August 31, 2021 0

Rutherford County, Tennessee

Recovery Plan 

America Rescue Plan Act

Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds

August 31, 2021 Report

Please note that this report will be updated no less than annually to keep the public informed of the 

progress the county has made toward these projects.
August 31, 2021 1

Rutherford County, Tennessee

Recovery Plan

Table of Contents

General Overview ....................................................................................................2

Executive Summary................................................................................................2

Uses of Funds..........................................................................................................2

Promoting Equitable Outcomes..............................................................................7

Community Engagement ........................................................................................9

Labor Practices........................................................................................................9

Use of Evidence ......................................................................................................9

Table of Expenses by Expenditure Category..........................................................9

Project Inventory ...................................................................................................10
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GENERAL OVERVIEW

Executive Summary 

Congress has allocated $65.1 billion to counties in the United States from the Coronavirus Local 

Fiscal Recovery Funds. Rutherford County, Tennessee was allocated $64,542,466, of which 

$32,271,233 was received June 22, 2021. The balance will be received one year later. At the 

June 17, 2021 meeting of the Rutherford County Board of Commissioners, the Commission

agreed to use the Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (CLFRF) for the following purposes:

CAPITAL INVESTMENTS in Public Facilities to meet pandemic operational needs.

1. Purchase of the State Farm Building to provide COVID-19 response, mitigation and 

prevention activities 2.1 FAQs

2. Construction of six buildings strategically placed in the rural areas on existing county 

properties to provide response, mitigation and prevention activities 2.1 FAQs

PREMIUM PAY

3. On August 12, 2021, the Commission agreed to use a portion of the funds allocated to 

Rutherford County, Tennessee to provide Premium Pay for public sector employees. (5.1 

FAQs) The Commission voted to send this through the Committee process for proper 

review and deliberation so that a formal recommendation may be presented to the Board 

of Commissioners.

Due to the evolving impacts of COVID-19 having on our citizens and economy, this plan 

was designed to have the greatest impact for current as well as future needs.

Uses of Funds

The interim final rule identifies a non-exclusive list of uses that address the effects of the 

COVID-19 public health emergency -

“COVID-19 Mitigation and Prevention. A broad range of services and programming 

are needed to contain COVID-19. Mitigation and prevention efforts for COVID-19 

include vaccination programs; medical care; testing; contact tracing; support for 

isolation or quarantine; supports for vulnerable populations to access medical or 

public health services; public health surveillance...; purchases of personal protective 

equipment; ...They also include capital investments in public facilities to meet 

pandemic operational needs... These COVID-19 prevention and mitigation programs 

and services, among others... are eligible uses under this category of eligible uses for 

the Fiscal Recovery Funds.”

Purchase of the State Farm Building
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The 600,000-square-foot operations center sitting on 63.1 acres in Murfreesboro, opened in 1989 

at the corner of Dejarnette Lane and Memorial Boulevard. State Farm sold the property in 2013, 

to JDM II SF National LLC in Phoenix, Arizona. County records show the current property 

owner bought this property for $64.1 million in 2014. 

In late March 2020, the State Farm Operations Center began to shutter this regional office after 

an employee tested positive for the coronavirus and permanently closed the doors to their 

Murfreesboro facility in November 2020. The estimated workforce of 1,200 employees continue 

to work from home.. Understandably, having an empty 600,000 square foot building certainly is 

not a positive economic indicator for our community. 

The Rutherford County Health Department began testing for the novel coronavirus at their main 

campus beginning March 2020. At the early onset of COVID-19, the Health Department’s site 

was suitable for testing purposes. However, as the year progressed, this location was not ideal 

for the overwhelming influx of cars that often wrapped around the building and blocked Burton 

and Maple streets, and sometimes as far as North Church Street. To alleviate the traffic jam, the 

County Mayor negotiated with the owners of the vacant regional State Farm Building and 

entered into an agreement to use the vacated site as the county’s main location to administer 

COVID-19 testing. The Health Department then began using this property as Rutherford 

County’s main vaccination site.

The site is now available for sale, with the county having the first opportunity to purchase. After 

confirming with the State’s Comptroller of the Treasury, Jason Mumpower, for the 

appropriateness of using the Fiscal Recovery Funds, the County Commission authorized the 

County Mayor to enter into negotiations to purchase the State Farm Building. The County
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anticipates, as of the date of this report, that State Farm will provide a portion of the purchase 

price as a contribution to Rutherford County. State Farm has definitely been a “Good Neighbor”

by entering into a no-cost lease of the property for the period of time the property was used for 

Rutherford County’s responses for testing and vaccinations.

