A new animal shelter has been christened in Putnam County. The $2.1 million, state-of-the-art facility opened with an official ribbon cutting Saturday, Jan. 10. Adjacent to the Hyder Burks Ag Pavilion (if using a GPS, the address is 2650 Gainesboro Grade), the shelter will also include the future development of the Marion & Roger Moore Dog Park (off-leash), an education/training center and a small animal disaster rescue facility.
• Bluegrass Underground is back in the spotlight, after having been nominated for four Emmy awards, including for best entertainment, audio, lighting and technical achievement. Winners will be announced Jan. 31.
• Preparations are in the works for a health care conference that will address the “epidemic” of prescription drugs in Tennessee. The event, scheduled for 8:00 a.m. Friday, Feb. 20, at the DeKalb Community Complex, is being presented by the DeKalb County Community Advisory Board, DeKalb Community Hospital and several partnering agencies and will be a training and networking opportunity for medical professionals in the Upper Cumberland region.
Tennessee ranks among the top states for per capita scheduled drug prescriptions filled. And the UC now has an accidental overdose death rate and neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) birth rate twice the state average as a whole.
The conference will be both a training and networking opportunity for medical professionals in the UC. For more information, see the full story here.
• And Goodwill announced this week that it shattered its 2014 employment goals, helping 9,558 people statewide land jobs. Respectively, the Cookeville Goodwill Career Solutions center, located at 565-C S. Jefferson Ave., assisted 1,411 people in 2014, helping 446 land jobs. The organization says it hopes to assist 30,000 people and place 10,000 in jobs in 2015.
