Tennessee’s Free Hunting Day Saturday, Squirrel Season to Open

August 26, 2021
By:

Tennessee residents are allowed to hunt without a license on Saturday, Aug. 28 which coincides with the opening day of squirrel season.

Free Hunting Day is an event the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency annually provides in hopes of increasing interest in hunting. Squirrel hunting is one of Tennessee’s oldest and favorite traditions. The day serves as an excellent opportunity for persons to experience the enjoyment of the sport.

The TWRA encourages regular hunters to introduce friends and family members (young and old) to the outdoor sport. It is also an excellent opportunity for persons who have not tried hunting in a while to be reintroduced to the sport.

On Free Hunting Day, state resident hunters are exempt from hunting licenses and WMA permit requirements. Many of the WMAs are open to hunters seeking public access on Aug. 28. Hunters are asked to check the information for specific WMAs in the 2021-22 Tennessee Hunting and Trapping Guide. Sportsmen are reminded to ask for permission to hunt on private lands.

The TWRA offers a reminder that hunter education requirements are not waived for Free Hunting Day. Anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 1969 is required to have successfully completed a hunter education course. An apprentice license is required for those born on or after Jan. 1, 1969 if the hunter education course has not been completed. This license exempts the hunter from the mandatory hunter education law for one year from the date of purchase but may only be purchased for up to three consecutive years during the lifetime of the hunter. Those under 10 years of age do not need a Hunter Education certificate but must be accompanied by an adult at least 21 years of age who must remain in a position to take immediate control of the hunting device.

Hunters can harvest up to 10 squirrels a day from the opening day of squirrel season through Feb. 28, 2022. Each hunting day begins a half-hour before sunrise and ending a half-hour after sunset.
In addition to squirrels, those species that have a year-round season will be open as well. The year-round species include armadillos, beavers, coyotes, groundhogs, and striped skunks.
For more information about hunting in Tennessee, visit TWRA’s website at www.tnwildlife.org or contact your nearest TWRA regional office.

August 26, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Law enforcement officers encountered a bizarre incident Wednesday morning as a Cookeville man led them on a two county pursuit from Dowelltown to Lebanon on Highway 70. What they learned was that the man, 39 year old Tyson Gilbert had severed his own penis and tossed it out the car window somewhere along the route either before or during the chase. Gilbert said he heard voices on his car radio telling him to commit the act in order to save the world.

Trooper Bobby Johnson of the Tennessee Highway Patrol was the first to come across Gilbert after spotting his Honda Accord parked partially in the roadway on Highway 70 at Dowelltown.

“When I pulled up behind him and turned my lights on he took off and refused to stop. He was all over the road the whole time. He turned off on Old Liberty Road and came to a stop. He opened his door. He was naked and covered in blood. He then shut his door and kept driving,” said Trooper Johnson.

“The Alexandria Police Department spiked him (put down spike strips) on Highway 70 as he was going through Alexandria. He kept traveling westbound into Wilson County. The THP spiked him in Watertown but he continued westbound. We finally were able to box him in and got him stopped on Highway 70 right before the Interstate at I-40 and took him in custody. He was then transported to Vanderbilt Hospital, “said Trooper Johnson.

While the spike strips didn’t stop Gilbert immediately, Johnson said they did slow him down.

“The first spike strips got one of his front tires and the second got the other tire. The Wilson County Sheriff’s department tried to spike him past Watertown but missed. After that it became a slow speed pursuit with him running on his rims until we boxed him in,” added Trooper Johnson

Gilbert has active warrants against him for other offenses in Cookeville.

In addition to Trooper Johnson, other law enforcement agencies involved in the pursuit were Troopers of the Cookeville and Nashville THP Districts, the DeKalb County and Wilson County Sheriff’s Departments, and the Alexandria and Watertown Police Departments. Not all of them followed all the way into Lebanon. DeKalb County terminated its pursuit at the DeKalb-Wilson County line.

August 25, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

The number of positive cases of COVID-19 and those quarantined have more than doubled in the DeKalb County School District over the past week but schools remain open with no plans for shutting down.

