DWS Volunteers for Smithville First Baptist Clothing Closet

October 21, 2018
By: Bill Conger

The DeKalb West School Junior Beta Club lent a helping hand Saturday (October 20) to the Smithville First Baptist Church Clothing Closet. Marshall Farler, Aniston Farler, Aly Griffith, Madison Martin, Chloe Dies, Kolton Slager, Evan Prichard, Alex Antoniak, and his brother, Brayden Antoniak from D.C.H.S. sorted and hung up clothes and books that the community had donated.

Sponsored by Smithville F-B-C, the Clothing Closet assists people who are referred from Department of Children’s Services, Haven of Hope, Recovery Court, and Head Start. Since 2011, the Clothes Closet has strived to help needy families in DeKalb County, but the organization reaches out to a variety of other organizations in the state and around the world.

October 21, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

A total of 1,212 have cast ballots during the first five days of early voting for the November 6 Tennessee General Elections.

According to Administrator of Elections Dennis Stanley,  246 voted Monday (245 in person and 1 by absentee); 214 voted Saturday (207 in person and 7 by absentee); 263 voted Friday (260 in person and 3 by absentee). On Thursday 259 cast ballots (257 in person and 2 by absentee). On Wednesday 230 voted (194 in person and 36 by absentee)

The early voting times are as follows:

Mondays—1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

Tuesdays—9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Wednesdays—9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Thursdays—2 p.m. to 6 p.m.

Fridays—9 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Saturdays—9 a.m. to noon.

Early voting is on the first floor of the DeKalb County Courthouse.

Election day voting is 8:00 a.m. until 7 p.m. at all 15 precincts in the county.

October 20, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

After attending a workshop  Saturday morning at city hall on the proper techniques of cleaning tombstones, members of the Beautification and Restoration Committee of the Smithville Town Cemetery Association with the help of Girl Scout Troop 750 and others gathered there to put what they learned into practice.

The committee’s mission is to restore the cemetery to its once-beautiful state.  The  preservation workshop, led by Dr. Stacey Graham and her associates, was the first step in the campaign. Dr. Graham is a Research Professor for the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation.

(VIEW VIDEO BELOW: Dr. Stacey Graham (left) Research Professor for the MTSU Center for Historic Preservation, demonstrates proper technique for cleaning tombstone at Smithville Town Cemetery Saturday)

IMG_2040 from dwayne page on Vimeo.

(VIEW VIDEO BELOW OF DR. STACEY GRAHAM)

IMG_1996 from dwayne page on Vimeo.

“Basically the workshop was divided into two parts. The first part was a presentation style and then I took questions from the audience. I went over a lot of different issues related to cemeteries and shared with them some of our experiences working with other cemeteries across the state. We talked about what you can do as far as helping preserve cemeteries when you have limited resources and  the do’s and don’ts when it comes to maintenance and cleaning.  We also discussed what some of the short and long term goals can be in terms of getting more people interested in the value of the cemetery. The second  part of the workshop and the fun part is when we got to go into the cemetery to scrub the tombstones using the  proper techniques, tools, and cleaning solutions to make them look better. Going forward the participants can now take what they have learned and spread it throughout the county teaching other people,”said Dr. Graham.

Bethel Thomas, Jr., formerly of Smithville, now of Memphis and Chairperson of the Beautification and Restoration Committee, said he would like to see the cemetery become a place where the community would want to visit more often.

(VIEW VIDEO BELOW OF BETHEL THOMAS, JR.)

IMG_1995 from dwayne page on Vimeo.

“After visiting my mom and dad’s gravesite there a few years ago and observing that the fence around the cemetery was in such awful repair, I thought how that we could do better in Smithville. We started talking about a little group of people getting together and raising awareness of the needs of the cemetery with the idea that we would restore and beautify this really special space that is right in the heart of Smithville. Anyone who has relatives buried there is a member of the association but Marsha Darrah, Jane Evins Leonard, Mary Evins Overton, and I started the restoration and beautification committee and are sort of leading the charge to raise money that will allow us to restore the cemetery to its original beauty. Hopefully over the next two or three years we will make a lot of progress and do the fence repairs, put some benches in the cemetery, maybe a walking trail, historical marker, and make it a special place where people really want to go to and hopefully increase pride in Smithville and DeKalb County,” said Thomas.

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