Sounding the Alarm (View video here)

December 30, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Now hear this!

The City of Smithville now has sirens installed at three specific locations to alert the community in the event of a tornado threat and a test of those sirens was conducted today (Wednesday, December 30).

The video below shows the test of the siren on Miller Road.

A test of Smithville’s new tornado alert siren on Miller Road Wednesday from dwayne page on Vimeo.

In June Smithville Aldermen awarded a bid to Capitol Electronics for a Federal Signal alert system. The cost was $71,497. One time state grant funds to the city covered the purchase.

Smithville Fire Chief and DeKalb Emergency Management Agency Director Charlie Parker said installers for the company have been in town this week placing sirens on poles at the city’s water tank near the high school on Highway 70 and near the city’s water tank on Miller Road. The existing siren on top of city hall has also been wired into the alert system. More sirens could be added later if needed.

“We probably need to clarify that DeKalb 911 will not be activating the tornado sirens. The equipment is residing at DeKalb 911 but we have nothing to do with its activation. The system is supposed to activate when a warning is issued by the national weather service. Our only obligation is to provide space and a means of accessing our radio network. The system is self sufficient and requires no intervention by DeKalb 911 staff. I think it is important for the general public to know that we are not responsible for the tornado sirens bought and purchased by the City of Smithville,” said Brad Mullinax, DeKalb E911 Director

December 30, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Due to an outbreak of COVID-19 among members of the office staff, the Smithville City Hall building is closed to the public until further notice however all city services including water and sewer, garbage pickup, police and fire protection, etc will continue as normal.

Customers may drop off payments or other correspondence in the dropbox located near the drive through window.

If you need immediate attention please call and leave a message. For a water and sewer emergency call 615-597-4745 extension 1. Someone will return your call. As always someone is on duty at the police department to take your calls at 615-597-8210 extension 1.

Mayor Josh Miller said he apologizes for any inconvenience.

December 29, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

911 cell phone service has been fully restored in DeKalb County.

Brad Mullinax, Director of the DeKalb E911 Center said service became fully operational Monday night.

“As of last night (Monday) at around 9 p.m. AT& T restored the ability to deliver 911 calls to DeKalb County as well as many other counties in Tennessee. We are fully operational at this time and we continue to test our circuits routinely during the day and night shifts. The Nashville AT&T network center is continuing to make repairs and restore their building to a normal operational state. As repairs are being made, there may be short periods of controlled outages, but for the most part we have returned to a normal state of operation. We would like to remind the citizens that if they have trouble contacting 911 with their wireless devices to please use the 10 digit non-emergency number at 615-215-3000,” said Mullinax.

The AT&T outage was caused by the RV explosion in Nashville Christmas morning which affected 911 calling from cellular phones in much of Middle Tennessee, including DeKalb County.

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