Wilson Bank & Trust Helps DCHS Athletic Programs Beef Up Their Weight Room

November 19, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

DCHS has beefed up its weight room for several athletic programs thanks to a little help from friends at Wilson Bank & Trust.

Coaches from the DCHS basketball, baseball, softball, and soccer programs on Friday, November 19 personally thanked Chad Colwell and Kalah Donnell of Wilson Bank & Trust for the bank’s funding of the recent weight room renovation.

“There’s no way we could have done it without Wilson Bank & Trust. We have been able to upgrade so much. The weight room is much more versatile now. Its more open, safer, and benefits all of our programs. There’s something in here for everybody and the kids are really seeing the benefits of it as well. They actually enjoy coming into the weight room more than they have in the past. Its making a big difference in our program,” said Tiger Basketball Coach John Sanders, speaking on behalf of all the coaches.

“Some of the new equipment we have is a Glute Ham developer which really works on your hamstrings. A Jump Cat Supercat that works on squat form, you know explosion. A new pull up rig where you can do pullups but also you can rack the weight when using bench press and doing squats and things with a barbell. We have added rubber plates that you can drop and they bounce. They are not like the iron and steel that would break. We got some battle ropes and barbells and dumbbells and rubber stall mats have been installed to make the floor a lot cleaner and safer. There are a lot of upgrades all the way around that have been really great for our programs but we couldn’t have done it without Wilson Bank & Trust helping us out,” added Coach Sanders.

“We are excited to be involved,” said Chad Colwell of Wilson Bank & Trust. That’s what our bank started on is our initiatives of being involved in the community and giving back. We feel that is critical. We are proud of these guys (coaches) and their programs and the time spent developing not only their bodies but their minds. This is all part of that. If you feel good, you look good, and play good. Before we started this project I saw that some of the same weights and equipment were still here from when I went through these programs as a kid and that was a long time ago so the weight room was definitely in need of an upgrade. These guys (coaches) got together and talked about the improvements they wanted in order to impact the kids. They wanted them (kids) to buy in and be involved and in the shape it (weight room) was in they just didn’t have that pride. We (WB&T) got involved and was able to buy this new equipment and repaint and this was done without outside labor mostly. They (coaches) spent countless hours not only in the weight room but on their individual fields, the basketball court, and the softball and baseball fields. People don’t realize how many hours these coaches put in but we value them and their time and investment in the community and our children. They are making huge impacts and great strides forward. We are just proud to be involved. We are proud of these groups and their programs,” said Colwell.

November 19, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Should the City of Smithville annex property on Parkway Drive near the airport for future residential development?

CHA Consulting, Incorporated of Louisville, Tennessee doesn’t think so. CHA is the city’s consulting engineer and in a recent letter to Mayor Josh Miller, Lawson S. Bordley of CHA advised the city to guard against taking any action that might interfere with the airport’s Runway Protection Zone (RPZ) or hamper future extension of the airport runway.

“With regards to your airport, in my opinion, the proposed subdivision off the end of Runway 24 is not in the airport’s best interest,” wrote Bordley. “ My recommendation is to do everything you can to make sure you do not impede the growth of the airport,” he added.

Larry Hasty wants the city to annex his property which is surrounded by Parkway Drive, Allen Street, Shady Drive and 2nd Street so that he can develop a 40 lot residential subdivision there. The mayor and aldermen have scheduled a public hearing on the proposal for Monday, December 6 at 5:30 p.m. at city hall. Neighbors have already expressed opposition to the annexation request as well as a condition that the county transfer to the city ownership of a portion of the roads surrounding this property if the annexation is to be approved.

Katelyn Sanders, Manager of the Smithville Municipal Airport, told WJLE Thursday that she agrees with the consulting engineers recommendation. “What a lot of people don’t know is at the end of our runway there is an area called the Runway Protection Zone (RPZ). As a part of that Runway Protection Zone it’s a trapezoidal area that is marked off at the end of both of our runways. We have our Runway 06 and our Runway 24. The end we are talking about here is our Runway 24 end,” said Sanders. “This area is marked off for the safety of pilots and people on the ground. The city closed a park in that area two years ago for that specific reason because we were afraid of the safety of little kids playing soccer or families there. Although aircraft incidents there are very rare they do happen and when they do they are very fatal. This development they are proposing for the end of this runway would defeat the purpose of the safety of the residents of the city. That is our main concern. We don’t want anyone to worry about an aircraft coming too close to their house or pilots worried if there is an emergency and they are running low on fuel which happened a few weeks ago so its not a rare incident. It does happen. We always want to make sure we are thinking about the safety of the people and pilots first,” said Sanders.

It remains to be seen whether these new concerns raised by the consulting engineer along with the public complaints will impact the aldermen’s final decision on the proposed annexation . Action may come following the public hearing at city hall Monday night, December 6. The public hearing is at 5:30 p.m. followed by the regular monthly meeting of the mayor and aldermen at 6 p.m.

CHA’s letter by Bordley to Mayor Miller reads as follows:

“With regards to your airport, in my opinion, the proposed subdivision off the end of Runway 24 is not in the airport’s best interest”.

