| This Week's Top Story |
Maury County Tops State in Unemployment, but the Number Tells Only Half the Story
A 6.1% April rate is tied directly to the Ultium Cells retooling in Spring Hill, but the structural vulnerability it reveals is older and deeper than one plant.
The headline arrived Thursday and spread fast. Maury County, according to new data from the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, recorded the highest unemployment rate in the state in April at 6.1%, up a full percentage point from March. Eighty-nine of Tennessee's 95 counties reported rates below 5% for the month. Lewis County came in second at 5.8%. Perry County, which historically holds the top spot, fell to third at 5.3%.
By afternoon, both the sitting county mayor and a candidate for her seat had weighed in on Facebook. By evening, the story had been shared across a dozen local groups.
But the number itself may be the least interesting part of the story.
What Actually Happened
The cause is not a mystery. In January 2026, the Ultium Cells plant on Donald F. Ephlin Parkway in Spring Hill, a joint venture between General Motors and LG Energy Solution, paused battery cell production and laid off 710 workers. The shutdown was part of a broader GM retrenchment that also affected facilities in Ohio and Michigan, triggered in large part by the elimination of the $7,500 federal tax credit for electric vehicle purchases, which expired in the fall of 2025.
An economics professor at Middle Tennessee State University put it plainly at the time: the tax credit had created a rush of manufacturers to build in the United States. When the incentive disappeared, EV demand softened and production schedules collapsed.
The good news is that Spring Hill's story did not follow Ohio's. In March 2026, GM and LG announced a $70 million retooling of the Spring Hill facility to produce lithium-iron phosphate batteries for stationary energy storage systems rather than EV cells, and recalled all 700 laid-off workers to start the new production line in the second quarter of 2026. The Ohio plant, by contrast, has pushed its return date to August and counting.
The April unemployment number is a snapshot of the transition period between those two chapters. County Mayor Sheila Butt is not wrong when she calls it temporary. The annual unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2025 was 3.6%, close to Maury County's historical norm. The monthly figure is not seasonally adjusted, which makes it read worse than the annual picture.
But temporary does not mean unimportant.
The Number That Should Concern People
A 2022 Oxford Economics report found that GM's operations in Maury County, including wages, supplier spending, and investment, supported more than 21,000 jobs and contributed a $3.3 billion GDP impact across Tennessee. That is a staggering figure for a county of roughly 118,000 people.
When a single company's retooling schedule can move a county's unemployment rate by a full percentage point in one month, that is not a weather event. It is a structural condition. And it is not new. Maury County appeared at or near the top of Tennessee's unemployment rankings in December 2025 as well, and has done so repeatedly in recent years. The pattern predates this particular retooling. It will outlast it too, unless something changes.
Gabe Howard, who is running for county mayor, framed it this way: "When one employer or one industry can move our countywide unemployment rate that much, we need a broader, stronger economic strategy." He called the county's response to the report reactive, and argued that forward-looking leadership would be working to change the trend rather than explain the headline.
Mayor Butt pointed to a renegotiated agreement with GM in 2023 that she says holds the company to greater accountability for non-performance and brings more revenue to the county. She also cited a broader effort over the past three years to diversify the economic base and attract higher-paying employers, noting that median household income has risen as a result.
Both things can be true. The April rate is temporary. And the underlying vulnerability is real.
What Is Actually Being Done
The picture is more complicated than either political message suggests.
The Maury Alliance, the county's economic development organization, has explicitly shifted its strategy for 2025 through 2029 to prioritize higher wages, economic base diversification, and projects compatible with the county's infrastructure, moving away from a purely jobs-and-capital-investment model. That is a meaningful change in approach.
New manufacturers are arriving. The Recticel Group, a European sustainable packaging company, recently selected Mount Pleasant for its first American facility. Parker Hannifin chose Maury County for a Filtration Innovation Center years ago. These are industries with no connection to automotive or electric vehicles.
