Harlem Wizards Event at DMS Thursday Night nearing a sellout with only a few tickets remaining.

February 28, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Only a few tickets remain for Thursday night’s appearance of the Harlem Wizards, the most interactive, fun, community basketball event in the world which is coming to Smithville.

The world-famous Harlem Wizards will visit DeKalb Middle School on Thursday, February 29 at 6 p.m. for an evening of great fun and fundraising. Doors will open at 5 p.m. The Wizards will play a game against a team of DeKalb County School teachers, principals, SRO’s and community leaders. The event is a fundraiser for DeKalb Middle School. Only 102 tickets remain but courtside and reserved seating are sold out. All ticket sales will be online. There will be no tickets available at the door if it’s a sell out before show time.

Tickets can be purchased at www.harlemwizards.com or https://pretix.eu/harlemwizards/smithvilletn02-29-24-07-00pm/. DMS will get 52% of ticket proceeds. Souvenirs/tickets can be bought by cash or credit card. Concessions may be purchased on game night by cash only. All proceeds DMS receives will be used for Positive Behavior and Attendance Incentives.

Ticketholders must enter the DMS gym from the side door and the handicap entrance is from the breezeway. Courtside ticket holders get a pre-game meet and greet with members of the Harlem Wizards in the cafeteria.

The energy at a Wizards game is electric. The laughter is infectious. The dunks are rim-rattling. High-flying and awe inspiring. The hoop artistry, ball-handling, tricks, and teamwork are mesmerizing.

What really takes it to another level is the hometown participation from the kids on court experiences, to the teachers, principals and other community leaders who take on the Wizards as the “hometown heroes”. Besides cheering for their teachers, the kids are involved all night long. They will all have a chance to get on the court!

Throughout the game audience members will be asked to volunteer in different contests and acts. The experience at a Wizards game is the community, the school coming together for a night of good, pure fun and excitement and it’s a fundraiser.

The event will feature a variety of fun interactive extras to complement the Wizards’ dazzling demonstration of hoops artistry: Pregame “Wiz Kids” warm-up, contests, comedy, awesome slam dunks, audience participation, merchandise giveaways, and more. The game will conclude with the Wizards’ signature dance celebration that will have the parents on their feet and the kids moving to the beat.

Members of the DMS team scheduled to take on the Harlem Wizards that night include DeKalb Fire Chief Donny “Green Giant” Green, Smithville Mayor Josh “Mayor” Miller, State Representative “Hot Wheels” Michael Hale, General Sessions/Juvenile Court Judge Brandon “The Judge” Cox, Northside Elementary Principal Angela “ Slam Dunk” Johnson, DeKalb Middle School Principal Caleb “Centertown” Shehane, Tilly “Lil Til” Dodson of Smithville Elementary School, DCHS Assistant Principal Thomas “The Coach” Cagle, Darrin “Baldy” Vincent of Dailey & Vincent, DeKalb Assessor of Property Shannon “Big Daddy” Cantrell, DeKalb County Mayor Matt “Baby Face” Adcock, Assistant DeKalb West School Principal Seth “The Sheriff” Willoughby, Casey “Sugar Bear” Midgett of First Bank, DMS teacher Justin “Nokes Approach” Nokes, DMS SRO Joseph “The Enforcer “Carroll, DWS SRO Billy “Mayberry” Tiner, DCHS SRO Chris ”Mac Attack” McMillen, Northside Elementary School SRO Joe ”Packman” Pack, Sign Interpreter Rochelle ”Hot Hands” Davis, NES teacher Trey “Trey Shon ”Jones and Casey “Doodles” Agee Impact PT.

Chris Moore will be the announcer. Josh Agee and Kennedy Agee will serve as referees and Jeremy Haas will be the clock keeper. Kennedy will also perform the National Anthem.

Game day assemblies will be held at Northside, DeKalb West, and DeKalb Middle School with members of the Harlem Wizards making an appearance.

Sponsors include DTC Communications, Wilson Bank & Trust, First Bank, Liberty State Bank, Middle Tennessee Natural Gas, DeKalb Funeral Chapel, Good Health Family Clinic. Impact PT, Hywater Title, Assessor of Property Shannon Cantrell, DeKalb Title, Tramel Accounting, Swallows Insurance Agency, Bradley Locke of DeKalb Farm Bureau, The Rogers Group, Mallory Pfingstler State Farm Insurance, Halliburton Fencing, KFC-Taco Bell, Domino’s Pizza, and Star Manufacturing.

Special thanks to State Representative Michael Hale, Director of Schools Patrick Cripps, Board of Education, and all the volunteers, Smithville Police Chief Mark Collins and his officers for providing security and traffic control, and to DeKalb EMS.

Founded in 1962, the Wizards have played over 15,000 games throughout the US that have raised more than $25 million for schools and charitable causes. The Wizards have also played in over 25 foreign countries on six continents.

February 27, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

A man arrested by Alexandria Police only three weeks ago in a drug investigation has already been sentenced.

