Congratulations to the following DCHS FBLA members who placed at the State Leadership Conference.

1st place:
Sarah Ann Colwell and Jasmine Parker, American Enterprise Project
Andrew Fuson and Wesley Carpenter, Banking and Financial Systems
Faith Judkins, Addison Oakley and Raiden Martin, Community Service Project
Jasmine Parker, Journalism
Chance Mabe and Justin Trapp, Marketing
Mackenzie Partridge, Chapter Scrapbook

2nd place:
Maggie Robinson, Organizational Leadership
Anna Chew and Holly Evans, Partnership with Business
Eli Cantrell, Electronic Scrapbook

3rd Place:
Ami Patel and Emily Lasser, Emerging Business Issues
Raiden Martin and Parker Gassaway, Global Business
Madi Cantrell and Macy Hedge, Hospitality Management
Tyree Cripps, Local Chapter Annual Business Report
Madi Cantrell, Macy Hedge, and Carly Vance, Partnership with Business

4th Place:
Holly Evans, Introduction to Financial Math

5th Place:
Madison Judkins, Sophie Cripps, Chloe Sykes, Business Ethics
Trey Fuston, Noah Byrge, Website Design

The DeKalb County High School Chapter received the following Awards:

2nd largest chapter in the state of Tennessee with 125 members
Level 3 Membership, Gold Level
Club 100
Gold Seal of Merit Chapter
First Place Children’s books with over 2,000 books
Third Place Can Tabs, with 52 gallons

Raiden Martin was elected the Tennessee FBLA Treasurer. Marilyn Roberts, Lead Adviser at DCHS was chosen as the Adviser of the Year. Several of these students qualified to compete at the National Leadership Conference this summer in Baltimore, Maryland. The chapter was also recognized for our contributions to Tennessee FBLA Scholarships and the March of Dimes.

Tennessee’s 2018 spring turkey season opens on Saturday, March 31 and continues through Sunday, May 13. The state young sportsman hunt for youth ages 6-16 is March 24-25.

Spring turkey harvest numbers have been consistent for a number of years in Tennessee. Tennessee turkey hunters have passed the 30,000 harvest mark for 15 consecutive years during the spring hunting season.

Hunting hours for turkeys are 30 minutes prior to legal sunrise until legal sunset. Legal hunting equipment includes shotguns using ammunition loaded with No. 4 shot or smaller. There is no restriction on number of rounds in magazine. Longbows, recurve bows, compound bows, and crossbows are permitted.

Firearms and archery equipment may have sighting devices except those devices utilizing an artificial light capable of locating wildlife. Night vision scopes are illegal.

Bag limits are one bearded turkey per day, not to exceed four per season. Any turkeys harvested during the young sportsman hunt count toward the spring season limit.

More information on the 2018 spring turkey season can be found in the 2017-18 Tennessee Hunting & Trapping Guide. The guide is available at TWRA offices, license agents, and online at www.tnwildlife.org.

A celebration was held Thursday to commemorate the centennial anniversary of a downtown landmark and its recent renovation.

Local attorney Jeremy Trapp and his family and staff hosted an open house to show off his law office located on what was once referred to as “the white corner” on the public square, the former home of Cantrell’s Jewelry.

Director Suzanne Williams and other representatives of the Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce were on hand to present a Community Improvement Award.

The two story building with 1200 square feet on each floor was erected 100 years ago and has been used for a variety of purposes including a bank, department store, dentist office, jewelry store, and law office.

Trapp relocated his law office there a few years ago after purchasing the building and making renovations.

“I purchased the building from Imogene Cantrell a few years ago when it was Cantrell’s Jewelry and I just wanted to do a complete renovation of the building. I always thought it would make a nice office. I thought it was a unique building. It’s taken a while. We did the outside and the bottom level first and then we moved in. A few years later we decided to go ahead and do the top floor of the building, which really hadn’t been used much except for storage since about the 1940s. We basically gutted the top and completely renovated that too so now the whole building is completely restored after 100 years and we’re using both floors for law office space,” said Trapp.

Trapp said there are a lot of interesting facts about the history of the building.

“It started out around 1917-18 as People’s Bank & Trust of DeKalb County. That is what it was originally built for. In the late 1920’s First National Bank bought out or took over the bank. From that time period until about maybe the late 1950s or early 60s it was actually Puckett’s Department Store for a while. We have a picture of that. Not many people remember Puckett’s Department Store being at this location. I believe Joe L. Evins bought it from First National Bank and let Puckett’s Department Store rent it for a while until Imogene and Max Cantrell bought the building in 1965. From that time on, she and Max owned it,” said Trapp.

A dentist and attorney also made use of the upstairs portion of the building many years ago.

“In the old days there was a dentist office upstairs. I talked to some older clients who had actually been up here when it was a dentist office. There was also an attorney’s office in one part of the upstairs building. His name was R.L. Turner and that name was still on the door on the top level when I bought the building,” Trapp continued.

Since acquiring the building, Trapp has added a stairwell to gain access to the upstairs from the first floor, as the original structure had none.

“They didn’t have a stairwell in. The only access to the upstairs was from the outside of the building in an area that joins the neighboring or adjacent building. It was basically an easement that both buildings used to get to the top half of each building. I went ahead and put in a whole new stairwell and made it look really nice,” said Trapp.