Local Attorneys Gayla Hendrix and Mingy Bryant-Ball Want to be the Next Smithville Municipal Judge

August 27, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Two local attorneys have submitted resumes to succeed Hilton Conger as Municipal Judge for the City of Smithville.

During Thursday night’s special meeting, Mayor Josh Miller informed the aldermen that Gayla Hendrix and Mingy Bryant-Ball are seeking appointment to the position. The deadline for submitting resumes was Wednesday, August 26.

The aldermen will make their choice at the next special meeting on Friday, September 4 at 5 p.m. at city hall.

Mayor Miller said Hendrix, who is an incumbent alderman, will have to abstain from voting. That leaves the decision to the other aldermen, Shawn Jacobs, Danny Washer, Brandon Cox, and Jessica Higgins.

No one yet knows who will get the appointment but Mayor Miller said if it were to be Hendrix, she would have to resign her position as alderman.

Judge Conger, a veteran of the bench for almost 30 years, announced earlier this week that he would not seek re-appointment to another term. Conger served two terms as an elected judge and seven terms by appointment of the mayor and aldermen.

The Smithville Municipal Court, up until 2002, had the same jurisdiction in city criminal cases as the General Sessions Court, and the City Judge held court several times each month with the City Attorney serving as Prosecutor.

After changes were made in the City Charter, the City Court’s jurisdiction was reduced to mostly minor traffic offenses and city ordinance violations. The court now convenes only once per month.

The charter change also provided that the City Judge no longer be elected by city voters to an eight year term, but that he or she must serve at the pleasure of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen, appointed to a two year term. The salary is $1,000 per month.

In other business, the aldermen voted on first reading to adopt an ordinance to change the zoning classification of the Mark Wallace property on Miller Road from R-1 low density residential to C-1 local commercial. Second and final reading action will be scheduled at the September 4 special meeting of the mayor and aldermen at 5 p.m. at city hall.

The property, formerly known as Mark’s Body Shop, is located adjacent to City owned property where the water tower is located. Although Wallace ran a business for several years on his property, it was not zoned commercial, but residential. The property has now been sold and will be used for other commercial purposes.

Mayor Miller said the Smithville Planning Commission recently voted to recommend that the alderman change the zoning from R-1 to C-1.

The aldermen gave the mayor and city administrator the authority to approve change orders up to $10,000 during construction of the new police department building. Any change order more than $10,000 must be approved by the aldermen. Groundbreaking for the new police department building will follow the September 4 special meeting of the mayor and aldermen starting at 5 p.m. at city hall.

August 27, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Smithville Alderman Donnie Crook attended his last meeting as a member of the city council Thursday night.

During a special meeting, Mayor Josh Miller presented Crook a plaque in appreciation for his service to the city as Alderman for the last two years. Crook was unsuccessful in a bid for his first elected term as Alderman in the municipal election earlier this month. Crook was appointed to fill a vacancy on the city board two years ago when then Alderman Josh Miller was elected Mayor. Crook’s term expires August 31. He will be succeeded by Jessica Higgins.

The aldermen-elect, Higgins and longtime incumbents Shawn Jacobs and Danny Washer will be sworn in to begin their new four year terms in a special meeting on Friday, September 4 at 5 p.m. at city hall.

In making the plaque presentation, Mayor Miller paid tribute to Crook.

“Two years ago when I became Mayor, we appointed Mr. Donnie Crook. When I became mayor I had a lot of phone calls from a lot of people wanting me to appoint them to the city council. I had a lot of good qualified people that would have done a great job. Mr. Crook did not call me. I called him. Mr. Crook I appreciate you filling my position. You have done a great job. Thank you for your service. This plaque says ‘Donnie Crook in appreciation for your two years of loyal and dedicated service to the City of Smithville as Alderman’”.

“Thank you I have enjoyed it,” replied Crook.

August 27, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County Volunteer Firefighter Blake Cantrell has been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.

Chief Donny Green made the announcement during Monday night’s county commission meeting. Joining Chief Green in making the Lieutenant helmet presentation to Cantrell were Captain Jay Cantrell and Lieutenant Dusty Johnson.

“Blake is one of our firefighters at the Cookeville Highway Station. We have a promotion process in the fire department where firefighters have a pathway to be promoted to rank. This involves written testing, practical skills testing, and leadership development. Blake has been a candidate for the office of Lieutenant. He has been working on that for a few years now. He has previously served as our department’s communications officer. He spends a lot of his time programming our pagers and radios, working on radios and getting stuff into the shop, etc. He demonstrated some exceptional leadership skills even before he got here for this promotion. He officially began as Lieutenant July 15. We wanted to share this with you. This is your fire department and I want you to know who your leaders are. This team does a tremendous job in leading our fire department across the 12 stations in our county,” said Chief Green.

Green also updated the commissioners on a $427,360 Assistance to Firefighters Grant the county has been awarded for the fire department. The AFG Program is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

The funding award will be used to purchase Self-contained Breathing Apparatuses (SCBA’s) and associated equipment to serve all 12 of the department’s stations across the county. The Federal share of this award is $407,009.52 and the local matching share, to be provided by the DeKalb County Government, is $20,350.48.

“We got this grant about two weeks ago in the amount of $427,000 to replace our self contained breathing apparatus. To tell you what that means, those have 15 year life cycles on them and ours are 15 years old. Had we not gotten this grant we would have been coming to you (county commission) for 427,000 for this life saving equipment. The county’s part of that is 5% so we’re paying $20,000 for $407,000 worth of equipment. We’re proud to get this federal money to help us out on these local expenses,” said Chief Green.

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