Christmas on the Square will be celebrated on Thursday, December 3rd from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on the Smithville Public Square.
Suzanne Williams, Executive Director of the Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce, says festivities will be held at the 303 North Public Square building including Pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus by Double J Photography, free pictures by Studio Six Limited, special music including the Community Chorus, Thea Tippin, Susie Guerin, Chris Summers, Sue Slager, Ron Noonan, Brian Russell, & students from Indian Mound, Chance, and the Cumberland Impact Center. Snowbird will be visiting around town from 5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and from 6:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Visit with your county officials and staff and enjoy lots of fresh baked goodies at the Courthouse Open House.
Williams says Children’s Train and Inflatables are scheduled (if weather permits). Extended hours at downtown stores will make this a wonderful time for Christmas shopping. At the Justin-Potter Library, Snowbird will read to the children and pose for pictures from 6:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. and you may visit with Santa will be from 6 to 8 p.m. Bring your camera.
Come out for this enjoyable and heartwarming experience –Christmas on the Square! For more information, call the Chamber office at 597-4163.

The Christmas shopping season has arrived and local businesses hope you’ll give them a chance to serve you more this year.
Phillip (Fluty) Cantrell of Cantrell’s the home of Fluty says before you go out of town, try home first. “We know you can’t buy everything at home but we would like to encourage people to at least try home first. Merchants have been here for years. We’ve made our living here and we appreciate everything everybody has done for us to keep us here.”
Cantrell says many stores around town will be opening early on Friday morning for early bird shoppers, including downtown. “We started this thing (opening early on the morning after Thanksgiving Day) about ten years ago. People were shopping out of town and all the big sales were going on. We said let’s try it and see what happens here. We tried it and it went over really good. So a lot of the downtown merchants will be open at 7:00 a.m. Friday with door buster specials. We encourage people to shop early.”
Meanwhile, Jerry Lee Cantrell of Cantrell’s Furniture and Appliances says when you buy at home, you’re helping support the local tax base which means you’re helping fund schools and other local government services. “We really appreciate all the people who trade with us. I think it’s a very important thing that we keep our tax dollars in our community. We get the tax dollars back from the state. Of course, we have to send them in. It goes to the state and then comes back to us. This helps our community immensely.”
Scott Cantrell also adds that when you shop at home, you get competitive prices and personal service and attention to your needs. “We’ve got competitive prices, in the sense of shopping apples for apples. We’ve got name brand things as all the big cities do so why would you want to go out of town and drive so far when you can get the very same thing right here in town at the same prices, if not cheaper? You don’t have to pay for deliveries. You don’t have to pay for haul off services. And we’ll smile at you the whole time.”

A fire early Thanksgiving morning destroyed the home of Roscoe and Marie Rigsby at 375 Andrew Jackson Boulevard.
Central dispatch received the call at 1:39 a.m.
County Fire Chief Donny Green says Mrs. Rigsby had set her alarm clock Wednesday night to awaken her to check on a turkey she had placed in the oven and when the alarm sounded, she awoke and went to the kitchen. She got the turkey out of the oven and set it out to cool before placing it in the refrigerator. While she was in the kitchen, Mrs. Rigsby heard popping and crackling sounds coming from the basement. When she opened the door to the downstairs, she saw the basement engulfed in flames and the fire was beginning to spread up the stairs.
Mrs. Rigsby awoke her husband and they escaped unharmed. But the home and all their belongings were lost in the fire.
Green says the cause of the fire is undetermined but it apparently started in the basement.
Members of the Main Station, Cookeville Highway, and Liberty Stations, and Tanker # 1 responded along with DeKalb EMS and the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department.

DeKalb County’s unemployment rate for the month of October inched up to 10.7%, slightly higher than the 10.3% rate recorded in September, and much higher than the 7.4% rate in October, 2008.
The local labor force for October was 9,530. A total of 8,510 were employed and 1,020 were unemployed.
Meanwhile, Tennessee’s unemployment rate for October was 10.5 percent, unchanged from the September rate of 10.5 percent. The United States’ unemployment rate for the month of October was 10.2 percent.
County non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for October 2009, show that the rate increased in 38 counties, decreased in 42, and remained the same in 15 counties.
Lincoln County registered the state’s lowest county unemployment rate at 6.9 percent, unchanged from its September rate. Lauderdale County had the state’s highest unemployment rate at 18.9 percent, up 0.1 from the September rate, followed by Hancock County at 18.0 percent, down from 18.4 percent in September.
Knox County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate of 7.8 percent, down 0.3 percentage point from the September rate. Hamilton County was at 8.8 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from the September rate. Davidson County was 8.9 percent, down 0.2 from the previous month, and Shelby County was 10.2 percent, up 0.1 from the September rate.