“An airport’s Runway Protection Zone (RPZ) is a trapezoidal area found off the ends of all runways. An RPZ’s dimensions are determined from the largest aircraft that typically use your airfield and is to be kept clear of all development. The RPZ’s purpose is to protect people on the ground in the event of an airplane crash. The Hasty tract contains a 0.22 acre portion of the RPZ”.

“While it is true that there are RPZ violations at other airports, these are always cases where the violations date back for many years and are effectively grandfathered in. The FAA and TAD continuously work to remove non-acceptable uses from RPZs. As a case in point, in coordination with TAD, the Smithville Municipal Airport is working towards the fee simple purchase of nearly all of the RPZ off the end of Runway 6 so that you can control it. Also, a city park was removed several years ago so that your RPZ would be clear. Presently, the FAA and TAD considers new, non-acceptable RPZ uses, as a violation of an airport’s Grant Assurances”.

“The runway is presently 4,257 feet long. Unfortunately, this length is just under what most jet operators desire as a minimum length for operations. There is a clear line for a community between jet aircraft traffic and Industry. Many industries will bypass communities with runways that are too short. I have seen this over and over again in my career. While a 5,000 foot long runway would be ideal, even an increase to 4,500 would likely increase your jet traffic. Because of the topographic constraints found off the end of Runway 6, you could only ever expect to extend the runway to the northeast and are in fact, reasonable well positioned to do so. The ground is relatively flat, you own much of the property, and there are only a handful of houses that would need to be mitigated. A new subdivision would create new barriers to a runway extension. Not only would there be more houses in the path of an extension, but these new homes would likely be more valuable since they would be new and mitigating them would cost significantly more. For example, five new $200,000 homes would increase the cost to extend the runway by $1 million”.

“The airport currently has decent GPS instrument approach procedures with visibility minimums of one mile. The proposed subdivision, however; would restrict any ability to lower the approach minimums. This is due to the fact that to obtain lower minimums you would need to increase the size of the RPZ”.

“Subdivisions off the end of a runway inevitably lead to airport and aircraft noise complaints. I have seen this repeatedly in my decades of being involved with general aviation. One would think when someone bought a home near an airport that they would anticipate some airplane noise, but that is often not the case. It is likely that a new sub-division will lead to disgruntled homeowners”.

“As Middle Tennessee continues to see explosive growth, it is obvious to me that Smithville will, sooner than later, experience more development. Given Smithville’s idyllic scenery and proximity to Center Hill Lake it is a desirable place to be. With this increase in development and population will come an increase in activity at your airport. My recommendation is to do everything you can to make sure you do not impede the growth of the airport,” Bordley concluded in the letter.

The question of whether the county will transfer ownership of a portion of Parkway Drive, Allen Street, Shady Drive and 2nd Street to the City of Smithville will be answered Monday night, November 22 at 6:30 p.m. by the DeKalb County Commission during its regular monthly meeting at the Mike Foster Multipurpose Center.

During the regular monthly meeting Monday night, November 8 members of the DeKalb County Regional Planning Commission, over the objections of some residents in the neighborhood, voted to recommend that the proposal move on to the full county commission for a final decision. Member Bruce Malone tried to stop it making a motion that the request be rejected and although fellow member Jenny Trapp offered a second to Malone’s motion it failed on a 5 to 2 vote.

November 18, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Should the local political parties allow partisan elections for the school board in DeKalb County?

Party leaders have until December 10 to notify the election commission of their decision in time for the 2022 elections.

Under a new state law, candidates for local school boards in Tennessee can now run in partisan races. The legislation was signed into law by Governor Bill Lee last Friday.

Lawmakers passed the bill during a late-October special legislative session.

Backers of the bill hope it will increase transparency and accountability for school board members.

For many years local school board elections have been nonpartisan in Tennessee and candidates were barred from campaigning as a nominee or representative of a political party when running for school board.

Now, local political parties are allowed to direct county election officials to hold a party primary for the seats.

In a letter to chairs of both the DeKalb County Democratic and Republican Parties, Administrator of Elections Dennis Stanley explained that the district offices for school board up for election in 2022 can be added to local party primary ballots in May 2022.

“The General Assembly passed legislation during their recent special session that allows parties to nominate candidates for any school board office. Because you have called a primary in May, you have the option to add school board offices that will appear on the August ballot to the primary. This includes county school districts 1, 2, 3, 4, 7,” said Stanley.

“If you would like to supplement your existing call for a primary to add school board offices, you must file an original written notice with our office no later than the close of business on Friday, December 10, 2021. Like any call for a primary, we request that it be signed by two members of the county executive committee,” Stanley said.

State lawmakers originally sought to require school board elections be conducted on a partisan basis but with several Republican lawmakers speaking out against it, the bill was amended to take a softer position making partisan elections optional instead.

The bill passed the House in a 52-39 vote and the Senate approved the measure 20-10, just over the 17 needed to pass in the upper chamber. All Democratic state lawmakers in both the House and Senate opposed the legislation.

The election commission will begin issuing candidate petitions for the May 3, 2022 primaries on December 20, 2021.

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