Maury County is also the fourth fastest-growing county in Tennessee, part of the Nashville metropolitan area, and sits on I-65 midway between Nashville and Huntsville, home to one of the fastest-growing aerospace and defense economies in the country. That geography is a genuine asset. The county is not starting from scratch.
But growth creates its own pressures. Columbia resident Charlotte Napier told NewsChannel 5 this week that finding entry-level work that is not fast food is genuinely difficult. "It took me months to even find a job after I stopped working at my last one," she said. Maury County has grown by roughly 18,000 people since 2020, much of it Nashville-area overflow. Those new residents bring spending power but also expectations about wages and job quality that the current employer mix does not always meet. That gap is worth watching.
The Questions Worth Asking Now
There are stories underneath this one that Maury County has not fully reckoned with.
The renegotiated GM agreement that Mayor Butt cited in 2023 has not been publicly reported on in any detail. What does it actually require of GM? What are the county's remedies if the company eventually decides to leave entirely rather than retool again? That agreement is a public document and Maury County residents deserve to know what is in it.
The trades pipeline is another underreported story. The county's growth has created enormous demand for electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, and welders, jobs that cannot be outsourced and that pay well. Columbia State has programs. Whether enough young people are being directed toward those paths, and whether local employers are communicating what they actually need, is worth examining.
Agriculture is a third piece that economic development conversations tend to overlook. The Duck River bottomland is some of the most productive farmland in Middle Tennessee. The Maury Alliance's new strategy includes agriculture as a priority for the first time in years. Agritourism, direct-to-consumer farming, and value-added agricultural products are recession-resistant industries that also happen to be rooted in what this county already is.
There Is Plenty of Work to Do
When the first settlers came down through the Cumberland Gap and made their way to the Duck River bottoms, there were no jobs waiting for them. There was no employer to hire them, no plant to report to, no rate to track. There was only land and the work it demanded, and the willingness to do it.
Maury County was built by people who did not wait for someone else to create an opportunity. That tradition is still here. It shows up in the small businesses on the square, in the farms still running on the same families' land, in the tradesmen and the teachers and the people who stayed when they could have left.
The unemployment rate will recover when Ultium comes fully back online. But Maury County is in the middle of something bigger than one plant's retooling schedule. The county has grown by nearly 20 percent in five years. Nashville is pushing south. Huntsville is growing north. The I-65 corridor between them runs right through Columbia. What Maury County decides to become in the next decade, and who gets to have a say in that, is the real conversation this week's unemployment numbers should be starting.
That is why starting this week, the Muletown Journal is building a local job board. Free to post. Free to search. No algorithm deciding who sees it. Just Maury County employers with work to offer and Maury County workers ready to do it. If you are hiring, email [email protected] and we will get you listed.
There is still plenty of work to do.
Sources: Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development, April 2026 county unemployment data. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2025 annual county data. Oxford Economics, 2022 GM economic impact report. Maury Alliance 2026 Economic Development KPI Report. NewsChannel 5, May 2026.
| Public Safety |
Fire Rips Through Columbia Farm Supply Building on Bear Creek Pike
While the building took heavy damage, crews from five departments contained the fire and protected neighboring structures.
COLUMBIA, A fire broke out at the Columbia Farm Supply building at 170 Bear Creek Pike shortly after 12:40 a.m. on Friday, May 29, gutting the structure before dawn. Columbia Fire and Rescue arrived to find heavy fire conditions throughout the building and made a swift decision that likely saved lives: they would fight it from the outside.
No injuries were reported among civilians or firefighters.
Five departments responded to the scene, including Columbia Fire and Rescue, Maury County Fire, Spring Hill Fire, Mt. Pleasant Fire, and Maury Regional EMS, along with the Maury County Sheriff's Office and Columbia Power and Water Systems. Crews worked through the night and remained on scene into the day Friday to address hotspots. The cause of the fire is under investigation by the Columbia Fire Marshal's Office.
