(WMC-TV) – The Memphis Urban Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) will be holding the second, and final round of public meetings concerning the new Interstate 269, now under construction.

During the meetings, discussion will focus on the impact of land usage, as well as transportation alternatives that may exist along the corridor of I-269.

A comment draft study meeting will first take place Nov. 27 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m. at the Holiday Inn & Suites near Wolfchase Galleria.

A second meeting, at which the final study will be presented for review, will be held Dec. 13 from 5:30 – 7:30 p.m., also held at the Holiday Inn & Suites near Wolfchase.

To see a full press release, or to obtain full directions to the meeting locations, click here.

Information and image provided by the Memphis Urban Area MPO.

Fall cleanup just got a little cheaper!  The city of Germantown is providing free mulch to residents.  The mulch comes from yard debris collected by the city.  It's broken down and then passed back to taxpayers.  The giveaway begins Saturday, October 20th at 8am at the Public Services Complex at 7725 Southern Avenue.

You must bring proof you are a Germantown resident.  You will receive one-and-a-half yards of aged, double hammered mulch.  Public works employees will help you load your haul.  See you there.

Even as the half-century old Allen Steam Plant in Memphis continued to consume coal to create electricity for the Mid-South, TVA officials gathered at the other end of the state to dedicate the new John Sevier Combined Cycle Plant near Rogersville, TN.

The sleek new plant burns natural gas, and when added to the several other recently-added plants the Tennessee Valley Authority is now producing only one-third of its power from coal-fired facilities - a big change from fiscal 2011, when coal accounted for 52 percent of TVA's power generation.

The shift away from coal is part of a larger national trend, spurred on by the availability of cheap natural gas deposits that are now extracted by new shale-fracturing processes.  Federal air pollution standards have become increasingly stringent as well, contributing to the move to cleaner-burning natural gas.