Committee to Begin Work on County Redistricting Plan Next Week

August 31, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Redistricting Committee will meet next week to begin the process of preparing a redistricting plan for the county based on results of the 2020 Census count. The meeting will be Tuesday, September 7 at 6 p.m. in the first floor courtroom of the courthouse. The redistricting plan must be completed and in the hands of the county commission by no later than October 25.

This will be the committee’s first meeting since it convened to organize in July.

In May the county commission appointed the Redistricting Committee which consists of eleven members including seven county commissioners, two school board members, the county mayor, and the administrator of elections.

Upon the recommendation of County Mayor Tim Stribling, the committee voted in July to name Administrator of Elections Dennis Stanley as Chairman. Fifth District County Commissioner Anita Puckett was selected as Vice Chairman and 4th District Commissioner Janice Fish-Stewart is the Secretary.

In addition to County Mayor Stribling and Administrator of Elections Stanley, members of the Redistricting committee are County Commissioners Shaee Flatt from the 1st district, Myron Rhody- 2nd district, Susannah Cripps Daughtry- 3rd district, Janice Fish-Stewart- 4th district, Anita Puckett – 5th district, Matt Adcock – 6th district, and Bruce Malone from the 7th district. The two school board members appointed are Jim Beshearse of the 3rd district and Shaun Tubbs of the 7th district.

By law the county commission district boundary lines must be redrawn every 10 years following completion of the United States census. The federal government stipulates that districts must have nearly equal populations and must not discriminate on the basis of race or ethnicity.

Matthew Hill, senior GIS Specialist for the TN Comptroller’s office, will be assisting the redistricting committee in preparing a plan to recommend to the county commission which has the final say on redistricting. The approved plan then goes to the election commission to redraw precinct boundary lines so that voters and candidates for the 2022 elections know in which districts and precincts they reside.

Based on the census numbers wholesale changes are not required. Districts 2 & 6 may need to gain more residents because they haven’t grown as much as others over the last 10 years while districts 3 & 7 may need to lose a few residents because they have grown too much. Overall there can be no more than a 10% deviation in population.

Although by law, redistricting for each county must be completed by January 1, 2022 , it needs to be done before the election commission begins issuing candidate petitions December 18 for the 2022 local primaries. That also gives the election commission time to set their voting precincts and update their voter rolls.

August 31, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

As Tennesseans continue to rejoin the workforce, all but one of the state’s 95 counties experienced lower unemployment in July, according to new data from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Sixty-two counties had unemployment rates lower than 5%, while rates were 5% or higher, but less than 10%, in 32 counties including DeKalb at 5.2%. Unemployment was above 10% in one county.

DeKalb County’s Labor Force for July was 7,673 while 7,275 were employed leaving 398 without work for a rate of 5.2% but that was down from the jobless rate for June of 6.3% and below the rate for July, 2020 of 9.3%.

Williamson County continued to record the lowest unemployment numbers in the state with a rate of 2.7%, down 0.7 of a percentage point from its June statistic. Moore County had Tennessee’s second-lowest unemployment rate for July at 3%, down 0.7 of a percentage point when compared to the previous month.

Perry was the only county with a jobless number of over 10%. Its July rate of 10.4% represented a 2.6 percentage point drop from its June rate of 13%. Shelby County had the state’s second-highest rate for the month at 7.5%, which was 0.6 percentage point lower than the June rate.

Weakley was the only county to experience an increase in unemployment. Its rate inched upward during the month from 5.2% to 5.5%.

County unemployment rates are not seasonally adjusted to factor in seasonal economic influences.
The statewide unemployment situation improved for the second consecutive month. Tennessee’s seasonally adjusted July rate of 4.7% was 0.2 of a percentage point lower than June’s revised rate of 4.9%.

The unemployment situation also improved nationally in July, but still came in higher than Tennessee’s rate. The seasonally adjusted rate for the United States dropped 0.5 of a percentage point to 5.4%.

The state of Tennessee is working to make job seekers TN Work Ready. Individuals can find the resources needed to search for jobs, earn a high school equivalency diploma, and remove barriers to work at www.TNWorkready.com.

August 31, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

WJLE’s “Fearless Forecasters” are returning for another season of college pigskin prognosticating Thursday, September 2 at 4:30 p.m.

This season’s regulars are Scott Brown, Jared Davis, Chad Kirby, Jeff and Grant James, Ricky Atnip, John Pryor, Darrell Gill, and Scott Goodwin.

The “Fearless Forecasters” pick who they believe will win in fourteen of the biggest or most interesting college football games of the week along with the Tennessee Titans games.

They also make an underdog selection each week.

The Fearless Forecaster with the best record and most underdog points is awarded at the end of the season.

The program is sponsored by First Bank, Davis Auto Body, Middle Tennessee Natural Gas, Love-Cantrell Funeral Home, DeKalb County Insurance, Gill Automotive, the Charles D. Atnip Realty & Auction Company, and Domino’s Pizza.

Catch the “Fearless Forecasters” LIVE on WJLE weekly starting Thursday, September 2.

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