Is Infrastructure Keeping Pace with Residential Growth in DeKalb County? (View Video Here)

October 25, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

Is Infrastructure Keeping Pace with Residential Growth in DeKalb County?

DeKalb County has grown in recent years with new residential developments, especially around the lake but with it has come rising concerns about adequate infrastructure access to these subdivisions.

County Fire Chief Donny Green addressed the county commission about these concerns during Monday night’s regular monthly meeting. He has also met with the planning commission to discuss the matter.

Among the issues is fire truck and ambulance access to these developments in the event of a fire or some other emergency because of many narrow and steep county roads leading to them. Water line infrastructure is also an issue in some places causing concerns about sufficient water pressure to fight a fire.

Chief Green said his intention in raising this matter is not to point fingers at anyone, any developer, or any public official but to merely bring awareness to what appears to be a growing public service and public safety concern and to find ways to mitigate it going forward working with the planning commission and county commission.

First District County Commissioner Tom Chandler, former member of the County Planning Commission also expressed his concerns.

“Donny talked to us the other night about a development with 38 lots, all of which have been sold, with road access that is pretty bad. I have property on Caplinger Hollow and as far as county roads go, its actually a pretty good road but I wouldn’t want to see 38 homes built at the end of it. One of the things that has happened in the planning committee is there has been a discussion and action taken to put a warning on the deeds and property descriptions that tells the buyer, for example that there is no power on this property. My concern for the county is that maybe we already have some situations where we (planning commission) have approved what they were going to do on that piece of property but we really didn’t think through, particularly the access to that property for fire and emergency services that could put us at liability if something happens and then the homeowner or landowner comes back and says you approved this and yet my house burned down or somebody died because you didn’t provide proper access. That would be my concern from a county perspective,” said Commissioner Chandler.

The following are Chief Green’s talking points from the meeting with the County Commission Monday night:

Rural Access for Lake Developments

Purpose
• To bring awareness to access challenges for emergency service providers for responding to emergencies.

• The concerns that I am sharing are absolutely NOT directed at any certain development or project, or anyone currently or previously involved with infrastructure management. And, I certainly am not opposed to growth and prosperity for our county.

• However, we must be aware of the challenges and responsibilities that lie ahead of us so that we can plan to address public safety concerns.

Background
• Prior to the recent surge of lake developments on Center Hill Lake, access issues were fairly limited because these areas were sparsely populated.

• Most residents understood that access to their property was limited by one-lane roads and roads that had steep grades. That has traditionally been the trade-off for privacy.

• I have met with the Planning Commission and the Health, Education, and Public Safety Committee and expressed my concerns and suggestion for open communications so that we can move forward with a proactive plan to do everything possible to promote public safety.

Issue
• In recent years, we have seen a surge of residential developments/subdivisions particularly in areas around the lake.

• I have recently toured some specific subdivision development areas that have given me cause of serious public safety concern.

• Let me be clear, not all of my concerns lie with what I’ve seen inside these developments.

• A lot of my concern is the roadway access and water supply limitations that connect these developments and is part of infrastructure that has worked for many years.

• Even though the Regional Planning Commission has rules that address access and water supply inside such areas of development, it seems the current process does not consider access and infrastructure considerations that connect these areas.

• For example, you have a development that meets roadway specifications but there could be miles of roadway that leads to this development that does not meet the same requirements or specifications. Or, you might have fire hydrants on a 6” water line that is supplied by a 2” or 4” water main from outside the development.

• In essence, we are not accomplishing anything if our infrastructure outside the developments do not match what we are requiring inside these developments.

• As with anything else, “We are only as strong as our weakest link in the chain.”

Recommendation
• As our county grows, we must consider the priorities of infrastructure considerations for public safety measures that provide emergency responses to these areas. Not only must we consider safety for the public, but we must consider safety for the emergency responders who are trying to make someone’s worst day better.

• I would like to see the Planning Commission, the Health, Education, and Public Safety Committee, and the University of Tennessee’s County Technical Advisory Service (CTAS) collaborate to work towards a plan to address the critical infrastructure needs that must take place prior to continued development of such areas.

• My background is public safety. I think public safety is certainly an element of planning considerations that must be taken to make sure our growth is restrained by the capabilities we have to provide public safety.

October 25, 2023
By: Bill Conger

Middle Tennessee native Dan Coe is the new Senior Pastor at Alexandria First Baptist Church. While Coe grew up in Lebanon, Tennessee, returning to near his roots was a bit of a culture shock, especially after serving in Israel for the last several years.

“Culturally, it’s more different than I thought it would be, and I’m talking about just coming from Lebanon,” Coe said. “Now granted, you need to remember there is still a major part of me that’s been formed by my time overseas. And so there are going to be some significant cultural differences from overseas to here. But even from Lebanon and other parts of the Mid-State, this is just a different pace of life and ministry than what I have been used to.

“[Alexandria] is such a loving community, and I have received such a warm welcome from the church. People are going the extra mile again and again for my family, to help position us well to flourish here. We don’t take that for granted, so none of the other things are negatives.”

