Rutherford County health department renews Murfreesboro venue agreement, highlights WIC expansion and measles update

John Blair, assistant public health county director, told the Rutherford County Health and Education Committee on April 29 that the county health department is expanding services while continuing routine programs and that the committee approved a cooperative agreement with the city of Murfreesboro to use Patterson Park Community Center for the department’s annual community baby shower.

Blair said free flu vaccines are available at the Rutherford County Health Department during walk-in hours, and the department now offers primary care appointments for uninsured and underinsured patients—including treatment for acute illness, chronic disease management, wellness exams, lab tests and health education—provided by nurse practitioners or physicians. He also said some primary care services are now available via telehealth.

The county’s WIC (Women, Infants, and Children) services have been expanded in the Smyrna corridor, Blair said, with staff moved to that location and a corresponding rise in daily appointment capacity. “We’ve gone from a 20 to a 80 patient slots a day,” Blair said, noting that change allows roughly 60 more infants and parents to receive nutrition and nurse services each day.

Blair also updated the committee on communicable disease: “The most accurate total, cases of measles during 2025 is 6,” he said, and added that confirmed cases were cooperating with public health officials by quarantining at home. The department is not aware of “additional exposures related to the newly confirmed cases,” he said, and that there is “no evidence of sustained measles transmission in this community or the state of Tennessee.” When Commissioner Oliver asked what “sustained” meant, Blair explained the public-health meaning: an unbroken chain of transmission from person to person through the community.

The committee approved a cooperative agreement with the city of Murfreesboro that allows the health department to use Patterson Park Community Center at no charge for the department’s yearly community baby shower. The event is tentatively scheduled for Aug. 23, 2025; Blair said the event typically involves about 50–60 vendors and several hundred attendees, and provides education for new parents plus supplies such as diapers and onesies. The agreement runs for one year from the event date and was presented to the committee as a renewal of a previously expired agreement the city required.

The cooperative-agreement motion passed on a roll call of commissioners present.