When the incident commander on scene declared a defensive operation, it was not a retreat. It was a decision. In a defensive posture, firefighters work entirely from the exterior, attacking the fire with hose lines from outside the structure, protecting neighboring buildings, and containing the spread. Nobody goes in. That call belongs to the incident commander, and it is one of the heaviest decisions in emergency services.
The calculus is straightforward, even when it is hard: what is actually saveable? Firefighters will go interior, accepting every risk that comes with it, when there is a life to be saved. That calculus changes completely when a structure is already fully involved. A building can be replaced. The men and women on that hose line cannot. Sending crews into a failing structure to save something that is already lost is not courage. It is a gamble the incident commander is not paid to take.
Fires that ignite in the middle of the night carry a particular danger for exactly this reason. With no one on site to detect smoke early, a fire in a commercial building can burn undetected for a long time before the first 911 call comes in. By the time units roll up, the fire may have been working through the structure for an hour or more. What looks like a fast-moving fire on arrival is often a fire that has already won. The crews at Bear Creek Pike read that situation correctly and adjusted.
The response came just days after Maury County Fire's Battalion 3, a class of 12 new recruits, completed more than 400 hours of training and earned their certifications. Part of what those hours teach is exactly this: that good fireground decisions are not made on instinct alone. They are made by people who have been trained to read a building, read the fire, and choose the right fight. Friday morning on Bear Creek Pike, that training showed.
For the owners of Columbia Farm Supply, the work ahead is daunting. A building, an inventory, a business that serves this community, gone in a night. Pray for clarity as they assess the damage, for strength as they decide what comes next, and for the kind of stubborn resilience this county has never had a shortage of. May they find the support of their neighbors in the days ahead, and may God bless their efforts to rebuild.
| Faith & Community |
Homestead Festival Runs Fri. & Sat. with Joel Salatin, Lee Greenwood, and 200-Plus Vendors
The two-day celebration of land, faith, and self-reliance returns June 5-6 to a 100-acre working farm just an hour south of Nashville.
COLUMBIA, There is a hunger spreading across America right now, and it has nothing to do with grocery store shelves. People are hungry for something older and truer: the knowledge of how to grow a tomato, raise a chicken, put up a jar of jam, and hand something real to their children. On June 5 and 6, 2026, one of the country's most remarkable gatherings of that spirit will take place just an hour south of Nashville, on a 100-acre working farm that has quietly become one of Middle Tennessee's most talked-about destinations. The Homestead Festival is back, and for anyone who has ever looked at the land rolling along the Duck River and felt the pull to do something with it, this is the weekend to pay attention.
The festival describes itself simply: a place to learn how to grow your own food, raise animals, keep bees, preserve a harvest, and homeschool your children. But the lineup assembled for the 2026 edition goes well beyond a weekend workshop. Joel Salatin, the Virginia farmer and author who has spent decades arguing that food produced with integrity tastes better and builds stronger communities, headlines the educator roster. Temple Grandin, whose work in animal behavior has changed the way farmers think about livestock welfare, joins him. Rory Feek, the Grammy-winning country artist and widower whose story of faith, family, and life on a Tennessee farm has moved millions, will perform and speak. The entertainment stage features Lee Greenwood, Shenandoah, Terri Clark, and The Cleverlys, among others, making this as much a music festival as a farming one. Live music is scheduled every night and during the lunch hour both days.
The farm's founders describe their own journey the way a lot of Maury County families might recognize: blessed with a home and a life, but longing for something more rooted. They started putting seeds in the ground and found that the act of farming changed not just their pantry but their family. The festival grew out of that experience, out of a desire to share what they'd learned with people who felt the same pull. The timing could not be more apt. In the years since empty store shelves reminded Americans how fragile a supply chain can be, interest in homesteading has surged. The festival exists at the intersection of that anxiety and its best possible answer: practical knowledge, real community, and a return to the kind of self-reliance that built this region.
