Smithville Mayor Josh Miller Takes Office

By: Dwayne Page

The City of Smithville has a new mayor and a new alderman.

Josh Miller took the mayor’s oath of office Friday afternoon at city hall. City attorney Vester Parsley administered the oath.

Miller succeeds Jimmy Poss who served as mayor for six years. For the last five years, Miller has been alderman. A successor will soon be named to fill Miller’s unexpired two year alderman term

Meanwhile Aldermen Gayla Hendrix and Brandon Cox were also sworn into office by Parsley. Hendrix begins her second consecutive term, and third term overall as alderman. Cox is taking office as alderman for the first time.

Mayor Miller said he is honored to serve the people of Smithville.

“I am very excited and grateful for this opportunity. I have never been involved with the day to day operations of the city but I am looking forward to getting in and seeing what needs to be done,” he said.

“One of the first actions we will have to do is to name someone to fill my alderman seat. That seems to be a very hot topic right now. Of course there are other positions, appointments and reappointments that have to be made to various boards throughout the city,” said Mayor Miller.

The mayor said he plans to seek out more grants for the city to help fund various projects, including a new parallel runway at the airport.

“We cannot do everything that needs to be done right away but we have to go after more grants and take advantage of those we can get. I think a parallel airport taxiway is very important to the airport. I would also like to see us create a parks and recreation advisory board so we can start getting more grants for the recreational areas and parks in the city,” added Mayor Miller.

Meanwhile Alderman Jason Murphy, whose term expired Friday, was presented a plaque by Mayor Miller for his 6 years of service. Alderman Cox is replacing Murphy on the City Council.

The new make-up of the city’s elected leaders includes Mayor Josh Miller and Aldermen Shawn Jacobs, Gayla Hendrix, Danny Washer, and Brandon Cox with a new alderman to be named soon.

The next regular monthly city council meeting is set for Monday, September 10 at 6 p.m. at city hall.

August 31, 2018
By:

The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development recently awarded $1 million in Tourism Marketing Grants to 84 organizations for tourism marketing.

Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber Director Suzanne Williams and Jamboree Marketing Director Shan Williams worked together to write the grant to benefit both the Chamber and the Smithville Jamboree. A total of $5,000 was awarded – $2,500 for the Chamber and $2,500 for the Smithville Jamboree.

Project 1 will be a Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival Billboard on I-40. This vinyl billboard will be up for the duration of 12 months. The first 6 months will include a “thank you for a successful 2018 Jamboree event” along with featuring upcoming 2019 festival dates. The next 6 months, leading up to the event, will feature a new vinyl graphic inviting potential attendees to join us for our 48^th annual bluegrass and old-time Appalachian music and crafts festival.

Project 2 will update our Chamber Website (dekalbtn.org) to include “Day-cation, Stay-cation, and Vacation” opportunities to the existing website.

The marketing award is a 50% reimbursable match grant which provides tourism organizations such as CVBs, chambers of commerce or regional tourism organizations a way to expand their marketing message. The partnership is designed to increase visitation to a community and travel-generated revenue, while leveraging TDTD’s brand “The Soundtrack of America. Made in Tennessee.” through marketing initiatives. Partnerships awarded were competitive in nature and limited to available funds, as well as the number of requests received.

“These marketing grants create an opportunity for our partners across the state, especially in rural areas, to double their resources for a project to promote their area,” said TDTD Commissioner Kevin Triplett. “We are glad we can make this program available.”

In 2017, the Tourism Marketing Grant budget increased from $855,000 to $1 million in funds. The grant has allowed tourism organizations across Tennessee to expand marketing efforts, thus expanding exposure for the entire state.

August 31, 2018
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Tigers will hit the road tonight to face their first region opponent of the season at Crossville against the Stone Memorial Panthers.

The Tigers opened the season two weeks ago with a 19-14 win at home over Warren County but lost to Upperman 43 to 0 last week at home.

Stone Memorial is 2-0 with wins at East Ridge 21-7 two weeks ago and at home against Scott 28 to 13 last week.

Tiger Coach Steve Trapp said last week’s loss affected the team but he is hopeful they can shake it off and give a better performance tonight.

“After a win everything feels good but the losses affect me personally a whole lot more than the victories. The only positive that I can say about last week’s game is that I do believe it affected our team. Those guys hurt after that game. We have lost games in the past and you really didn’t see or feel that. We had guys who didn’t even step foot on the field that were affected by that loss. I just told them after the game that we knew how we felt after the Warren County game. We felt elation. We felt joy. Now we know how we felt after the Upperman game. I asked them which one do you want more? It is all about response. That is all I said to them. How are you going to respond. One thing I have said about this team is that they have responded through winter and spring workouts. If we saw something we didn’t like we have told them about it and they have responded. We will see how they handle it tonight. We will see if we get the response we are expecting,” said Coach Trapp.

Kick-off will be tonight at 7 p.m.

WJLE’s pre-game shows begin with “Coach to Coach” at 5 p.m. featuring former coaches Doug Matthews, Dave McGinnis, and broadcaster Larry Stone.

“Murphy’s Matchups” airs at 6 p.m. featuring the Guru of Tennessee High School Football Murphy Fair.

“Tiger Talk” begins at 6:30 p.m. featuring DCHS Coach Steve Trapp and Tiger Football Players Axel Aldino, Tre Ladet, and Zach Day. John Pryor, the Voice of the Tigers, is the host of the program.

WJLE’s “LIVE” play by play coverage starts at 7 p.m. with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor and Luke Willoughby.

LISTEN LIVE ON WJLE and LIVE STREAMING at www.wjle.com

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