State Senator Mark Pody says he regrets losing DeKalb County under Redistricting Plan

January 21, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The Tennessee General Assembly moved a step closer Thursday to giving DeKalb County a new State Senator.

The State Senate approved congressional and state Senate redistricting maps but delayed a vote on a state House map until next week. The state Senate and congressional maps passed the full Senate, 26-5. The House map will be discussed in the Senate on Wednesday.

After the maps pass both legislative bodies, they will head to Gov. Bill Lee. Democrats have vowed a court challenge.

According to the plan, DeKalb County would be moved from the 17th State Senatorial District, now represented by Mark Pody (R) of Lebanon, to the 16th District represented by Janice Bowling (R) of Tullahoma. In addition to DeKalb County, the 16th District would include the counties of Warren, Grundy, Coffee, Franklin, and Lincoln. Senator Bowling currently represents Coffee, Franklin, Grundy, Marion, Sequatchie, Van Buren, and Warren Counties.

The proposed redistricting plan calls for Senator Pody’s 17th District to include all of Wilson County and extend into Davidson to include portions of Donelson and Hermitage, along with areas near the Nashville International Airport and Percy Priest Lake. Pody currently serves Cannon, Clay, Macon, Smith, and Wilson counties in addition to DeKalb.

Senator Pody told WJLE Thursday he had hoped to hold onto DeKalb County.

“I have six counties right now in the 17th district and it looks like they will take five of them away. The 17th district will include Wilson County and a portion of Davidson County. I tried my best to negotiate and at least hold onto Cannon, DeKalb, and Smith County. I would have rather kept my rural counties rather than pick up Davidson County, but Wilson and Davidson County grew so fast in population over the last 10 years that the numbers for redistricting did not work as I would have liked,” said Senator Pody.

If the plan is adopted by both the State Senate and State House, is signed by the Governor, and withstands a court challenge, Senator Pody said it would take effect after the November election.

Senator Pody said although he may no longer represent DeKalb County after November, he would continue to help anyone here anyway he could, but that DeKalb County would be well represented by Senator Bowling.

“I have known Senator Bowling for a long time. She and I have worked together on a lot of bills. In fact, if you looked at our voting record, we probably vote 98% of the time exactly the same way. I think she will be very good for the county. She is looking forward to coming into DeKalb County and has already been working with me to learn all the issues related to the county and obtain the local demographics so she can hit the ground running,” said Senator Pody.

Unlike Senator Pody, Senator Bowling is not up for re-election in 2022.

Much of the Senate Democratic objection to the maps remained the three-way split of Nashville in the congressional map. Currently one Democratic U.S. representative (Jim Cooper, 5th Congressional) represents Nashville.

January 21, 2022
By:

The U.S. Army announced Thursday the Civil Works studies, projects, and programs that the Corps of Engineers would implement in Fiscal Year 2022 with the $22.81 billion in supplemental funding provided in two recently enacted laws — the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act; and the 2022 Disaster Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act.

In the Nashville District, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act is funding on Center Hill Lake the following projects: Paving the Johnson’s Chapel Recreation Area entrance: $125,000; Paving the Floating Mill Campground access road: $250,000; and paving Holmes Creek Recreation Area entrance: $350,000.

Lt. Col. Joseph Sahl, Nashville District commander, said there are aging facilities and critical infrastructure within the district, and these bills are providing much-needed funding for construction projects, and for operations and maintenance. He added that these funds are also about studies that create solutions to modern problems in a new way, as the Corps continues to seek innovative approaches and new partnerships to solve water resource problems.

January 21, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The DCHS basketball teams won both games of a catfight in Smithville Thursday night beating the Macon County Tigers and Tigerettes.

The DeKalb County Lady Tigers claimed a 59 to 32 victory while the DC Tigers won 67 to 49.

In the girls game, DeKalb County led 17 to 6 after the 1st period, 30 to 14 at halftime, and 48 to 20 after the 3rd period before going onto win 59 to 32.

Ella VanVranken scored 15, Avery Agee 12, Xharia Lyons, Dare Collins, and Cam Branin each with 6, Kadee Ferrell 4, Natalie Snipes and Madison Martin each with 3, and Ally Fuller and Tess Barton each with 2.

The Black and Gold Tigers led 15 to 10 after the 1st period of the boys game and held a 38 to 23 halftime advantage. DC led 46 to 32 after the 3rd period and went on to win 67 to 49.

Conner Close had 21 points followed by Brayden Antoniak 13, Elishah Ramos 11, Stetson Agee 9, Jordan Young 7, and Isaac Knowles 6.

The Lady Tigers are now 12-8 overall and 2-4 in the district while the Tigers sport a record of 10-8 overall and 2-4 in the district.

DeKalb County will travel to Crossville tonight (Friday, January 21) to face Stone Memorial. The girls game starts at 6 p.m. followed by the boys game. WJLE plans LIVE coverage. In the earlier meeting on December 10, the Tigers won their region opener 67 to 58 against Stone Memorial but the Lady Tigers lost to the Lady Panthers 67 to 54.

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