DWS Names October Students, Teacher, and Employee of the Month

November 7, 2024
By: Bill Conger

DeKalb West School has named the Students of the Month for October. Congratulations are in order for Krishva Patel, PreK; Keegan Walter, Kindergarten, Laikynn Sparks, 1st, Kaleb Grabovac, 2nd, Miguel Ramirez, 3rd, Ty Vickers, 4th, Lilly Dunaway, 5th, Caison Grisham, 6th, Bentley Wright, 7th, and Yesica Gonzalez, 8th.

DWS also chose its Teacher of the Month Ashley Nokes, who is in her second year teaching 1st grade at the school and Employee of the Month Bill Conger, DWS School Counselor since 2007.

November 7, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Ricky Atnip maintains his first place lead among WJLE’s Fearless Forecasters picking winners after ten weeks of the college football season.

Ricky has a record of 101-49 followed by Scott Goodwin at 98-52, Darrell Gill and Dewain Hendrixson each at 97-53, John Pryor 94-56 and Grant James, Scott Brown, and Alex Woodward each at 93-57 and Chad Kirby 89-61.

For the week, Alex Woodward and Scott Goodwin were each at 9-6. Grant James, Ricky Atnip, and Dewain Hendrixson were each at 8-7 and Darrell Gill, Scott Brown, Chad Kirby, and John Pryor were each at 7-8.

Three of the forecasters hit their underdog picks last week. Darrell Gill added 6.5 points to his total with Georgia Southern’s upset win over South Alabama. Scott Goodwin picked up 7 points as Vanderbilt beat Auburn and John Pryor got 10.5 points with Louisville’s win over Clemson.

Overall, Dewain Hendrixson has 30.5 underdog points followed by Darrell Gill with 30, Ricky Atnip and John Pryor each with 20, Chad Kirby 19.5, Alex Woodward 18.5, Scott Goodwin 13.5, Scott Brown 11, and Grant James 10.5.

Today (Thursday) the Forecasters will be picking winners in the following games:

Michigan at Indiana, Colorado at Texas Tech, Washington at Penn State, California at Wake Forest, Duke at N.C. State, Clemson at Virginia Tech, West Virginia at Cincinnati, Miami at Georgia Tech, Florida at Texas, Georgia at Ole Miss, Oklahoma at Missouri, Alabama at LSU, South Carolina at Vanderbilt, Mississippi State at Tennessee and in the NFL the Tennessee Titans at the L.A. Chargers.

Catch the Fearless Forecasters on WJLE today (Thursday) at 4:30 p.m. on AM 1480/FM 101.7 and the LIVE stream at www.wjle.com.

The program is sponsored by the Charles D. Atnip Realty and Auction Company, Middle Tennessee Natural Gas, FirstBank, DeKalb County Insurance, DeKalb County Ace Hardware, Gill Automotive, Love-Cantrell Funeral Home, Wilson Bank & Trust, and Domino’s Pizza.

November 6, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

A new state funded public safety communications tower planned for the Liberty area will have to be erected somewhere else other than the proposed location at the Liberty Fire Station.

During a meeting Monday night, members of the Liberty town council voted against allowing the tower to be placed on the grounds of the Liberty Fire Station, which is jointly owned by both the towns of Liberty and Dowelltown but under a long-term lease with the county for use by the fire department and EMS. The tower was intended to improve currently unreliable emergency radio communication at no cost to either the county or city governments.

Although county officials say this particular site is not in the actual city limits of either Liberty or Dowelltown and not subject to city ordinances or restrictions, they sought the blessing of both city governments to move forward with this project. The Dowelltown Mayor and Aldermen reportedly had already met and given their approval.

Liberty Aldermen J.D Bratten, Ryan Dodd, Kevin Mullinax, Howard Reynolds Jr., and Kendra Stanford all voted no on the proposed tower location and with the request having been rejected, another suitable location will be sought out, even if it means perhaps the state working out a deal with a landowner on privately owned property in the Liberty area.

The Liberty mayor and members of the town council held a public meeting Saturday morning, October 19 to give residents a chance to learn more and speak out about the proposed tower.

Among those at the October 19 meeting to explain why the tower was needed were DeKalb 911 Director Brad Mullinax: Jeff Gray, Director of the Tennessee Advanced Communication Network, and County Mayor Matt Adcock. County Fire Chief Donny Green and EMS Director Trent Phipps were also at the meeting in support.

Gray explained that this proposal was not for a privately owned cell tower. Its strictly for public safety and was being proposed and to be funded and maintained by the Tennessee Advanced Communications (TACN) network intended to provide first responders the ability to better communicate locally and have additional coverage to talk on the radio with surrounding state communication towers during major events and disasters. In recent months the county began funding upgrades from its old analogue system to new state of the art portable, mobile and fixed radio transmission technology and it joined the Tennessee Advanced Communications Network (TACN) to eventually make the transition complete.

According to Gray, the state looks to place its towers on property already owned by either state or local governments and it tries to avoid making deals with private landowners or cell phone companies mainly due to unforeseen future costs.

“The first place we look at is state owned property and then county owned properties with a long-term lease and then private property but that comes with a challenge in potential ownership changes or cell tower compatibility. With an initial $2 million dollar investment per tower site, Gray explained that exploring other alternatives for tower location privately could become cost prohibitive over time.

“If Liberty says no we will have to look for another spot,” said Gray. “The challenge is we will have to find another spot with an equal height that allows us to look over the topography,” said Gray.

“We have never had good radio coverage in Liberty and Dowelltown so we started looking at ways to fix that with the TACN system,” said 911 Director Brad Mullinax. “ It is very important that we get a good public safety radio system. I am just asking for your consideration to approve this. It is much needed,” said Mullinax.

A few residents at the October 19 meeting, while acknowledging that better emergency radio communication is needed, said there should be more than one option to locate this tower.

“I think everybody here is in agreement that we need it. Its just where it goes. There is only one option on the table and that doesn’t make sense to me,” said one Liberty resident.

“I understand there is a need, but I would like to see what the other options are,” said another resident who lives near the proposed tower site. “Yes, its an eyesore. A 300-foot tower is huge. I already have one in my back yard and now I could have one in my front yard. I’ll be sandwiched in between the two towers. As an investment, a lot of people now don’t like seeing a (tower close by) and you can’t give property away with two towers setting like this, but I know lives are more important,” he said.

“We are for the tower but if you built a house on this property and a tower goes up next to it that’s not what you expected futuristically down the road, you have questions and we have lived in Liberty our whole life,” added another concerned resident.

One woman, who lives near the Liberty Fire Station, said she had no problem with a new tower being erected close to her home.

“I live right in front of the fire department and have lived here for almost 43 years. I don’t understand what the big deal is about the tower. It is needed. The communication down here has been sorry for years. This tower is going to go in my front door. I’m for the change. If that tower is going to change things for your emergency people, they need it,” she said.

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