Advance Financial Celebrates Grand Opening of Smithville Store with $1,000 Donation to DeKalb County 4-H

February 9, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

Nashville-based financial services company Advance Financial cut the ribbon today at the company’s newest store in Smithville. To mark the occasion, the Advance Financial Foundation donated $1,000 to the DeKalb County 4-H.

“The communities surrounding all of our locations are extremely important to us,” said Shantrelle Johnson, VP of corporate citizenship for Advance Financial. “Through the Advance Financial Foundation, we are able to provide extra support to those organizations working to make a difference in these regions. We are thrilled to make a contribution to the DeKalb County 4-H and help fund the educational programs they offer.”

Started in 2014, the Advance Financial Foundation invests in the communities the company serves through support for local 501(c)3 organizations and community enrichment programs. The Foundation places a particular focus on enhancing education and health and wellness initiatives.

Advance Financial’s store in Smithville is located at 503 South Mountain Street. It is open 24/7 and offers a range of financial services including prepaid cards, electronic wire services to anywhere in the world, check cashing, FLEX loans, free bill-payment services and free money orders.
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About Advance Financial
Advance Financial, founded in 1996, is a family owned and operated financial center based in Nashville, Tenn. The company currently operates more than 80 locations throughout Tennessee and employs more than 800 local representatives. The company provides a wide variety of financial services – including wire transfer, free bill payment, unlimited free money orders and FLEX loans. Advance Financial earned an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the country for the sixth year in a row. For more information visit www.af247.com.

February 9, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

The City of Smithville will soon have to undertake a project to color code fire hydrants according to their pressure flow capacity in accordance with regulations of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

Currently, all the city’s fire hydrant tops have the same color “red”.

The city will have to color code the bonnet/cap of the hydrants as follows:

Class C-RED- Less than 500 gallons per minute

Class D- Black bonnet or covering-Temporarily out of service.

During Monday night’s meeting of the Smithville Mayor and Aldermen, Fire Chief Charlie Parker explained that fire department pumper trucks are prohibited from connecting to hydrants that are a Class C. These hydrants may be used to fill the booster tanks on any fire apparatus by using the water system’s available pressure only (fire pumps shall not be engaged during refill operations from a Class C hydrant).

“Technically the hydrants are supposed to be color coded as far as to what pressure they flow and in accordance with that ruling fire departments are not supposed to connect to a hydrant with a red top. As you know in Smithville all of our hydrants have a red top because they are not color coded. I would like to see if we could get some extra help with seasonal workers along with our fire department personnel. Since its fire hydrants, everybody thinks it’s a fire department project but we don’t have the resources or manpower to get them tested. I have been working with the 911 system over the last couple of years and now we have most of our hydrants digitized on a GIS map so they are located and numbered but we have to flow them and paint them to whatever color they need to be and get the information entered into the computer system so we will have it. Then we are supposed to annually flow them and do a spot check. It is not the time of the year to do this now. I’m just coming to you (mayor and aldermen) to see if we can come up with a plan to get the hydrants tested because it will benefit all of us, not just the fire department but also the water department too. We have roughly about 240 hydrants already mapped out but I’m thinking it will probably be closer to 270 because there some hydrants not mapped especially near the industrial parks and Walmart that we would like to add to the GIS map too because that benefits us (firefighters) being about to look on a map and know if we have a really good hydrant especially with the ladder truck where we need higher flows of water,” said Chief Parker.

Mayor Jimmy Poss said the city might be able to hire some part time help to assist with the project.

Utilities are now required under state law to account for water used. “In order for our utility to comply, we must require that you (Smithville Fire Department) report on a monthly basis; when, where, and an estimate of how much water was used,” wrote Public Works Director Kevin Robinson, in a letter to Chief Parker.

February 9, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

The DCHS Basketball teams will make their debut in the District 8 AA Tournament next week at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville.

The Tigers, the 6th seed, will take on Watertown, the 7th seed, on Tuesday night, February 13 at 7:30 p.m. The winner will meet Macon County, the 3rd seed, on Thursday, February 15 at 7:30 p.m.

Meanwhile the Lady Tigers, the 5th seed, will face Watertown, the 8th seed, on Wednesday night, February 14 at 6:00 p.m. The winner will meet Cannon County, the 4th seed, on Friday, February 16 at 6:00 p.m.

WJLE will have LIVE coverage.
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