The 2026 event features more than 200 vendors offering homestead goods and gear, hands-on demonstrations in wood turning, leather crafting, and animal care, and a dedicated Lil' Homesteaders Area for children with face painting, a corn pit, and a bounce house. Tickets range from General Admission to VIP passes that include reserved seating, breakfast both mornings, and a bag of festival goodies. Children five and under are admitted free. The festival grounds are located approximately one hour south of Nashville. Tickets and the full speaker schedule are available at thehomesteadfestival.com. This is the kind of event that reminds you that the values Maury County has always lived by, faith, hard work, knowing your neighbor, and stewarding the land, are not going out of style. They're coming back in fashion everywhere else.
For Maury County residents, this festival is a natural fit. The county's agricultural heritage runs as deep as the Duck River itself, and the farming families who have worked this land for generations have been doing homesteading long before it had a hashtag. Whether you're a lifelong farmer looking to sharpen your craft, a young family in Spring Hill wondering how to teach your kids where food comes from, or simply someone who wants to spend a weekend outdoors with people who believe in growing something real, the Homestead Festival is calling your name. Get your tickets before the weekend sells out.
| Government & Elections |
The Race for Maury County Mayor: What's on the Ballot August 6
Two candidates, two visions for a county in the middle of one of the fastest growth surges in Tennessee history.
COLUMBIA, On August 6, 2026, Maury County voters will choose who leads the county government for the next four years. The race for county mayor is a two-candidate contest: Sheila Butt, the Republican incumbent seeking her second term, and Gabe Howard, a sitting county commissioner running as an independent. Both are conservative. Both are from Maury County. And both are making the case that the other's approach to managing growth, infrastructure, and economic development is not equal to the moment.
The Incumbent
Sheila Butt came to the mayor's office in 2022 with a political resume most candidates in Tennessee would envy. She spent eight years in the state House of Representatives, including time as Majority Floor Leader, before returning to Maury County and winning the mayor's race with 45 percent of the vote in a three-candidate field. In that race she edged former mayor Charlie Norman by roughly 900 votes.
Her record in office has centered on managing the county's relationship with its largest employer, GM, and making the case that Maury County's growth story is a success that needs to be protected, not overhauled. She renegotiated the county's agreement with GM in 2023, arguing the new deal holds the company to greater accountability and brings more revenue to the county. She has pointed to rising median household income and a deliberate effort to recruit higher-paying employers as evidence that her economic development approach is working. When April's unemployment numbers put Maury County first in the state at 6.1 percent, she moved quickly to contextualize it as a temporary result of Ultium's retooling schedule, not a structural failure.
The Challenger
Gabe Howard is a Marine Corps veteran, small business owner, and District 8 commissioner who has spent the last several years in the room where Maury County's growth decisions get made. He announced his candidacy early in 2026, and notably chose to run as an independent rather than seek the Republican Party nomination through caucus. His argument: a county mayor serves the entire county, and the selection process should be open to all voters, not decided in a party caucus room.
His platform is built around the same issues as Butt's, but with a sharper critique of how they've been managed. On economic development, he argues that a county where a single employer's retooling schedule can move the unemployment rate by a full percentage point is a county with a structural vulnerability, not just a bad month. He wants a broader economic base with more emphasis on small business, the trades, and agriculture. On growth, he argues development should fund its own infrastructure rather than passing costs to existing residents. On water and roads, he says the county has been reactive when it should have been planning years ahead.
What Makes This Race Matter
Maury County has grown by roughly 20 percent in five years. Nashville is pushing south. Huntsville is growing north. The I-65 corridor between them runs straight through Columbia, and every year more people, more businesses, and more pressure arrive. The decisions made in the county mayor's office over the next four years, about roads, water, schools, zoning, and economic development, will shape what kind of place Maury County is when the next wave crests.
