Four Seasons Fire Hall Project Delayed Again (VIEW VIDEO HERE)

May 30, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

Another delay in the construction of a new fire hall in the Four Seasons Community.

The county commission has again decided to re-bid the project after offers in the first two rounds of bidding came in too high. But this time, the county may alter the bid specifications and change engineers.

“I think they deserve a fire hall and we’ve told them (community) we’d like to build a fire hall there but I think it’s costly. I think we need to re-draw it, re-think it, and re-bid it. My suggestion is for us to take a look at the drawings and specs again and maybe have it re-drawn. I’ll get with (County Fire Chief) Donny (Green) to see if there is anything that can be cut out and we’ll re-bid it. I want to do a fire hall but I want to take care of our money too,” said County Mayor Tim Stribling during Tuesday night’s County Commission meeting.

Last week three companies submitted bids to build a new fire hall in the Four Seasons Community but they were all much higher than the best bid the county received during the first round of bidding on the project in March.

The latest bids were opened for the fire hall Thursday morning, May 24. Triton Construction of Rockvale had the lowest base bid at $257,000 with two deductive alternates totaling $19,200 (deleting graveling and leveling the parking area and deleting external stairs and lowering the walls). Quality Builders of Sparta submitted a base bid of $278,060 with no deductive alternates and Preston Brothers of Woodbury offered a base bid of $285,300 with two deductive alternates totaling $27,690 (deleting graveling and leveling the parking area and deleting external stairs and lowering the walls).

During the first round on March 29 two bids were received including one for $284,000 from Preston Brothers of Woodbury (minus $11,000 if the county put the gravel on the parking lot) and $197,000 from FTM Contracting of Cookeville (deductive alternate of $2,400).

The county commission, during its regular monthly meeting on April 23, voted to re-bid the project because the first bids received were too high.

County Mayor Stribling said two local builders had come to him recently inquiring about the project but neither submitted a bid

“Would there be an option of the county bidding this out? We have a building committee. Could they sub it out and build it,” asked Second District Commissioner Jimmy Midgett?

“That’s a possibility but anything (project) over $25,000 that the county spends you’ve got to have an engineer or architect according to Tennessee Code Annotated,” replied County Mayor Stribling.

“I can get with Donny (Green) and see if there are some things we can cut out. This is a two bay fire hall. We might could look at a one bay fire hall. You could still have a one bay fire hall with a restroom,” said Stribling.

“There are no frills. Its a metal building with steel construction and concrete floors,” said County Fire Chief Green.

“I am concerned about this because its in my and Commissioner Jerry Adcock’s district and for four years this has been on-going trying to get something constructed. This is affecting our ISO rating. I worry if we keep putting this off the bids are going to continue to get higher. We’re four years into this and not a brick has been laid,” said Fifth District Commissioner Anita Puckett.

“I know we need to look toward the future but we need to look at getting them something we can afford. I think it needs to be a one bay fire hall but it does need a bathroom in it,” added Sixth District Commissioner Betty Atnip.

According to County Mayor Stribling, current plans call for the fire hall to be 40’ x 55’ in size consisting of two bays, a restroom, shower, and a small meeting room. He said while the plans do not include any frills it will be a turnkey project with all the work including construction, concrete pad, septic tank, etc all to be done under one contract.

A new fire station at Four Seasons would be the 12th station in the county operated by the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department. The other fire halls are on Short Mountain Highway, Midway Community, Belk, Keltonburg, Cookeville Highway, Austin Bottom Community, Liberty, Temperance Hall, Main Station, Johnson Chapel, and Blue Springs.

May 30, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

The Tennessee Department of Transportation has provided to WJLE display maps for the proposed Highway 56 improvement project from State Route 288 to East Bryant Street in Smithville.

The displays of the project are in pdf format and shown in four sections. You may view each section by clicking the links below.

