May 27, 2019
By: Dwayne Page
An American flag display made out of red, white, and blue automobile license plates now graces the side of a building on the public square thanks to County Clerk James L. (Jimmy) Poss and some friends.
Poss came up with the idea and had the display erected at no cost to the county on the north side of the DeKalb Title building facing East Main Street. Attorney Chris Cantrell, the owner of the building, gave permission for the project. The plates were donated by collector and craftsman Bill Neal of Lakeland, Tennessee and Willard Brock of Willard’s Construction in Smithville helped with the installation.
County Clerk Poss wanted the display to be in a highly visible area and chose to erect it on Memorial Day to give it special significance.
“This is in appreciation to all military people, living and deceased, for what they have done for us and our country,” said Poss.
“Mr. Neal provided the plates. He goes around to county clerk’s offices throughout the state and gets these plates as they are turned in and are no longer in service. He collects them and does different types of art work with the plates,” added Poss.
“I have been an avid license plate collector for well over 20 years primarily focusing on the older Tennessee plates but I happened to search the web one day and got on a crafter’s page and found where people were making things out of license plates from various states. This intrigued me because I had a number of just common old plates that people were not interested in so I began to make things and took some to a county clerk (in another county) and she really liked what I was doing and asked if I would make some door prizes for the County Clerk’s Association Conference. I told her I would make them. I cut out a board in the shape of the state of Tennessee, painted it UT orange, and spelled out the words county clerk on there using plates from many different states and it went over big,” said Neal.
“The plates on this display are attached to marine plywood which should last for many years. It’s been treated with an oil-based paint underneath on top of the plywood and screwed into the masonry brick of the wall to make it tightly secure. We have installed LED lights above so it can be seen at night and the stars on the display are made out of Tennessee plates with the reading In God We Trust,” said Poss.