AT COOKEVILLE MEDICAL CENTER. A
baby girl was born on the sidewalk just outside the Monterey Family Dollar Store, delivered by her grandfather. Pictured several
days after they arrived at Cookeville Medical Center, grandfather Claude Maxwell, mom, Jolynn Vaughn and new daughter, Jade
Coral Maxwell, all of Cliff Springs. Photo: Dale Welch/Hilltop Express
BABY GIRL BORN ON DOWNTOWN SIDEWALK
Grandpa helps to deliver
baby on sidewalk in front of Family Dollar.
Its been awhile since a baby has been born in
downtown Monterey. The hospital closed in the early-1970s. It wasn't in Jolynn Vaughn’s plans to deliver her new
daughter in downtown Monterey, and surely not on a sidewalk. It wasn’t grandfather Claude Maxwell’s plan
to help deliver the baby either,but that’s what happened.
By
Dale Welch Hilltop Express dawelch@charter.net dale@hilltopexpress.net Matthew Groover's rat rod has recently been featured in a couple of
magazines, including Grease Money and on the cover of the nationally distributed RatRod magazine. It was also in a breaking
new County music group video. Matt bought the old 1945 Chevrolet pickup truck from James Smith, who used it mostly
to haul rock. The Cadillac motor and drive train was purchased from George Bright; and the truck bed, from Benny Buckner and
put it all together. A rat rod is a style of hot rod or custom car that, in most cases, imitates (or exaggerates)
the early hot rods of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. It is not to be confused with the somewhat closely related "traditional"
hot rod, which is an accurate re-creation or period-correct restoration of a hot rod from the same era. Grover
put his rat rod together a couple of years ago. At his first showing at the Standing Stone Day celebration a year or so ago,
he had worked on it for eight months. The old truck had set on a eastern-Putnam County farm for several years.
Groover started to straighten the cab room, but it was rusted so bad it all fell apart. So, he made it into a sun roof. It doesn’t look like it would get much mileage, but on the open road, the rat rod get around 30 mpg, Groover
said. At some of the other shows that Groover participated in, he met with different photographers and magazine
editors who were interested in the old army truck. Next thing you know, images of Groover’s rat rod spread across
the country. While he thinks he will keep the truck, Groover says he’s ready to start on something else.
Monterey aldermen voted
late last year to start the process to create a city manager form of government for the town. It was tried several years ago and came down to the actual hiring process, but was eventually dropped when the board
could not come to a decision.
This time, the Municipal Technical Assistance
Service (MTAS) has been
working on getting everything needed to start the process. A sample job description was given for information to aldermen
in their January meeting.
Sample qualifications include that the person must have a degree from a four-year college in public administration,
political science, business
management or a closely related field and seven years of experience as municipal administrator.
A Master’s degree in Public or Business Administration may be substituted in lieu of
two of the required years
of experience.
Warren Nevad, of MTAS , prepared the town manager
position draft.He stated in an email that MTAS has started a compensation study. After that, he said, they would put together amended language for a char ter change that would
be introduced in February.
The latest Monterey Depot Historical Society Christimas ornament is now avaliblefor
a $20 donation. The scene is taken from an early postcard of hte Monterey Depot. They are availabe at the Cup &
Saucer and BenAnns. Last years ornament was a quick sell-out.
HIT AND RUN. A hit-and-run driver ran through the front of Triple B Feeds early Monday moring around 8 a.m. Witnesses described
to police that it was a small red car that crashed into the store window. A blue blazer with previous damage to the back passenger
side door was also in the vicinity at the time of the crash wittnesses told police and Triple B Feed store owners.. City workers
cleaned up glass on the roadway from the alley, North Holly St. and W. Cleveland Ave. toward the nursing home. Pictured, owner
Debbie Bowman tries to clean up the mess inside and outside of her store. Photo: Dale Welch/Hilltop Express
The new edition at Burks Middle School will be called the “Uffelman
Wing. It is scheduled to be complete sometime between October and December, officials say. Photo: Dale Welch/Hilltop Express
SCHOOL NAMING COMMITTEE CHANGES MIND...
NEW
SCHOOL NAME TO BE 'BURKS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL'
The school naming
committee, made up of several school and community people in Monterey, had voted to change the name of “Burks Middle
School” to “Monterey Elementary School” last December. They met last week, again, to reconsider those actions
because a few of the members could not be at the December meeting.
Write a letter to yourself. Its a project of the new Monterey Central Transportation Museum (Monterey
Depot). You are invited to write a letter to yourself, or leave a message for your children or grandchildren. Tell
them abut yourself and what you expect of them; or remind yourself of what you want to be.
Concrete and
asphalt were two of the biggest ingredients on the Monterey Central Transportation Museum list last week. Painting inside
walls and ceiling were also done last week. Depending on weather, pavers for the Rails with Trails will be in place on the
Depot property, starting this week. Thanks to Monterey Fire Chief Kevin Peters for allowing me on the ladder truck for this
arial photo. Photo: Dale Welch/Hilltop Express
METHADONE CLINIC APPLICATION EXPECTED TO BE WITHDRAWN FOR SECOND TIME
By Dale Welch dale@hilltopexpress.net An application for a proposed methadone clinic to be located just
outside Monterey town limits has been put on hold for a second time because of a technicality. A pubic hearing that had been
scheduled for Sept. 16 at Monterey High School and a hearing in Nashville, that had been set for late October has also been
put on hold. “The public hearing has been delayed,”Melanie Hill, Executive Director, of Health Services
and Development Agency, said, “because it is expected that Private Clinic Monterey will withdraw its application.
