DeKalb GOP Meeting to Feature New State Senator March 19

March 9, 2022
By:

The DeKalb County Republican Party will be meeting on Saturday, March 19, 2022, at 10:00AM at Smithville City Hall at 104 E. Main St. Smithville, TN. State Senator Mark Pody will be on hand to introduce DeKalb County’s new State Senator, Janice Bowling. During the recent redistricting process, DeKalb County went from being in Senate District 17 to Senate District 16. In addition to DeKalb County, Senate District 16 also includes Warren, Grundy, Coffee, Franklin, and Lincoln Counties. Senator Bowling was first elected in 2012, and will be up for reelection in 2024.

“We appreciate the dedicated and conservative representation from Sen. Pody over the years in DeKalb County,” said Dustin Estes, Chairman of the DeKalb County Republican Party. “He has been active in our community and responsive to his constituents, and we wish him well in his new District. We are excited to welcome Sen. Bowling to DeKalb County. She has a reputation as a solid Conservative, and we look forward to working with her.”

Sen. Bowling and Sen. Pody will also give a legislative update on various bills working their way through the Legislature. There will also be an update on future Republican Party events as the focus turns towards the County Republican Primary Election in May, and the County General Election in August. All DeKalb County Republicans are invited to attend.

For more information, go to our Facebook Page at DeKalb County Republican Party.

March 9, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

If you are looking for a great lap dog “Abby” is your girl!

“Abby” is the WJLE/DeKalb Animal Shelter featured “Pet of the Week”

“Abby is our two-and-a-half-year-old Lab mix. She came to us in November. She was part of an abandonment situation along with seven others. Since we got her Abby has been super sweet. She loves people especially kids and gets along well with other dogs. Abby just wants to be in your lap. She is one of our sponsored pets by our “Friends of” organization so her adoption fee is only $40 which includes her spay and all of her vaccinations. She has been heartworm screened and micro-chipped and she will have flea prevention on board, and she is de-wormed,” said Shelter Director Emmaly Bennett.

“ If you are interested in adopting Abby go to our website at https://www.dekalbanimalsheltertn.com/ and fill out an adoption application and we will call you to set up a time for you to come in and meet her,” said Bennett.

The shelter is now open Monday-Friday from 8 to 4 and Saturday from 8 to 12 on Transfer Station Road behind Tenneco Automotive.

March 9, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The City of Smithville is seeking a grant to fund a transitional housing program for people in recovery from substance abuse.

The Upper Cumberland Development District will apply for the Community Development Block Grant from the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development on behalf of the city to be administered by the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency if approved.

UCDD and UCHRA Executive Director Mark Farley informed the Mayor and Aldermen Monday night during their regular monthly meeting that Smithville has a good chance of getting this grant because of the need.

“When we looked across the 14 county Upper Cumberland region, we assessed that DeKalb County would probably score highest. Unfortunately that is based on percentage of overdoses that DeKalb County has compared to other counties across the state. Sometimes grants come to you because of good things and sometimes grants come because things are not going so good. For whatever reason, DeKalb County had the highest percentage of overdose deaths in 2019 which is the base year they are looking at (for grant eligibility). We feel like DeKalb would be the best among the upper Cumberland counties to apply for this grant. The reason I am coming to you (City of Smithville) first is that for recovery housing opportunities it would probably make sense to put that (transitional housing) inside the city limits. There are not a lot of these grants to be funded. The state only has $1.8 million to go all the way across the state and the maximum grant award can be $750,000 so there will probably only be a couple of awards across the state,” said Farley.

If approved, Farley said the city will partner with UCHRA under terms of the grant program to manage the transitional housing facility to serve from 8-12 people in recovery who would be charged rent to live there.

“In this grant application the city would have to partner with an agency to oversee this recovery housing and that’s where UCHRA would come into that. We run a substance abuse program that we have had for a couple of years where we work with individuals to get them into recovery and once they get out of recovery we try to place them into housing, put them in jobs, and make sure they have all the supports they need to be successful coming back into society. We (UCHRA) would offer to be that partnering agency. There is no grant match required from the city. We (UCHRA) would take care of all costs. It would not cost the City of Smithville anything. UCDD would oversee the grant writing and UCHRA would manage it. Rent would be charged to the residents. We are talking about a facility for 8-12 individuals and they would pay a monthly rate to cover the operation of it,” said Farley.

The location of the facility has not yet been identified

“You could take an existing apartment unit and rehab it. You can do new construction or you can acquire existing property. We would lay out who would be in this housing and how long they would be there and I assume you could put some other stipulations on that as well from the community level. We have done some housing grant programs like this in the past where you (local governments) apply for the funds, get it awarded, oversee the grant contract, and then deed the property over to say the UCDD or UCHRA and from there we take it and maintain it. If you (city) wanted to retain ownership you could do that to where we (UCHRA) would only be overseeing it so that while its under the grant contract we (UCHRA) would manage it as transitional housing and if it ever ceased to be that then it would revert back to the city,” said Farley.

During Monday night’s meeting, the aldermen voted to authorize UCDD to make application for the grant which must be filed by April 29.

“It requires a resolution to apply,” said Farley. “I suggest that we (UCHRA) put together a proposal for you and bring it back at your next city council meeting and then go through all the details and explain exactly what we would propose. If you (city) have stipulations you would also like to impose as well we would be open to hear that and then see where this project goes. The application is due April 29. There are some reporting and public hearing deadlines so we would need to go ahead and start that process as soon as possible,” Farley added.

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