(THE FIRST DISPLAY MAP CAN BE VIEWED BY CLICKING LINK BELOW. THE MAP CAN ALSO BE ENLARGED FOR BETTER VIEWING. IT SHOWS THE PROJECT STARTING SOUTH TO NORTH (LEFT TO RIGHT) FROM STATE ROUTE 288)

10026300 SR56 Display 1.pdf (9.04 MB)

(THE SECOND DISPLAY MAP CAN BE VIEWED BY CLICKING LINK BELOW. THE MAP CAN ALSO BE ENLARGED FOR BETTER VIEWING. IT SHOWS THE PROJECT IN THE SHINEY ROCK COMMUNITY IN THE AREA OF TITTSWORTH CEMETERY AND MYSTIK MARKET)

10026300 SR56 Display 2.pdf (3.46 MB)

(THE THIRD DISPLAY MAP CAN BE VIEWED BY CLICKING LINK BELOW. THE MAP CAN ALSO BE ENLARGED FOR BETTER VIEWING. IT SHOWS THE PROJECT BETWEEN COUNTY HOUSE ROAD AND SOUTH TITTSWORTH ROAD)

10026300 SR56 Display 3.pdf (7.61 MB)

(THE FOURTH DISPLAY MAP CAN BE VIEWED BY CLICKING LINK BELOW. THE MAP CAN ALSO BE ENLARGED FOR BETTER VIEWING. IT SHOWS THE PROJECT BETWEEN VAUGHN LANE AND EAST BRYANT STREET IN SMITHVILLE)

10026300 SR56 Display 4.pdf (11.12 MB)

Several property owners along Highway 56 south turned out for a Design Public Meeting Thursday evening hosted by the Tennessee Department of Transportation to learn more about the state’s improvement plans for the road.

Robert Rodgers of the TDOT Region 2 Project Development Office gave a power point presentation of the plans and then took questions from the audience. Detailed maps of the project were also displayed for landowners and others to view.

The Highway 56 improvement will be conducted in three phases. The state plans to build largely two lanes of a proposed four lane project and maintain traffic on the existing Highway 56 (alignment) while construction is being done on the new portion.

TDOT proposes to let bids for two of the phases in December from south of the Warren County line to near Magness Road and from south of State Route 288 near Magness Road to East Bryant Street in Smithville. Construction is expected to begin by next spring. The third segment from near State Route 287 in Warren County to near the DeKalb County Line is not yet ready for bid letting.

“The current bid schedule is the winter of 2018. Currently it is in the December letting which means construction should start in earnest when spring begins in 2019. The second and the third phases currently are scheduled to be let together. Which end is started on, that will be for discussions between our construction office and the contractor. He may decide to start on the north end or the south end of the project,” said Rodgers.

Following the meeting, Rodgers gave a general description of the project for WJLE.

“On the southern part from the DeKalb County line up to Vaughn Lane, its going to be a two lane roadway. There will be left turn lanes at the side roads. As we get closer to Smithville where some of the intersecting roads are offset there will be some extended sections of three lanes. Once we get to Vaughn Lane we will be expanding to the three lane typical all the way up to just past Morgan Branch. When we get past Morgan Branch we will be building a five lane section with curb and gutters and sidewalks,” said Rodgers.

According to Rodgers, the state will deviate from the existing road in the Shiney Rock area in order to bypass the cemeteries.The highway will then tie back in to the existing alignment near Vaughn Lane in Smithville.

“Where the church and the cemetery are now, we are going off alignment because there was not room to fit the proposed finished road in between the two. Traffic on that section will stay on the existing road until the new road is complete,” said Rodgers.

The proposed cross sections for the project are as follows:

*From south of State Route 287 to north of Bessie Gribble Road-two 12-foot travel lanes with a 12-foot continuous center turn lane, four-foot shoulders and ditches.

* From north of Bessie Gribble Road to Vaughn Lane-two 12-foot travel lanes with 12-foot shoulders and ditches. There will be left turn lanes at intersecting roadways.

*From Vaughn Lane to north of Morgan Branch-two 12-foot travel lanes with a 12-foot continuous center turn lane, 12-foot shoulders and ditches.

*From north of Morgan Branch to East Bryant Street- four 12-foot travel lanes with a 12-foot continuous center turn lane, four foot shoulders, two-foot curb and gutter, a sidewalk within a 10 foot utility strip on either side.

