Police Say Woman Shows Up At School Intoxicated

November 21, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

A woman who showed up at school drunk last week has been charged with public intoxication.

46 year old Kristie Renea Shehane of 497 Grand View Drive was arrested on Thursday November 15. Police responded to Northside Elementary School where a woman was reported to be possibly intoxicated. Upon arrival the officer spoke with the suspect, Shehane and noticed that her speech was slurred and she had a strong odor of alcohol about her person. Shehane was asked to step outside but while standing she became unsteady on her feet and almost fell several times. The officer escorted Shehane to a bench outside and learned that she had consumed alcohol earlier in the day.  After refusing to submit to sobriety tasks, Shehane was taken into custody.  Her bond is $1,500 and she will make a court appearance on December 6.

47 year old Marcus John Peregoy of 457 Hodges Road was arrested on Monday, November 5 for simple possession and cited for simple possession and possession of drug paraphernalia. While on routine patrol, police spotted a hooded man around 10 p.m. walking toward the trees behind Wal-Mart who looked suspicious. The officer confronted the man, Peregoy and learned that he is on probation. After consenting to a search, Peregoy was found to have in his right front pocket a black container with 2 round white pills and 2 white pill pieces believed to be Buprenorphine Hydrochloride and 3.2 grams of a white crystal-like substance which tested positive for methamphetamine. The officer also found on Peregoy a glass pipe and a metal pipe. Bond for Peregoy is $10,000 and his court date is December 6.

26 year old Christopher Gene Adams, formerly of Sober Living Halfway House and now a resident of 509 South College Street, was arrested for public intoxication on Tuesday, November 6. Police responded to a call of a person lying on the ground near Kwik N Ezy on East Broad Street and found Adams on the grass behind the store. Adams had a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from his person. His speech was slurred and he was unsteady on his feet. Adams was unable to perform field sobriety tasks due to his level of intoxication.  For his safety and that of the public, Adams was placed under arrest. His bond is $1,500.

35 year old Jaquantez “Bud” Shermont Pearson of McMinnville was arrested on Tuesday, November 6 for a second offense of driving on a revoked license. Police responded to a 911 call at 109 Oak Street and learned that Pearson was an unwanted guest there. Although he had driven a Ford Expedition to the residence, Pearson didn’t have a valid driver license.  A computer check revealed that Pearson had a previous charge against him for driving on a revoked license on August 13, 2017 and that his license were revoked for failing to pay fines on an original violation from March 17, 2007. Pearson was placed under arrest. His bond is $2,500.

40 year old Darnell Fieldon Lee Gurley of 624 Estes Street was arrested on Wednesday, November 7 for violation of a protection order and a child support attachment. Police went to the residence to serve an active warrant on Gurley for a child support offense and found him hiding inside a closet. A computer check revealed that he has an active order of protection against him and is to have no contact with the petitioner who lives at this home. Gurley was placed into custody on the warrant and charged with violation of a protection order. Bond for Gurley is $6,500 and his next court date is December 6. He will make a court appearance for the child support attachment on January 16.

42 year old Anthony Shane Seals of Rogersville was arrested on Sunday, November 11 for a third offense of driving under the influence and he was cited for traffic control device/signal, financial responsibility, unregistered vehicle, and a second offense of driving on a revoked license.  After spotting a vehicle failing to stop at the red light on West Broad Street, police initiated a traffic stop and spoke with the driver, Seals. The officer detected an odor of alcohol coming from inside the vehicle and learned that Seals had been drinking earlier in the day. Seals consented to field sobriety tasks but performed poorly. Police also discovered that Seals’ license have been revoked since July for failure to maintain proof of financial responsibility. Although Seals has a restricted license he was determined to be in violation for not having a required alcohol interlock device installed in his vehicle.  Seals’ prior DUI offenses were on February 22, 2017 and August 13, 2018 .The vehicle he was driving was also improperly tagged and not registered to him. Seals was first taken to the hospital for a blood draw and then to jail where he was booked for the DUI.  Seals’ bond is $5,000 and his court date is December 6.

