The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department picked up two people over the weekend who were named in Grand Jury sealed indictments on Monday, July 27.
37 year old Joel Thomas Hayes of Bobby Hayes Road, Dowelltown is indicted for sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (Hydromorphone). He was arrested on Sunday, August 9. His bond is $30,000.
30 year old Ellissa Sara Howard of South Mountain Street, Smithville is indicted on two counts of sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (Amphetamine). She was arrested on Saturday, August 8. Her bond is $60,000.
Both Hayes and Howard appeared in DeKalb County Criminal Court for arraignment on Monday, August 10.
Meanwhile, 23 year old Stephen James Miller of Page Drive, Smithville is cited for simple possession of a schedule II and VI drug. He will be in court September 3. Sheriff Patrick Ray said that on Friday, August 7 a deputy went to South Mountain Street to serve a civil paper and observed Miller smoking a joint. Upon a search of Miller, the officer found 1.5 grams of marijuana and .1 gram of cocaine.
25 year old Dustin Allen Hale of Jefferson Road, Smithville is charged with resist stop, frisk, halt, arrest, or search. His bond is $1,500 and he will be in court on this charge August 13. Hale is being held without bond for failure to appear and violation of probation. He will make a court appearance on the failure to appear warrant on September 24. He was scheduled for a court appearance Monday, August 10 for the violation of probation. According to Sheriff Ray, when an officer went to Hale’s home to pick him up for the failure to appear and the VOP, he found Hale hiding in the bathroom. When Hale came out, he was instructed by the deputy to place his hands behind his back. Hale refused to comply. As he was being placed under arrest, Hale refused to cooperate with the officer and had to be forcibly taken to the ground.
36 year old Sherry May Evans of Keltonburg Road, Smithville is charged with domestic assault. Her bond is $2,500 and she will be in court August 13. Sheriff Ray said that on Sunday, July 12 a deputy responded to Shady Drive in Smithville due to a domestic assault. Upon arrival the officer spoke to a woman who said the she and her sister-in-law, Evans had gotten into an argument. The woman said when she asked Evans to leave her home, Evans grabbed her gown and punched her in the face causing swelling near her left temple. Evans admitted to punching the woman.
23 year old Dakota James Taylor of Manchester is charged with public intoxication. His bond is $1,500 and he will be in court on August 20. Sheriff Ray said that on Friday, August 7 a deputy responded to Pates Ford Marina due to an intoxicated man walking down the roadway. Upon arrival, the officer found Taylor lying on the sidewalk next to the road. He had a strong odor of alcohol on his person. When he stood up, Taylor was very unsteady on his feet. For his safety and that of others Taylor was placed under arrest for public intoxication.
27 year old Randi Renee Atnip of Miller Road is charged with failure to appear. Her bond is $1,500 and she will be in court August 20. Sheriff Ray said that on June 26 Atnip failed to report to the jail to serve a 30 day sentence for violation of probation.
23 year old Amanda Marie Hatfield of Adcock Cemetery Road, Smithville is charged with domestic assault. Her bond is $2,500 and she will be in court on August 13. Sheriff Ray said that on Sunday, August 9 a deputy responded to a residence on Adcock Cemetery Road due to a physical domestic. Upon arrival he spoke to Hatfield and a man. The man told the officer that he and Hatfield had gotten into an argument over a phone and that she grabbed his shorts. When he stepped away from her, she slapped him in the face.

The leaders of the Health Information Department at NHC Smithville recently received the prestigious Roundtable of Excellence Award for the second year in a row at the annual NHC Health Information Conference. Accepting the award was Tabitha Anderson, Health Information Manager, and Andrea Puckett, Health Information Assistant. Anderson and Puckett both reside in Smithville. The conference was held July 22-24 in Gatlinburg, TN. The Roundtable of Excellence Award is given to the Health Information Department that continues to achieve high results in their respective discipline. To win this award, the department must have also recently won the Department of the Year Award within the past 5 years. NHC Smithville’s Health Information team won the Department of the Year in 2013.
“Ensuring that each patient’s medical record is accurate and complete is of paramount importance at NHC Smithville,” Anderson said. “This recognition is a team accomplishment because it takes each partner: CNA’s, nurses, therapists, and physicians, to assist with health information.” Clint Hall, Administrator, added, “Tabitha and Andrea are a tremendous asset to NHC Smithville. They perform their work in a timely, organized, and skilled manner. They also have a deep commitment to excellence that shows in the professionalism of their work and the way they lead themselves personally. This is a great accomplishment for them and for NHC Smithville.”
NHC Smithville offers inpatient and outpatient rehabilitative care and accepts Medicare, Medicaid, private insurance, workers compensation, managed care, and private funds. The inpatient healthcare center offers skilled nursing and rehabilitation services to adults of all ages on a short-term and continuing care basis. NHC Smithville’s outpatient clinic offers physical, occupational, and speech therapy services. For more information about NHC Smithville, visit www.nhcsmithville.com or call (615) 597-4284.

