Friday Fire Destroys Mobile Home Near the Lake

March 23, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

A Friday afternoon fire destroyed a single wide trailer home at 196 James Place in the Lakeview Mountain Estates area off Cookeville Highway.

In a prepared statement, Captain Brian Williams of the DeKalb County Fire Department said “on Friday, March 22 the DeKalb County Fire Department responded to 196 James Place for a structure fire. Upon arrival, fire crews observed a single-wide trailer that was almost fully involved. Fire crews took an aggressive attack and got a quick knockdown of the fire and kept the blaze from spreading to nearby properties. The home is a total loss. The cause of the fire is undetermined at this time. The renter Scottie Eaton was not at home at the time of the fire. The owner of the property is Mark (Pokey) Pedigo.

In addition to the responding county fire stations, the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, and DeKalb EMS were on also on the scene.

March 22, 2024
By:

Eight DCHS track and field athletes competed at Cookeville High School for their chilly and windy season opener on March 19th. DeKalb and Warren Co High School share a co-op program which allows the DCHS athletes to race and compete. The following ten teams were entered in the meet: Cookeville HS, Cumberland County, Friendship Christian, Gordonsville, Livingston, Stone Memorial, Upperman, Watertown, Warren Co, and White Co.

There were several top 10 performances from the DCHS athletes, two of those being winning relay teams in the 4 x 400.

Results:
1st place Champions:
Boys 4 x 400 (Kaleb Spears, Andrew Key, Julian Martinez, Lee-Allen Esparza)
Girls 4 x400 (Chloe VanVranken, Ella Hendrixson, Aryianna Rippy, Ella VanVranken)

Kaleb Spears: 400m 2nd
Ethan Spears: Triple Jump 5th and 4 x 400 4th
Caleb Gray: 1600m 9th
Ella VanVranken: 300m Hurdles 2nd (TN top 50)
Ella Hendrixson: 4 x 200 3rd
Chloe VanVranken: 400m 3rd
Leah Trapp: 100m 20th
Tytianna Fisk: 200m 16th

Congratulations to these athletes for representing our county!
For complete results go to : tn.milesplit.com.

March 22, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County High School Thursday recognized its staff member, student, and parent of the month for February.

Each received a certificate from the school and a gift card for a meal from El Jalisco Mexican Restaurant. A different restaurant offers a meal gift card to each month’s honorees.

Becky Miller, graduation coach and formerly a Family Consumer Science Teacher, was selected by the administration as Staff member of the Month while Freshman Niravsinh “Nera” Dabhi, originally of India, is the Student of the Month, voted on by the teachers. The parent of the month is Crystal Summers and this honor was based on a winning essay written by her daughter, Alissa Summers, a junior at DCHS.

More than a decade ago, Becky Miller decided to go back to school to earn her teaching certification after working for a while with a local CPA firm. For the first seven years of her education career, she taught Family Consumer Science at DCHS. But three years ago, Miller transitioned from the classroom to becoming a graduation coach. She is married to Brandon Miller.

Jenny Norris, Assistant DCHS Principal, said Miller was a perfect fit for the position.

“This is her third year as graduation coach and she does an outstanding job at that,” said Ms. Norris. “She meets with all of our juniors and seniors who are at risk for not graduating and she offers them support. Ms. Miller sits down with them and maps out what they need to do in order to be able to graduate. She is their biggest cheerleader and is really helping our graduation rate increase by helping these kids stay in school and stay on track. We are happy to have her in that position,” said Ms. Norris.

“I am super honored to receive this award (Staff Member of the Month),” said Ms. Miller. “It is really meaningful for me to get something like this because everybody here works really hard and they care a lot about the kids. I am so thankful to be able to do this. It’s a real fit for my personality and I love meeting with the kids one on one and getting to spend some extra time helping to coach and motivate them to graduate,” she added.

Crystal Summers said she is very proud of her daughter Alissa and is touched that she would write an essay nominating her for “Parent of the Month”.

“I’m blown away. She is an amazing daughter and I am very blessed to have her. I think its very sweet that she did this. I am very proud of her,” said Summers.

Alissa said writing an essay in tribute to her mother was a labor of love.

“I nominated my mom because she has always been there for me and I love her very much and I am happy to have her as my mother because I probably would not have made it this far without her. She just means the world to me. I am very grateful for her and happy that God sent me to her to be my mother,” said Alissa.

After high school, Alissa said she plans to further her education at Tennessee Tech and become an 8th grade math and history teacher. She is currently active in the science club at DCHS.

Meanwhile the February Student of the Month award goes to 15-year-old Freshman Niravsinh “Nera” Dabhi who came here from India with his mother and younger sister in April last year.

“Nera is one of our new students who has come here from India with his mother and sister and they are living with other family here,” said Assistant Principal Norris. “From the very beginning Nera has had the best attitude. He is always smiling, and he is picking up English very quickly. We really like having him here. He is absolutely precious,” said Ms. Norris.

“Nera is a wonderful young man. He is always friendly and the kids have really taken him in and enjoy having him here at school. The teachers love him too. He works hard,” added DCHS Principal Bruce Curtis.

Nera said he enjoys living here and being a student at DCHS and he especially likes playing badminton in gym class. Nera also likes his teachers and he has made a lot of friends at school. His sister is a student at DeKalb Middle School. When at home, Nera said he spends time on the computer playing games. He and his family are planning a trip to Nashville next week to participate in an Indian celebration.

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