Dalton Roberts Receives Smithville Fire Department’s “Robert Eller Highest Attendance Award”

January 29, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Smithville Volunteer Firefighter Dalton Roberts received the “Robert Eller Highest Attendance Award” Friday night during an appreciation dinner for city firefighters at the Smithville First Baptist Church Life Enrichment Center.

The award was presented to Roberts by Smithville Fire Chief Charlie Parker. Roberts earned this award named in honor of the late Robert Eller, who served the Smithville Fire Department as a member and assistant chief for 64 years until his death in 2009.

Roberts, an 8-year member of the department, attended the most calls during the year including incidents, trainings, workings, and meetings. Roberts had been a volunteer member of the department for over six years when he was hired as the city’s second full time paid firefighter in October 2020, eight years after Chief Parker was employed as the city’s first paid full timer in the fire department.

The Rookie of the Year Award, which is based on attitude, attendance, incidents, trainings, workings, meetings, went to Cole Wright with 243 hours of service in those areas.

The firefighter awarded for logging the most training hours during 2021 was Dakota Nokes at 153 hours.

Captain Jeff Wright pinned badges on Cole Wright and Tyler Cantrell, the department’s two latest rookies who have completed LIVE Burn training and Rookie School and Dakota Nokes, a 2020 rookie.

Chief Parker commended the award winners and all members of the department for their commitment and dedication to the city as volunteers.

“If you add all of it together including workings, trainings, and meetings, not counting the fire calls our members have put in almost 2,600 hours and this is on top of their regular jobs,” said Chief Parker.

“This year we had 265 events including 186 incidents, 56 training events either LIVE or online and through EMS for medical certification, and 23 workings and meetings,” he said.

“Training is a big component of the fire department. You can tell how good a fire department is by their commitment and dedication to training and I think we have that here. Our people continually train to hone their skills and techniques and to maintain their certification. This past year our 24 firefighters logged in 1,580 hours of training and I want to give a big thanks to our Captain Jeff Wright. He is our training officer and has been a huge part in facilitating all the LIVE and online training we do. We are very fortunate that we have people like Jeff who also works for the Murfreesboro Fire Department and Hoyte Hale who works for DeKalb EMS and now Seth Wright who works for the Murfreesboro Fire Department. These guys are able to go to their everyday jobs where they also receive hours and hours of training and bring that back to share with everybody else here. That is so valuable to our local department,” he added.

Chief Parker talked about events highlighting the year including the fire department’s participation in the newly formed DeKalb County Swift Water Rescue Task Force, the department’s efforts in furthering vehicle extrication and rope training, a successful Christmas Parade, perhaps the largest ever in Smithville organized by the fire department, and he thanked the Tennessee General Assembly for creating incentive pay for volunteer fire departments across the state to be used for training. Chief Parker made mention of the late Wallace Caldwell who passed away in November. Caldwell was a veteran Smithville firefighter, instructor, and Chaplain of the department.

Members of the department in attendance recognized and presented certificates for their years of service are as follows:

Cole Wright- less than 1 year, Tyler Cantrell- 1 year, Dakota Nokes-2 years, Kim Johnson 6 years, Seth Wright-6 years, Dalton Roberts-8 years, Becky Atnip- 9 years, Cory Killian-11 years, Glen Lattimore-14 years, Stephanee Wright-16 years, Gary Johnson-17 years, Lieutenant John Poss-32 years, Captain Jeff Wright-35 years, Deputy Chief Hoyte Hale-37 years, Lieutenant Donnie Cantrell-42 years, Lieutenant Danny Poss-42 years, and Chief Charlie Parker-42 years including 30 years as Chief. Other members of the department unable to attend the dinner Friday night are Wink Brown, Randall Hunt, Bradley Johnson, Dillon Hicks, C.J. Tramel, Kayla Johnson, Jeff Prisock, and Andrew Cooper.

January 28, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The Smithville Cumberland Presbyterian Church is again sponsoring a drive thru mobile food pantry on Saturday, January 29 starting at 9 a.m.

The church plans to prepare enough food boxes to serve up to 300 families regardless of their income status, on a first come, first served basis.

Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. and the food will be distributed starting at 9:00 a.m. Unlike most food distributions, those being served by the mobile pantry will not have to get out of their automobiles. They will drive thru in a pickup line and volunteers will deliver the food directly to their vehicles, placing the food boxes either in the back seat or trunk. Cars will line up facing north on College Street across from the Smithville Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

“We will line up right across from the church (Smithville Cumberland Presbyterian Church) on College Street. We’ll start registration at 8:00 a.m. We’ll need the name of the recipients and how many families are being served. We’re limited to two families per vehicle to make sure we have enough food,” added Isaac Gray, Minister of the Smithville Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

Others who wish to volunteer may show up Saturday, January 29 or call for more information at 615-597-4197.

January 28, 2022
By: Mykaela Young, DeKalb 4-H Agent

“If I went back to college again, I’d concentrate on two areas: learning to write and to speak before an audience. Nothing in life is more important than the ability to communicate effectively.” -Gerald R. Ford.

A group of 4-H students from 4th to 12th grade participated in the DeKalb County 4-H Public Speaking Contest on January 11 and one of them, 11th grader Jacklyn Kleparek will be competing at the Central Region Senior High Public Speaking Contest on February 5 at Cumberland University in Lebanon.

The county contest is open to all 7th-12th graders each year and students in 4th-6th grade have individual classroom contests to earn a spot in the county contest.

Students who won 1st or 2nd in their age group at the county contest were eligible to compete in the regional competition held on Monday, January 24 in Putnam County. Jacklyn Kleparek placed in the top 5 in the 11th grade division there which made her eligible to compete in the Central Region Senior High Public Speaking Contest to be held on February 5 at Cumberland University in Lebanon.

“We are extremely proud of our students for all their accomplishments in that they are doing what most adults fear: Public Speaking! They have worked hard and overcome obstacles to be able to speak in front of a crowd. We look forward to the things they will accomplish in the future,” said DeKalb 4-H Agent Mykaela Young

Pictured: (4th Grade) back row: Natali Johnson, Riley Scarbro, Haydin Stacy, Chaelyn Hollingsworth, Austin O’Connor, Elyza Collier, Travis Childers. Front Row: Kara Kelso, Emily Roberts (1st Place), Grady Thomason (2nd place), Bentley Martin (3rd place), Aiden Cook

(5th grade) back row: Balei Benson, Kenna Sykes, Ella Kirksey, Hannah Tobitt. Front Row: Adam Brown, Payne Bryant (2nd place), Cora Cox (1st place), Emmaline Hendrix (3rd place) not pictured: Kinli Fish

(6th-12th grade): Bella Franz (1st place in 7th grade), Chaylea Lunsford (2nd place in 8th grade), Jacklyn Kleparek (1st place in 11th grade), Cali Agee (1st place in 8th grade), Triniti Kelsor (1st place in 6th grade)

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