31-year-old Samuel Kameron Vanatta entered a criminal information plea in DeKalb County Criminal Court Monday, February 26 to possession of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams. He received an eight-year sentence all suspended to supervised probation and was fined $2,000. The sentence is to run concurrently with a general sessions court violation of probation against him. Vanatta was given jail credit from February 6 to February 26.

In a prepared statement, Police Chief Travis Bryant said that “on February 6, 2024 officers with the Alexandria Police Department, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department, and the Smith County Sheriff’s Department received information of drug activity occurring within the city limits of Alexandria. During that time we were able to identify Samuel Kameron Vanatta as a suspect. Vanatta was stopped on Edgewood Street at the city limits where K-9 Manci was deployed and alerted to narcotics inside his vehicle. During the stop a small amount of a crystal substance believed to be methamphetamine was located along with several needles, fake U.S Currency, and other items consistent with the use of narcotics,” said Chief Bryant.

“As officers developed more information from the traffic stop, a search of Vanatta’s residence on West Main Street was conducted where officers were able to recover an additional 20 grams of a crystal-like substance (believed to be methamphetamine), 2 rifles, and a large amount of drug paraphernalia. Vanatta was arrested and charged with manufacture, delivery, sell, or possession of methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, and possessing a firearm during a felony,” added Chief Bryant.

February 27, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Although it wasn’t on the agenda, talk of a new jail or judicial center was on the minds of two local residents who addressed the county commission during the public comments period of Monday night’s regular monthly meeting.

Steven Cantrell and Jerry Adcock each spoke out on the issue and had their own ideas on how to deal with it.

Cantrell implored the county to address only jail needs and requirements and to forego any consideration of a judicial center.

“As a county taxpayer I am very concerned as I watch the county discuss and evaluate its jail requirements which appear to have morphed from a county jail into a justice center,” said Cantrell. “What we need is a county jail facility to address the growing needs of the county. That’s it. We have a courthouse. We don’t need the taxpayers to fund a new justice center as part of a new jail. We need to ensure this body and its committees stay focused on that. What we need versus nice to have. But that’s not all. Upon completion of the new jail, we can update and downsize the sheriff’s building to only administrative spaces and new holding cells for prisoners scheduled for court. Prisoners scheduled for court could be brought by bus to the new jail in the morning and then returned in the evening. The sheriff’s deputies could bring the prisoners from their temporary holding cells across the street for their court dates and return them to their holding cells until taken back to the jail with the other prisoners,” Cantrell continued.

“We need to ensure this body remains focused on what the county needs and the taxpayers can afford. We do not need to spend the taxpayers’ dollars for a nice to have justice center. These are our tax dollars, yours and mine. We have entrusted this elected body with to include on those tax dollars any future bond required. We don’t need perfect. We need a county jail that meets the state’s legal standards for housing both a growing and full range of prisoners. Again, a jail based on requirements, not a justice center,” added Cantrell.

A resident and property owner, Cantrell introduced himself to the commission prior to his comments on the jail issue and provided information about his background.

“I currently reside in the third district, but I will soon be in the fifth district. Although I just permanently moved here January 14, my parents were born and raised here as were their parents and even further back. I have been a property owner since 2008 in the county and city. That’s land, house, and store buildings. I am a retired military officer as was my father, Waniford Cantrell before me and I am a retired senior government civilian. In both of these positions, like this body, I have dealt with budgets and safeguarding the taxpayer’s money. My biggest challenge, whether it was buildings or weapon systems, was working with contractors and experts who had the perfect solution above and beyond what we really needed. Part of my job was evaluating future threats based on intelligence to be sure we were adequately addressing our requirements and not overbuilding. That’s how I look at things,” said Cantrell.

Adcock, a resident of the Young Bend community, is a former 5th district county commissioner.

“The county has possession of the veteran’s building which was built around 1955. It could be destroyed, brought down and a jail could be built connected with a new section of the jail (annex) which was built about twenty years ago. That way we would not have to waste a lot of money. It wouldn’t cost as much and we wouldn’t have to look for land. We already have the land. I went to school at Tennessee Tech which is an engineering school, and most of the contractors, engineers, and architects I have ever talked to have said you can build up cheaper than you can build out so we don’t need a lot of land. We could build up there between the school board building and the law office and connect it to the new section of the jail. I’d hate to see something (jail annex) twenty years old put in a can and done away with. That is something we don’t need to do. I just wanted to get this word out to the people of DeKalb County,” said Adcock.

How many beds would be needed if and when a new DeKalb County Jail or Judicial Center is built?

The Jail committee of the DeKalb County Commission is expected to learn tonight (Tuesday, February 27) from the county’s architect and contractor what the costs projections are for a possible 150, 190 or 225 bed facility. The meeting will be at 5 p.m. in the history room of the county complex.

During the last jail committee meeting in January, Jim Hart, Jail Consultant and Field Manager of the County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) updated the committee on the county’s jail assessment revised study which now recommends up to 272 beds to meet current and future needs but there seemed to be little or no support among the committee for a facility with 272 beds.

Even if the jail committee decides on the number of beds for a new jail or judicial center, the county has not yet identified a suitable location to build it.

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