Alexandria Man Indicted in Rash of Arsons

November 24, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

An Alexandria man believed to have been responsible for a rash of fires in the western portion of the county in August and September has been indicted by the DeKalb County Grand Jury.

37 year old Joshua David Pitman of Pitman Road, Alexandria was named in a sealed indictment last week charging him with three counts of arson and three counts of setting fire to personal property. He is under a $60,000 bond and will be arraigned in criminal Court December 8.

The case was investigated by Sheriff Patrick Ray said Detective Brian Williams with assistance of the Fire Investigation Unit of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

During August and September, investigators learned that someone had been setting fires to abandoned houses, mailboxes, and a barn in the Lower Helton, Walker Creek, Jackson Hollow, Oakley Hollow, and Hickman Road.

A grainy surveillance video captured one of the mailbox arsons in progress at 10:51 p.m. September 7 on Walker Creek Road and a vehicle believed to be a light colored Nissan Altima could be seen in the video along with a suspect. Three other mailboxes were burned the same night, including another on Walker Creek Road, one on Hickman Highway, and one on Lower Helton Road along with a barn filled with rolls of hay and farm equipment on Lower Helton Road.

According to Sheriff Ray the 40’ x 60’ barn had an estimated value of $20,000 and sheltered 25 rolls of hay, a 6640 Ford tractor valued at $20,000, a 585 hayroller worth $10,000, and a 5408 New Idea disk mower valued at $2,500. All were destroyed. The fire also damaged a 489 hay bine worth $2,000 and a hay rake valued at $2,000. The barn and farm equipment were owned by separate individuals.

The abandoned houses were burned on the night of August 27 or early morning August 28 on Oakley Hollow Road and the night of September 6 or early morning September 7 on Jackson Hollow Road. Neither home had anything of value within nor any electricity. The value of the home on Oakley Hollow Road was estimated at $15,000 and the value of the house on Jackson Hollow Road is unknown.

November 24, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

The county commission may soon have a vacancy.

At the end of Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, 1st district commissioner Dennis Slager announced that he was tendering his resignation as a member of the commission.

Slager gave no reason for the decision and the commission took no action to accept the resignation.

Commissioner Slager was elected in 2018. His term expires in 2022.

November 24, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Budget Committee has been expanded from five to seven members including one from each district.

Members of the committee as appointed by County Commission Chairman and County Mayor Tim Stribling are Julie Young (1st district), Sabrina Farler (2nd district), Jenny Trapp (3rd district), Dr. Scott Little (4th district), Jerry Adcock (5th district), Jeff Barnes (6th district), and Beth Pafford (7th district).

During its regular monthly meeting Monday night, the county commission approved the appointments along with other committee assignments made by Stribling on an 8-6 vote. Third district commissioner Jenny Trapp made the motion and second district member Myron Rhody offered a second to the motion. Commissioners voting in favor of all the committee appointments in addition to Trapp and Rhody were Beth Pafford, Janice Fish Stewart, Jerry Adcock, Jeff Barnes, Dr. Scott Little, and Julie Young. Those voting no were Anita Puckett, Dennis Slager, Matt Adcock, Bobby Johnson, Sabrina Farler, and Bruce Malone.

In July the county commission adopted a new set of policies and procedures for conducting business and under Rule 17, “the Budget Committee shall be made up of one Commissioner from each of the seven districts to be appointed each October by the County Commission Chairman and approved by a majority of the Commission. The officers of the Budget Committee shall consist of a Chairman and Vice Chairman to be appointed by the County Mayor”.

The previous budget committee was made up of Sabrina Farler, Dr. Scott Little, Jerry Adcock, Jeff Barnes, and fifth district member Anita Puckett. Since only one commissioner from each district may now serve on the budget committee, Puckett lost her committee assignment with the new appointments.

In addition to the budget committee, the chairman appoints all other committees each October with the approval of the county commission.

Seventh district member Bruce Malone complained that some commissioners got more committee appointments than others. “I don’t think it is fair and balanced at all. Some people (commissioners) got five or six (committee assignments). Some got two and in one case one. You (chairman) have taken a select few out of the county commission government altogether just about. You have also rewarded people (commissioners) with the worst attendance records at meetings, workshops, and their own committee assignments. You also put someone on the budget committee that resigned from the budget committee (referring to Jerry Adcock). He stated publicly at the July 27 county commission meeting that he no longer wanted to be on the budget committee yet you put him back on the budget committee. That particular commissioner threatened to take away seed money from the fire department and fire hydrant money. I don’t think that kind of behavior should be rewarded. He has no business being on the budget committee,” said Malone.

In response, Commissioner Jerry Adcock, who was seated next to Malone during the meeting, turned to him and said “Bruce, kiss my …”

Chairman Stribling addressed the complaints. “I know some say there was some disparity because some people (commissioners) are only on a couple of committees while others are on four or five committees. I did not keep score. In one case we combined four or five of these committees into one (according to the new policies and procedures),” said Stribling.

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