An old warehouse building located across the street from city hall is being torn down today (Wednesday)
Preston Construction of Woodbury is conducting the demolition.
The Smithville Aldermen recently voted to take advantage of a Neighborhood Stabilization Program through the Tennessee Housing Development Agency which provides funds to cities and counties wanting to demolish blighted properties.

Mayor Taft Hendrixson says the city owned building, located across the street from city hall on the north side, qualified for the program.”I was approached by the Upper Cumberland Development District. They had some THDA funds, which in turn is HUD money for blighted areas and blighted buildings. I was approached about our white building over here. I took the liberty to make sure it (building) wasn’t on an Historical site and it’s not. It (building) was probably erected sometime in the 1920’s. The only thing we used that for is (storing) a bunch of old stuff that probably needed to be thrown away anyway.”
Once the building is removed, the property may be used for any city purpose, but under terms of the program, the property cannot be sold or leased for private purposes for a period of time, otherwise the city would have to refund all or a portion of the funds used to demolish the building.
City officials say the site will be graveled.

Smithville Mayor Taft Hendrixson was re-elected to a third term Tuesday beating challengers Bruce Medley and Debi Loring DePriest in the Municipal Election.
Incumbent Aldermen Stephen White and Cecil Burger were also re-elected, beating challenger Shawn Beckham. White was elected to his sixth term and Burger to his third term as Aldermen.
A total of 746 people voted in the election, including 476 early (440 in person and 36 by absentee ballot) and 270 on election day (Tuesday). The City of Smithville has a total of 3,076 registered voters.
Mayor Hendrixson won with 354 votes (47.84%). Bruce Medley, a livestock producer and former Smithville mayor, came in second place with 211 votes (28.51%). Debi Loring DePriest, a teacher at DeKalb County High School, received 174 votes (23.51%) in her first run for public office.
Alderman White led the ticket with 504 votes ( 42.07%) followed by Alderman Burger with 479 votes (39.98%). Shawn Beckham, in his first run for public office, received 210 votes (17.53%) in his unsuccessful bid for alderman.
Mayor Hendrixson thanked his supporters and pledged to continue governing conservatively. “I would like to thank everyone who voted today in the city election. I would especially like to thank the ones who voted for me. I have had the taxpayers at heart for the last four years and I will continue to do that with conservative leadership and trying to take care of the taxpayers dollars. Again, I appreciate your confidence in me and I will continue doing the best I know how during the next two years. Again, I appreciate your vote. Thank you.”
Alderman White also expressed his gratitude. ” I want to thank all the voters who came out and voted. Those who voted for me and supported me, I thank you dearly. I’ll continue to do the job, the best for the community. We have some things that will be hard decisions in the next two years, I feel, but just keep us all in your prayers and thanks again for everybody coming out and voting.”
Alderman Burger, who has now been elected eleven times (eight times as mayor and three times as alderman), says he counts it an honor and privilege serving the people of Smithville. ” I think I’ve been pretty lucky. I really want to thank my supporters for taking care of me this long. The ones who didn’t support me, I don’t have any ill will against them. I hope that we can carry on with the city and do the best we can with what we’ve got to do with. Thank you very much.”
Medley said he was disappointed more people didn’t vote. “I’d like to thank everybody who came out and voted and especially the ones who voted for me. I’d like to thank everybody. I just wish more people had voted.”
DePriest said she too was concerned about the low voter turnout. “I want to thank all my friends and supporters who gave so much encouragement through this campaign, especially my husband and my family. I want to congratulate Mr. Hendrixson and wish him good luck. The election is over now but the work is just beginning. We can’t afford business as usual unless we really want to see our town die a slow death. I think I’m more disappointed in the low voter turnout than I am anything else. I think it’s sad that less than 25% of our electorate actually got out to make this decision that could have changed the outcome. But 25% of the electorate got out and they are the ones who spoke and they are the ones who said this is what they want. We’ve got to get involved as citizens. We need to encourage and support every public servant and employee and we also need to thank them for the outstanding job they’re doing. We need to support our elected officials and every positive thing they do and we need to demand their best for we have a future here. We’re writing our history every day. Let’s make it a great story and let’s make this a great city. God bless all. I love Smithville.”
The mayor and aldermen-elect will begin their new two year terms of office July 1st. They will most likely be sworn into office sometime before that date.
The other three aldermen, whose terms will expire next summer, are Aaron Meeks, Shawn Jacobs, and W.J. (Dub) White.
Here’s how the results break down for each candidate:
Mayor Race:
Taft Hendrixson:
Absentee: 17
Early Voting: 234
Election Day Machine #1 : 47
Election Day Machine #2 : 56
Total: 354
Bruce Medley:
Absentee: 12
Early Voting: 123
Election Day Machine #1: 30
Election Day Machine #2: 46
Total: 211
Debi Loring DePriest:
Absentee: 7
Early Voting: 79
Election Day Machine #1: 55
Election Day Machine #2: 33
Total: 174
Alderman Race:
Stephen White:
Absentee: 28
Early Voting: 308
Election Day Machine #1:82
Election Day Machine #2; 86
Total: 504
Cecil Burger:
Absentee: 21
Early Voting: 298
Election Day Machine #1: 79
Election Day Machine #2; 81
Total: 479
Shawn Beckham:
Absentee: 11
Early Voting: 108
Election Day Machine #1: 44
Election Day Machine #2; 47
Total: 210