Both candidates understand the stakes. Where they differ is in their diagnosis. Butt sees a county that has been well managed through a difficult growth period and needs steady, experienced leadership to finish the job. Howard sees a county that has been reactive when it needed to be proactive, and argues that the next four years require a different kind of leadership.
Voters will make that call on August 6.
The Muletown Journal will cover this race through the August election. If you have questions you want asked of either candidate, email [email protected].
| Government & Courts |
TDOT Closes Saturn Parkway Ramps This Weekend for Concrete Repairs
Eastbound and westbound off-ramps from State Route 396 to Kedron Road will be shut from Thursday night through Sunday afternoon.
SPRING HILL, Drivers in Maury County should plan alternate routes this weekend as the Tennessee Department of Transportation closes ramps on one of the area's busiest corridors for concrete repair work. The eastbound and westbound off-ramps from State Route 396, known locally as Saturn Parkway, to Kedron Road will close beginning Thursday, June 4, with a continuous closure running through 5 p.m. Sunday, June 7. TDOT urges all motorists to allow extra travel time and stay alert through the work zone. Real-time updates at SmartWay.tn.gov or dial 511.
Read more →| Public Safety |
Columbia Launches Monthly Tornado Siren Tests; First Check Scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m.
City officials urge residents to sign up for the free Hyper-Reach alert system as the outdoor sirens may not be audible indoors.
COLUMBIA, Residents across the city should expect to hear tornado sirens at 1 p.m. this Saturday, June 6, as Columbia officials conduct a city-wide test of the emergency warning system. The test is part of a new routine: the first Saturday of each month. The sirens are designed as an outdoor warning system and may not be heard indoors. The City of Columbia offers a free Hyper-Reach emergency alert system for mobile and landline alerts. Sign up by texting Alert to 931-286-7771 or register at the city's website.
Read more →| Local News |
Columbia Main Street Earns 2026 Accreditation from Main Street America and Tennessee Main Street
The dual accreditation recognizes downtown Columbia's growing investment, creative momentum, and the people powering it.
COLUMBIA, Columbia Main Street announced this week that it has received the 2026 Accreditation from both Main Street America and Tennessee Main Street, a dual recognition that reflects the sustained growth, investment, and community energy that has been building in downtown Columbia's historic district. The accreditation requires demonstrated performance across economic vitality, design, promotion, and organizational capacity. The 1904 Maury County Courthouse remains the anchor of a district that has seen new businesses, renovated storefronts, and a calendar of events that draws visitors from across the region. The work is paying off.
Read more →| Community |
First Fridays Returns to Downtown Columbia This Friday with Tropical Flair
Downtown celebrates June with a luau theme and local vendors from 5 to 8 p.m.
COLUMBIA, First Fridays returns to the downtown square this Friday, June 5, from 5 to 8 p.m., bringing the community together for an evening of food, music, and local commerce under the lights of the historic courthouse. This month's luau theme promises a tropical escape right here on the square, complete with over 300 Hawaiian leis, an interactive game zone for children and families, live music, vendors, and local food trucks.
Columbia Main Street has organized a luau-themed game zone with interactive activities and over 300 Hawaiian leis to distribute throughout the evening. When families spend Friday evenings together on Main Street, they spend money, create memories, and develop an affection for downtown that lasts. The monthly gathering has become more than just an event: it is a statement about what downtown Columbia can be. In a county experiencing rapid growth, First Fridays keeps the spotlight on the square where the community's roots run deepest.
The event is free and open to the public. Whether you are a longtime regular or visiting the square for the first time, Friday night is a chance to support local business, enjoy your neighbors, and remember why the square is worth showing up for.
Read more →| Quick Hits |
| This Week in Maury County |
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| Live Music This Weekend |
★ By Order of the Editor ★
Music! — around the county this week — Live · Loud · Local
Doors at the hour. Tip your players. |