Hannah James, Tennessee FBLA’s 2015-2016 State Secretary attended the National Fall Leadership in Charleston, South Carolina this weekend.
James attended workshops on the topics of Competing, Public Speaking, and Teamwork. The State Secretary also attended a state officer track, where she met and mingled with state officers from across the United States, talking about what they have planned for their state conference.
In addition to attending workshops, the state officers got to tour the city of Charleston and also start planning for their state conference. They are excited up the upcoming year and they think it will be great.

Sergeant Chris Russell has been named Interim Chief of the Alexandria Police Department.
The action was taken during Tuesday night’s regular monthly meeting of the Alexandria Mayor and Board of Aldermen.
Sergeant Russell, who has worked in the department for nine years, will be filling the position being left vacant by Chief Mark Collins whose last day is Friday, November 20.
Collins has been hired as Smithville Police Chief and will be taking that job as of Monday, November 23.
While Sergeant Russell will be interim chief for the time being, he is expected to get the job but not until after the mayor and aldermen have a meeting with Russell in a workshop to let him know what they expect of him and the police department. That workshop is set for next Tuesday, November 24 at 6:00 p.m. at city hall. A special meeting may then be scheduled for a later date to name a new chief.
During Tuesday night’s meeting, Alderman John Suggs praised Sergeant Russell for his job performance with the department and recommended him to become the next police chief. “It’s my opinion that Chris should be our new police chief. He knows what’s going on around here. He knows where the bad spots are at. He knows everybody in town and just about everybody knows him. I sat down with Mark (Collins) about a week ago and he told me that Chris is more than qualified for this and he has already handled a lot of stuff for Mark. He knows how to do it and what’s going on. Just a little food for thought because we’re going to need a new police chief,” said Alderman Suggs.
Alderman Matt Boss later made a motion to name Russell Chief. The motion received a second.
But Alderman Danny Parkerson asked that a workshop be held first. “We need to have a workshop before we do anything permanently and decide the future of our police department. I have a lot of people complaining about not having anybody (police officer) on duty during the night. I think we need to have an outline of what (we expect) and I’m perfectly willing for Chris to be it (Police Chief). But I don’t want him to accept something and then we do something that he is dead set against. I think we need to give him some parameters of what we expect in our police department and how we’re going to take care of the people of Alexandria. I think we may even ought to have a public hearing to give the people of Alexandria a chance to voice their concerns. We just need to make sure we have an understanding of what we want and then we can bring in whoever to talk to before the whole council and ask him if he will accept that (job) with this outline of what we expect,” said Alderman Parkerson.
Alderman Boss later withdrew his motion and made a new one for Russell to become interim chief until after the workshop. Boss’ motion was seconded and approved by the aldermen.

Donny Green, County Executive Director of the DeKalb/Cannon County Farm Service Agency, announces that the 2015 FSA county committee elections are underway as ballots were mailed to eligible voters in Local Administrative Area (LAA) # 1 of DeKalb County and Local Administrative Area # 5 of Cannon County on November 9th.
In LAA # 1 (DeKalb Co.), Stephen (Steve) Officer and Randall West have been certified as eligible candidates. In LAA # 5 (Cannon Co.), Robert (Bob) Melton has been certified as an eligible candidate. One candidate will be elected to fill each of the LAA’s.
“The FSA county committee system is unique among government agencies, because it allows producers to make important decisions concerning the local administration of federal farm programs,” said Green. “I urge all eligible farmers and ranchers, especially minorities and women, to get involved and make a real difference in their communities by voting in this year’s elections.”
Committee members apply their knowledge and judgment to make decisions on disaster and conservation payments, establishment of allotments and yields, producer appeals, employing FSA county executive directors and other local issues. FSA committees operate within official regulations designed to carry out federal laws.
To be an eligible voter, farmers and ranchers must participate or cooperate in FSA programs. A person who is not of legal voting age, but supervises and conducts the farming operations of an entire farm, can also vote. Agricultural producers in each country submitted candidate names during the nomination period held last summer.
Eligible voters in DeKalb County LAA # 1 or Cannon County LAA # 5 who did not receive a ballot can obtain a ballot at their local USDA Service Center. December 7, 2015 is the last day for voters to submit ballots in person to local USDA Service Centers. Ballots returned by mail must be postmarked no later than December 7, 2015. Newly elected committee members and alternates take office January 1st, 2016.

Members of the DeKalb County Fair Association want to give the Grandstand a makeover and to preserve and keep it safe for future patrons to the Grandpa Fair of the South.
During the October meeting of the Alexandria Mayor and Board of Aldermen, the Fair Board received authorization to apply for a grant through the Tennessee Historical Commission to rehabilitate the old grandstand which is listed on the National Register of Historic places. The city owns the fairgrounds and leases the property to the DeKalb County Fair Association.
“We want to preserve it and make sure it continues to be safe to put people on. We’ve had two or three thousand people on it at one time during fair events in the past.
We’re going to be applying for a grant in the 2016 grant year to rehabilitate the structure. We received a grant from the Historical Society several years ago to do some work on part of the grandstand,” said Matt Boss, an Alexandria Alderman and a member of the Fair Board.
The grant application will be made in the name of the city but the fair board will fund the grant match if approved.
“Being city owned property, we’re going to apply through the city to do this but the fair board is going to take care of the expense of fixing the grandstand back,” said Boss.
But as a designated National Historic landmark, the grandstand rehabilitation project will have to meet certain guidelines.
“Because it is on the Historical Registry there are certain criteria. We can’t just go over there and put new screws or nails in it. We can’t put pressure treated lumber in it. We’re required to use rough cut lumber in the renovation. It has to be made up of the same or similar material as it was years ago in keeping with the history of it. While it will cost several thousand dollars, we are hoping to get this grant money and we’ve also set aside some money toward this project. Hopefully we can do at least a portion of the work that we want to do,” said Jeff McMillen, a member of the Fair Board.
“We’ve had an engineer come out and look and once we have a lot of these fixes done it’ll probably put 20 more years to the lifespan of it,” Boss added.
McMillen said once the project is completed the fair association hopes to add more fair events at the grandstand in the future
“The grandstand is still a usable structure. Its just not what it once was. Its just like your house. It has to be maintained and its time to do some maintenance. The main objective is to keep the grandstand structurally sound where I don’t care to put my family or your family on it. As of now, we feel good about it but we know there is some work that needs to be done that is very important for the safety of everybody,” said McMillen
The DeKalb County Fairgrounds were established on approximately seven acres along Hickman Creek in Alexandria on April 15, 1856. Today twenty four acres make up the fairgrounds. The individual grandstand and supporting buildings have also changed at different times, sometimes in responses to fires,tornado, and floods, other times in response to changing trends in agriculture and outdoor recreation and entertainment. Located in the center of the fairgrounds is the large V-shaped grandstand (C), which dates to 1920. It is the oldest surviving county fair grandstand yet identified in Tennessee and received a state highway historical marker from the Tennessee Historical Commission in 1989. Covered by an original hip tincovered roof, the frame-constructed grandstand has nine rows of benches for seating. The rear of the grandstand originally was used to house animals and other agricultural exhibits.
Articles from the Smith County publications indicate that the grandstand was purchased from the Rome Fair (Smith County) after an accident involving a bull that gored a woman to death who was standing in the crowd. Because of the accident, the Rome fair was closed. The grandstand was dismantled and moved to Alexandria where it was rebuilt the same year.
Aside from the grandstand renovation project, McMillen said plans are to have new restroom facilities constructed on the grounds in time for the 2016 edition of the fair.