After more than two years since construction began, the new Sligo bridge is now completed.
Traffic was shifted from the old bridge to the new one at 12:33 p.m. Saturday. County Mayor Tim Stribling and the local media were present for the occasion. TDOT will have an official ribbon cutting later in the year.
“We’ve been working on this bridge project since May, 2013 and we’ve finally got the bridge to the condition where it’s completed. We have turned traffic across the new bridge and the new alignment on State Route 26 (Highway 70),” said Larry Langford, Operations Technician for the Tennessee Department of Transportation.
“It’s been a long time coming. There’s a lot of history with the old bridge and people hate to see it go but with progress we sometimes have to do things differently. The old bridge has been a part of DeKalb County for years but it’s time to make improvements to keep people safer and allow traffic to flow better by cutting out a curve or two. People will eventually get used to this and there will be history with the new bridge,” said County Mayor Stribling.
Although actual construction of the bridge is finished, Langford said work remains to be done including bridge painting and asphalt grade adjustments on each end. Motorists are urged to exercise caution in traveling the bridge while this work is being done. “The bridge is actually complete. All we have to do is some painting. We have to paint the piers and columns and we still have to paint the railing. The top of the rail and the traffic face will get painted white and the remainder of the bridge will be painted a mountain gray. We can’t paint the railing until we get our paving done. We still have to do some grade work on each end of the bridge and we have to do our final coat of topping on our paving. Of course we still have to do our paved shoulders. Hopefully that will take place within the next two to three months,” he said.
Preparations for demolition of the old Sligo bridge are expected to begin as early as this week.
“Hopefully we’ll start the demolition of the old bridge Monday. They won’t be actually blasting it down Monday but they will start doing some preparation. A lot of stuff has to happen before they start to shoot the bridge down or a portion of it down. When they shoot it down, if they do it like bridges I have seen done in the past, they will take the concrete deck off it first and they’ll even possibly take some of the floor beams out of it to where it is still structurally sound but anything they can take out without it being in the water, naturally they want to do that. But they will shoot it up kind of in pieces and when it falls in the water then they have to retrieve it out. They will put the pieces on barges and ship it out for waste or scrap metal,” said Langford.

A portion of the concrete piers supporting the old bridge will also be removed. “They will shoot the piers down into the water but not all the way to the bottom of the lake. The Corps will do a final sonar of the bottom of the lake and anything (piers) that is above elevation 600 feet (mean sea level) has to be removed. The water today (Saturday) is around 637 (MSL) elevation so the concrete piers will actually remain in the water. They won’t shoot them out all the way to the bottom of the lake,” Langford continued.
Since the bridge has a new road alignment on the Sparta side, Langford said the old alignment will be closed to the public however utility companies will have access through a gate to service existing electric and telephone poles and lines there. And the public will no longer be allowed to park on the side of the road and walk down to the rock quarry to swim. “We have no parking signs posted on both sides of the road and the access of going down to the swimming area that people have used for years is being cut off. There will not be any more access down there to it,” said Langford.
The road alignment on the Smithville side will also change somewhat including the access to Sligo Marina. “When we get completely done with the new alignment going down to the marina it will actually kind of go over against the bluff. We’ve not got it constructed yet but eventually when we get it complete it will go over against the bluff and that sharp curve won’t be near as bad and there will be some parking (area) on top (for the marina) when we get that completed. There’s still a lot of work yet to do cosmetically on that side. It will change a whole lot in the next couple of months,” Langford said.
Once the work is completed and the cranes and barges are removed from the lake via Highland Trail Boat Ramp near Riverwatch, the state will have a new 20 foot wide concrete boat ramp built there and the parking area will be expanded and paved. The state will also have the county road repaved from the boat ramp to Highway 70. The county will be responsible for having the boat ramp parking area striped according to Corps standards.
Work began on the new $39.2 million Sligo bridge on May 23, 2013. The contractor is Massman Construction Company, Incorporated of Kansas City, Missouri. The completion date under the contract is June 30, 2016 but according to Langford, the project should be finished by the end of this year.

