DeKalb Firefighter Blake Cantrell Promoted to Rank of Lieutenant

August 27, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County Volunteer Firefighter Blake Cantrell has been promoted to the rank of Lieutenant.

Chief Donny Green made the announcement during Monday night’s county commission meeting. Joining Chief Green in making the Lieutenant helmet presentation to Cantrell were Captain Jay Cantrell and Lieutenant Dusty Johnson.

“Blake is one of our firefighters at the Cookeville Highway Station. We have a promotion process in the fire department where firefighters have a pathway to be promoted to rank. This involves written testing, practical skills testing, and leadership development. Blake has been a candidate for the office of Lieutenant. He has been working on that for a few years now. He has previously served as our department’s communications officer. He spends a lot of his time programming our pagers and radios, working on radios and getting stuff into the shop, etc. He demonstrated some exceptional leadership skills even before he got here for this promotion. He officially began as Lieutenant July 15. We wanted to share this with you. This is your fire department and I want you to know who your leaders are. This team does a tremendous job in leading our fire department across the 12 stations in our county,” said Chief Green.

Green also updated the commissioners on a $427,360 Assistance to Firefighters Grant the county has been awarded for the fire department. The AFG Program is administered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

The funding award will be used to purchase Self-contained Breathing Apparatuses (SCBA’s) and associated equipment to serve all 12 of the department’s stations across the county. The Federal share of this award is $407,009.52 and the local matching share, to be provided by the DeKalb County Government, is $20,350.48.

“We got this grant about two weeks ago in the amount of $427,000 to replace our self contained breathing apparatus. To tell you what that means, those have 15 year life cycles on them and ours are 15 years old. Had we not gotten this grant we would have been coming to you (county commission) for 427,000 for this life saving equipment. The county’s part of that is 5% so we’re paying $20,000 for $407,000 worth of equipment. We’re proud to get this federal money to help us out on these local expenses,” said Chief Green.

August 27, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

The Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce is excited to share the recently released tourism report from U.S. Travel Association showing DeKalb County hitting a record-high of $51.20 Million in direct tourism expenditures. Chamber Director Suzanne Williams was overjoyed upon reviewing the recent report. “Tourism dollars are vitally important to DeKalb County’s economy,” Williams said.

“We are so fortunate to have Center Hill Lake, Edgar Evins State Park, Appalachian Center for Craft, and our many diverse businesses that fuel our tourism revenues including our annual events such as the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree and Crafts Festival, DeKalb County Fair, Off the Beaten Path Studio Tour, and other local music and art events. Our small-town charm, friendly people, and scenic beauty make DeKalb County a desirable place to live, work, play, and raise a family and all these factors keep our visitors coming back year after year.”

The report’s findings also show tourism’s value to DeKalb County taxpayers. Travel in DeKalb County generated 336 jobs, $3.00 Million in state tax revenue, and $6.62 Million in local tax revenue in 2019. On an average day in DeKalb County in 2019, tourist spending generated $140,268 in daily expenditures, produced $30,267 in daily payroll, created $18,140 daily in local tax revenues and $8,214 daily in state tax revenues. Without tourism, each DeKalb County household would have to pay an additional $885 in local taxes and $400 in state taxes each year. Those tax dollars support education, health and human services, public safety, business, and economic development “Although we will likely see a decline in next year’s numbers due to the COVID-19 crisis, we are still very happy and optimistic with this report prior to the pandemic” says Williams. DeKalb County ranks 34 out of 95 counties for tourism dollars in Tennessee.

Tennessee hit a record-high $23 billion in domestic and international travel spending in 2019, marking a decade of consecutive growth. Tennessee also saw 126 million domestic person stays in 2019, up 5.7 percent from 119 million the previous year. Tennessee tourism was on a record track in the first three months of 2020 before COVID-19. The Coronavirus pandemic is the largest crisis to hit the travel, leisure and hospitality industries in history, shutting down almost all travel activities and threatening the security of businesses and employees the industry supports.

“Tennessee is a world-renowned destination, and I look forward to the time when we can gather together again at our festivals, sporting events and more,” said Gov. Bill Lee. “Tourism is our state’s second largest industry. Coming off another record year, this data underscores the tremendous positive tourism impact on our state’s revenue. As we’ve seen now more than ever, travel and tourism are vital to restoring economic health and recovery in Tennessee.”

In 2019, Tennessee outpaced the nation in all areas of travel; including tax revenue, expenditures, payroll and employment. The leisure and hospitality industry produced more jobs than any other industry. Last year, travelers in Tennessee spent an estimated $64 million per day. Tourism generated over $75 million in new state and local tax dollars in 2019, approximately half of which directly supports public education. Those tax dollars also support public safety, health and human services, business and economic development. Travel in Tennessee generated 195,000 jobs and $1.92 billion in state and local tax revenue. Revenue generated saved each household in the state $748 in taxes, an increased savings of almost $40 compared to 2018.