The County envisions using the site for the following purposes – 1) provide space for the 

continued response to COVID-19 and for future pandemic response.; 2) consolidate emergency 

communications dispatch centers; 3) space for sheriff administration, emergency management 

administration, emergency medical administration and fire/rescue administration; and 4) morgue 

and autopsy facility – in association with local universities. The COVID-19 response for this 

facility could be as follows:

• COVID-19 (or future other contagious virus) master vaccination and testing center

• COVID-19 Vaccination Call Center Headquarters and contact tracing

• Warehouse for medical supplies & PPE

• Community Health & Education Room

• Emergency Operation Center for pandemic

• Behavioral Health Care Center for area hotline for crisis intervention, overdose 

prevention & services, outreach to promote access to physical or behavioral health, 

primary care and preventative medicine

• Local community food pantry assistance in times of emergency

• Establishment of a forensic center 

• COVID-19 Morgue

• Perform COVID-19 autopsies for drug overdoses/suicide that could be related to mental 

health issues resulting from COVID 19

• Site for makeshift hospital (site includes sufficient parking on which to place makeshift 

hospital

• Public Health Surveillance - potentially using Public Safety Computer Automated 

Dispatch (CAD) system in monitoring case trends, etc.

County Mayor Bill Ketron has collaborated with both Dr. Sydney McPhee, President of Middle 

Tennessee State University, and Dr. James Hildreth, President of Meharry Medical College, by

discussing efforts in establishing a Forensic Center at the State Farm site. This opportunity will 

benefit students enrolled in their combined medical school programs to work on bodies to 

determine the cause of death. We anticipate that they will assist in answering the questions: 1) 

was the death a result of COVID-19; 2) was there some other underlying health condition; or 3) 

was the death brought on by pandemic related stress that caused a drug overdose or suicide to 

occur. The forensic collection of data will be immensely valuable for future health related 

occurrences.

Having this building fully occupied and used for all the reasons listed above would definitely be 

a positive response to the negative economic impact of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Emergency Operations Building
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The Public Safety Committee’s recommendation to assist in mitigating COVID-19 would be to 

construct six buildings located in the rural areas of the county to provide a multitude of services 

to our residents before, during and after the next pandemic. The Emergency Operations buildings 

will be used to distribute critical services on a daily basis to include life safety measures and 

incident scene stabilization. During the response and recovery phase of a disaster, the facilities 

will be utilized as temporary shelters, cooling and warming stations, and logistics sites to 

distribute food, water and other necessities such as personal protective equipment.

With recommendations from the University of Tennessee’s County Technical Advisory Service, 

the Public Safety Committee has identified sites owned by the county for placement of these 

buildings: Kittrell, Rockvale, Walter Hill, Christiana, Lascassas and Almaville. The proposed 

scope of the buildings will house community-needed infrastructure and will serve the rural areas 

within Rutherford County. These buildings will provide the area with continuous operation of 

critical government and business functions essential to human health and safety. 

Each of the buildings will address the following needs:

• Health and Medical

o Emergency Medical Services (EMS) station and support space

o COVID-19 (or variant) testing in day room

o COVID-19 vaccines distributed in day room

o Contact tracing

o Quarantine space for first responders 

o Distribution center for PPE

o Citizen Outreach Programs (i.e. classes on exercise, nutrition, etc.)
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o Behavioral Health care center for area hotline for crisis intervention, overdose

prevention & services, outreach to promote access to physical or behavioral 

health, primary care & preventative medicine.

o Local community food pantry assistance when needed

• Safety and Security

o Fire Services –fire station and support space

o Law Enforcement – dedicated Sheriff’s office

o Search and Rescue – Community Command Post

• Food Water and Shelter

o Community tornado safe room 

o Community pantry for dry goods and water

o Community kitchen

• Energy, Power and Fuel 

o 300-gallon, above ground fuel tank

• Communications

o Tornado warning sirens 

• Incident command post with access to 911 radio communication

•

Please note the individual sleeping quarters. During the pandemic, the county contemplated 

purchasing a hotel, which could initially serve as a place to quarantine our first responders who 

were suspected to have been exposed to the virus. That fell through, but it is still a problem left 
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unsolved. With the availability of these six sites in the county, we could potentially commandeer

one or more of these facilities as a place to quarantine our first responders.