Enrollment numbers in the DeKalb County School System keep fluctuating.
As WJLE reported last Tuesday, enrollment was down slightly from last year as of Monday morning. But by Thursday, enrollment was up by ten students over last year.
According to Attendance Supervisor Joey Reeder, a total of 2,909 students were enrolled as of Monday, August 3. But during Thursday night’s Board of Education meeting, Reeder said numbers taken from the computer showed that district-wide there were 3,015 students enrolled, up from 3,005 a year ago.
“These (numbers) are pretty fluid and will be until Labor Day. We’ll have people coming in and moving out,” said Reeder.
As of Thursday, enrollment at each school was as follows compared to last year:
DCHS: 867 (up by 37 students)
DeKalb Middle School: 536 (down by 18 students)
Northside Elementary: 658 (up by 35 students)
Smithville Elementary: 569 ( down by 40 students)
DeKalb West School: 382 (down by seven students)

Two people were involved in a rear end collision Saturday on Highway 70 at Liberty.
Trooper Mark Jones of the Tennessee Highway Patrol told WJLE that 38 year old Tammy Taylor of Carthage was east on Highway 70 in a 1993 Ford Ranger when she struck the back of a utility trailer being pulled by an eastbound 1967 Chevy pickup, driven by 63 year old Tollie Cantrell of Auburntown. According to Trooper Jones, Cantrell was turning toward the Liberty Stop N Buy Market at the time. The force of the crash caused Taylor’s truck to overturn on its side while one of two lawn tractors aboard Cantrell’s utility trailer came loose and landed in the highway.
Trooper Jones said Taylor was transported to Saint Thomas DeKalb Hospital with minor injuries. Cantrell was not hurt. A passenger was reportedly with Taylor at the time of the crash but had left before the Trooper arrived.
Taylor was cited or charged with following too closely and violation of the financial responsibility law for no insurance.
Members of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and Liberty Station of the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department rendered assistance at the scene.

