Thursday, April 26 is your last chance to vote early for the DeKalb County Democratic Primary.

Voting Thursday will be from 2:00 p.m. until 6:00 p.m. on the first floor of the DeKalb County Courthouse.

As of Wednesday, April 25, a total of 968 people have cast ballots during 13 days of early voting. On Wednesday, 90 voted including 88 in person and 2 by absentee. Four years ago a total of 1,612 voted either during the 14 day early voting period or by absentee for the election and 1,701 cast ballots on election day for a total turnout of 3,313 in the 2014 May Democratic Primary.

This year voters are making their choices as to who will represent the Democratic party as nominees in the August General Election for the offices of Road Supervisor, County Mayor, Circuit Court Clerk, Sheriff, Register of Deeds, County Clerk, and for the county commission in each of the seven districts. There is no Democratic candidate for Trustee.

The primary will feature two county wide contested races for County Mayor and Circuit Court Clerk. There are four contested county commission district primary races including in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 7th districts.

Election day voting at all 15 precincts in the county will be from 8 a.m. until 7 p.m. on Tuesday, May 1.

WJLE will have exclusive LIVE coverage of the local election returns starting at 7 p.m. on AM 1480/FM 101.7 and LIVE streaming at www.wjle.com.

The community is invited to rally in support of the Joseph Bowen family on Saturday, April 28 for a benefit men softball tournament and male beauty contest featuring emergency personnel. All proceeds will go to the family of Officer Bowen, who lost his life in a tragic traffic accident in March.

Fourteen teams will be taking to the field, including seven each at the Bill Page and Joe L. Evins Softball Fields to compete starting at 8 a.m. “We chose a softball tournament because a favorite pastime of Joe’s was to play softball on the weekends with family and friends,” said Event Sponsorship Director Chris McMillen.

Organizers are hoping for a big turnout and have prepared well having received donations of many concession items including hamburgers, hotdogs, barbeque, nachos, soft drinks, and more.

Ten or more vendors will also be selling a variety of merchandise from their booths which will be set up near the Bill Page Ball Park.

Make plans to spend this Saturday enjoying a fun event while showing your support for the Bowen family.

For more information call McMillen at 615-417-0217 or Tournament Director Kenneth Whitehead at 615-464-7038.

Also check out Chris McMillen’s video promoting this event at
https://www.facebook.com/chris.mcmillen.948

The DeKalb Utility District recently began serving 30 new customers in a portion of the county that previously did not have “city” water.

The $915,543 project was funded through a $500,000 Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Block Grant and $415,543 in funding allocated by the DeKalb Utility District.

Under the program, the DUD extended water lines to families on Tramel Branch Road, Oakley Road, Carter Lane and the Alexandria to Dismal Road.

Amanda Mainord of Grassroots Planning & Consulting, the grant administrator, briefly addressed County Mayor Tim Stribling and the County Commission Monday night to report that a public hearing was held prior to the commission meeting as part of the grant process to give the public an opportunity to comment before the project is closed. No comments were offered. However, Mainord said several of the new customers have contacted her since getting water service to express their appreciation.

“I am pleased that these residents who have needed potable water for so long are now being served thanks to this water line grant and the DUD with the support of the county commission. I have also heard from these residents who are so pleased to now have water in the area where they live. This was a successful project. And now that this project has been completed the county will be eligible to apply for the next round of CDBG grants,” said County Mayor Stribling.

“We have never had a project where the people have shown more gratitude than this one,” DUD manager Jon Foutch told WJLE Tuesday.

The DeKalb Utility District Board of Commissioners last September awarded bids to two contractors to extend water lines in the targeted areas. The board accepted a bid of $392,865 from Flo-Line Contracting of Monticello, Kentucky to do the work on Alexandria to Dismal Road and for $294,345 for the project on Carter Lane and Oakley Road. Mofield Brothers Construction of Carthage got the bid for $148,580 to extend water lines on Tramel Branch Road.

County Mayor Stribling brought the resolution to the DeKalb County Commission in January, 2016 authorizing the filing of the grant application, which was approved.

The county had applied for and been denied the grant twice before within the preceding two years. But the last time in order to improve its chances, the county asked for a little less grant money while the DeKalb Utility District committed to ante up more in its local match commitment.