In addition to the county’s EMTs and Paramedics, many of our firefighters are also trained 

EMTs, who would be available to assist other medical professionals in distributing vaccines or 

assist in testing. These facilities will house fire trucks and ambulances to serve health and other 

emergencies in between and during the next pandemic or other crisis.

The County Commissioners have identified Rockvale as the first Emergency Operations 

Building to be constructed.

Premium Pay

Section 603(c) (1) of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) states that “funds may be used “(b) 

to respond to workers performing essential work during the COVID-19 public health emergency 

by providing premium pay to eligible workers”. 

The Fiscal Recovery Funds will help respond to the needs of essential workers by allowing 

recipients to remunerate essential workers for the elevated health risks they have faced and 

continue to face during the public health emergency. To ensure that premium pay is targeted to 

workers that faced or face heightened risks due to the character of their work, the interim final 

rule defines essential work as work involving regular in-person interactions or regular physical 

handling of items that were also handled by others.
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The County Mayor, serving as the chief executive officer of Rutherford County, will determine 

the work sectors designated as critical to the health and well-being of residents. Through the 

committee process, recommendations from the various committees will be sent to the Budget & 

Finance Committee who will provide the recommendations to the Board of Commissioners. The 

expectation, as of the date of this report, is that a decision (as to timing, amount and sectors) and 

implementation of said decision should be made before June 30, 2022.

Promoting equitable outcomes 

The sites of the special operation facilities were selected to ensure services to areas identified as 

underserved within the county, which happen to be primarily located in the rural areas. The 

County requested the assistance of the University of Tennessee’s County Technical Advisory 

Service (CTAS) to determine the best locations. It is the hope that each of these buildings will 

create a synergy in the areas and respectively encourage the development of a sense of

community.
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Community Engagement 

The projects listed above were discussed at many of the meetings of Public Safety Committee 

and at the full Board of Commissioners meetings. All meetings are televised and housed at the 

following link. https://www.youtube.com/user/RutherfordGovernment. The Board of 

Commissioners always devote a portion of their monthly meeting to accept public comment, 

Additionally, Rutherford County Mayor Bill Ketron has been a guest of the local radio station 

(WGNS)’s Action Line program on the following dates where he discussed the emergency 

operations building and the purchase of the State Farm Building: May 26, 2021, June 30, 2021 

and July 28, 2021. The format of those shows encourages listeners to call into the station to 

share their comments, concerns and to ask questions. 

Chairman Pettus Reed, Public Safety Committee, was the feature speaker at many community 

civic organizations explaining the need for the buildings and received favorable responses from 

those engagements. 

Labor Practices 

As of the date of this report, the Rutherford County Commission has not agreed to use the funds 

for projects related to water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.

Use of Evidence 

As of the date of this report, Rutherford County’s allocation will not be used for projects 

requiring evidence-based interventions and/or for projects that are evaluated through rigorous 

program evaluations designed to build evidence.

Table of Expenses by Expenditure Category

Category Cumulative

expenditures to 

date ($)

Amount spent 

since last 

Recovery Plan

1 Expenditure Category: Public Health

1.1 COVID-19 Vaccination - -

1.2 COVID-19 Testing - -

1.3 COVID-19 Contact Tracing - -

1.5 Personal Protective Equipment - -

1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes 

to Public Facilities that respond to the COVID19 public health emergency

- -

1.8 Other COVID-19 Public Health Expenses 

(including Communications, Enforcement, 

Isolation/Quarantine)

- -
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Category Cumulative

expenditures to 

date ($)

Amount spent 

since last 

Recovery Plan

1.9 Payroll Costs for Public Health, Safety, and 

Other Public Sector Staff Responding to 

COVID-19

- -

1.12 Other Public Health Services - -

4 Expenditure Category: Premium Pay

4.1 Public Sector Employees - -

7 Administrative and Other

7.1 Administrative Expenses - -

Project Inventory:

Purchase of State Farm Building

Project – CLFRF-001

Funding amount: Estimated at $25,500,000

Project Expenditure Category: 1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes to Public 

Facilities that respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency. 

Project overview: Purchase of the State Farm Building to provide COVID-19 response, 

mitigation and prevention activities in addition to communications and public safety 

activities.

