City Leaders Welcome New Airport Manager

August 9, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

The City of Smithville has a new airport manager.

Chelsea H. Jones was recently hired to succeed Katelyn Sanders who left for another career move.

Jones attended Monday night’s regular monthly meeting of the Smithville Mayor and Aldermen.

After the meeting, Mayor Josh Miller and Alderman Shawn Jacobs, the city’s representative on the airport advisory committee, told WJLE that Jones is a good fit for this position.

“Chelsea came highly recommended from the city airport committee. She is a graduate of MTSU and has even done some teaching there. She has been here for about a month and its working out very well,” said Mayor Miller.

“We formed a search committee for a new airport manager, and it so happened that Chelsea was the recommendation of all members of the search committee. She came very highly recommended so at that point we began reaching out to her knowing she would be a good candidate. We were very fortunate that she accepted the job. She has been doing a great job. I am not an aviation expert but being the city’s representative on the board I am very pleased with her,” said Alderman Jacobs.

Jones, a resident of Murfreesboro, has an education background in aviation. She earned her bachelor’s degree B.S. in Aerospace Administration in the fall of 2018 and a Master of Science M.S. in Aviation Safety and Security in the fall of 2020. Prior to college, Jones attended Central Magnet School in Murfreesboro where she graduated with Honors in 2014.

“I spent the last three years as a full-time lecturer for MTSU’s aerospace department and I loved every minute of it,” said Jones. “I was able to get a lot of great experience and meet a lot of great people there and hopefully influence some of the future aviation personnel which is very rewarding. Before I settled down into a long-term career, I did want to pursue what my original degrees were for. I have a bachelor’s degree in airline management, and I have a master’s degree in aviation safety and security. I really wanted to get out on the industry experience side itself which is why I decided to take a step back from the education field and instead go more toward the airport side,” Jones explained.

Asked why she chose Smithville for a career move, Jones said she learned about the job from a friend. She also has a family connection here. “My grandmother grew up in Smithville, so this city came highly recommended to me, and I met a couple of local people here around Smithville that highly recommended the position for me which is how I learned of the job. One of my friends, Christopher Thomas, who was born and raised here is the first one who informed me of the position. He said that Smithville was a very nice city, that this was a very nice airport, and that they (city) were looking for a new manager. I was already looking as well. When it comes to managerial roles, they don’t really crop up too often within airports themselves, so I was eager to jump at this opportunity,” said Jones.

Chelsea said she is already enjoying her new job and is impressed with the airport operation here. “I have spent just over a month in the new position. It has been an extremely beneficial move on my part. I have learned and grown a lot as an aviation employee. It’s a nice little municipal airport. It’s a smaller airport which I am happy to be part of because anything larger I think would have been somewhat overwhelming for me as a first-time airport manager. I did have some part time experience. I worked at the Smyrna airport for about two years part time so there I got a lot of behind-the-scenes experience and some managerial experience with that role. That helped the transition for me to be a little bit smoother. I have gotten to wear a lot of different hats that I would otherwise never have gotten to wear If I had stayed at MTSU itself. I am still teaching part time at MTSU so I can still keep my foot in the door and help teach some of the future aviation personnel again. It has been a really rewarding experience and I am very happy to be here,” said Jones.

“When it comes to the goals for this airport, we are in the process of trying to get a tree obstruction removal project going on, cutting through the last of the red tape to finally get that in progress and we are hoping over the next couple of years to potentially add more hangar space. Hangars are in very high demand right now in the aviation community and if we were able to get our hands on a nice grant to cover a lot of that funding, then those hangars would be filled up pretty much instantaneously. We have a pretty long waiting list right now and it would be great on the airport’s part to build that up a little bit and bring more revenue to the city and grow the airport while still keeping that nice little municipality feel to it,” said Jones.

August 8, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

The Smithville Police Department wants to add a Polaris Ranger Crew XP 1000 to its fleet of vehicles.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the Smithville Mayor and Aldermen voted 4-1 to grant Police Chief Mark Collins’ request to apply for a grant to make the purchase.

According to Chief Collins, the grant is for $24,704 but the city’s matching portion is $6,176 or 25% of the cost.

Alderman Donnie Crook voted against adopting the resolution to file the grant application questioning the need for the Polaris and why the issue wasn’t brought up during the budget preparation process.

Chief Collins said he was unaware of the grant opportunity prior to passage of the budget and he gave his reasons for why the police department needs this vehicle.

