Smithville Christmas Parade & 20th Annual “Christmas on the Square” December 4th

October 28, 2021
By:

The Smithville Christmas Parade and Christmas on the Square will be celebrated together on Saturday, December 4th.

The Smithville Parade begins at 4 PM with the line-up beginning at 3 PM at the New Life Connection Center, 750 S. Congress Blvd., Smithville. The parade route will leave from New Life Connection Center onto South Congress Blvd. to the Downtown Smithville Square, Smithville.

“This line-up location gives people and vehicles more room to park including parking at the DeKalb County Complex and on both sides of the road to the New Life Center”, said Smithville Fire Chief Charlie Parker.

Immediately after the Smithville Parade, Christmas on the Square will begin around 5 PM. The Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber wants to invite everyone to stay after the parade. So many fun activities happening in downtown Smithville. The Christmas on the Square event includes:

Smithville City Hall – Festive outdoor Christmas displays and holiday music playing on the outside with cookies to eat and decorations to see on the inside. Folks will enter the City Hall building through the south side of the building and exit through the front main entrance.

DeKalb Courthouse – Stop by to visit the elected county officials and enjoy free refreshments and a festive atmosphere. Large Christmas trees will be decorated on both sides of the exterior of the courthouse.

FREE Photo Booth sponsored by the City of Smithville will be located on the main floor of the courthouse.

Christmas Shopping at our Fabulous Downtown Stores – There will be lots of specials and extended hours for shopping making it a great night to pick out wonderful and unique Christmas presents!

“Live” Windows Contest in Downtown Businesses/Offices – Our downtown windows will have “live” scenes in their beautifully, decorated windows from 5:00 to 6:30 PM. YOU CAN VOTE for your favorite “Live” Display Window. Take a picture and post your favorite on the Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber Facebook Page. The live display window with the “Most Likes” will get points added to the judges’ tally sheet. Chamber Director Suzanne Williams and Smithville Mayor Josh Miller will be presenting 1st, 2nd, and 3rd places along with a “Chamber Choice” award for the “Live Window” contest. Mayor Miller is personally donating $250 to the top winning store’s favorite charity. Here’s the “Live Window” line-up and some of the themes, so far:

Bates Apparel

Button Willow General Store & Coffee Shop – Pink Flamingo Christmas

Cantrell’s Clothing – Letters to Santa

Treats by Tiff

DeKalb County Florist

Mallory Pfingsler State Farm – Grinch

The Male Room Bro-tique – A Christmas Story

Savvy Scrubs – A Charlie Brown Christmas

Vintage Owl – Frosty the Snowman

Willow Boutique – Happy Hippy Christmas

615 Threads

Justin-Potter Library – Santa will make a special visit at the library from 5:30 PM until 7:00 PM for photos with the children, so bring your cameras. There will be a Christmas take home craft for the children that visit the library.

Smithville Electric – The lights will be shining bright at Evins Park’s Open-Air Stage beautifully decorated by Smithville Electric employees.

DeKalb Animal Shelter Pet Photos with Santa – details coming soon!

Chamber Director Suzanne Williams says, “We hope everyone can attend this year’s Smithville Parade and stay for the enjoyable and heartwarming Christmas on the Square event! It’s the perfect way to begin the Christmas season.”

October 28, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Grant James has taken the lead on WJLE’s Fearless Forecasters panel picking winners as the college football season enters its 9th week.

James has an overall record of 77-43.

Grant James had the best single week record last week at 12-3 followed by Jared Davis 11-4, Eli Gill, Ricky Atnip, Scott Goodwin, and John Pryor each at 10-5, Scott Brown 9-6, and Chad Kirby 8-7.
Overall, Chad Kirby, who had held the lead for several weeks, is now in second place after eight weeks at 76-44 followed by Jared Davis 75-45, Ricky Atnip 73-47, Scott Brown and Eli Gill each at 71-49, Scott Goodwin 70-50, and John Pryor 68-52.

None of the forecasters hit his underdog pick last week.