May 30, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

A hometown hero credited for helping save the life of a woman involved in a March traffic accident was honored during Tuesday night’s county commission meeting.

Bobby Hull received the DeKalb County Fire Department’s Citizen Hero Award. The presentation was made to Hull by 18 year old Courtney Nichols, the woman involved in the crash.

The mishap occurred at approximately 6:00 p.m. on Saturday, March 24. Nichols was injured after her 2002 Jeep Cherokee went off Highway 56 north (Cookeville Highway) and overturned down a steep hillside embankment before coming to rest upside down in a hollow several feet below the road.

According to Trooper Sean Tramel of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, Nichols was driving south when the Jeep hydroplaned and then went out of control as Nichols overcorrected. The Jeep narrowly missed the end of a guardrail as it left the highway and plunged down the hillside north of Hurricane Bridge in the Blackberry Hill area.

Since there were no witnesses to the accident and the wreckage was out of view from motorists, Nichols went unnoticed for a long period of time. Entrapped in the Jeep, Nichols sounded the horn trying to attract attention.

Hull, a resident close by, heard the sound of the horn from his home and went to investigate. After spotting the wreckage, he sought help.

During Tuesday night’s county commission meeting, DeKalb Fire Chief Donny Green described in more detail the incidents surrounding the crash and how Hull’s heroic actions led to this special honor for him.

“On Saturday, March 24, 2018 at approximately 6:00 p.m., 18-year old Courtney Nichols, a Smithville resident, was driving home from work on Cookeville Hwy. As she was navigating a curve on a wet road, her Jeep Cherokee hydroplaned and went out of control and overturned at least once before it came to rest upside down at the bottom of a steep ravine.

There were no witnesses to the accident, her vehicle could not be seen from the highway, and she could not find her cell phone. Although not seriously injured, Courtney was trapped upside down hanging from her seatbelt and she knew her only hope was to sound her car horn hoping that someone might possibly hear it and find her.

That “someone” turned out to be Bobby Hull who lives across the highway on Blackberry Hill Road. Bobby and his wife, Judy, were in the kitchen cooking dinner and, even though it was a cool evening, they had briefly opened the kitchen window. As Bobby stood at the sink, he heard a faint sound of what sounded like a car horn. He mentioned it to his wife and they paused to listen, but didn’t hear it. As Bobby continued to help prepare dinner, he heard the horn again. At that point, he and Judy went to their front porch to investigate. They both stood on the porch for a few moments and did not hear the horn. Just as they began to go back inside, they heard the horn begin to intermittently sound again. It could have been a car alarm or someone playing, but Bobby felt uneasy and decided to pursue his sense of something being wrong. Bobby got in his pickup and drove down to the highway to the point where he thought the sounding horn was coming from. He got out of his truck and then saw skid marks in the grass that ran just behind the end of a guardrail. He walked to the guardrail, heard the horn again, and looked down the steep grade and saw the Jeep upside down at the bottom of the ravine. He immediately called 911 and reported the accident to DeKalb County 911 Center who dispatched emergency responders.

Despite Courtney’s misfortune of this accident, a lot of fortunate and miraculous things happened on the evening of March 24 for Courtney Nichols. Who would have ever thought a kitchen window could play such a pivotal role in life or death? Had the Hull’s not been cooking and decided to open the window on this cool evening, there is simply no way anyone could have heard Courtney’s car horn. How many civilians would have simply blown off the sound of a car horn as nothing very serious? After all, we’ve all heard that familiar sound of a neighbor’s car alarm going off. How many people would have been this aware of their surroundings and acted on a “gut feeling” that something just wasn’t right? I mean seriously, dinner is ready and it’s cold outside.

Although emergency responders did a great job when they got to the scene and removed and treated Courtney, Bobby Hull is the true hero because God allowed him to make a decision to act on something that did not seem normal. Without his action, it is most likely no one would have heard or saw Courtney’s car until it was too late.

DeKalb County Fire Department, DeKalb County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners encourage community involvement on all levels and are honored to recognize Bobby Hull as a Citizen Hero for making a life-saving difference in the outcome of this incident”.

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