Matt Boss Named Alexandria City Attorney

November 28, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Almost unanimous

The Alexandria Mayor and Aldermen met briefly in a special called session Wednesday night and hired Matt Boss on a 5-1 vote as the new city attorney succeeding Vester Parsley, who resigned last week as the town’s attorney after 17 years of service in that role.

After Mayor Beth Tripp called the meeting to order, she allowed Boss to give an introductory statement to the board.

“I have lived in Alexandria my whole life other than the three years I lived in Alabama to go to law school,” said Boss. “I practice here in Smithville and DeKalb County. I still live in Alexandria. I have served on the city council before, and I am also President of the Fair Association. Boss, a former member of the Liberty station of the DeKalb County Fire Department, said he is no longer an active firefighter but an honorary member.

Although Boss got the nod, Alderman Sherry Tubbs was the lone no vote. Tubbs, who said she didn’t know Boss personally or as an attorney, questioned him on a range of issues from his experience and expertise as a lawyer, whether he had any write ups, his willingness to communicate and be transparent with the board, any potential conflicts of interest he might have; and whether he could withstand attempts by others to bully him and speak up for the board, etc.

“Do you think with all the hats you carry you could properly carry out the role of our city attorney,” asked Tubbs

“I think you need someone who can give you that time and I think I am very well qualified to do that knowing the challenges the city faces,” replied Boss.

Boss said he has been an attorney for almost five years and while his is a general practice, he is familiar with municipal law. Boss said he is in good standing with the board of professional responsibility with no write ups and that as city attorney he would not and could not represent anyone in an action or complaint against the town.

Aldermen voting in favor of Boss being the city attorney were Luke Prichard, Bobby Simpson, Jonathon Tripp, Jeff Ford, and Tiffany Robinson.

Meanwhile, after the meeting the mayor and aldermen rescheduled a workshop for Thursday, December 5 at 5 p.m. at city hall to discuss the pros and cons of leasing the doctor’s building in Alexandria for the new location of the police department using a portion of the salaries of the police chief and an officer for up to two years to fund the lease.

November 27, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Since the death of Tommy Webb five years ago the county has been without an official historian.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting (December 2), the county commission will consider appointing Freddy Curtis as county historian, which is a volunteer position.

Curtis, a DeKalb County native, was educated here but spent 37 years as a teacher and Director of Schools in Cannon County before his retirement. His first wife Trena, who passed away nine years ago, taught school locally for 24 years.

Curtis addressed the county commission during its monthly committee of the whole meeting this past Monday night (November 25). If named county historian, Curtis said he would like Bobby White to be his assistant and for a committee to be formed to make recommendations on converting the now vacant history room in the county complex into a local history museum.

“After my wife passed away I went back to school at MTSU to work on my second master’s degree in history, but I had to step away from it when I became Director of Schools in Cannon County. After retirement, I picked it back up and one of my classes this semester was in museum management. As part of that we have to do a project. Dr. Carroll Van West, state Historian is my mentor and my professor for this class, and he asked me what was happening in DeKalb County,” said Curtis.

“I knew about the history room at Liberty and had heard about a history room in the county complex, so I came up and looked in the history room and found there was no history in the history room. Originally that was meant to have a small museum of DeKalb County, but nothing has ever been done,” Curtis continued.

“I think most of us can agree that the history of DeKalb County is not only very interesting, but we need to be teaching it and talking about it. The only exhibits we have in DeKalb County outside of the Liberty History room is what they have at the DeKalb County Fairgrounds and at Justin Potter Library and some displays at the courthouse”.

“What I would like to do if appointed county historian is to name Bobby White as my assistant and then create a committee to look at doing some history in the history room. Bobby has worked many years and he recently retired from the Tennessee State Museum where he was a curator. After the committee is formed we would make recommendations as to what we need including security, panels, cabinets, display cases, etc. which would cost some money, but Bobby may be able to find some things at state surplus from the state museum that we could use. We would then ask the community for artifacts they would like to loan or donate to the museum,” said Curtis.

To serve as county historian, Curtis added would be an honor following in the footsteps of the late Tommy Webb, who was also a mentor to him and his former high school teacher.

“I am honored to be considered for county historian, but nobody can replace Tommy Webb”, said Curtis.

November 27, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Ricky Atnip still leads the pack among WJLE’s Fearless Forecasters picking winners after thirteen weeks of the college football season.

Ricky has a record of 133-62 followed by Scott Goodwin at 129-66, Darrell Gill 128-67, Dewain Hendrixson 127-68, John Pryor and Alex Woodward each at 125-70, Grant James and Scott Brown each at 123-72, and Chad Kirby at 115-80.

For the week, Alex Woodward had the best record at 12-3 followed by Darrell Gill, Grant James, Scott Goodwin, and John Pryor each at 10-5, Ricky Atnip and Scott Brown each at 9-6, Dewain Hendrixson 8-7, and Chad Kirby 7-8.

Three of the forecasters hit their underdog picks last week. Grant James added 3 points with West Virginia’s win over Central Florida. Ricky Atnip picked up 10.5 points as Florida upset Ole Miss and Dewain Hendrixson got 13.5 points with Oklahoma’s victory over Alabama.

Overall, Dewain Hendrixson has taken the lead in underdog points with 44 followed by Grant James with 37, Darrell Gill 36, Ricky Atnip 30.5, Chad Kirby 28.5, Scott Goodwin 22, John Pryor 20, Alex Woodward 18.5 and Scott Brown 11.

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

Liberty at Sam Houston, Kansas State at Iowa State, Marshall at James Madison, Nebraska at Iowa, Pittsburgh at Boston College, Miami at Syracuse, Notre Dame at USC, Texas at Texas A&M, Louisville at Kentucky, South Carolina at Clemson, Oklahoma at LSU, Arkansas at Missouri, Auburn at Alabama, Tennessee at Vanderbilt and in the NFL the Tennessee Titans at the Washington Commanders.

Catch the Fearless Forecasters on WJLE today (Wednesday) 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.

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