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps is still serving under a 30 day contract with the Board of Education pending a final agreement.
The school board intended to finalize the contract Thursday night but decided to put it off until legal counsel, who has already reviewed the agreement, is consulted again to make sure there are no provisions which conflict with state law. “The contract is a good viable contract but there are still some mistakes in it that our attorney may have (not corrected). He condensed it some. A lot of it relates to the Tennessee Code. We want to make sure that everything we want in the contract coincides with the Tennessee Code. I will check with him (attorney) Friday. He called me today (Thursday) but it was on my way to the board meeting so we didn’t have a lot of time to talk about it. He is available all day Friday so I am going to talk with him then. What we will do is work on getting the wording exactly like it needs to be. We have until August 17. If we get this information back (from legal counsel), have it emailed to you (school board members), and if everyone is agreeable with the contract and sign off on it in the form of an email making it official to us then the Director, myself, and the Vice Chairman will sign the contract and at the next board meeting we’ll make it part of the minutes at that time,” said Chairman W.J. (Dub) Evins, III.
Board member Danny Parkerson made a motion to adopt Evins’ recommendation. Board member Jim Beshearse offered a second to the motion. All members in attendance signaled their approval on a voice vote. Board member Jerry Wayne Johnson was absent due to an illness.
By a unanimous vote of 7-0, the Board of Education met in special session Thursday night, July 16 and named Cripps the next Director of Schools. Cripps accepted the board’s offer of a two year employment contract at a base salary of $85,000 per year. Cripps signed an initial 30 day contract which is valid until the board finalizes the deal.
In his monthly written report on personnel, Director of Schools Cripps presented a list of names of persons who have been hired, transferred, or resigned/retired since last month.
Employment:
Jill Bowman, teacher at DCHS, replaces Mary Ann Puckett
Brittany Campbell, teacher at DCHS, replaces Chelsa Burch
Joel Goff, teacher at DCHS, replaces Shea Wiegle
Tonya Perry, teacher at DCHS, replaces Karla Crabtree
Tracy Luna, teacher at DCHS, replaces Derek Schatz
Nathaniel Kennard, teacher at DCHS, replaces Taylor McDaniel
Mary Ann Blair, teacher at DeKalb Middle School, replaces Lori Alexander
Cheryl Vance, teacher at DeKalb Middle School, replaces Amy Key
Candace Jones, teacher at Smithville Elementary School, replaces Beth Cantrell
Leslie Moore, teacher at Smithville Elementary School, replaces Vicky Duke
Nicki Johnson, teacher at Smithville Elementary School, replaces Jessica Styer
Julie Hale, educational assistant at DeKalb West School, replaces Shelly Gibson
Lori Chew, interim teacher SPED Resource, fills position of Betsy Walker on a leave of absence
Deborah Gentry, teacher at DeKalb West School
Lindsay Floyd, teacher at Northside Elementary School, replaces Greg Hibdon
Lauri Sweeny, teacher at DeKalb Middle School, RTI (new position)
Eddie Dillard, teacher (ESL- English as a Second Language) at Smithville Elementary School (part-time) (new position)
Emily Summers, teacher at Smithville Elementary School, replaces Carrie Lee
Katie Stutts at DeKalb West School, replaces Evann Wilson
Cheryl Vandagriff, teacher at Northside Elementary School, replaces January Agee
Suzanne Caldwell, custodian at DeKalb Middle School, replaces Pauline Braswell
Substitutes:
Joyce Alexander, Guylene Atnip, Carolyn Caldwell, Donna Davis, Sue Driver, Betty Fisk, Debbie France, Vicki Haggard, Carol Hale, Charlene Hallum, Jimmy Hendrixson, Betty Hickey, Ester Holder, Shirley Ingram, LaTonya Kleparek, Sharon Moffett, Stephen Moore, Angela Osment, Jessica Rackley, Judy Redmon, Joyce Robertson, Virginia Rose, Bob Smith, Kim Taylor, Jan Thomas, Helga Thompson, Luanna Tollett, Brad Trapp, Jenny Trapp, Wanda Vickers, Melissa Wallace, and Kim Young.
Leave of Absence as requested:
Betsy Walker, Whitney Brelje, Felicia Warden, and Karen Jacobs
Transferred:
Jessica Styer from Smithville Elementary School to Northside Elementary SPED to replace Julie Styer
Amme Cantrell from DeKalb Middle School to DCHS SPED
January Agree from Northside Elementary to DeKalb Middle School SPED
Mary Ann Puckett from DCHS to DeKalb Middle School/DeKalb West School to replace Michael Littrell
Diana Moon from DeKalb West School to Northside Elementary School
Danny VanDyne from Smithville Elementary to DCHS to replace Carl Malone
George Storie from part-time cafeteria to full time custodian to replace Danny VanDyne
Beth Cantrell transferred to the Smithville Elementary School Computer Lab
Resignations/Retirements:
Lori Alexander, resigned
Lisa Bell, resigned
Derek Schatz, resigned
Chelsa Burch, resigned
Karla Crabtree, resigned
Michael Littrell, resigned
Alyssa Conger, resigned
Taylor McDaniel, resigned
Shelly Gibson, resigned
Greg Hibdon, resigned
Katie Collins, resigned
Vicky Duke, retirement
Amy Green, retirement
Corrine Seifert, resigned
Mike Merriman, resigned
Donald Haggard, resigned
Julie Styer, resigned
Dee Anna Reynolds, resigned

DeKalb Middle School had the honor and rare opportunity to host two Medal of Honor recipients and family members of a third in a tribute ceremony Friday morning.
83 year old Leo Thorsness, a retired colonel in the United States Air Force and 71 year old Harold (Hal) Fritz, a retired United States Army Officer both received the Medal of Honor for their actions in the Vietnam War. The two national heroes were scheduled to arrive in Smithville on a Blackhawk helicopter but inclement weather prevented it. They rode into town instead in a Chevrolet Suburban.
Members of the community and local veterans greeted the war heroes with handshakes and salutes as they entered the school and some waved flags in a show of patriotism.
Family members of the late World War I hero Sergeant Alvin C. York were also honored guests including York’s son and daughter Andrew Jackson York and Betsy Ross York Lowery along with two of his grandchildren, Gerald York and Deborah Marie York, who is the executive director of the Sergeant York Patriotic Foundation. The program featured a power point tribute to Sergeant York as well as to a DeKalb County Medal of Honor recipient, the late Charles P. Cantrell, who served in the War with Spain in 1898. Plaques of appreciation were presented to the York family and to Thorness and Fritz.
Veterans in attendance sat together during the tribute program, which also featured video vignettes about Thorsness and Fritz. Members of the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department presented flags and student Bill Miller led the audience in the Pledge of Allegiance with Thea Tippin singing the National Anthem.
(VIEW VIDEO OF TRIBUTE PROGRAM BELOW)

Principal Randy Jennings helped with the introductions and reminded the students of the significant sacrifices these men made for their country. “As students you guys look up to a lot of people; basketball players, singers, actors, and all those people you put on that pedestal. We use that term hero very loosely a lot of times. Those are just famous people. They are not necessarily heroes. Here are the real heroes. We are honored to have our Medal of Honor recipients with us,” said Jennings.