30 year old Matthew Robert Geekie of 111 Hayes Street was arrested on Thursday, November 15 for filing a false report. While assisting county deputies in serving a warrant, police were informed by Geekie that the person they were looking for was not at this residence although when officers were approaching the house they saw that individual through a window. Police warned Geekie that he could be charged for making a false report if he continued to lie to them but he again insisted that the person they were looking for was not there and said that they could go inside and search the residence. After entering the home, a deputy found the individual hiding in the back part of the house. Geekie was then arrested without incident.  His bond is $5,000 and he will appear in court December 6

42 year old Walter Shane Ogle of Liberty was arrested on Friday, November 16 for driving under the influence. Police responded to the area of Whaley Street due to a possible DUI. Upon arrival the officer spotted a vehicle matching the description turn into a driveway.  He activated his blue lights and stopped the automobile. The officer spoke with the driver, Ogle and noticed that his speech was slurred and while stepping from the vehicle Ogle was unsteady on his feet. He submitted to but performed poorly on field sobriety tasks. Ogle’s bond is $1,500 and his court date is December 6.

November 21, 2018
By: Bill Conger

The DeKalb West School Junior Beta Club won second place in the Robotics competition at the Tennessee Junior Beta Convention.  As a result, they have been invited to compete at the National Junior Beta Club Convention in Oklahoma next summer.  On the DWS Robotics team were Isaac Brown, Bralin Moss, Alex Antoniak, Brayden Carter, Xavier Parker, John Ellis, Aniston Farler, and Matt Nokes.

“The group of students working with robotics worked really hard to prepare for the competition,” says DWS Jr. Beta Club Lead Sponsor Jessica Antoniak.

Antoniak says a mix-up with the order for the LEGO Mindstorms robot order delayed work on the project until three short weeks before the competition.

“As soon as the set arrived, they built a basic robot, so they could learn how to program it,” Antoniak explains. “They brainstormed ideas to represent the convention theme: Reduce, Reuse, and Refine. The students working on programming modified the basic robot to make it work for their idea. Simultaneously, the props team started working on ideas to help with their interpretation of the challenge.”

“As the programming team worked on the original plans, they decided the idea as well as the robot needed to be completely revised. They started over from scratch with only two days before competition and worked down to the last minute.”

Thirty-one students along with parents and sponsors attended the convention November 18-20 at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville.

D-W-S students competing in the Performing Arts were Tess Barton, Blair Gipe, Alyssa Crook, Madison Martin, Brooklyn Sutherland, Brynn Harvey, Ally Tarpley, Kayleigh Overstreet, and Ella Hendrixson.  Parent Mary Puckett coordinated the event along with Maranda White, DWS 4th grade student teacher.

“I’m no Josh Isaac,” Puckett humbly says, referring to the talented award-winning coordinator for the DMS Performance Group. “He’s pretty special, but I do have rhythm, creativity, vision, and some dance experience so I just took what I knew and came up with a step routine.  I hadn’t stepped at all since college when I first learned about it from attending a step show at Duke University, but I loved the art form from the minute I saw it years ago.”

“Getting all those steps down after hundreds and hundreds of attempts was tough. They did it though!  Having never been on the Beta convention stage created some issues for us with our spacing, but we learned so much that will improve our performance next year.”

“Our performance went awesome despite a few mistakes,” says Puckett. “For most of the girls, this was their first time in front of a big audience. They brought tears to my eyes to see their energy up there. We were surprised to hear so many people say how much they truly enjoyed it and how they thought we made an impressive showing. Our routine was certainly different than any of the other groups in our category, and we learned from all those groups other elements we might want to incorporate for next year.”

“We really liked our routine and the type of dance we were doing,” says Jr. Beta member Tess Barton. “Everyone had to concentrate hard to not forget their lines.  We hoped so much that the judges liked us, but we were also feeding off the energy of being in front of an audience and on a big stage, so it was a total adrenaline rush.”

Brett Walker, Matt Nokes, Kayleigh Overstreet, Jackson Vantrease, and Ella Hendrixson made up the Engineering team.

“We were given a list of supplies to bring for a tower to build with no real direction or specifications until the competition started,” Antoniak explained. “Our group built their tower with craft sticks, straws, aluminum foil, and card stock. Their tower successfully held a tennis ball.”

Kolton Slager, Cameron Bailey, Lane Goss, and Riley Fuson were in the Technology competition. Ally Tarpley, Bonnie Hale, and Maressa Rose created the Service Learning Showcase project. Gabby Wheatley entered Two Dimensional Design, Madison Tarpley put pencil for paper for Creative Writing as did Trey Beilfuss (BILE-Foos). Also competing were Marshall Farler in Woodworking, Aly Griffith in Visual Arts Photography, Blair Gipe-Visual Arts Jewelry, Karson Smallwood-Social Studies, and Alex Antoniak-Math.

The D-W-S Junior Beta Club will be working out details for the trip to the national convention June 15-18 in Oklahoma City.

