Brent Andrews
Rejecting bids, City changes waste hauler : The Franklin Board of Mayor and Aldermen rejected three solid waste disposal bids from private contractors and approved an agreement with Bi-County Solid Waste Management of Stewart and Montgomery counties in back-to-back 7-1 votes Tuesday night.

Carole Robinson
Heritage Foundation Preservation Awards : In 1967 a 19th Century home in Franklin was torn down to build a gas station, which was later torn down to make way for a strip mall. That was the last straw for 100 local preservationists. They became the founders of the Heritage Foundation of Franklin & Williamson County. Forty-five years later, the Heritage Foundation is still working to preserve the history of Franklin and Williamson County.

Debbie Smartt; Williamson Herald; Williamson County
Faces of Franklin Dr. Jim Tilley of CharacterEYES Eyecare and Optica: Fifteen years into his career as an electrical engineer, Jim Tilley decided he wanted to become his own boss. So the Wisconsin native began methodically researching the field he wanted to pursue, eventually deciding to go back to school for optometry.

Donna O’Neil
O’Neil off deadline - Franklin - A Community in Mourning : The citizens of Franklin, already hurting from the loss two weeks ago of U.S. Army SPC Jason Edens, have suffered another emotional loss this past week. Another young man who didn’t have a chance to experience life as a grown man, whose skills as a guitar player were yet to be honed, and whose mark will forever be synonymous with a boys-will-be-boys mischievous afternoon has been taken too soon.

Joe Williams
COMMENTARY BY JOE WILLIAMS: For a moment, we were all Franklin Rebels: With the sun beating down and the sound of kids playing games filtering through a slight breeze, I stood quietly at Claude Yates and Hillsboro Road Saturday afternoon, along with what appeared to be hundreds of others, many holding American flags, waiting to pay my paltry, not near enough respects to Spc. Jason Edens as the hero’s procession passed his alma mater, Franklin High.

Luke Boyd
Gray on Grey The Great Feather Fiasco : About 35 years ago, we were living in another town and county. I became dissatisfied with our front yard. The scraggly grass grew in chumps with plenty of bare spots that never filled in. To call it a lawn insulted that designation. Even fertilizing it the previous year effected little change. Apparently, the soil was not just poor but had some sort of vitamin deficiency that was going to be costly to correct. It was the spring after the fertilizing and I was bemoaning my yard problems in the presence of a couple of friends when one asked, “Why don’t you try chicken manure?” I couldn’t imagine where I’d come up with any of that and told him so, to which he replied, “I’m getting ready to clean out my chicken house. I’ll give you all you need.” And thus was born “the great chicken feather caper.”

Marcus Stone
Franklin tops Hunters Lane, guaranteed spot in sectional round: The Franklin baseball team guaranteed themselves a spot in Friday’s Class AAA sectional round with a 7-2 win over Hunters Lane in the Region 6-AAA semifinals Tuesday night.

Mike Shirley
Financial Focus This Mother’s Day, Think of lifetime financial moves to help kids : If you’re a mother, you’ll probably get some nice cards and flowers on Mother’s Day. But of course, your greatest gifts are your children themselves. And since you want to see them happy and financially secure, perhaps you can use this Mother’s Day as an opportunity to consider ways to help your children at various stages of their lives.

Ramon Presson; Williamson Herald; Williamson County
Commentary - And the Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round… : Imagine your sixth-grade daughter with 11th- and 12th-grade guys unsupervised for at least one hour every weekday throughout the year. It is happening daily throughout Williamson County as the county public school system’s current policy often forces middle school and high school students to ride the bus together.

Russ Moore; Williamson Herald; Williamson County
Club gives back through rodeo entertainment - Raising funds with rodeo : When rodeo fans go to the Franklin Rodeo, they are not just being entertained. They’re giving back to the community, through the Franklin Noon Rotary Club.

William Carter
Commentary - On race, religion and same-sex marriage : I’m old enough to remember a segregated South, but fortunate enough to have had parents who taught me that was not really the way the world was supposed to work. I don’t recall us ever sitting around the supper table talking about the way things were, but my parents – whether they knew it or not – set great examples for me and my many sisters by the ways they reacted to the weirdest and strangest of the weird and strange times we lived in.

Williamson Herald; Williamson County
Latest building design from French Country to Louisiana farmhouse Charity Tour of Homes helps two local nonprofits: Featuring the latest in gorgeous building and interior design ideas, the Charity Tour of Homes takes place Fridays through Sundays, May 18-27, with seven fully-decorated homes on beautiful home sites throughout the Nashville area with Miriam’s Promise and STARS (Students Taking A Right Stand) as this year’s benefiting charities and presented by the Master Custom Builders Council of Tennessee.

Williamson Herald; Williamson County
Rose Blackwell: Rose Virginia Blackwell, 89, of Murfreesboro and formerly of Franklin, Tenn., died May 16, 2012.