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps told WJLE Wednesday morning that school districts have been left to fend for themselves on how to handle the crisis without much guidance from the state. Because of the Governor’s directives there is no mask mandate or remote learning option for schools. Parents may also choose to opt out if any school district should defy the governor’s executive order and require masks anyway.

“We are getting hit from both sides. The Governor has said we can’t have a mask mandate and there are people against masks while others are for them and wondering why we are not in masks. We also have people calling and asking why we are not shut down or why we won’t let them do remote learning. That is not our choice. That was the Governor who said we will not do masks or remote learning,” said Director Cripps.

“When he (Governor) lifted the state of emergency for education several months ago that ended our continuous learning plan that we developed and ran under last year. Under that plan if we had to close schools we could still go remote and provide educational services to our students and it not count against our inclement weather days. When he lifted that it all vanished. We’re fighting this and we don’t have any tools to fight with,” Director Cripps continued.

According to Attendance Supervisor Joey Reeder, a total of 43 positive cases of COVID and 101 quarantines were reported among students district wide last Wednesday, August 18. Those numbers have steadily grown each day and as of Wednesday, August 25 there were 114 positive cases and 301 quarantines.

“We know its bad and may get worse but there has not been a week go by since this started that we haven’t talked to some health provider and we stay in touch with the health department,” said Reeder.

“I’d say about 60-70% of our time right now is dealing with COVID. Our positive cases are rising and we do have a number quarantined and its adding a greater burden on our school nurses. Our poor nurses are trying to keep up with everything they are doing, not only dealing with day to day medical issues they have, but now they are having to deal with the COVID problem as well and its not only students but its our faculty and staff too, There are areas we are concerned about making sure we have classrooms covered as well as the cafeterias because the lack of cafeteria staff could shut a school down in a hurry if you can’t feed the kids. Then how long do you stay closed?. That’s the fight we are in right now,” said Director Cripps.

According to Cripps, the schools are basically relying on parents to report cases of COVID.

“We are not checking temperatures at the door and we don’t get reports from the medical profession saying someone has COVID. We rely on parents to call and tell us. Once we have a positive case we send letters home and a remind app to notify parents that their child is in a classroom where there has been a positive COVID student with possible exposures. We tell the parents that they have the option to quarantine their child and we advise them to please look for signs and symptoms. If the child shows signs, we ask the parents to keep the child home for a few days. Because of the number of students, we are unable to contact trace,” said Director Cripps

Although remote learning is not an option, students at home can keep up with their homework from packets sent home to them or via Google Classroom.

Director Cripps said while remote learning resulted in some learning loss among students last year, the state ought to allow school districts to re-implement it this year should the pandemic get worse.

“Our school board made the push for 1:1 devices a few years ago and we have them now so what better time could there be to use them than if we had to shut down?. We could continue our educational process by doing our curriculum online through those 1:1 devices. Not being able to do that hurts everyone involved,” said Director Cripps.

In the meantime, Cripps said he is trying to get answers from the state.

“I don’t want the community to think we’re just being idle and don’t care and are not trying to do something. I have tried to reach out to our State Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn and State Senator Mark Pody. I have made contact with State Representative Terri Lynn Weaver, who has been receptive. We would like to get our continuous learning plan (remote learning) back in place so that if we do have to close down we don’t have to add days or use our inclement weather days. We all know snow is coming and there is always a chance for flooding,” said Director Cripps.

The state requires districts to complete 180 days of student instruction each school year. If schools were to shut down for a few days, the district would have to use a portion or all of its 13 day allotment of inclement weather days, usually reserved for snow and flooding to make them up. After those 13 days are exhausted, then any further days missed would have to be made up at the end of the school year. That too poses a challenge because the state requires the district to offer summer school right after the regular school year has ended.

Another concern is food shortages.

“We are not getting all the food we’re ordering for our schools. Last week a truck dropped off a shipment at the west school but our staff had to pick up the food and deliver it to the schools because there were no available truck drivers,” added Director Cripps.

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