Coe, his wife, Julia, and four children had taken a break from their ministerial work in late 2021. At that time, they were uprooted from the Middle East when Julia, at that time 32 years old with a new baby, received an alarming diagnosis of breast cancer. The Coes returned to Tennessee within a week of the diagnosis, arriving in late-October 2021. In early 2023, well over a year into the breast cancer battle, the family made the decision not to return overseas.

Growing Up In Middle Tennessee
Coe’s youthful years started on a solid path. He grew up in a loving Christian home with two brothers. His dad, who served on staff at a church in Mt. Juliet in the early ’90s, baptized Coe at age 8. But by the time he was 12 years old, he began to rebel.

“I threw myself into the party lifestyle, which ultimately led to addiction,” Coe admits. “At one point all the fun kind of stopped. Then, I was just in bondage to the drugs. But I often tell people it was as much an addiction to a lifestyle as it was to a chemical substance.”

By age 22, he had hit rock bottom. He lost his girlfriend and the good-paying job that supported his addiction.

“I was not even able to enlist in our armed forces, some four million strong. They wouldn’t even allow me to come on board because I had some pending misdemeanor offenses at that time. You talk about being down in the dumps at 22, wondering ‘what in the world has happened in my life, what’s happened to these past 10 years? What have I done?’”

He voluntarily admitted himself into a drug rehabilitation facility in Dickson, TN, and that’s when he began to seek the Lord.

“I had taken with me a Bible that my mom had given me at my 14th birthday that probably just was caked with dust,” Coe recalls. “I remember going to the reading plan at the back of that NIV Student Bible, and it started off with the Gospel of Luke. And I remember reading about Elizabeth being barren, and about the Lord visiting her and granting her a child. And that whole story just gripped me with hope. Now, I didn’t know anything about John the Baptist or his prophetic significance. I didn’t know any of that stuff. But I knew that there was hope. As I kept flipping through that reading plan, I encountered Christ himself, and eventually I arrived at the cross. I began to undergo significant change even in those few weeks of inpatient rehab. Regeneration took place and I was born again. Man, he just gave me such a hunger for His Word, and a desire to minister.”

From Coe’s earliest years in the faith, God supplied opportunities for service and leadership in different ministries. Coe’s work has included ministry in halfway houses and jail ministries; college ministry leadership; church planting among unreached people groups; and work as a Family Ministry Coordinator alongside his wife.

“I just fell in love with doing ministry and fell in love with Jesus. I love to serve Him. I always loved to be involved in the ministry of the Word of God in whatever form it took.”

October 25, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

A suspected drug dealer who was arrested in February after a joint investigation by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and Smithville Police Department has been sentenced in criminal court.

36-year-old Gary Christopher Ponder entered a plea on October 13 to a charge of possession of a schedule II drug, Fentanyl with intent to sell and received a six-year sentence all suspended to supervised probation except for one year to serve. He was fined $2,000. Ponder was given credit for 249 days served.

Ponder was one of two people busted during this investigation which netted between the two more than 103 grams of Heroin and Fentanyl along with other narcotics. The case against the other defendant, 62-year-old Tommye Lou Bell remains pending in court. Bell and two others were later indicted for 2nd degree murder and possession of Fentanyl and Cocaine with intent to sell in a separate case from December 2021 in which a drug related death occurred.

In the Ponder case for which he was sentenced on October 13, Sheriff Patrick Ray and Police Chief Mark Collins said that “On Sunday, February 5, 2023 in a joint operation with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and the Smithville Police Department, two search warrants were served at two different addresses including the homes of Bell and Ponder”.

The warrants against Ponder alleged that he sold to a confidential source working for the Smithville Police Department 3.3 grams of Heroin on February 2 and 14 grams of Heroin on February 5.

“At Bell’s home we found (marijuana) edibles with too high of a THC amount to be legal in Tennessee. There were 26 baggies of a white powdery and red powdery substance believed to be Heroin and Fentanyl totaling 103.31 grams with a street value of $15,000. We also seized morphine and diazepam pills, $20,000 in cash, a 2021 Honda CRV, and a Glock 43 nine-millimeter handgun and ammo,” said Sheriff Ray and Police Chief Collins.

According to the warrants against Bell, the search of her home turned up 26 baggies of a powdery substance believed to be Heroin/Fentanyl that weighed an estimated 103.31 grams, a variety of marijuana products including 28 bags of a green leafy substance believed to be marijuana that weighed 7.4 ounces: 10 baggies of edibles (marijuana), four jars of marijuana cigarettes, and four tubes containing marijuana joints. Two- 30 milligram morphine pills and 3.5 diazepam pills were also found and collected at the residence along with numerous baggies, scales, and other paraphernalia, a Glock 43 nine-millimeter pistol and ammunition, an estimated $20,000 in cash, and a vehicle.

Meanwhile, in a separate case, 56-year-old Bradley John Baker entered a plea to attempting to deliver a schedule II drug and received a four-year sentence all suspended to TDOC supervised probation. He was fined $2,000 and given jail credit from September 15, 2023 to October 13, 2023.

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