Construction of Emergency Operations Building – Rockvale

Project – CLFRF-002

Funding amount: Estimated at $5,500,000

Project Expenditure Category: 1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes to Public 

Facilities that respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency

Project overview: 6550 State Highway 99, Rockvale, TN 37153. The Emergency 

Operations Building will be used to distribute critical services on a daily basis to include, but 

is not limited to, life safety measures and incident scene stabilization in the Rockvale 

Community. With the latest addition of Rockvale High School in 2019, the population and 

needs of this community continue to be on the rise. Located on county school property 

adjacent to Rockvale Elementary School, Estimated area: 52.87 square miles. 

Construction of Emergency Operations Building – Kittrell

Project – CLFRF-003

Funding amount: Estimated at $5,500,000
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Project Expenditure Category: 1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes to Public 

Facilities that respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency

Project overview: 8067 Old Woodbury Pike, Readyville, TN 37149. The Emergency 

Operations Building will be used to distribute critical services on a daily basis to include, but 

is not limited to, life safety measures and incident scene stabilization in the Kittrell

Community. The current reported poverty rate in the area is 27.5% making it one of the most 

impoverished areas of Rutherford County. With only $33,581 as the median household 

income, Readyville faces unique challenges. Statistics detail that 17.9% of families, or 23.1% 

of the population, live below the poverty line among the 4,934 residents. The proposed 

building site is located on county-owned property. Estimated area: 55.87 square miles.

Construction of Emergency Operations Building – Lascassas

Project – CLFRF-004

Funding amount: Estimated at $5,500,000

Project Expenditure Category: 1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes to Public 

Facilities that respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency

Project overview: 6531 Lascassas Pike, Lascassas, TN 37085. The Emergency Operations 

Building will be used to distribute critical services on a daily basis to include, but is not 

limited to, life safety measures and incident scene stabilization in the Lascassas Community.

Construction of Emergency Operations Building – Walter Hill

Project – CLFRF-005

Funding amount: Estimated at $5,500,000

Project Expenditure Category: 1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes to Public 

Facilities that respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency

Project overview: 6309 Lebanon Pike, Murfreesboro, TN 37129. The Emergency 

Operations Building will be used to distribute critical services on a daily basis to include, but 

is not limited to, life safety measures and incident scene stabilization in the Walter Hill

Community. Lebanon Pike area is located in the northeast portion of Rutherford County. 

The percent of residents living in poverty is 15% within this area. With a trending increase in 

population, Lebanon Pike will have an increasing need of county resources. This area 

consists of 39% multi-family/rented dwellings with interests of constructing new apartment 

condominiums within the area. With almost 5,000 new residents expected within the next 

five years, this area would demand an increase in services. The proposed building site is 

located on county-owned property adjacent to Walter Hill Elementary. Estimated area: 57.83 

square miles.

Construction of Emergency Operations Building – Almaville

Project – CLFRF-006

Funding amount: Estimated at $5,500,000
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Project Expenditure Category: 1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes to Public 

Facilities that respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency

Project overview: 7691 Almaville Road, Arrington, TN 37014. The Emergency Operations 

Building will be used to distribute critical services on a daily basis to include, but is not 

limited to, life safety measures and incident scene stabilization in the Almaville community. 

With a 20-year population growth of 79%, Arrington area currently boasts a population 

density of 105 people per mile in a rural zone. With nearly 80% of all homes as single-family 

homes, residents will have increasing county needs. The property is located on county-owned 

property adjacent to a County Convenience Center. Estimated area: 46.83 square miles.

Construction of Emergency Operations Building – Christiana

Project – CLFRF-007

Funding amount: Estimated at $5,500,000

Project Expenditure Category: 1.7 Capital Investments or Physical Plant Changes to Public 

Facilities that respond to the COVID-19 public health emergency

Project overview: 4675 Shelbyville Pike, Murfreesboro, TN 37127. The Emergency 

Operations Building will be used to distribute critical services on a daily basis to including

but not limited to, life safety measures and incident scene stabilization in the Christiana

community. As the population and needs of this community continue to grow, so does the 

need for county services. The proposed site is located on county-owned property adjacent to 

Christiana Middle School. Estimated area: 56.2 square miles.

Premium Pay

Project – CLFRF-008

Funding amount: Estimated at $4,000,000

Project Expenditure Category: 1.9 Payroll Costs for Public Health, Safety, and Other Public 

Sector Staff Responding to COVID-19

Project overview: 

It is the county’s intent to provide premium pay for Rutherford county employees in 

compliance with regulations governing US Treasury Local Fiscal Recovery Funds.

Please note that this report will be updated no less than annually to keep the public informed 

of the progress the county has made toward these projects.