Jared Davis maintains his lead for the most underdog points after eight weeks at 35 followed by Ricky Atnip 19, Chad Kirby 17.5, Grant James 9.5, Eli Gill and Scott Brown each with 7, John Pryor 5.5, and Scott Goodwin 3.5 points

Today (Thursday) the Forecasters will be picking winners in the following games:

Michigan at Michigan State, Texas at Baylor, Penn State at Ohio State, North Carolina at Notre Dame, Purdue at Nebraska, SMU at Houston, UCLA at Utah, Virginia at BYU, Fresno State at San Diego State, Iowa at Wisconsin, Ole Miss at Auburn, Kentucky at Mississippi State, Georgia vs Florida, Missouri at Vanderbilt, and in the NFL the Tennessee Titans at the Indianapolis Colts.

The program is sponsored by the Charles D. Atnip Realty and Auction Company, Middle Tennessee Natural Gas, FirstBank, DeKalb County Insurance, Davis Auto Body, Gill Automotive, Love-Cantrell Funeral Home, and Dominos Pizza.

Catch the Fearless Forecasters today (Thursday) at 4:30 p.m. on WJLE.

October 28, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

A Nashville man indicted four years ago with using a 15 year old Liberty girl for prostitution was sentenced Tuesday in DeKalb County Criminal Court.

38 year old Charles Earl Denton entered a plea to facilitation to trafficking for a commercial sex act and received a 15 year prison sentence as a range II offender. He must serve at least 35% of the term but he has been given jail credit for 1,516 days served from September 1, 2017 to October 26, 2021. He is to have no contact with the victim and his name will be listed on the state sex offender registry for the rest of his life.

Denton was charged in a DeKalb County Grand Jury sealed indictment on August 25, 2017 with trafficking for commercial sex act.

The investigation by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department began on Friday, August 4th, 2017 after the girl’s family reported her missing. The family said the teen sought and received permission to spend the night at a friend’s house two days before on Wednesday, August 2nd but she never came home. The investigation revealed that the girl knew Denton and that he had arranged through social media to meet her. Denton drove to Liberty on Wednesday, August 2, picked up the girl, and transported her to Nashville for the purpose of commercial sex. She was later found at a Nashville motel with another missing teen and an adult woman. Denton was not at the motel at the time.

“Through an investigation, it was found that Charles Denton was the one who planned to meet our missing juvenile on August 2nd. Denton drove to Liberty here in DeKalb County and picked the juvenile up and transported her to Nashville for the purpose of commercial sex,” said Sheriff Patrick Ray.

“Detectives obtained a state warrant for Charles Denton,” he said.

“On August 25th, 2017 a special called meeting of the DeKalb County Grand Jury convened and a sealed indictment was obtained for trafficking for a commercial sex act on Charles Denton”.

“Denton was picked up in Davidson County on August 31st. He was transported to the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department ,” added Sheriff Ray.

Meanwhile, 43 year old Michael Lloyd Ballinger entered a plea to two counts of auto burglary to run concurrently and received a sentence of two years. The term is also to run concurrently with a case against him in Rutherford County. He was given jail credit from September 18, 2020 to October 26, 2021

Sheriff Ray said that on August 22, 2020 Ballinger broke into a 2015 Chevy Equinox at the Long Branch Recreation area on Lancaster Road damaging the front and rear passenger windows and pillar posts on the passenger side to gain entry causing over $2,000 in damage. Once inside he stole two bags of assorted clothing, a rose gold purse, An Iphone 11, and a 14 karat gold diamond engagement ring. The total value of the stolen items comes to $2,486.

In a separate case on the same day, Ballinger took a beach bag full of clothing and a cross body purse with miscellaneous credit cards with a total value of $1,050.

25 year old Katie Mooneyham McCoy entered a plea to sale of a schedule II drug over 0.5 granms and theft over $1,000. She received an eight year sentence in the drug case and one year for the theft to run concurrently but the term will be suspended upon payment of a $2,000 fine. She was given jail credit of 100 days from July 19, 2021 to October 26, 2021.

43 year old Jerry Goff entered a plea to driving under the influence and received a sentence of 11 months and 29 days all suspended to supervised probation. Goff was to serve 48 hours but that has been waived if he completes DUI center treatment. He was fined $365 and will lose his license for a year.

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