November 21, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

The County Commission may decide Monday night whether to proceed with the latest plan to build a new fire hall in the Four Seasons Community.

The project has been in the making for four years but has been delayed twice because bids to construct the facility were deemed too high by the previous county commission.

Original plans called for the fire hall to be a steel frame structure of 40’ x 55’ in size consisting of two bays, a restroom, shower, and a small meeting room. It was to be a turnkey project with all the work including construction, concrete pad, septic tank, etc all to have been done under one contract.

The county altered the bid specifications during the latest round of bidding hoping to bring the costs down.

“There is no steel structure proposed on the inside. It would have wood posts and wood trusses. No storage upstairs. It does have a bathroom facility with a shower and a septic tank. It would have six inches of concrete to support the fire truck and two 12 foot doors,” said County Mayor Tim Stribling during Tuesday night’s All-Committees meeting of the County Commission.

Four bids were received for this design of the firehall. The lowest came from Johnson Builders of Doyle, Tennessee. Their base bid was $160,820 with alternate deducts of $8,000 for work on the parking lot and $4,000 to add insulation to the building. The other base bids were $178,787 from Bates Construction of Smithville, $188,500 from Fuel Tank Maintenance of Cookeville, and $221,409 from Garver Builders of Gallatin.

The county already has budgeted $165,000 this year for the project from the capital projects portion of the budget.

“We have bid this three times and I can’t see bidding it again. This is about as basic as you’re going to get for a two bay fire hall. There will have to be some site work. Some dirt will have to be moved but this bid includes that,” said County Mayor Stribling.

“This is a pole barn not a steel frame right,” asked County Commissioner Myron Rhody?

“This is wood poles with wood trusses two feet apart. We can go to a single bay if you think it’s too high,” answered Stribling.

“That’s awful high for a pole barn. I know a farmer who built a 60’ x 100’ (barn) with two big bay doors, concrete and all for $50,000. He added a shed on to it for $10,000 more. His is insulated with electricity and water and I think he has a bathroom in it. I know it was built five or six years ago but I don’t think things have increased that drastically. We’re talking about building one half that size for $170,000. I am not knocking the fire hall but I just don’t see it,” said Rhody.

“I think it’s pretty high. We could build two (firehalls) for that. We need one down there (Four Seasons) but I think it would be better if we could spread the money out a little bit further and get more for our money. It could be done cheaper,” said Commissioner Bobby Johnson.

“We had the same conversation with the last commission. We all felt it was too high. People were building pole barns everywhere so much cheaper. Why? Guys, I am telling you it’s not going to get any better. This has been dragging on for four years,” said Commissioner Anita Puckett.

“Well I am not going to be for any $170,000 barn,” responded Commissioner Rhody.

“Are there other alternatives? Could the county be the contractor and sub out portions of the project,” asked County Commissioner Bruce Malone?

“You could but you still must have an engineer. Any project over $25,000 requires an engineer or architect,” replied County Mayor Stribling.

“I know this looks like a lot and I thought the same thing that we could go out and buy something for $60,000 and look just as nice but this is the third time we have done it (sought bids for the project). They (bidders) know it’s a county government and that they can get more money from it. We’re going to have to spend a little more than we would like to. I really wish it wasn’t that way. They see us (county) for what we are. They (contractors) know we have money and they want their chunk of change out of it,” said Commissioner Matt Adcock.

During the previous round of bidding in May Triton Construction of Rockvale had the lowest base bid at $257,000 with two deductive alternates totaling $19,200 (deleting graveling and leveling the parking area and deleting external stairs and lowering the walls). Quality Builders of Sparta submitted a base bid of $278,060 with no deductive alternates and Preston Brothers of Woodbury offered a base bid of $285,300 with two deductive alternates totaling $27,690 (deleting graveling and leveling the parking area and deleting external stairs and lowering the walls).

During the first round in March two bids were received including one for $284,000 from Preston Brothers of Woodbury (minus $11,000 if the county put the gravel on the parking lot) and $197,000 from FTM Contracting of Cookeville (deductive alternate of $2,400).

A new fire station at Four Seasons would be the 12th station in the county operated by the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department. The other fire halls are on Short Mountain Highway, Midway Community, Belk, Keltonburg, Cookeville Highway, Austin Bottom Community, Liberty, Temperance Hall, Main Station, Johnson Chapel, and Blue Springs.

The county commission will meet in regular monthly session Monday night, November 26 at 6:30 p.m. in the downstairs courtroom of the courthouse.

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