DCHS Awards Student and Parents of the Month for August

September 18, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County High School has awarded its student and parents of the month for August.

Emily Anderson, a junior, received the honor last Thursday for “Student of the Month” while Dan and Marianna Boyd are “Parents of the Month” based on a winning essay by their daughter Chloe Boyd, a sophomore at DCHS.

Emily, daughter of Jamie and Holly Anderson, said she was honored to have been named “Student of the Month”.

“It’s a really big accomplishment and I am honored that the teachers chose me for that this month,” said Anderson.

In addition to her talents on the course as a member of the DCHS golf team, Emily is a member of the Service Society, BETA Club, Student Government, and the Science Club. Emily is a dual enrollment student meaning she is working toward an Associate’s degree from Motlow State Community College while still in high school. After high school, Emily said her plans are to attend Tennessee Tech. “I plan on graduating from high school with my associate’s degree in general education and I want to be a high school math teacher,” she said.

Emily has one sister, Hannah Brown.

“Emily was nominated by a teacher and then was voted on by school wide staff to win this award,” said Assistant DCHS Principal Seth Willoughby. “Emily is always smiling and helping others. She keeps up with her schoolwork while playing golf and working after school,” he said.

When the award was announced and the photo made of the award presentation last Thursday, Emily was dressed as an older person in conjunction with the DCHS Homecoming week observance of “Dress up Day”. The theme for that day was to dress as an older person or in black and gold.

Chloe Boyd said writing a winning essay in tribute to her parents Dan and Marianna was a labor of love and it took them by surprise.

“They were surprised, and I loved seeing their faces. My mom started crying. It was just a really good family moment and memory we will always have to share,” said Chloe.

“My parents have always been my supporters since day one. They taught me how to play golf and like I said in my essay, they taught me how to tie my shoes, ride a bike, etc. Since they have always been my biggest supporters, I always felt like I needed to reward them for how many times they rewarded me so in writing this essay I felt like I needed to show them how much I love them by putting in my time and effort like they do,” added Chloe.

Like Emily, Chloe is among the talents on the DCHS Golf team, and she is a member of the Yearbook Club, Service Society, and this year she plans to help in the annual DCHS Beautification Day in the spring.

After high school, Chloe plans to further her education at a Division I college and play golf and then get on the LPGA Pro Tour when she is older. “I just want to help others so I am hoping my major in college will be something in the medical field so I can help others maybe in sports medicine”.

September 17, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

A bomb threat arrest!

Smithville Police have made an arrest in the courthouse bomb threat investigation from last Thursday.

39-year-old Matthew Dewayne Griffith of Bright Hill Road, Smithville has been charged with filing a false report. His bond is $50,000 and he will be in General Sessions Court on October 3.

Chief Mark Collins said that on Thursday, September 12 Griffith did intentionally initiate a report of an impending bombing while knowing the report was false by calling the DeKalb County 911 center and stating that there was a bomb at the DeKalb County Courthouse set to go off at 10:30 a.m. The courthouse was evacuated after the threat was phoned in and a search was made of the building. No explosives were found.

No other arrests have been made and a motive for the threat has not been established. The investigation continues.

The case was investigated by Lieutenant Detective James Cornelius and Detective Brandon Donnell of the Smithville Police Department.

September 17, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

A step toward county zoning.

Amid citizens’ complaints about quarry operations in their neighborhoods, members of the county’s health, education, and public welfare committee Monday night voted to recommend to the county commission that it authorize the regional planning commission to develop a plan of zoning regulations for DeKalb County outside the municipalities that already have zoning.

The county is currently powerless to prevent or regulate such operations as quarries and even with implementation of the County Powers Act, the county would still be limited in what it could do.

Several residents, particularly from the Snow Hill and Liberty areas, showed up at the meeting to vent their frustrations about the quarry operations under development and to ask the county to intervene.

With plans underway for a quarry by Smyrna Ready Mix Concrete Company at the foot of Snow Hill off Highway 70 on North Driver Road, another company, Jones Brothers Construction LLC is preparing for a quarry operation of its own, Jones Alexandria Quarry at 2159 Old Highway 53 between Liberty and Alexandria.

Committee Chairman Larry Green said that while the County Powers Act could be effective in addressing public grievances about garbage piled up, too many junked cars parked in yards and other nuisances affecting neighbor’s properties, it would not be the answer for citizens with quarry complaints.

“This information we got from the County Technical Assistance Service (CTAS) gives us the exclusions of what the County Powers Act can do,” said Green. “As far as a rock crusher coming in, the County Powers Act is not going to stop it. Even if we had it in effect when it (quarry) came in it still wouldn’t stop it. The state exempts from the County Powers Act surface mining, production of oil and gas, and activities covered by environmental protection regulations dealing with air pollution, atomic energy, and solid waste disposal and management. The county commission has to abide by state regulations and the things the state regulates, we cannot,” explained Green.

