DCHS Lady Tigers Win Consolation Bracket of Heritage Christmas Tournament at Maryville

December 22, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

The DCHS Lady Tigers (7-5) emerged as the top team in the consolation bracket of the Heritage Christmas Tournament at Maryville Wednesday after defeating the Grace Christian Rams of Knoxville (1-11) 55 to 28 in the consolation finals. Knoxville Catholic (8-4) won the tournament beating Heritage (11-2) 48 to 46.

The Lady Tigers return home for the Christmas holiday and will compete in the AFLAC Shootout at Watertown next Tuesday through Thursday.

In the game with Grace Christian Wednesday, DeKalb County led 11 to 8 after the 1st period, 29 to 13 at halftime, and 44 to 17 after the 3rd period enroute to a 55 to 28 final.

Avery Agee scored 10 followed by Kadee Ferrell, Ella VanVranken, and Dare Collins each with 8, Natalie Snipes 6, Ally Fuller 5, Cam Branin 4 and Bryna Pelham and Madison Martin each with 3.

The Lady Tigers opened play in the Maryville tournament Monday with a 61 to 31 loss to Knoxville Catholic but then defeated Cosby 52 to 45 on Tuesday to get to the consolation finals with Grace Christian on Wednesday.

The Lady Tigers will meet Community on Tuesday, December 28 at 6 p.m.; Gallatin on Wednesday, December 29 at 3 p.m.; and Pearl Cohn on Thursday, December 30 at 3 p.m. in the Watertown Tournament.

The Tigers will also compete in the Watertown Tournament against Seigel on Tuesday, December 28 at 4:30 p.m. and against Community on Wednesday, December 29 at 4:30 p.m.

December 22, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County Farm Bureau has announced the retirement of two long time employees.

Agency Manager Bart Lay and Customer Service Representative Gloria Pinegar are stepping down after a combined 81 years of service to the Farm Bureau.

Lay is a 36-year veteran with the company including 21 years in Smithville and Pinegar is completing 45 years of service here.

“Bart and Gloria have been fortunate to work with many fine people in many different walks of life. Bart and Gloria feel that from a professional and personal standpoint, it has truly been a pleasure working with each of you. We are confident the DeKalb Farm Bureau will continue providing the kind of service that is right for you. We value the confidence you have placed in us through the years. We pray many blessings in the New Year,” said DeKalb Farm Bureau in a statement on behalf of Lay and Pinegar.

The Office Staff of DeKalb County Farm Bureau going forward include Agents Ryan Magness and Chris Griffith, Customer Service Reps Jessica Cripps and Amanda Cunningham, and new Agency Manager Bradley Locke.

December 22, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Since implementing a plan a few years ago to build a world class fiber optic network in its service area, DTC Communications has made significant progress toward that goal and today more customers are taking advantage of it. To help ensure that state of the art broadband communications services may be provided to every home and business in DeKalb County as quickly as possible, the DeKalb County Commission has granted a request from DTC to appropriate $750,000 of the county’s $3.9 million share of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding to help support completion of DTC’s fiber infrastructure build to reach a minimum of 1,523 local households including the communities of Belk, Chapel Hill, Keltonburg, Pea Ridge, Temperance Hall, and Whorton Springs.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission voted 9-2-1 to approve DTC’s request. All voted in favor except Fourth district member Dr. Scott Little and Seventh District member Bruce Malone who voted no and Fifth District member Jerry Adcock who voted “here” as a way of abstaining. All three wanted to wait until a later time to consider it.

County Mayor Tim Stribling said Chris Townson, CEO of DTC Communications, recently made a request by letter for a portion of the ARP money which is meant to help support local funding match requirements of a Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development grant program for which DTC plans to apply possibly as early as February.

“We had an American Rescue Plan meeting with the county commission and DTC CEO Chris Townson was in attendance,” said County Mayor Tim Stribling during the meeting Monday night. “He (Townson) presented a letter he had written to me to be shared with the commission. There is some infrastructure money for broadband that the state has. It is through grants (Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development) and according to his letter it’s about 70% of the required funding so there would be about a 30% match. DTC would be putting in some funding themselves for the grant match, but they are requesting that some ARP money that the county is receiving be part of the match,” said Stribling.

Although, according to Townson’s letter, DTC is still awaiting final guidance and rules from the ECD on the state’s $500 million grant program, Stribling said DTC’s infrastructure project qualifies as an eligible expenditure under federal ARP guidelines.

“This is one of the four or five categories that does qualify for the American Rescue Plan Act money. It comes under the infrastructure of broadband, water, and sewer. This money that DTC has asked for ($750,000) is to help them build out the remaining areas (in DeKalb County) that don’t have internet. There will be quite a bit of money coming from the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to address water and sewer by other utilities,” said Stribling.

