Tourism Marketing Grant Awarded to Chamber

August 31, 2018
By:

The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development recently awarded $1 million in Tourism Marketing Grants to 84 organizations for tourism marketing.

Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber Director Suzanne Williams and Jamboree Marketing Director Shan Williams worked together to write the grant to benefit both the Chamber and the Smithville Jamboree. A total of $5,000 was awarded – $2,500 for the Chamber and $2,500 for the Smithville Jamboree.

Project 1 will be a Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival Billboard on I-40. This vinyl billboard will be up for the duration of 12 months. The first 6 months will include a “thank you for a successful 2018 Jamboree event” along with featuring upcoming 2019 festival dates. The next 6 months, leading up to the event, will feature a new vinyl graphic inviting potential attendees to join us for our 48^th annual bluegrass and old-time Appalachian music and crafts festival.

Project 2 will update our Chamber Website (dekalbtn.org) to include “Day-cation, Stay-cation, and Vacation” opportunities to the existing website.

The marketing award is a 50% reimbursable match grant which provides tourism organizations such as CVBs, chambers of commerce or regional tourism organizations a way to expand their marketing message. The partnership is designed to increase visitation to a community and travel-generated revenue, while leveraging TDTD’s brand “The Soundtrack of America. Made in Tennessee.” through marketing initiatives. Partnerships awarded were competitive in nature and limited to available funds, as well as the number of requests received.

“These marketing grants create an opportunity for our partners across the state, especially in rural areas, to double their resources for a project to promote their area,” said TDTD Commissioner Kevin Triplett. “We are glad we can make this program available.”

In 2017, the Tourism Marketing Grant budget increased from $855,000 to $1 million in funds. The grant has allowed tourism organizations across Tennessee to expand marketing efforts, thus expanding exposure for the entire state.

August 31, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Tigers will hit the road tonight to face their first region opponent of the season at Crossville against the Stone Memorial Panthers.

The Tigers opened the season two weeks ago with a 19-14 win at home over Warren County but lost to Upperman 43 to 0 last week at home.

Stone Memorial is 2-0 with wins at East Ridge 21-7 two weeks ago and at home against Scott 28 to 13 last week.

Tiger Coach Steve Trapp said last week’s loss affected the team but he is hopeful they can shake it off and give a better performance tonight.

“After a win everything feels good but the losses affect me personally a whole lot more than the victories. The only positive that I can say about last week’s game is that I do believe it affected our team. Those guys hurt after that game. We have lost games in the past and you really didn’t see or feel that. We had guys who didn’t even step foot on the field that were affected by that loss. I just told them after the game that we knew how we felt after the Warren County game. We felt elation. We felt joy. Now we know how we felt after the Upperman game. I asked them which one do you want more? It is all about response. That is all I said to them. How are you going to respond. One thing I have said about this team is that they have responded through winter and spring workouts. If we saw something we didn’t like we have told them about it and they have responded. We will see how they handle it tonight. We will see if we get the response we are expecting,” said Coach Trapp.

Kick-off will be tonight at 7 p.m.

WJLE’s pre-game shows begin with “Coach to Coach” at 5 p.m. featuring former coaches Doug Matthews, Dave McGinnis, and broadcaster Larry Stone.

“Murphy’s Matchups” airs at 6 p.m. featuring the Guru of Tennessee High School Football Murphy Fair.

“Tiger Talk” begins at 6:30 p.m. featuring DCHS Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger Football Players Axel Aldino, Tre Ladet, and Zach Day. John Pryor, the Voice of the Tigers, is the host of the program.

WJLE’s “LIVE” play by play coverage starts at 7 p.m. with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor and Luke Willoughby.

LISTEN LIVE ON WJLE and LIVE STREAMING at www.wjle.com

August 30, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

Are you interested in purchasing a Tiny House?

Students in the DCHS Construction Technology (building trades) program began work last fall during school hours building their first Tiny House and it will be put up for sale to the public once it is completed later this year.

The 8’ x 24’ Tiny House stands up to 13 feet and 6 inches and sets on a modified trailer that can be anchored or moved from place to place.

Living accommodations in the Tiny House, although compact will include adequate living room, kitchenette, bathroom, and sleeping space.

Gary Caplinger, Construction Teacher at DCHS, said he had hoped to have the project finished before school was out for the summer but those plans didn’t pan out. Now that school is back in session, work will resume on the Tiny House after students finish a storage building currently under construction for a customer.

“The Tiny House is dried in and all the windows and doors are set. We haven’t started on the electrical yet but we have got the plumbing roughed in and it has been air tested. The next step is to get the siding on the outside, rough the electrical in, and then we will put some kind of heating and cooling system in it. Then its just a matter of putting the interior finish on it including whatever we put on the walls, the cabinetry, and that sort of thing. We’re hoping to build the cabinets here in the shop,” said Caplinger

“It has a sleeping loft and a living room/great room which opens to the kitchen where the sink is on one side and the cooking range will be on the other side. In the very back are the restrooms with a full three foot shower in it which should be comfortable and convenient to use. For space saving, we have a pocket door roughed in that doesn’t swing into the kitchen or restroom. It slides back into the wall. We build everything for space saving in a Tiny House,” added Caplinger

Once the Tiny House is completed, Caplinger said he would like to take it on the road to show it off at Tiny House venues before it is sold

“We’ve had a lot of interest in it. A lot of people have asked about it. We’re hoping this is something that catches on because if this one sells we would like to do another one,” said Caplinger.

Something that has caught on is storage buildings.

“We do a lot of storage buildings. We could stay busy all the time doing that. There’s always people wanting them. We’re real competitive in that. In fact we’re cheaper than you can go out and buy one. We just do a 10% mark up on materials,” Caplinger said.

“We have also done some furniture on rare occasions such as cabinet doors but we don’t do a lot of that because it is time consuming,” added Caplinger

If you are interested or would like more information about the Tiny House or a storage building contact Caplinger or Brad Leach, Career and Technical Education Director at DeKalb County High School.

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