Mobile Food Pantry Returns January 4 (View video here)

December 23, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

The Smithville Cumberland Presbyterian Church is again sponsoring a drive thru mobile food pantry on Saturday, January 4 rain or shine.

In partnership with Second Harvest Food Bank of Middle Tennessee, the church plans to prepare enough food boxes to serve up to 300 families regardless of their income status, on a first come, first served basis.

(VIEW VIDEO FROM THE DRIVE THRU MOBILE FOOD PANTRY ON NOVEMBER 10, 2018)

IMG_2628 from dwayne page on Vimeo.

Families will receive enough food to last them for a full week. Second Harvest will bring in pallets of food on trucks. The food will then be off loaded and organized in preparation for the distribution.

Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. and the food will be distributed stating at 9:00 a.m. Unlike most food distributions, those being served by the mobile pantry will not have to get out of their automobiles. They will drive thru in a pickup line and volunteers will deliver the food directly to their vehicles, placing the food boxes either in the back seat or trunk. Cars will line up facing north on College Street across from the Smithville Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

“We will line up right across from the church (Smithville Cumberland Presbyterian Church) on College Street. We’ll start registration at 8:00 a.m. We’ll need the name of the recipients and how many families are being served. We’re limited to two families per vehicle to make sure we have enough food,” added Isaac Gray, Minister of the Smithville Cumberland Presbyterian Church.

Others who wish to volunteer may show up Friday, January 4 or call for more information at 615-516-6662 or 615-597-4197 between 8 a.m. and noon.

December 21, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

Children at the Smithville Head Start Center were treated to bags of gifts Friday thanks to the Smithville Police Department’s “Cops4Kids” program.

In what has become an annual event, Police Chief Mark Collins, Mayor Josh Miller and other members of the police department joined Santa in presenting the children with the gifts. Other guests included the Doug Collins Family who sang for the children and Randy Pedigo, a local minister who shared the Christmas story.

“This is the fifth year I have been doing it. It’s a really good day for us. I don’t know who gets the most out of it us (Police Officers) or the kids but we come and spend a couple of hours with the children here at Smithville Head Start and we bring them gifts. Santa Claus makes a special appearance. We have singing. Its just a good thing for them. All the guys at the police department really enjoy it,” said Police Chief Collins.

The bags of gifts for the kids were provided as a courtesy of Cash Express of Smithville who recently held a collection drive. Others make personal donations toward the effort.

Doug Collins from dwayne page on Vimeo.

“Cash Express in Smithville and the girls there are phenomenal . They put out collection boxes in the community and the public donated toys. Cash Express in turn gave the toys to us. Each year if we don’t have enough gifts we go and buy what we need for these kids but most of the gifts come from Cash Express from the donations made to them by the citizens of DeKalb County and I want to say thank you to all. You really have to be here to experience how touching this is because this may be the only Christmas some of these children get because their parents can’t afford to buy Christmas gifts,” added Chief Collins.

December 19, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Jail and Annex will be recertified for another year.

Sheriff Patrick Ray reported to the county commission Thursday night that the Tennessee Corrections Institute has granted recertification now that the county has agreed to seek a partnership with TCI and the County Technical Advisory Service (CTAS) in developing a “plan of action” for addressing deficiencies found at the Jail and Annex during recent state inspections. TCI had threatened to decertify the jail had the county not requested the partnership.

A “plan of action” allows a facility to maintain a certified status after failing to meet all minimum standards while demonstrating to the TCI Board of Control that the facility is making measurable progress over a period of time (months or years) to rectify deficiencies found during inspection.

“I went before the TCI board in Nashville on December 4 and explained to them that we had requested to enter into a plan of action partnership that you (county commission) agreed to and Tim (County Mayor) and I signed. They accepted that request and also recommended 2019-20 recertification of the jail because we had gone into that plan of action with them. We are still awaiting our certification paperwork from the state,” said Sheriff Ray.

“As part of the partnership, my office has to send a monthly report to them (state) of what we are doing . For example, I will include in my December report that I met with TCI and that I reported to you (county commission) tonight about that meeting. We have to do updates to keep the state informed on what we are doing to resolve any issues they have found at the jail,” added Sheriff Ray.

County Mayor Tim Stribling said the next step is for the county to comply with the state’s request to form an ad hoc committee to begin discussions on meeting needs at the jail.

“We entered into a plan of action partnership with the TCI for the purpose of overseeing the needs of the jail and TCI has indicated that we need an ad hoc jail committee. I am asking that county commissioners Beth Pafford, Matt Adcock, Anita Puckett, Bobby Johnson, Sabrina Farler, and Scott Little serve on that committee with me, Sheriff Ray, and Chief Deputy Robert Patrick. Our first meeting with Bob Bass of TCI will be on January 13 at 5:30 p.m. at the Veterans building. TCI has also requested that our criminal court judges, Gary McKenzie and Wesley Bray also be part of the meeting,” said County Mayor Stribling.

Several findings were identified during a state inspection of the jail on August 22 and while a follow-up inspection on October 4 revealed some of the issues had been addressed, others remain which will require a longer term fix. Although many of these same deficiencies have existed for years, both the jail and annex have consistently passed annual state inspections until this year.

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