Fourth District Commissioner Dr. Scott Little asked why the rush for the county to commit the funding when the grant program that DTC is to make application for has not yet been finalized and the county has not yet identified all projects and programs for which the ARP money could be spent.

“It’s my understanding that the final rules haven’t been promulgated for this grant yet and they (DTC) are not going to apply for this money until February. I wonder what the rush is to do this in December when we haven’t really looked at the other areas that we want to spend this $3.9 million on. I am all in favor of this but we’re not even sure yet whether we will have to do some matching for the water improvements that are coming up. We have other plans for this money too so why should we rush with the $750,000 in December when the final rules for this haven’t been promulgated yet and they (DTC) are not going to apply for it until February,” said Commissioner Little.

“I agree with Dr. Little on this,” said Commissioner Bruce Malone “. Even Mr. Townson said that he was in no rush to get this money. We haven’t had all our meetings to complete our wish list. I believe a large amount of the ARP money should be earmarked for the people of the county. I know some of it is to go for infrastructure but there is a myriad of things we haven’t even examined yet to spend this money on. Maybe $750,000 is a little too much. Maybe we need to look at $500,000 or $600,000 (for the DTC project),” added Commissioner Malone

“The reason they (DTC) would like an answer from us (county) now is when they go to apply for grants, they will know how much money they need to match. They will put in some of their own money and some ARP money if you approve it,” said County Mayor Stribling.

“I think we are rushing things. We are like little kids in a candy shop with a dime. We want to try to spend every bit of that dime. It’s a good thing (DTC project). I would like to see it done. Maybe what we should do is put that $750,000 back and evaluate it down the line,” added Commissioner Jerry Adcock.

The letter to County Mayor Stribling from DTC CEO Chris Townson, dated November 16, 2021, states as follows:

“Thank you for meeting with me last week to discuss DTC Communications’ broadband network progress, as well as the areas we have yet to complete in DeKalb County. It is an exciting time to be serving our communities, and we are always thankful for the work you do to support the communities we collectively serve”.

“The purpose of this letter is to ask DeKalb County to utilize a portion of its American Rescue Plan (ARP) Funds in conjunction with DTC so that state-of-the- art broadband communications services may be provided to every home and business in DeKalb County as quickly as possible. As you know, DTC has already built out a significant portion of the County, but we still have much work to do. We understand that the County may utilize a portion of its ARP funding to ensure that every household in the County has access to broadband services. This collective opportunity includes an investment to complete the infrastructure build as well as the potential to partner on an adoption program to ensure the largest number of residents will be served at the lowest possible cost. We believe most of the areas DTC hopes to build meets the requirements under the plan. Working together will help bring much-needed fiber infrastructure services to communities that will benefit for decades to come”.

“Furthermore, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development will utilize 500 million dollars in grant funds to help build unserved areas across the state. We are awaiting final guidance and rules from the ECD on this program. Still, it appears that up to 70% of the required funding for projects may be awarded to providers like DTC in communities like those in DeKalb County if the grant application meets the requirements and scores high enough in relation to other applications. As part of the ECD’s application process, it is expected that companies like DTC partner with their counties for a portion of the matching funds required in the application process. This is a key part of the application process. Partnering on the required matching funds will provide needed points on the application. We understand that it may be hard to score high enough to win an ECD grant without a County acting as a community partner. If we work together, we have an opportunity to land significant grant funding for our communities”.

“At this time, DTC is working to finalize identifying unserved or underserved locations under the plan’s requirements. What we know is that our engineering plan shows we need an estimated total of $5,305,000 to complete over 150 miles of mainline fiber construction to reach a minimum of 1,523 households in DeKalb County, which equates to approximately $3,500 per premise passed. We will spend another $2 million-plus to connect all that desire to be connected to the network”.

“Putting all of this together means we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work together to bring the remainder of the County up to a world-class technology standard in a very short amount of time. Many studies prove the benefits of Broadband. When everyone has access to it, our education, economic development, entertainment, and all forms of e-commerce thrive. Without it, our people suffer. In one phrase, Broadband provides Opportunity, and with opportunity comes an improved quality of life”.

“Until the state’s final program rules are released, they urge providers and counties to work together on procurement procedures to be able to work together and to consider how to best partner on an adoption program. I am asking the County to consider providing up to $750,000 of available ARP funds to work together to complete the infrastructure build and to partner on an adoption program to ensure this ARP money, coupled with DTC’s investments and available state grant funds, brings an immediate maximum benefit to the residents of DeKalb County”.

“The communities we expect to build as part of this process are Belk, Chapel Hill, Keltonburg, Pea Ridge, Temperance Hall, and Whorton Springs”.

“I will provide a map of the eligible areas as soon as the final rules are available. I stand ready to discuss and provide additional information as needed,” Townson concluded in his letter.

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