Tennessee Downtown Programs Steering Committee Members Wade Smith, Suzanne Williams, Steve White, Alan Webb and Mark Ashburn (not pictured) were guests of the Smithville Rotary Club last Tuesday and presented the two plans for an open-air pavilion to be constructed at Evins Park in the near future.
These citizens are our local committee that is planning for improvements to downtown Smithville under the umbrella of the “Tennessee Downtowns Program,” a statewide initiative to revitalize downtowns and increase tourism in Tennessee.
The Smithville Rotary Club became the first organization in DeKalb County to pledge $1000 toward completion of the pavilion.

As schools were closed Thursday, repairs were being made to campus buildings in order to get them ready for classes on Friday.
Director of Schools Mark Willoughby said high winds from Wednesday afternoon’s severe weather caused some damage to DeKalb Middle School and the Vocational School at DCHS while snapping an electric line, providing a primary power source to DCHS. “When daylight came (Thursday) we found some more damage. Up on top of the middle school, as you drive by you could see that it had blown off the siding next to the roof, probably 25 to 30 feet in two different spots. On top of the roof of the middle school, metal which evidently came from some other place cut six or seven places in the roof where it had blown metal around. We’ve had a company up there, Porter Roofing fixing those cuts. They think they have all those particular spots fixed as to damage to the roof, temporarily fixed anyway. There are some blowers inside drying out the building from the leaks. The maintenance department and custodians worked Wednesday night and Thursday drying things out to make sure the water coming into the building didn’t get out of control. We had some pretty good leaks in the middle school,” said Willoughby.
“It (winds) blew one of the windows in at the vocational school,” according to Willoughby. “The force of the wind blew in one of the large windows. It did not break the window. It did not shatter. We were able to put that back in. There is no structural damage. We had some people to look. So that window was secured back in and braced. There was some siding that blew off the vocational building. We had two or three twenty five foot strips of rubber that came off the side of the roof of the vocational school,” he said
“The football field scoreboard is twisted. The baseball scoreboard is down. We’ve got a fence down where a large tree has fallen on it. All in all we were very fortunate that we did not get any more damage than what did happen,” said Willoughby
Director Willoughby said except for some concerns about electricity to the building, the high school did not receive any significant storm damage. “There was no structural damage at the high school. We had one little place where it looked like it had blown the siding off the back of the high school but upon examining it further, we don’t believe that was from the storm. It was just a little bit loose up there at the top of the building where the roof and the siding met. We had to have the electric company come in Thursday morning. If we had to, we could have had school Thursday with the exception of dealing with the electricity. We were not sure of all the areas of the school where electricity was available everywhere in the school Wednesday night but we got there Thursday morning and had to do some additional work. There were more reasons than just the roof why we did not go to school Thursday,” said Willoughby.
Storm winds also blew down a traffic caution light on West Broad Street near the schools.
Schools reopened Friday morning but closed again at noon due to the threat of more severe weather.

The DeKalb County Beer Board met Thursday night and received five applications for new beer permits. Final action on them will come at the next meeting on Thursday, April 5 at 7:00 p.m. at the courthouse.
Filing applications for both on and off premises permits are Viva Gail Johnson of Jewel’s Market and Pizza on North Congress Boulevard, Smithville; Back 9, LLC doing business as Riverwatch; and Jesus Villa of the Stop Market, LLC, formerly One Stop Market on Short Mountain Highway.
Those filing applications for off premises permits are Debra W. Sacran of D & D Market on Short Mountain Highway, and Araceli Godinez Soto of Nicole’s Market on Short Mountain Highway.
All applicants must meet the new minimum distance requirement as established by the county commission along with any other regulations. As WJLE reported Tuesday, the county commission Monday night voted seven to five to rescind the 2,000 foot rule that the county has had in place since 1939 and adopt 800 feet as the minimum distance required between a store seeking a beer permit, and a church, school, or other place of public gathering measuring in a direct line, the nearest point to the nearest point. From the building to the building.
Members of the DeKalb County Beer Board voting to accept the applications for consideration Thursday night were Harrell Tolbert, Dick Knowles, Jim Stagi, Mack Harney, and Edward Frazier. Frank Thomas voted no and Robert Rowe was absent. Again, final action on these applications is scheduled for April 5 at 7:00 p.m. at the courthouse.
Meanwhile sixth district board member Harrell Tolbert announced his resignation from the board Thursday night. Because of redistricting, Tolbert has been moved from the sixth district to the fifth district and can no longer serve the sixth district as a beer board member. The county will have to appoint a new member to succeed Tolbert.
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Rescue workers and volunteers will resume efforts Thursday morning to recover the body of a woman who died when her home collapsed from high winds Wednesday afternoon on Alpine Lane in the Holiday Haven area.
The name of the woman has not yet been released.
The storm, which some believe produced a tornado, left a scattered path of destruction just to the north east of Smithville off Cookeville Highway from the Pine Grove Road and Holiday Haven area to Ponder Road, Puckett’s Point, and then on to the Falling Water and Backbone areas in the Johnson’s Chapel Community.
Aside from the fatality, no injuries were reported but several homes, garages, and other structures were damaged by the high winds or from trees that fell on them and power lines are down which has caused power outages for many residents.
DeKalb County Fire Chief Donny Green said the recovery operation was called off Wednesday night but will resume at daybreak Thursday. “At this point, we’re in the recovery stage of the operation. We have confirmed we have a body trapped inside a collapsed structure. That (home) has pretty much been demolished. We’re going to stop operations tonight but we’re still going to be planning our approach on how we’re going to try and do this (recovery operation) safely,” said Chief Green.
“We’re going to try and pick back up at daybreak tomorrow (Thursday) and continue the recovery operation to get in and recover the body. We’re sending a lot of our outside resources back tonight but they’re coming back early in the morning to help us get in with the planning process on how we’re going to approach this,” he said.
When asked if this storm actually spawned a tornado, Chief Green said there has been no official confirmation but a county firefighter claimed to have spotted a funnel cloud.
Sheriff Patrick Ray said he called in all deputies Wednesday afternoon to help in providing security. “We’re providing security and backup to the rescue squad and fire department. We’ve gone around searching houses. That’s what we’ve done today. We’ve also secured the scenes where there has been damage to homes. Tonight a lot of them don’t have electricity so we’ve got a security plan in effect. I called in all the deputies today to assist with this and we’ll have them throughout the night and into tomorrow,” said Sheriff Ray.
In addition to local law enforcement agencies, fire departments, EMS, rescue squad, and Emergency Management Agency coordinator Charlie Parker, several agencies and emergency services from outside the county have also responded. “Its really been overwhelming at the support we’ve received from all of our agencies in the county as well as adjoining counties and cities and beyond who have come to help us. We’ve had extra law enforcement to come in. Extra fire and EMS and rescue services have come in. We can’t say enough about the support we’ve had during this unfortunate event,” said Chief Green.
Local Red Cross volunteers, who have been rendering assistance on site, are asking the public to donate food and bottled water for all those helping in the recovery and storm cleanup effort. Monetary donations will also be accepted. If you would like to donate, stop by the Red Cross office in the new county complex on South Congress Boulevard.