It will be rescheduled if the application is re-filed.” But, that is not keeping the Putnam and Cumberland
County Commissions and other governments from voicing strong opposition to the proposed clinic. A resolution on the agendas
of both county commissions says that methadone is “a synthetic opioid which produces many of the same effects in drug
addicts as morphine and heroin” and is “increasingly being abused by drug users for recreation an is causing an
alarming increase in overdoses and deaths”; and “contrary to popular belief, methadone is a highly addictive drug,
which could easily end up on the streets of Putnam County and other ares in the Upper Cumberland”; and “the probability
of any positive affects to the health care system, economy or recovering drug users in our area is unlikely”; and “there
are already several drug treatment facilities available for the citizens of Putnam County and the Upper Cumberland area which
include Bradford Heath, Cumberland Plateau Recovery, Recovery Living, Med Solutions and Volunteer Behavioral Health,”;
and “because these facilities are already established and available to the citizens of Putnam County and the Upper Cumberland
Area, there is not a need for a methadone clinic.” Owners of the methadone clinic, called Private Clinic
Monterey, plan to build the approximate $970,000 facility at 16168 Crossville Highway. The address is near Walker Farms Rd.
The purpose of the clinic is to “assist opioid addicted patients to abstain from the use of illicit drugs through detoxification,
treatment and substance abuse/psychiatric counseling services. It is a private for profit outpatient clinic without state,
federal or local funding.” It will serve the adult population in Putnam County and surrounding counties.
J. Paul Connell, CEO of the proposed clinic, told the Hilltop Express in a story that ran in the May 15, 2008 edition, that
his clinic Private Clinic North, in Rossville, GA., already treats around 228 patients from Putnam and surrounding counties.
“We treat everyone from minimum wage earners to doctors and lawyers,” he said. The majority of Private Clinic
patients have gotten addicted to prescription drugs such as: Codeine, Dilaudid, Heroin, Hydrocodone, Lortab, Lorcet,
Percocet, Percodan, Morphine, Oxycodone, and Oxycotin. Connell said, “Its a treatment, not a cure. Its
much like insulin is a treatment for diabetes; or eyeglasses for bad eyes. They don’t cure, but they help.” “With the cost of gasoline going up,” Connell said, “its getting to where the cost of transportation
for those patients are more than the cost of the treatment. If we can get up there into the Monterey community, it would be
easier for our patients.” Connell said that he has already bought a home in the area for his family. Property records show that Connell Properties bought the 7.83 acres where the Methadone clinic is planned over
a year ago, in May, 2007. Connell told the Hilltop Express, “I thought about it and prayed about it. Now,
its time to build it.” He said that while doctors and nurses will mostly come from the present clinics, others could
be hired locally. He said the payroll for the clinic would be from $1.3 to $1.6 million. More information about what the clinic
offers can be found on the Internet at: www.privateclinicnorth.com
Monterey founders Union General John T. Wilder and wife, Dora Lee,
along with Major Robert Moscrip and wife, Emma will return to Monterey on Friday, Oct 10, just about a month away to talk
about the old days. You’re invited out to the Garden Inn (with ticket in hand) for dinner and to hear their tales. Dining with the Moscrips and The Wilders is a special dinner theatre helping kick off the big celebration planned
for Standing Stone Day, Sat. Oct. 11. The Moscrips will be played by Monterey natives Opless and Kay Walker. The Wilders will
be played by John and Judy Wassum, of Rockwood, who live in one of General Wilders home. Gen. Wilder also had a home in Monterey
that still stands. Ruth Ann Woolbright and husband, Bill Longmire, live there. Woolbright will be directing the play.
The play will relive defining moments of their lives, which resulted in a railroad, a town on the plateau, coal mines and
a lumber industry that would touch the lives of thousands of people across America. Moscrip was involved in one
of the most historical events in the history of railroading in America, as one of the civil engineers responsible for the
completion of the Transcontinental Railroad. Moscrip had friendships with the likes of Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok.
Moscrip will reveal in the play how he became a captive of the Cheyenne Indians and how he escaped with the help of his Pawnee
Indian Scout. Besides all these adventures, he was the winner of a contest that gave Monterey its name in 1893. John
T. Wilder, known as the "Friendly Carpetbagger" was the leader of the Lightning Brigade of Indiana and hero of the
Battle of Chickamauga in Sept. 1863 where he and his men armed with 7-shot Spencers gave Thomas time to form a defense
line. He was one of the 20,000 Union veterans who immigrated to the South by 1866, attracted by the possibilities
of places that they had seen during their military campaigns. For a time, he was Mayor of Chattanooga and later, had federal
appointments. In September, 1865, he and his friend, Capt. Hiram S. Chamberlain of Knox County, purchased 728 acres
of land in Roane County along the Tennessee River and founded the town of Rockwood with its Roane Iron Company, one of the
first post-war industrial establishments in the South. Wilder would continue to hold interests in mining and cement and banking
around Knoxville, Tennessee, and built the 300-room Cloudland Hotel on Roane Mt. summit in 1885 as a retreat for hay fever
sufferers. An industrialist, he had numerous business interests in coal, timber, iron, railroads and more. He
built a hotel in Monterey, called the Imperial Hotel in the early 1900s and also a residence. The mining town of Wilder was
founded by him. Tickets will be on sale soon for the dinner theatre at a cost of $35 for one person , $60 per
couple and $150 per table of six, that includes a dinner of a grilled pork chop, sweet potato casserole , corn souffle, dessert,
and coffee or tea. For more information, contact Ruth Ann Woolbright at, 839-2467.