Rates for most customers of DeKalb Utility District will be increasing effective with bills due on July 10th.
Basic rates for customers who use up to 2,000 gallons per month will increase from $16.50 to $17.50. For monthly usage above 2,000 gallons up to 5,000 gallons, the costs will be an additional $6.50 per thousand, which is an increase of a dollar per thousand gallons. Customers who use more than 5,000 gallons per month will pay an additional $7.00 per thousand. These rates will apply to all customers except in the Gassaway and Silver Point service areas.
A customer, for example, who uses 6,000 gallons of water per month will see their bill increase from $38.50 to $44.00 plus tax.
Jon Foutch, DUD manager, says the utility has little choice but to adjust rates since the operation is currently running in the red. “We knew that we would be operating in the red this year but the state won’t let us do that for two years in a row.”. The state requires water utilities to be financially self supporting. Foutch adds that this rate increase has nothing to do with the City of Smithville’s plans to raise it’s water rates. The DUD purchases most of it’s water supply from the City of Smithville. The DUD pays the city $1.90 per thousand gallons.
Foutch says the DUD has not raised water rates for most customers since 2007. Customers in the Silver point area (across Hurricane bridge) have not seen a DUD rate increase since 2004. Foutch says in order to provide service to the Silver Point area, the DeKalb Utility District has to purchase water from Baxter, which buys its water from the City of Cookeville. Because it costs more for the DUD to deliver water to the Silver Point area, customers there are under a different rate structure.
For example, a customer in the Silver Point service area who uses 6,000 gallons of water per month will see their bill increase from $60.00 to $71.60 plus tax.
Basic rates for Silver Point area customers who use up to 2,000 gallons per month will go from $20.00 to $26.70, effective with bills due on July 10th. For monthly usage above 2,000 gallons up to 5,000 gallons, the costs will be an extra $11.10 per thousand, an increase of $1.10 per thousand. Customers (Silver Point area) who use more than 5,000 gallons per month will pay an extra $11.60 per thousand, an increase of $1.60 per thousand gallons.
Effective July 1st, water customers in the Gassaway area will be served by the DeKalb Utility District instead of the City of Woodbury. Foutch says Woodbury, which also gets it’s water from DUD, currently provides service to the Gassaway area, but under an agreement with Woodbury, DUD will take on about eighty customers in the Gassaway area and serve them directly.
The current rate structure for Gassaway customers will mostly remain unchanged. Customers who use up to 2,000 gallons per month will continue to pay a minimum bill of $18.55. For monthly usage above 2,000 up to 5,000 gallons, the costs will be additional $7.15 per thousand. The DUD will be adding a third tier rate for Gassaway customers who use more than 5,000 gallons per month, $7.55 per thousand (over 5,000 gallons).