Zoning, Green said would be the more appropriate approach.

“If we adopted zoning it would do more to prevent things like that (quarries) from coming in than anything we could do with the County Powers Act. It would not stop anything here now. We could just prevent something undesirable from coming in the future. Cannon County and Smith County have already done it,” said Green.

According to Tommy Lee, UCDD staff planner and advisor to DeKalb County, Cannon County implemented zoning primarily to keep a landfill out. Green said Lee made mention of that during a recent planning commission meeting after the issue of zoning here was raised by member Beth Pafford.

“He said Cannon County did it because the landfill in Murfreesboro is always up for discussion on whether they want to close it or not and they don’t want it to come to Cannon County. Zoning would stop things like that from coming in,” said Green.

“He (Lee) said 95% of Cannon County is zoned agriculture or for single family residents,” added Green.

“We could make a recommendation to the county commission to authorize the planning commission to come up with zoning regulations,” he said.

“We could zone everything either agriculture, single family residential, commercial, or industrial, “said Green. “Lets say somebody came in and wanted to buy a big farm to put in an industry or anything else. It would have to go before the planning commission or zoning commission to be rezoned after public hearings,” said Green.

Committee member Mathias Anderson agreed with Chairman Green that a zoning plan would be a better option for DeKalb County over the County Powers Act and he made a motion to send a recommendation accordingly to the county commission. The committee adopted Anderson’s motion. There was no committee recommendation for the county to move forward with implementation of the County Power’s Act.

“I looked this up on CTAS and there is a list of industries that cannot be prohibited by the County Powers Act and surface mining, or rock quarries falls under that,” said Anderson. “The County Powers Act wouldn’t do anything to prevent what’s currently here or what might come in the future. If zoning is what can help us in the future that’s what we need to look at and then we can go from there,” said Anderson.

Max Knudsen, who lives near the SRM quarry on South Driver Road was among those who addressed the committee Monday night during the public comment period. Knudsen said because of this quarry neighbors for several miles will be affected by silica dust

“I don’t even know what nuisance you call that,” said Knudsen. “It affects your eyeballs. It affects your kidneys. It affects your lungs. It is sharp and jagged and its going to leave a mark in every soft tissue you have. I can’t farm anymore where I live. Forget about if I get sick. I will not subject my goats to that. I will not subject my clients in Nashville who come to cuddle my baby goats because they will be covered in silica dust. I am the closest neighbor to this very dangerous and toxic monstrosity, and this is damaging me,” said Knudsen.

Chris Tramel, who lives near the Jones Alexandria Quarry, implored the county to take action.

“I have a quarry trying to come in behind me,” said Tramel. “It used to be good fences made good neighbors but now quarries are coming in and companies are burning pallets in Dowelltown and Liberty. They are not our neighbors. They are not from here. Fences don’t stop smoke, dust, and poisoning your well. A few years ago, we had a chicken plant try to move in (DeKalb County). I don’t want a chicken plant next to me. I know where one is at and you don’t want to be within five miles of it. Right now, there is not anything to stop them from putting it right next to one of your houses. I don’t know about the County Powers Act, but zoning works yet its probably too late for me. These people are what my granddaddy would call carpetbaggers. They don’t live here. They come in and take advantage of us because we are letting them. Lets do something,” said Tramel.

If the county can’t prevent the quarries already here from operating, Doug Walter, a resident of Nashville Highway near the SRM location, suggested that a meeting be arranged between the companies and the county to find ways to lessen the impact on communities.

“I live 1,500 feet from the quarry,” said Walter. “What if we get the owner or a representative from SRM to come into town and meet with some of our county representatives or citizens and talk about what they can do to affect our community to be good neighbors. There’s a lot of things they can do at that quarry to knock down the dust. How about blasting mats or a sprinkler system? There are practical things they could do,” said Walter.

A resident of Old Mill Hill Road offered another suggestion. “I guess what I would like to maybe see is something to go forward that would require zoning for corporations and big business but something that does not affect regular citizens and small businesses”.

Lucas Antoniak, a resident of Old Snow Hill Road, said SRM cannot be trusted to be good neighbors. “SRM has a history of lying to the government and obfuscating to government regulators. Coincidentally, I was across from an SRM quarry in Woodbury doing a craft fair last weekend and there was a cloud of dust blowing all weekend coming of that quarry and in the creek, it was full of sediment, and they were not even operating. They are not making efforts. They do not care about us. They are just here to make money,” said Antoniak.

The committee’s recommendation will be presented to the county commission for consideration during its next regular monthly meeting Monday night, September 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Mike Foster Multipurpose Center auditorium.

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