Stars Shine at Saints Football Banquet

October 5, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

The stars of the DeKalb Saints Football and Cheerleading programs came out Monday night for the annual awards banquet held at the First Baptist Church Life Enrichment Center.

The biggest honors of the night went to Most Valuable Player Jon Hendrix and Most Valuable Cheerleader Deanna Agee.

The Offensive Player of the Year award was presented to running back Juan Ortega, while Wyatt Carter received the Defensive Player of the Year honor. Bryson Arnold was recognized with the Best Lineman award, while Turner Bryant was named as Most Improved. The “Saints” award was presented to Aiden Turner while Jon Hendrix, Juan Ortega, and Wyatt Carter received DMS Football All Conference awards.

Meanwhile Khloe Grandstaff won the Best Cheerleading Stunts award, while Landen Tubbs received the award for Best Jumps. Brooklynn Blaylock won the Outstanding Leadership award, while the Most Spirited award winner was Lillie Young. The Most Improved award went to Jaycee Daley.

October 5, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County High School continued its monthly observance Monday of recognizing a teacher, student, and parent or guardian of the month.

Each received a certificate from the school and a gift card for a meal from KFC. A different restaurant will be offering a meal gift card to each month’s honorees.

DCHS substitute teacher Ginger Caplinger was selected as Teacher of the Month while 9th grader Katya Hennessee, daughter of Brad and Renee Hennessee, is Student of the Month, voted on by the teachers, faculty, and staff. The parent of the month recognition was presented in memory of Mel Thompson, mother of DCHS student Kaydence Thompson. Kaydence wrote the winning essay in honor of her mother, who passed away last month, to qualify for the award

Katya is originally from the Ukraine, a country in eastern Europe, but she along with her now 13 year old sister and 11 year old brother were adopted by the Hennessee’s five years ago. For the last four years Katya and her siblings have attended school at Dibrell where her father worked as a school resource officer. This is their first year attending school in DeKalb County.

Until she came to this country, Katya didn’t speak English but over the last five years she has learned the language well and speaks it fluently.

“We met the children through an organization in Clanton, Alabama called Bridges of Faith,” said Katya’s mother. “They bring over 10 Ukrainian orphans three times a year for a cultural experience in the United States but their mission is to find forever homes for them,” she said.

Katya said she is thrilled to have been named student of the month and is enjoying her first year at DCHS. “I like all the positivity in the school. My favorite subject is math and I am in the FFA club”.

Caplinger was excited too after learning she was named teacher of the month.

“I am absolutely overwhelmed and floored. This is nothing I would have expected, I currently substitute for Jessica Griffith while she is on maternity leave and teach sophomore English,” said Caplinger.

For the last six years, Caplinger has made being a substitute a full time career. “ She has full on accepted the role as a full time teacher for those students. She has been doing everything in and out of the classroom. She has helped us with watching additional classes on top of the classes she was assigned to as a substitute. She was out for a little while but still she was assigning work for all her students and grading papers. I have never met a sub who would have even closely attempted to do something like that while they were not going to be at work at all. She goes above and beyond any of our expectations to help us out as a substitute and as a teacher. This is the perfect opportunity to award her for all the things she has done to help us and the students of DeKalb County,” said Assistant DCHS Principal Thomas Cagle.

“These awards are a way for us to acknowledge students who are performing exemplary each month. This isn’t always going to be for your straight “A” student . Its for those putting in the effort to make DeKalb County better each and every month. Every teacher can nominate a student and all teachers vote on the student nominated. Teachers are voted on by the administration. The parent of the month award is determined by student essays. Students can write an essay each month and nominate their parent for a chance to win. In the essays, students can highlight things the parents are doing in their life outside of school that we may not know about. For this month’s parent award we had double the amount of essays from last month,” said Cagle.

October 4, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

The Smithville Mayor and Aldermen met briefly Monday night, October 4 at city hall to take care of some routine business.

Last month the aldermen adopted a resolution setting a public hearing for October 4th at 6 p.m. at city hall on the proposed annexation and plan of services for a site on Parkway Drive near the airport adjacent to the Airport Park property. A local developer, Larry Hasty, wants to build a residential subdivision there. No hearing was held Monday night, October 4. Mayor Josh Miller said the hearing has been postponed until a later date not yet set.

However, the DeKalb County Regional Planning Commission will have a public hearing on Monday, October 11 at the DeKalb County Courthouse for the purpose of receiving public comment regarding a proposal to remove portions of Parkway Drive, Shady Drive, 2nd Street and Allen Street from the county road list which surround the area proposed for city annexation and to transfer ownership of those sections to the City of Smithville. The public hearing will begin at 6:00 p.m. in the downstairs courtroom. All citizens are invited to attend. Any questions or comments can be addressed to DeKalb County Planner Tommy Lee by phone: 931-979-2170 or email: tlee@ucdd.org.

In other business, the aldermen Monday night updated the city’s building codes by adopting ordinance 496 which replaces all previous related ordinances with the 2018 International Building Code, Residential Code, Plumbing Code, Mechanical Code, International Fuel Gas Code, Energy Conservation Code, and Fire Code.

The aldermen also confirmed Mayor Miller’s reappointments of members to various city boards including the following:

Planning Commission- Hoyte Barrett, Keith Blair, and Wade Smith

Beer Board- Curt Rust and Steve Hays

Board of Zoning Appeals- Wade Smith and Eddie Hobson

Smithville Electric System Board- Sandra Walls

Mayor Miller has called for a workshop on October 19 at 6 p.m. followed by a special meeting to move forward on plans for a 2,400 square foot splash pad at Green Brook Park. A splash pad is a recreation area for water play meant to enhance the enjoyment of the park, especially for kids.

“I have had several meetings with a couple of different companies. We know the location of where this would go if the board approves this. I have got a lot of positive feedback on this splash pad. I don’t have everything in I need yet for you (aldermen) to look at. I recommend that we have a workshop on October 19. We would probably need to take some action after the workshop and have a special called meeting after that,” said Mayor Miller.

The city has applied for a T-Mobile Hometown Grant through the Upper Cumberland Development District which, if approved, would provide up to $50,000 for the project. Mayor Miller said the city should know soon if the application is to be accepted.

Last year the city applied for but was denied a Healthy Places Grant through the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee Foundation which would have provided up to $750,000 in funding for a new playground at Green Brook Park. The city has re-applied this year.

The city is also awaiting word on its application for a Tennessee Department of Transportation Multi-Modal Access Grant. This program is a 95/5% match for construction of up to $1 million. If fully funded, the city would receive $950,000 in grant funding with a $50,000 local match requirement for construction of new sidewalk and crosswalk improvements along the State Route 26 (Highway 70) and State Route 56 (Congress Boulevard) corridors and intersections. The grant if approved be administered on behalf of the City by the Upper Cumberland Development District.

The Smithville Police Department will soon be vacating city hall for its new headquarters across the street. Mayor Miller said when the officers make the move it will free up some office space at city hall for perhaps others to make use of.

“We will have rooms available upstairs when our officers move out. The Jamboree Board has contacted us about office space and one more (person) has so we need to have a discussion on that,” said Mayor Miller.

The mayor also mentioned several events to be held on the public square this month.

“October will be a busy time on the square. Thursday night (October 7) businesses will stay open late. October 17  we will have an open house for our police department from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. The Habitat for Humanity Chili Cook-off and Bake Sale will be October 22. The Pumpkin Festival will be October 23 and the Smithville Boo Bash is set for October 29,” said Mayor Miller.

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