The following is a legislative update from State Senator Mae Beavers.
Session finally came to a close last week as the state was able to pass a budget and conclude its business. The budget process consisted of weeks of negotiations, mainly with Senate Republicans attempting to pass a responsible budget against the will of many House Democrat and Republican leaders.
After passing a conservative budget out of the Senate Finance Committee, Senate leaders were constrained by members of the State House in what spending they could cut to balance the budget, and negotiations with House leaders allowed numerous pork projects to be included into the budget, in addition to raiding Tennessee’s “Rainy Day” savings account by hundreds of millions of dollars.
“I applaud the Senate for attempting to pass a conservative budget during these hard economic times,” said Senator Beavers. “However, due to certain House members’ wish lists when it came to pork projects that are not affordable during these times, in addition to spending hundreds of millions of dollars from our rainy day fund, I had to vote against this budget. It’s a shame that House members would rather spend, spend, spend and borrow, borrow, borrow rather than operate within our means. My family operates in a pay-as-you go fashion…and the state of Tennessee needs to do the same.”
Senator Beavers Proud to Have Passed Tennessee Health Freedom Act Twice this Session – Discouraged with the State House for Refusing to Protect Tennesseans from Obamacare
On Friday, June 4th, Senate leaders enacted a procedural method that revived the Tennessee Health Freedom Act. The original Health Freedom Act, SB 3498, was sponsored by Senator Beavers and passed the Senate Floor overwhelmingly last February. Yet, due to parliamentary maneuvers and side-deals being struck by House members and the House Speaker, that bill was killed last week in a budget subcommittee.
“The House Speaker cast a tie-breaking vote to kill that bill in committee last week,” said Senator Beavers. “The House committee then decided to pass out a similar, but substantially weaker bill to cover their tracks; however, all of the members knew that bill had not moved in the Senate. Their attempt to only advance the version that was dead in the Senate was their attempt to kill the Tennessee Health Freedom Act.”
The legislature was then left with a predicament in that there were two different versions of a bill that sought to protect Tennesseans from unconstitutional provisions of the national healthcare bill; however, both of their companion bills were stalled in the opposite legislative chamber. Therefore, SB 2560 was recalled from committee and brought straight to the Senate Floor. The only way the Senate agreed to recall the bill was to have an amendment that would put Beavers’ version of the Tennessee Health Freedom Act onto the bill since that was the only amendment that had been through the Senate committee process. If the Senate had not adopted that version of the bill, the bill would have been dead.
“This was an unusual procedural motion,” acknowledged Senator Beavers. “However the difference between this motion and others that have failed in the past is that this amendment has been vetted in committee and passed overwhelmingly in February. To me, it’s not a question of politics, it’s a matter of policy and principle…the Tennessee legislature needs to send a firm message to Washington that we do not agree with their unprecedented and unconstitutional national healthcare legislation. My amendment protected Tennesseans from the federal government, the other bill only said that the state legislature could not impose mandatory healthcare – which is irrelevant because it’s the federal government, not the state, who will impose such a mandate.”
Then, after passing the Senate overwhelming for the second time, the Tennessee Health Freedom Act failed to receive the necessary 50 votes to pass in its final form in the House of Representatives.
“I was incredibly discouraged that House Democrats voted to kill this bill,” said Senator Beavers. “The Senate did every maneuver we could to resurrect this bill – even passing the Tennessee Health Freedom Act once in February and then again last week.”
Many Democrats cited the reason for their vote being that Tennessee’s Attorney General said it was likely unconstitutional, yet Senator Beavers argued that such a statement was merely his opinion. “The only way you could say that my bill is unconstitutional would be if you believe Obamacare is constitutional – and the State Senate said loud and clear that we do not think it is…it’s the Attorney General’s job to defend the policies of this state, and there is no way that an unconstitutional federal law should trump a constitutional state law!”
To read about the different versions of Tennessee Health Freedom Act (SB3498 and SB2622), you can visit http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/106/Amend/SA0829.pdf; http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/106/Bill/HB2622.pdf; and the compromise reached: http://www.capitol.tn.gov/Bills/106/CCRReports/CC0027.pdf

Two McMinnville men were arrested by the Sheriff’s Department last week, charged in connection with the burglary of a houseboat at Pates Ford Marina.
19 year old John Houston Simons of Nortcutt Cove Road, McMinnville and 24 year old Luther J. George of Greenwood Drive, McMinnville were charged on Wednesday, June 9th with aggravated burglary and theft of property over $1,000. Bond for both men was set at $10,000 and they will appear in court on July 15th. Sheriff Patrick Ray says a deputy responded to a call at the Pates Ford Marina and arrested the two men after they were found to have entered a houseboat without the owner’s consent and removed two televisions from the boat.
Meanwhile in another case, 19 year old Donald E. Yarbrough, Jr. of Luttrell Drive Smithville was charged Wednesday, June 2nd with statutory rape. Deputies were called to answer a complaint on Woodbury Highway in Liberty After arrival they spoke to Yarbrough about allegations that he had sexual contact with a 14 year old female. Yarbrough admitted to deputies that he had been having sex with the girl. After an investigation into the crime, Yarbrough was arrested. His bond was set at $5,000.
52 year old James Herbert Thomen of Capshaw Drive, Cookeville and 35 year old Sean Keller of Window Cliff Road, Baxter were charged Monday, June 7th with driving under the influence. Keller was also issued a citation for refusal to submit to a blood alcohol test. Bond for both was set at $1,000 and they will appear in court on June 17th. According to Sheriff Ray, a deputy received a call about a fight in the Austin Bottom area of the county. Upon arrival, the officer spotted two vehicles driving away from the area. He stopped one of the cars on the Austin Bottom Road. The other car stopped behind them. The deputy noticed that the driver of the first car, Thomen, had an odor of alcoholic beverage. Thomen submitted to field sobriety tasks which he failed and he was very unsteady on his feet. The deputy then checked the driver of the second vehicle, Keller, and detected an odor of an alcoholic beverage on him. Keller also submitted to field sobriety tasks which he failed. Keller was unsteady on his feet and he refused to take a blood alcohol test.
46 year old Gary Wayne Ponder was arrested Tuesday, June 8th on a sealed indictment charging him with two counts of sale and delivery of a schedule II drug and two counts of sale and delivery of a schedule II drug in a drug free zone. The charges against Ponder are the result of the Sheriff’s Department’s Drug Round Up back in April. Bond for Ponder was set at $60,000 and he will appear in court on June 18th.
21 year old Aaron Preston Battle of Lakeridge Run Nashville was arrested on Saturday, June 12th and charged with theft of property over $1,000. His bond is set at $8,500 and he will appear in court on June 24th. According to Sheriff Ray, a deputy received a report of a stolen four wheeler at the Four Seasons Marina. Following an investigation, the officer arrested Battle for the theft. Battle admitted that he took the four wheeler from the marina without the owner’s consent.. The four wheeler was valued at $3,000.

