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Cookeville seeks $1.7 million in federal funds to expand community response EMTs
Summary
City staff said Cookeville submitted an application for $1,700,303 over five years through the Tennessee "Make Rural Tennessee Healthy Again" program to add three full‑time and three part‑time EMTs and an upfitted vehicle to the community response fleet; council authorized acceptance pending award.
City community development staff told council on Aug. 6 that the city applied for the Tennessee Department of Health's Make Rural Tennessee Healthy Again grant, a federally funded program administered locally to scale community health efforts. The application requests $1,700,303 over five years to fund three full‑time and three part‑time EMT positions and an upfitted vehicle to expand the Cookeville community response program; staff said the grant requires no city match. "The total amount requested is $1,700,303 over a 5 year contract period to support the expansion and continued operation of the program," Billings said during the presentation.
The council voted to accept the funding if awarded and to authorize staff to proceed with the award acceptance process. During public comment, resident Caitlin Searcy spoke later in the meeting on an unrelated topic (license‑plate reader privacy) but expressed support for city engagement; no public opposition to the grant application was recorded. Staff said the program would add staffing and a vehicle to the response fleet and that application materials had been submitted prior to the council meeting.
