A Smithville man received burns and smoke inhalation while escaping from his home which caught fire around midnight on Pine Grove Road.
Central dispatch received the call at 12:08 a.m.
County Fire Chief Donny Green says Jerry Williams of 161 Pine Grove Road was in his bedroom watching television when a fire started in the kitchen. “Shortly after midnight we got a call to go to 161 Pinegrove Road off the Cookeville Highway to a reported structure fire. When we got there we realized that we had a victim and DeKalb EMS was already there treating him. He was apparently the occupant of the home. He lived in his daughter’s house. His name is Jerry Williams. He was in the back bedroom watching television. His dog started barking erratically. Williams smelled the smoke and then he opened the bedroom door to investigate what was going on and realized that the house was full of smoke. So he had to get down on his knees to crawl up the hallway to the back of the house where the kitchen was. He saw the kitchen was on fire and he had to go out a door. In the process of getting out, he received some burns to his back, hands, and arms. Also during the course of exiting, he apparently had some respiratory injuries due to breathing in the super heated air. So EMS was treating him and it’s my understanding they transported him to DeKalb Community Hospital and he was later transferred to Vanderbilt Hospital. We don’t know exactly what caused the fire. We know it started in the kitchen and it’s still under investigation. The home was totally destroyed. When we got there the whole back end of the house had fire coming out of the windows and out of the roof. We attempted to make entry through the front to put out the fire but it was already too involved. We had to do an exterior attack just to keep it from spreading to other properties there.” Two dogs and a parrot were also lost in the blaze.
Members of the Cookeville Highway, Short Mountain Highway, Midway, and the Main Stations of the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department responded along with DeKalb EMS and the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department.

Cooler weather, campfires, storytelling, roasting marshmallows – a chance to snuggle down under blankets – all these are pleasant happenings in the fall and are part of Edgar Evins State Park’s 5th Annual History Hayride, on Center Hill Lake Saturday, October 16. There are still a number of seats available!
This is a wholesome, family-oriented event rather than a Halloween ride although one of the new characters will be a gravedigger from the 1930s when bodies were exhumed from existing cemeteries to be reinterred during the construction of Center Hill Reservoir. Some of the other characters will include an area moonshiner, a local foxhunter, and the Revolutionary War veteran who founded the town of Liberty. Back by popular demand will be Elizabeth Dale, the lovely daughter of the founder of Liberty who later became known as “The Black Widow of Hazel Green.”
Click here to listen to Park Manager Carl Halfacre talk about the History Hayride
As many as nine wagon loads will leave at 30-minute intervals from the park’s office at the observation tower. The ride will take approximately 90 minutes to make a complete circuit, stopping at several scenes where costumed re-enactors will present historical sketches.
Hosted by the Friends of Edgar Evins State Park, this event is an opportunity to learn about the history of the park and the area, while enjoying fresh air and spectacular lake and hillside scenic views. Reserve your spot now as this event sells out quickly! Admission is $10 per person, with all proceeds benefiting the Friends of Edgar Evins State Park whose efforts help improve and preserve the park. Light refreshments also will be served, including marshmallows – and it is recommended you BYOB (Bring Your Own Blanket) and dress warmly in layers. Phone the park office for reservations: (931) 858-2446 or toll free at (800) 250-8619.
Edgar Evins State Park is located on the shores of Center Hill Lake in the steep, hilly Eastern Highland Rim. The 6,000-acre park provides excellent recreational opportunities and accommodations on one of the most beautiful reservoirs in Tennessee. Wildlife is abundant, including three different owl species, numerous hawks and wintering bald eagles as well as the rare Cerulean Warbler – a summer resident of the park’s mixed hardwood forests, which include stands of Tulip Poplar, Oak, Hickory, Buckeye and Wild Cherry. The park was dedicated in 1975 and named for James Edgar Evins, a DeKalb County businessman and mayor of nearby Smithville. As a two-term state senator, Evins was instrumental in the development of Center Hill Dam and Reservoir. For more information about the History Hayride, please call (800) 250-8619. Additional information about the park can be found at www.tnstateparks.com/EdgarEvins.

Enjoy chili and delicious baked goods while helping raise money for Habitat for Humanity of DeKalb County during the 7th annual Chili Cook-off and Bake Sale Friday, October 29th at the 303 building downtown Smithville.
Serving time will be from 10:30 a.m. until 1:00 p.m. YOU BE THE JUDGE! Purchase your bowl for $5.00 (or $10 for a pottery bowl) and eat all the chili you want from all the teams and vote for your favorite! Come and have lunch. Take out available. All proceeds go to Habitat for Humanity of DeKalb County.
Tecia Puckett Pryor says the chili cook-off and bake sale is one of two major fundraisers held during the year for Habitat. “We just completed our third Habitat house and we’ll be starting on our fourth house next year and we’ll be choosing a family this winter. So the proceeds from this year’s cook-off will be going toward that house.”
The event last year raised approximately $3,500
Last year “The Courthouse Gang” from the DeKalb County Officials won the “Best Chili” award, and “Monster Mash” from the DeKalb County Board of Education followed in second place. In the decorating contest, the “Red Hot Chili Papers” from The Smithville Review won first place honors.
For more information or to enter a team, contact Tecia Pryor at 615-597-7370 or Jeff McMillen at 597-4153.
Habitat for Humanity of DeKalb County is a locally run affiliate of Habitat for Humanity International, a nonprofit, ecumenical Christian housing organization. Habitat for Humanity builds and renovates houses in partnership with volunteers and families in need, regardless of their ethnic or religious background. The houses then are sold to those in need at no profit and with no interest charged. To contact Habitat for Humanity of DeKalb County, please call 215-8181.