Diana Moon was the overall winner of the Relay 5K held Saturday morning in Smithville to benefit Relay for Life and the American Cancer Society. She ran the course in twenty six minutes and nine seconds.
Jim Wall had the second best time at 26:26 and Jason Mahan came in third overall at 26:43
In the One Mile Fun Run, Ethan Jenkins, who took first place, finished the course in ten minutes and six seconds followed in second place by Luke Jenkins at 10:40 and William Clendenen whose time was 13:42
Casey Midgett, 2010 Chairman of Relay for Life, said more runners took part in this year’s event. ” We had a good crowd of 45 participants which was up from 23 runners last year. We had two races, the 5K and the Fun Run, which both began at 7:30 a.m. Saturday at the east end of Green Brook Park.”
“As far as winners, we had a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place overall for the 5K and a 1st, 2nd and 3rd overall for the Fun Run.”
“For the 5K, we also gave out a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place award for four age categories.”
Midgett says all proceeds will benefit the DeKalb County Relay for Life. “Right now we think we have made about $1,600 off of the race itself, which will now, preliminarily, push our entire Relay total to around $56,500 for 2010. We still have some more fundraisers to go this summer and our goal, now, is to try to get to $60,000.”
Winners:
Fun Run
1st Ethan Jenkins 10:06
2nd Luke Jenkins 10:40
3rd William Clendenen 13:42
Age Brackets
12-18
1 Katherine Clendennen 45:49
2 Amelia Patterson 45:52
3 Eli Gill 51:25
19-29
1 Makenzy Hendrix 32:32
2 Adriane Brown 37:24
3 Brooke Lind 38:24
30-39
1 Diana Moon 26:09
2 Jason Mahan 26:43
3 Samuel Sliger 29:04
40-49
1 Lindy Jenkins 28:54
2 Missy Clendennen 30:41
3 Phyllis Asberry 31:56
50-59
1 Jim Wall 26:26
2 Tim Robinson 29:56
3 Judy Tatanish 32:13
60 +
1 Danny Jenkins 28:03
2 Janice Cochran 43:59
(Photos provided by Casey Midgett)

85 year old Wilma Hibdon Hooper, a well known local businesswoman who was owner and operator of Love-Cantrell Funeral Home in Smithville for more than 50 years died Saturday at NHC of Smithville. Hooper was also a former owner of Love-Cantrell Funeral Home in McMinnville and she once owned a grocery store in the Smithville area for many years. She was also a member of the Banks Cumberland Presbyterian Church.
The funeral will be Monday at 5:00 p.m. at the Chapel of Love-Cantrell Funeral Home. Junior Hibdon and E.H. Denman, Jr. will officiate and burial will be in DeKalb Memorial Gardens. Visitation will be Sunday from 11:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. and Monday from 9:00 a.m. until the time of the service at 5:00 p.m.
She was preceded in death by her parents, George Washington and Ada Genella Johnson Hibdon; her husband, Allen D. Hooper; and a brother, Junior Hibdon.
Survivors include a daughter and son-in-law, Diane and Deloy Kirby; a granddaughter and grandson-in-law, Renee and Brad Hennessee; a grandson and granddaughter-in-law, Chad and Shelia Kirby; three great grandsons, James and Zackary Caplinger and Dallas Kirby; and a great granddaughter, Brylee Kirby all of Smithville. One sister, Virginia Miller of Brentwood. A special niece, Emogene Hardy of Brentwood. Brothers and sisters-in-law, T.M. and Juanita Hooper of Smithville, Jack and Marlys Hooper of California, Billy and Mary Jane Hooper, and Billie Ruth Hooper all of Smithville. One special great niece, Donna and husband Charlie Hicks of Nashville. One special great nephew, Randy and wife Diane Knowles of Nashville.
Love-Cantrell Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements. The family requests that donations be made, in lieu of flowers, to the Allen D. Hooper Memorial Fund.