After making brief remarks, Thorsness and Fritz participated in a question and answer session with Tom Duggin serving as moderator. The questions were previously selected from students. Following the assembly, Thorsness and Fritz visited a few classrooms before they departed the school in the Suburban.

Thorsness was held as a prisoner of war for six years in North Vietnam and spent much of the first three years enduring torture sessions and extensive stints in solitary confinement.

He received the Congressional Medal of Honor for his service in the skies above Vietnam and is one of only 79 living medal recipients. He is a native of Walnut Grove, Minnesota.
Thorsness flew 92 successful missions in all, but he was forced to eject from his plane midway into his 93rd. He injured both of his legs in the ejection and was captured by members of the North Vietnamese military.
Thorsness was released from captivity in 1973, at which point he retired from the Air Force. He received the Medal of Honor from President Richard Nixon in a White House ceremony on October 15, 1973.
In 1966, Fritz, a native of Chicago Illinois, was working toward a career in veterinary medicine when he got his draft notice. After advanced armor training, he was accepted for Officer Candidate School. In 1968, he was sent to Vietnam. While he was there, Fritz led a column of heavily armored vehicles on a dirt highway near Quan Lo. He was suddenly blown out of his armored vehicle from a huge explosion by a large force of North Vietnamese soldiers. Fritz’s force was caught in a crossfire. Fritz jumped into an armored vehicle, took a heavy toll on the attackers, and led his tiny force in a point-blank charge that temporarily drove the enemy back. He was hit several times, and one particularly heavy blow on the left side of his chest knocked him down.
Fritz had tried to call headquarters but didn’t know if the transmission had been received. As he readied his men for a last stand to protect the wounded, he saw the aerial of a U.S. tank coming down the road. It was part of a tank platoon that had overheard his call for help. Eventually, he and his wounded troopers were evacuated by helicopter.
Later that day when he returned to the battlefield, he found a battered cigarette lighter that had been given to him as a going-away present by his wife. It had been in his left breast pocket and had stopped an enemy bullet that would otherwise have killed him.
He returned to the U.S. in the spring of 1968 and learned in 1971 that he would receive the Medal of Honor by President Richard Nixon.
“Some of the unsung heroes, the men and women that served in the various branches of service in the United States who came back, they were not awarded the Medal of Honor but their valor and dedication are equal to anyone who has the Medal of Honor,” said Fritz in his remarks during the tribute program Friday.
“The Medal of Honor is given in the name of Congress. It’s not won. It’s presented and awarded to a recipient. We are recipients of the Medal of Honor and we wear our ribbons proudly not for ourselves but for the men and women that have served, that are serving, and will serve in the armed forces of the United States,” he said.
“War is a terrible thing. But I believe beyond my lifetime that somebody or maybe some people sitting in this audience will be the key to finding a way to peaceably settle disagreements between individuals and countries. You are going to play a role in that. You are going to be part of that solution. Your contributions are very important. The two greatest weapons in the world today are faith and education. Always extend your hand out to your fellow American to help them. They in turn will help you and others. That’s what makes America so great. That’s why men and women serve. Because we want to preserve freedom, not only for today but for the future,” Fritz concluded.
“We are so blessed just by being born in America. We wear this medal for those who can’t. We wear it for everybody who served,” said Thorsness.
Only 79 Medal of Honor recipients are still living. It’s the country’s highest military honor, given for valor in combat and action that saved the lives of fellow soldiers, sailors and Marines.
A total of 45 million men and women have fought in America’s wars, but only 3,500 have received the Medal of Honor.
DeKalb Middle was one of only a few mid-state schools selected to receive a visit from Medal of Honor recipients as part of “Nashville Salutes”, a three day event focusing on these heroes and what they stand for while preserving their legacy through the Medal of Honor Foundation’s Character Development Program, which incorporates the ideals of courage and selfless service into the middle and high school curriculum to build character and promote responsible citizenship.
Tena Davidson, an educator at DeKalb Middle School, discovered the program and introduced it to students in her class last year. Principal Jennings thanked Davidson for her efforts in making Friday’s program possible.