“With our businesses taking the Tennessee Pledge, our restaurants, businesses and attractions are ready for safe travel,” said Commissioner Mark Ezell, Tennessee Department of Tourist Development. “I encourage travelers to safely explore, support local businesses and attractions, create family memories, discover outdoor scenic beauty where social distancing is a natural, take road trips, explore rural destinations and hidden gems that drive visitation. Our goal is to become the best non-beach tourism state in America. We’re constantly exploring new opportunities to inspire growth across the state, drive jobs and economic growth, including in rural, at-risk and distressed counties.”

“Tourism is a significant economic driver for our state; ensuring we are able to maintain a safe environment for both visitors and residents is necessary to the livelihoods of the many people who depend on this industry,” said Craig Ross, Chairman of Tennessee Tourism Committee and President of Dollywood.

The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development received $25 million in CARES Act funding to remarket the severely devastated industry to aid in its recovery, promote safety and inspire responsible travel. Funding will be used to demonstrate how travelers can safely enjoy activities and attractions; promote outdoor activities; a campaign with messaging around masks, social distancing and sanitization; and safety messaging, digital screens and infrastructure at all 16 Tennessee Welcome Centers. $15 million in grants is available for Destination Marketing Organizations (DMOs) in all 95 counties. Additional funding will support Tennessee State Parks and the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.

The Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber will be applying for CARES tourism funding to further promote our beautiful area and support safe travel with messages of social distancing, face coverings and sanitization.

August 27, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Tigers and Upperman Bees will meet in “The Battle of Center Hill” tonight (Thursday) in Smithville. The Tigers are hoping to reclaim the oar from the Bees who have a three game winning streak against the black and gold.

(Click link below to hear WJLE’s Tiger Talk Program)

https://www.wjle.com/tiger-talk-august-27/

The oar, a trophy instituted a few years ago between these two schools, is affectionately nicknamed “The Battle of Center Hill,” because the teams are on opposite sides of Center Hill Lake.

The game was moved from Friday night to tonight (Thursday) due to the threat of rain from the remnants of Hurricane Laura.

The Tigers will be looking for their first victory of the season. DeKalb County lost in their home opener last Friday night to Warren County 30 to 24 while Upperman lost at Cookeville 28 to 0.
Tickets will go on sale, today (Thursday) first come first serve, at 4 pm at the DeKalb County football ticket booth. There will be a limit of 2 tickets per person. Tickets will be sold until the limited seating capacity is reached for the game.

Tiger Coach Steve Trapp, speaking on WJLE’s Tiger Talk program, explained the decision to move the game from Friday to Thursday.

“We all got together and talked it out to make the best decision for us to have a good environment for our fans and a good playing surface as well as a safe event. The biggest concern wasn’t so much the rain. You can play in rain. You might not like it. But the chance for lightning was a concern. I have been in games with lightning. If you sit for a 30 minute delay and it keeps lightning you have to do it again. One year we didn’t get back from McMinnville until about four in the morning because we had so many lightning delays. We think about the safety of our players and fans in a case like that,” he said.

While he doesn’t question his team’s effort in last week’s loss to Warren County, Coach Trapp said there is definitely room for improvement, particularly defensively and in the kicking game.

“I can’t question my guys effort. I think they played hard. We did some good things especially offensively but we stopped ourselves for the most part on some of our drives. I felt like we moved the ball pretty consistently all night. A lot of times when our drives ended we were inside their 30 or 25 yard line. Penalties and turnovers doomed us in that regard. Special teams play was not good other than we had some pretty good returns on kickoffs. Defensively it was the weakest spot of the night. We preach all the time about being lined up right and making sure our eyes are on our work and that we react to what our keys are but after watching the tape we did not do that well. When you play defense like that and face a quality ballplayer like we faced last Friday night they can make you look bad. Ultimately we scored the same amount of touchdowns as Warren County. The difference in the game was being able to make two point conversions, an extra point , and we gave up a field goal so we have room to improve,” said Coach Trapp.

As for the Bees.

“Coach Adam Caine is a great coach. He always gets his teams to play hard and run around fast on defense. The Bees are a disciplined team that typically don’t make mistakes to beat themselves and if you make mistakes they will capitalize on it. Those old coaching clichés still hold true. We have to be good on first down and limit our mistakes in crucial areas, no turnovers and things like that. If both teams play exceptionally well it will be an exceptional game,” said Coach Trapp.

WJLE’s pre-game shows begin with “Murphy’s Matchups” 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 Isaac Knowles, T.J. Alexander, and Peyton Leaf. 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.

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