A new law that went into effect Nov. 6 extends the first-time homebuyer credit five months and expands the eligibility requirements for purchasers.
The Worker, Homeownership, and Business Assistance Act of 2009 extends the deadline for qualifying home purchases from Nov. 30, 2009, to April 30, 2010. Additionally, if a buyer enters into a binding contract by April 30, 2010, the buyer has until June 30, 2010, to settle on the purchase.
The maximum credit amount remains at $8,000 for a first-time homebuyer –– that is, a buyer who has not owned a primary residence during the three years up to the date of purchase.
“The new law also provides a ‘long-time resident’ credit of up to $6,500 to others who do not qualify as ‘first-time homebuyers,’” said IRS spokesman Dan Boone.
To qualify this way, a buyer must have owned and used the same home as a principal or primary residence for at least five consecutive years of the eight-year period ending on the date of purchase of a new home as a primary residence, Boone said.
For all qualifying purchases in 2010, taxpayers have the option of claiming the credit on either their 2009 or 2010 tax returns.
A new version of Form 5405, First-Time Homebuyer Credit, will be available in the next few weeks. A taxpayer who purchases a home after Nov. 6 must use this new version of the form to claim the credit. Likewise, taxpayers claiming the credit on their 2009 returns, no matter when the house was purchased, must also use the new version of Form 5405. Taxpayers who claim the credit on their 2009 tax return will not be able to file electronically but instead will need to file a paper return.
A taxpayer who purchased a home on or before Nov. 6 and chooses to claim the credit on an original or amended 2008 return may continue to use the current version of Form 5405.
The new law raises the income limits for people who purchase homes after Nov. 6. The full credit will be available to taxpayers with modified adjusted gross incomes (MAGI) up to $125,000, or $225,000 for joint filers. Those with MAGI between $125,000 and $145,000, or $225,000 and $245,000 for joint filers, are eligible for a reduced credit. Those with higher incomes do not qualify.
For homes purchased prior to Nov. 7, 2009, existing MAGI limits remain in place. The full credit is available to taxpayers with MAGI up to $75,000, or $150,000 for joint filers. Those with MAGI between $75,000 and $95,000, or $150,000 and $170,000 for joint filers, are eligible for a reduced credit. Those with higher incomes do not qualify.
Several new restrictions on purchases that occur after Nov. 6 go into effect with the new law:
Dependents are not eligible to claim the credit.
No credit is available if the purchase price of a home is more than $800,000.
A purchaser must be at least 18 years of age on the date of purchase.
Members of the Armed Forces and certain federal employees serving outside the U.S. have an extra year to buy a principal residence in the U.S. and still qualify for the credit. An eligible taxpayer must buy or enter into a binding contract to buy a home by April 30, 2011, and settle on the purchase by June 30, 2011.
For more details on the credit, visit the First-Time Homebuyer Credit page on IRS.gov.

Election ballots for the DeKalb Farm Service Agency’s local committee election have been mailed to all eligible voters in Local Administrative Area # 1, the central portion of DeKalb County. Ballots must be completed and returned in person or postmarked no later than December 7, 2009. The Committee will meet December 8 to canvass, tabulate, and elect a committee person to represent farmers in the central portion of DeKalb County (Local Administrative Area #1), currently represented by County Committee Member Mary Sanders.
The farmer-elected committee is your voice in USDA’s programs here in DeKalb County. Members of the committee work with area farmers to maintain the local focus on many USDA programs, inform people of what’s available, and help producers understand how the programs work. “Committee members work to help shape national programs into working local programs,” says Donny Green, County Executive Director of the DeKalb County Farm Service Agency.
Mary Sanders was nominated as a candidate and will be the only candidate listed on the ballot. Write-in nominations are accepted and should be written on the official ballot. All candidates must meet eligibility requirements to hold the office on the Committee.
Once eligible voters receive their ballots, careful attention should be given to the instructions provided on the ballot that outline proper procedures for voting in this election. Voters can vote for only 1 nominee listed, or can write-in only 1 eligible candidate on the ballot. Voted ballots can be mailed back to the DeKalb FSA, or can be hand delivered to the FSA.
All ballots must be returned, or postmarked, by December 7 in order to be considered valid. Ballots will be opened and tabulated in a public meeting at the DeKalb County USDA Service Center, located at 647 Bright Hill Street in Smithville, at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, December 8. Contact the DeKalb County FSA office at 597-8225, ext. 2 for more information.
FSA committee elections are open to all voters without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex, marital status, or disability.