The Harlem Wizards are Coming to Town

March 12, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

The Harlem Wizards will bring their trick-hoops and alley-oops back to DeKalb County on Thursday night, April 9 at 7:00 p.m. at the DCHS gym. Doors will open at 6:00 p.m.

The Wizards, a show basketball team, will play the DeKalb BETA Bosses (local personalities) to raise funds for the DeKalb Middle School Junior BETA Club who will be traveling to Fort Worth, Texas for the National Competition.

At a Harlem Wizards game, fans witness amazing basketball talent combined with hilarious comedy. When you’re in the stands, you’re more than a spectator, you’re part of the show with loads of audience participation throughout the game.

Fans will experience a magical display of tricks, coordinated ball handling, fancy passing, and aerodynamic athleticism combined with high-energy comedy and audience interaction. The experience can only be summed up in two words: Awe-Inspiring.

Be sure to purchase your tickets in advance at Fluty’s , Liberty State Bank, First Bank , or Good Health Family Clinic. If available, tickets will be sold at the door for $10 for students and $12 for adults. An online processing fee of $1.25 per ticket will be added to your final total.

The Online Box Office for this event closes at 11:59 p.m. the night prior to the game. Tickets purchased online will be sent via email. Please type your email address carefully. You must print the ticket(s) and bring them to the event. Your ticket will be scanned for entry.

For ticket information go to HARLEM WIZARDS.com and click “GET TICKETS”.

March 11, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

During severe weather providing the public with life-saving alerts and warnings quickly is imperative and the tornado last week in neighboring Putnam County underscores the need for all to be vigilant.

(Click link below to register for weather alerts)

Tornado Alert Signup

In DeKalb County, residents have access to a service called Hyper-Reach, a state of the art mass emergency notification system, designed specifically for public safety, according to Brad Mullinax, Director of the DeKalb Emergency Communications District (E-911). Through Hyper-Reach residents can get automatic tornado warning alerts over landline telephones or cell phones the moment they are issued for DeKalb County.

Landline phones are automatically registered but weather alerts to mobile phones are only included by enrolling in the system.

“When the National Weather Service issues a tornado warning it is based on a polygon so it may be for only one area of the county. You may see on TV that DeKalb County is under a tornado warning but it may really be only for the northern or southern portion of the county. It may not always affect the entire county. This system will notify hundreds of people within a minute. It is very fast in the notification process and I encourage everyone to sign up for this,” said Mullinax.

Charlie Parker, DeKalb County Emergency Management Agency Coordinator, said he also recommends people registering for the service.

“Even though there are multiple ways of getting weather alerts including from TV and radio, storms can cause interruption in service. Even with the storm last week, Comcast and other cable and TV providers were down so you can’t always count on those for the information you need. We strongly encourage everyone to have more than one way of getting storm alerts. You can also get a weather alert radio. Those are battery operated and programmable for your county. There are apps you can download on your phone. Red Cross also has an app you can download. The biggest thing is don’t get complacent. Sometimes we are bombarded with threats and warnings and get to the place where we don’t pay attention to them. When it comes to severe weather always take it seriously,” said Parker.

The service is free and you may register for the weather alerts by visiting www.dekalb911.org and clicking the link or by clicking the link below.

“There is a link on our website (dekalb 911.org) to click for a community weather alert sign up. It will allow you to register a cell phone. If you do have a home landline telephone your number is already registered by your house number in the system and you will automatically get the weather alerts without any further action from you. If you do not have home landline telephone service or if you want to register your cell phone in addition to your home landline phone you can go to our signup page and do that. It will make a phone call to you with a pre-recorded message and or it will also send you a text message or an email to notify you as well in the event there is a tornado warning that has been issued for the affected area,” said Mullinax

Tornado Alert Signup

If anyone has questions or needs help programming their weather radio contact Charlie Parker at dekalbtnema@gmail.com., DeKalb Emergency Management on facebook, or at the Smithville Fire Department at 615-597-4141.

March 11, 2020
By: Bill Conger

People from DeKalb County joined in the efforts to help the survivors from last week’s tornadoes that ripped a path of destruction through several middle Tennessee counties. 14 people from DeKalb and 10 people from Cannon County left last Saturday (March 7) in a disaster relief trailer from Elizabeth Chapel Baptist Church to team with the Tennessee Baptist Association Disaster Relief in Cookeville.

“We went out and assisted home owners in cleaning up where their houses were completely gone, trying to find belongings that were still usable in the rubble, and trying to aid in anything we could do for those people,” said Aaron Young, Salem Baptist Association’s Disaster Relief Director, who lead the team to Cookeville.

Young says volunteers helped in an area where the tornado had progressed to category EF-4.

“Pretty much anything that was in the path of that was completely destroyed,” Young said.

One of the volunteers, Daniel Leslie, youth pastor at Elizabeth Chapel Baptist Church, has personal ties to Putnam County. A former Cookeville resident, he lived on the side of town where the tornado stormed through. Prior to the team’s trip, he paid a visit March 4 to the home of one of his friends.

“It used to be a beautiful brick home that’s just completely gone,” Leslie says. “The highest point out there was actually the front porch. Everything else had fallen underneath where the front porch had gotten up to. It had all just collapsed.”

The youth minister says helping the survivors of the tornado gave him and the other volunteers an opportunity to put into practice his recent Bible lesson on Philippians 1:21, “For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

“It’s not about the things that we have; it’s about the lives that we’re given a chance to live,” explains Leslie. “We had actually just talked at church Wednesday night with my youth group about Philippians. This was another opportunity for them to live out their lives as Christians. They get to have a chance to live and to be. That’s what matters. That’s what God has given us an opportunity to do. I got to see both of those situations. There was the death, but there also were those that were spared. Looking at the destruction—there was nothing left—there is no way they should have lived through what they did, but they get that opportunity to continue to live out their lives through the gospel.”

Leslie says the volunteer effort was about more than cleaning up debris.

“There was a lady that lived just behind the houses that we mainly worked at. She was in shock. Her mind was everywhere, and we got to talk a lot to her and her son and encourage them. That’s another part of the disaster relief effort … helping the families recover emotionally too.”

Tennessee Baptist Disaster Relief has set up a command center in Cookeville and Nashville, and they will be there until no one is asking for help. Young has worked two previous disasters, but he was stunned by the number of volunteers who showed up.

“We’re called the Volunteer State, and you could really see why. There was almost too many volunteering. You hate to say that, but it was impressive how many people were just showing up and helping out. They were just neighbors helping neighbors.”

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