“What I am interested in purchasing is a full size 4 door Polaris Ranger Crew XP 1000 which we can use in our work especially in a lot of places in town that are not accessible by car. We can also use it during all events held on the public square. Every year during the Jamboree we have to borrow vehicles because we don’t have any to get around downtown. We can’t drive a car around the square during the Jamboree so we usually get a side by side to move around and to carry stuff from here to there and we also have to use golf carts to get through the crowd. We also have a lot of places in town that are wooded areas and creeks that we can’t access by car. Last year there was a meth lab in a place like that and we had to get a lot of stuff out but we couldn’t get a vehicle to it at all but with this Polaris we would be able to use it for a lot of things. I don’t ever want there to be a tornado or anything like that but a vehicle of this kind would really come in handy if we had a major disaster here in town and with it we would be able to help in mutual aid with others like the fire department and rescue squad where it was needed. They are very useful,” said Chief Collins.

“We got a quote for this vehicle of $24,704 and for this, the city’s part would be $6,176 or 25% of the cost. This quote expires on August 24, 2023. A representative of the Polaris company told us we could go ahead and order this vehicle in August which would save us some money because if there is to be a price increase it would likely be in October so we can lock in the price now if we go ahead and order it. If we don’t get the grant, we can call the company and they would cancel this order at no charge. If we were to order it now it would be at least 120 days before we could get it. The funding for this grant isn’t until October 1 but we want to apply for it now because we believe we will get this grant based on the narrative we have described for the application as to why we need this utility vehicle. It falls right into the category of what they (grantors) want to hear. We will know by October if we are to get it,” said Chief Collins.

The resolution states as follows:

“Whereas, the Mayor and Board of Aldermen of the City of Smithville, intends to apply for and accept a Community Facility Loan and or Grant to be administered by the United States Department of Agriculture Rural Development (USDA RD) herein called the Government in an amount not to exceed $25,000 under the terms offered by the Government. The purpose of said funds is to assist in the purchase of a full-size Polaris Ranger Crew XP 1000. Furthermore, the City of Smithville is hereby authorized and empowered to take all action necessary or appropriate in the execution of all written instruments as may be required in regard to or as evidence of such financial assistance; and to operate the facilities under the terms offered by the government”.

In other business, the aldermen formally adopted on 2nd and final reading an ordinance amending the city personnel policy regarding vacation time.

City attorney Vester Parsley said the intent of the amendment to the personnel policy is to clarify the language as to vacation time for city employees.

“The previous policy was unclear about whether you (city employee) had to wait until your (hiring) anniversary date (for a designated period of vacation time). We clarified that to say you don’t have to wait until your anniversary date,” said Parsley.

“The intent of the board was also that after the first six months of employment, you could get 40 hours (5 days) of vacation. In the original ordinance it talked about “weeks” but really, we were taking not about “seven” day but “five” day weeks or 40 hours so what we did was put in (specify) that after the first six months you get 40 hours (5 days) of vacation time. When you work a full year, you get an additional 40 hours (5 days) for a total of 80 hours (10 days),” said Parsley.

According to the policy, city employees who work at least 6 months from their hiring date earn 40 hours (5 days) of vacation.

Employees who serve for as long as a year (1-3 years) qualify for an additional 40 hours (5 days) of vacation for a total of 80 hours (10 days)

Employees who serve 4 years earn an additional 40 hours (5 days) of vacation time for a total of 120 hours (15 days)

Those employed 15 years or longer can take an additional 40 hours (5 days) for a total of 160 hours (20 days).

Vacation time cannot be carried over from year to year.

August 8, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

A local clergyman indicted two weeks ago in a child sex crime made his first court appearance Monday, August 7.

James Michael Carpenter accompanied by his attorney Jeff Cherry of Lebanon appeared before Judge Wesley Bray in DeKalb County Criminal Court for arraignment. He entered a not guilty plea to the indictment and will be back in court on November 7. Bond for Carpenter was set at $75,000 and he was ordered to surrender his passport and instructed not to leave the state. Carpenter had been held without bond since his arrest.

Carpenter has pastored or been involved in several local churches and has reportedly participated in ministry mission trips over the years.

The victim in this case was 4 years old at the time of the alleged first offense.

According to the indictment, Carpenter “on or about April 17, 2015 to April 17, 2017 in DeKalb County and before the finding of this indictment did unlawfully make sexual contact with a minor child less than 13 years of age in violation of state law”.

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