles, Lewis, Hickman, might come here for care, rather than a place residents have to leave to find it. For a county that has spent recent headlines on ambulance shortages and stretched EMS coverage, this is the other side of the healthcare story: real capacity being added, not just strained.

High School Football Jamboree Kicks Off Friday at Columbia Central

Four Maury County high school teams open their preseason Friday night with three games starting at 6:00 p.m. at Columbia Central High School.

COLUMBIA, Friday night football returns to Maury County this week, and it starts with a showcase. The Maury County Public Schools High School Jamboree takes place Friday, August 14, at Columbia Central High School, giving fans their first look at four local programs before the regular season begins in earnest. The evening opens at 6:00 p.m. with Cornersville taking on Spring Hill, followed at 7:00 p.m. by Cascade versus Mt. Pleasant, with a third game scheduled at 8:00 p.m.

Preseason jamborees serve a purpose beyond the scoreboard. Coaches get a chance to evaluate depth charts and game-speed execution against an unfamiliar opponent. Players shake off the rust of summer practice and get a feel for the lights and the crowd before anything counts. For programs still finding their footing under new or returning coaching staffs, a jamboree can set the tone for an entire season.

Spring Hill brings high expectations into the fall as one of the county's fastest-growing programs, reflecting the explosive growth of the city it represents. Cascade, Mt. Pleasant, and Cornersville each carry the weight of small-school pride, the kind of Friday night football where the whole town empties into the bleachers. For those communities, a jamboree game at Columbia Central's field is a chance to measure where they stand against the broader county before district play begins.

Gates open at Columbia Central High School on Friday, August 14. The 6:00 p.m. opening game between Cornersville and Spring Hill is the first snap of the fall season for both programs. Come early, bring the family, and welcome back Friday night football to Maury County.