Commercial Truck Insurance in Cookeville, TN

Callie Smith

Cookeville is the home of many favorite local coffee shops for Tech students to commune. Students gather here to study, converse and enjoy their extra supplement of energy. Within a mile of Tech’s campus is Poet’s Coffee, SoulCraft and Vertical Coffee.

Full disclaimer: I fall into a minority across college students and do not enjoy coffee. Nope, not even the smell. My review of the following coffee shops is based on other drinks, food, settings and “the vibe.”

Poet’s coffee is celebrating 30-years of service and calls them- selves “Cookeville’s living room.” The coffee shop is located on the town square in Cookeville and is only a 0.6 mile walk from campus for Tech students.

Poet’s offers 46 different bever- ages on its menu and is sectioned as “coffee + espresso + classic,” “iced + frozen,” or “teas.” When I go to Poets, I get the green tea.

Poets is open to the communi- ty from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day of the week. It invites students to a warm and welcoming place to accomplish the tasks of the day. However, finding a seat may be challenging. If you are one of the lucky few, sit back, relax and enjoy the setting.

If you walk down N. Cedar Av- enue and make a left at W. Broad Street you will find SoulCraft Cof- fee, a five-year-old coffee shop in Cookeville.

This shop takes pride in Cookev- ille’s culture. SoulCraft nests in a historical building dating back to 1920. The floors and brick are original to its time. The decor high- lights early days of Cookeville and is designed to make its customers feel relaxed.

The tastes of the shop follow the same historical context with coffee named “whiskey caramel latte,” “bourbon barrel mocha,” and “cuban.” My favorite drink is their strawberry lemonade, usually paired with a sweet treat from the bakery.

Our final coffee shop is interna- tionally local. Vertical coffee brews international coffee right here in the heart of Cookeville, importing coffee beans from Columbia, Ethio- pia, Guatemala and Brazil.

Vertical Coffee is settling into its new home on W. Spring Street. Even with this abundant coffee selection from all across the world, I still settle for the green tea.

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — As Middle Tennessee continues to be in a cold snap after several inches of snow fell across the region, folks are still finding ways to give back and help.

John Kiger lives in Cookeville but is from Indiana, so he’s used to the snow.

“I’ve got a pretty good size truck, so I know there’s a lot of people down here that are not used to snow,” says Kiger.

ALSO READ | Some Cookeville businesses stay open despite winter storm

He’s been helping folks who have cars stuck in ditches, and even picked one couple up miles away and drove them back to get their car. So far, Kiger’s helped around seven people who were stuck.

“God tells us we’re to love our neighbor, and what better way to love our neighbor than pulling them out of a ditch in zero degrees, you know? I love this community. There’s a lot of people who are willing to help, it’s not just me,” says Kiger.

Like Larry Mahan who helps the Cookeville community out every time there’s snow.

“We’ve got chainsaws and stuff. If there’s a tree in the road or something like that we can cut it out of the road,” says Mahan.

Mahan’s also helped pull vehicles out of ditches.

“Mostly just people sliding off the road, couple of them stuck really bad, most of them just slid off a little bit,” recalls Mahan.

While Mahan says this isn’t the worst snow he’s seen, it’s pretty close.

Tony Nigro owns Big Tony’s Pizzeria in Cookeville, and has always given back to the community, and did so this weekend right before the snow and cold snap came in.

His family handed out almost 100 blankets and free food for those who needed it. Nigro credits his daughter for coming up with these ideas, but that’s not all he’s done.

Nigro says a young boy had his birthday party canceled because of the snow and offered to give him pizza and have the boy come in to learn how to make a pizza as well.

“Anybody that needs a meal, we wanna help them. Anybody that was cold that day or expected to be cold. There’s a lot more people out there that are living outside, living in tents, living in cars,” says Nigro.

A few minutes away is Community Options, a nonprofit that promotes independence for those with disabilities. Since there are staff at those residences 24/7, they needed to come to work.

So, two managers stepped in, and have spent hours driving to pick up their co-workers so they can get to work safely, and also bring them home.

“It was a little rough. I live about 35 miles away from a different town, so I’ve set up myself in a hotel in town to be able to help staff get to and from work,” says Kelsey Prator, a project manager at Community Options.

Janette Seaborn Tulodieski emphasizes the importance of being there for them.

“Some of them didn’t have groceries, we went to get them groceries today and some of them wanted pizza, so we went and got them Little Caesar’s, just making them feel like they aren’t shut in and have someone that really cares about them,” says Tulodieski.

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WSMV4 discussed the issue with city leaders last week, who said their budget took a big hit due to the state’s inaccurate calculations.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - The City of Cookeville has been reimbursed more than $600,000 by the State of Tennessee for the misreporting of grocery sales.

City manager James Mills said the misreporting led to an estimated $660,000 in sales tax loss; However, the total reimbursement of the local option sales tax returned to the city was $636,320.91.

WSMV4 discussed the issue with city leaders last week, who said their budget took a big hit due to the state’s inaccurate calculations.