The Smithville Mayor and Aldermen want more information before deciding on whether or not to apply for a downtown revitalization grant.
Economic and Community Development Commissioner Matt Kisber announced last week in a press release that applications are now being accepted for Tennessee Downtowns, a competitive community improvement program for cities and counties seeking to revitalize traditional commercial districts. The program is open to communities with downtown commercial districts established at least 50 years ago and whose citizens are ready to organize efforts for downtown revitalization based on the successful program “Main Street Four-Point Approach to Downtown Revitalization.” Applications are available online at www.tennesseemainstreet.org and must be completed by Monday, Nov. 8.
“Having a thriving downtown benefits and promotes economic development efforts for a community and lays the groundwork for a growing local economy,” said ECD Commissioner Matt Kisber. “The Tennessee Downtowns program is the first step toward reviving a community’s central business district in a comprehensive, sustainable way.”
Mayor Taft Hendrixson said Monday night during the city council meeting that he would contact the state to learn more about the program. “We’ll call and see what the grant match is, if any. I think we have $10,000 in our budget for that project (downtown beautification) but we’ll find out what the match is and what’s available and what it can be used for.”
Alderman Steve White then made a motion that the city “check into it and then move forward it, but first come back with the numbers for final approval.”
The aldermen approved White’s motion.
Tennessee Downtowns is a tiered program affiliated with the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development’s Tennessee Main Street Program. Communities selected to participate in Tennessee Downtowns will form a volunteer committee of local citizens who will participate in a multi-month training curriculum supported by the National Main Street Center. The curriculum is designed to teach citizens about comprehensive, sustainable downtown revitalization and historic preservation. The training includes attendance at a two-day downtown revitalization workshop and a grant to complete individualized downtown development projects.
Communities participating in the Tennessee Downtowns program may wish to continue a self-initiated downtown revitalization effort at the end of the program or apply for certification in the Tennessee Main Street Program through the competitive application process. Successful completion of the Tennessee Downtowns program does not automatically result in qualification for the Main Street program.
Main Street revitalization is a comprehensive, incremental, self-help economic strategy that also focuses on developing public-private partnerships to enhance community livability and job creation, while maintaining the historic character of the district. For information about the Main Street Program and the Main Street Four Point Approach, visit http://www.preservationnation.org/main-street/about-main-street/.
Tennessee’s Main Street program provides communities with technical assistance and guidance in developing long-term strategies that promote economic growth and development. The program provides information and assistance in forging public networking and training opportunities for downtown commercial districts.
For more information about Tennessee Downtowns, visit www.tennesseemainstreet.org.

A Smithville man who suffered a gunshot to the abdomen in September 2009 during what his assailant described as an argument over a drug deal died last Friday from complications of the wound.
Based on Saturday’s autopsy findings, the death of Donald Taylor, 61, is being classified as a homicide.
The Metro Nashville Police Department, in a prepared news release states that the suspect in the case, Keith Collier, 45, was indicted last December on charges of especially aggravated robbery, unlawful weapon possession by a convicted felon and drug selling. He remains jailed and is scheduled to appear in Criminal Court next month. South Precinct detectives have made prosecutors aware of Taylor’s death.
Taylor was shot in the 100 block of Lafayette Street in Nashville on the evening of September 1, 2009. Taylor then drove to a convenience market on 8th Avenue South from where he telephoned for help. Investigation by South Precinct Detective Brandon Dozier led to the identification of Collier as the man involved in the fatal confrontation with Taylor.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation is re-bidding the rehabilitation of the Hurricane Bridge after rejecting the one and only bid received last month.
Jennifer Flynn, Community Relations Officer in the Chattanooga TDOT Office told WJLE Monday that bids for the project were due September 17th, but only one bid was submitted. According to Flynn, Bell & Associates of Brentwood bid $39.5 million dollars and TDOT rejected it for being “over estimates” .TDOT officials have said that the estimate for the project is $12 to $15 million dollars.
TDOT is accepting bids again on the project through October 29th. According to the notice posted on TDOT’s website, the contractor has until October 31st, 2013 to complete the project.
Flynn said the project will entail a rehabilitation of the existing bridge. ” The rehabilitation project will replace the deck at the bridge. New guardrails will be installed and it will strengthen the steel structure underneath and make the bridge a lot safer and it won’t have to be weight posted anymore upon completion of the project.”
The rehabilitation of Hurricane Bridge is among the projects to be funded through TDOT’s Better Bridge bonding program in the fiscal year 2010-11 state budget, which was approved by the legislature this year.