Previous Coverage

Cookeville missing $660,000 from grocery tax holiday issues, officials said

“We don’t have a chance to budget for that,” Mills said. “If we know ahead of time that this revenue is going to go away, then we might have opportunities to make up for that in different ways.”

The city said staff from the City of Cookeville’s Finance Department brought the potential misreporting to the state’s attention in November 2022. The decline was observed from tax stats taken from August 2022, revealing nearly $100,000 less than the same month from the previous year.

Weeks later, the Department of Revenue replied that their investigation revealed no miscalculations on their part.

“We did not agree with their assessment, however, there was not much we could do about it at the time,” the city said.

In August 2023, the city said numbers worsened, and they discovered approximately $235,000 less than expected in grocery sales — so they took to the state once more.

This time, the state agreed and acknowledged there was misreporting they would work to correct. The city said sales tax numbers from October 2023 — only around $50,000 less than anticipated — revealed the misreporting had been corrected, which the state confirmed last month.

“Revenue officials advised us that they were attempting to seek reimbursement for the tax dollars the city lost during the sale tax holiday,” the city said. “Last week, Representative Williams notified us that we would be receiving a reimbursement check from the state.”

The city was reimbursed for the local option sales tax lost during the 2022 and 2023 grocery sales tax holidays, including August 2022, August 2023 and September 2023.

A 40% portion will go toward the city, 58% toward the Putnam County School System, and the remaining will serve as administrative costs between the state and the Putnam County Trustee’s Office.

Copyright 2024 WSMV. All rights reserved.

COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (WZTV) — Kendall Johnson and Ava Costello needed to get their caramel macchiatos at 7 Brew Coffee.

"We love coffee so we go out a lot and get it," said Costello, who’s from Ireland, but attends Tennessee Tech University.

But, it wasn’t an easy trip for them.

"A little bit scary. We went out and ran earlier in the snow and that was quite fun," said Johnson, who is also a Tennessee Tech University student.

Zachary Collins works at 7 Brew but recently moved back here from Florida.

"Just remember coming outside this morning and seeing it. I was just blown away. I slid out like four times on the way here. I live in Algood, so I was just taking the back roads all the way here," said Collins.

But Collins came to work to help out his coworkers.

"I know there’s a lot of our workers that live in worse areas up Buck Mountain, Baxter, other places, and I figured I’m able to make it, might as well help out the team," said Collins.

Next door is Olive Garden, which also stayed open. That meant Haylee Merriman had to come to work.

“We’re southerners, we gotta get used to it at some point. I like the snow. It doesn’t really bother me. My dad taught me how to drive in it, and thank you, Dad!” said Merriman.

It would’ve been Merriman’s first day of training.

“I felt bad for calling out, so I was like I’m gonna try and go just to make sure that even if someone does come in to get our free soup and salad and breadsticks that we do which is so good, then I can just be there to learn and know what I need to do,” said Merriman.

Folks did indeed brave the cold to experience the taste of Italy, and of course, get their unlimited breadsticks and salad.

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Foodservice distributor US Foods Holding Corp. has agreed to acquire IWC Food Service, a broadline distributor based in Cookeville, Tenn. The transaction, part of US Foods’ tuck-in acquisition strategy, will enable the company to expand its reach into central Tennessee, where the company doesn’t currently have a distribution center.

With more than $200 million in annual revenue, family-owned IWC serves 2,700-plus independent restaurants, which account for more than half of its business, as well as other customers. IWC will continue to operate in the 160,000-square-foot facility where it currently conducts business and will also continue service at the local Cookeville Cash-and-Carry store.

[RELATED: US Foods Chef’Store Deploys AI-Based Forecasting and Planning Capabilities]

“We are excited to welcome the dedicated IWC Food Service associates to US Foods as we continue to strategically grow the US Foods footprint and help new and existing customers throughout the region Make It,” said Dave Flitman, CEO of Rosemont, Ill.-based US Foods. “With a heritage of putting innovation, quality and integrity at the forefront of their commitment to their customers, IWC Food Service has maintained a superior reputation throughout the central Tennessee region, and we look forward to investing in the continued growth of the business after close.”

“This is an exciting day for IWC Food Service, and we look forward to combining the strengths of our two companies at close to continue bringing our valued customers the service, solutions and tools they need to help them thrive and succeed,” added IWC President Bob Mackie. “We are honored to be joining US Foods and welcome their continued investment in IWC Food Service and the dedicated and inspired associates who successfully support our business each day. Our father, Jimmy W. Mackie, founder and CEO emeritus, started this company more than 60 years ago with the understanding that operating as a company comprised of people you can depend on would drive our continued success, and he is as proud as we are to reach this milestone.”

Pending regulatory approval, the acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter of 2024. Terms of the transaction weren’t disclosed.

US Foods partners with about 250,000 restaurants and foodservice operators. With 70 broadline locations and more than 90 cash-and-carry stores, the company and its 30,000 associates provide customers with a broad and innovative food offering and a comprehensive suite of e-commerce, technology and business solutions.