Habitat Chili Cook-off and Bake Sale Friday!
Who makes the best chili in DeKalb County? Find out on Friday, October 24th when Habitat for Humanity of DeKalb County hosts its 5th annual Chili Cook-off and Bake Sale on the square. In case of rain, the event will be relocated to the Smithville First United Methodist Church Christian Fellowship Center.
Chili will be served from 10:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the west lawn of the courthouse. You can purchase your bowl for $5.00, eat all the chili you want, and vote for your favorite chili and the best decorated booth. Handmade pottery bowls will be available for $10.00. Delicious baked goods prepared by members of local churches will also be for sale.
“We are looking forward to another great day of good food and fellowship at the chili cook-off,” said Nolan Turner, president of Habitat for Humanity of DeKalb County. “We have completed our second Habitat house and are looking forward to building a third,” said Turner. “The proceeds from the Chili Cook-off will be used towards building our next house, so we hope that we will have a great turnout!”
At press time, those competing in the Chili Cook-off are the “The Courthouse Gang” from the DeKalb County Officials; “Great Bowls of Fire” from Bradley Printing; “Three-Star Chili Team” from the Chamber of Commerce, “Chili Fever” from the DeKalb County Board of Education; “Hot Checks Chili” from DeKalb Community Bank; “Edgar Evins Chili Peppers” from Edgar Evins State Park; “The Janney Bean Counters” from Tom Janney, CPA and Associates; the DeKalb County Republican Women’s Club; Allen’s Chapel Methodist Church and “The Risk Takers” from Jackie Smith State Farm Insurance. The Smithville Review will be hosting a “relief table” for after-chili stomach needs.
Last year, “The Chuck Wagon Chili Crew” from the DeKalb County Board of Education took the top honors for Best Chili, with The Inn at Evins Mill following in second place. In the decorating contest, “Great Bowls of Fire” from Bradley Printing won the “Best Decorated” booth award.
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.
For more information on the Chili Cook-off and Bake Sale, contact Jeff McMillen at 597-4153. To contact Habitat for Humanity of DeKalb County, call 215-8181.

Emergency Responder Trooper Brian Raymond and Trooper Charlie Caplinger, from Tennessee Highway Patrol / Special Operations, recently completed Homeland Security training at the Center for Domestic Preparedness (CDP), located in Anniston, Alabama. The CDP is operated by the United States Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency and is the only federally-chartered Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) training facility in the nation.
The CDP provides federally-funded, interdisciplinary training for emergency responders from across the United States and U.S. Territories, for ten responder disciplines: Emergency Management, Emergency Medical Service, Fire Service, Governmental Administrative, Hazardous Materials, Healthcare, Law Enforcement, Public Health, Public Safety Communications, and Public Works.
Healthcare and Public Health training is conducted at the CDP’s Noble Training Facility, the nation’s only hospital facility dedicated to training hospital and healthcare professionals in disaster preparedness and response.
Many training courses culminate at the CDP’s Chemical, Ordnance, Biological and Radiological Training Facility, the nation’s only facility featuring civilian training exercises in a true toxic environment, using chemical agents. The advanced hands-on training enables responders to effectively prevent, respond to, and recover from real-world incidents involving acts of terrorism and other hazardous materials.
Responders attending CDP training are selected from the nation’s 11 million emergency responders. Training at the CDP ensures that responders gain critical skills and confidence to be better prepared to effectively respond to local incidents or potential WMD incidents.
FEMA coordinates the federal government’s role in preparing for, preventing, mitigating the effects of, responding to, and recovering from all domestic disasters, whether natural or man-made, including acts of terror.

U.S. Senator Bob Corker, during a town hall meeting Wednesday in Smithville, provided details of the $700 billion dollar “rescue plan” and the reasons why he voted for it.
Corker, a member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee, says constituents who contacted his office prior to the vote were overwhelmingly opposed to the plan, but he says action by the Congress was needed to prevent the financial crisis from getting worse and resulting in damage to the broader U.S. economy.
The senator says Wall Street, regulatory agencies and policymakers in Washington failed America and too many Americans borrowed money for houses they simply couldn’t afford. “There’s no doubt that the federal government has encouraged home ownership and there’s no doubt that, in some cases, homeownership was not the right thing. But I think to say that this is the essence of the problem would be a little bit of a stretch but no doubt it exacerbate the problem and made it worse. We have a lot of policies, for instance the Community Reinvestment Act, where banks are basically are asked to go out into places that have typically been difficult for loans to be put in place and encouraged to make that happen. Some of that is good so we’ve got to balance it. What happens whenever we have a crisis, sometimes we try to react with a ready, fire, aim mentality. I think what we’ll do in January is come back with cooler heads. Certainly the policies that took place with Freddie and Fannie. Those were absolutely abusive and excessive and need to end. Those we need to solve. There are some other policies that encourage home ownership that are actually good so what we need to do is to leave the good ones in place and then take out these excessive cases of bad behavior that were certainly very prevalent in Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae.”
Corker says regardless of how we got here, the troubled financial system must be stabilized. He says this is not a “bail-out of Wall Street,” but an unprecedented effort to avert a catastrophe that would devastate Main Street.
He says the plan will restore stability and confidence to the credit markets, and enable the financial system to continue financing the needs of American businesses, consumers, homeowners and students.
Corker says this plan provides accountability and oversight, and limits exorbitant executive pay. It will actually strengthen the banking system in Tennessee by allowing the FDIC to insure deposits up to $250,000 for one year, a significant increase from the current $100,000.
Through this rescue plan, Corker says we will purchase assets that will hopefully produce gains, and 100 percent of any income made will go toward paying down the debt. He says if our resources are invested properly, the federal government will get all of its money back and taxpayers may even see a return on the investment.
Senator Corker says the reckless way Wall Street has taken risks and made choices that have pushed our credit markets to a breaking point is reflective of the way Washington has run up the federal deficit and refused to control spending. “I am hopeful that passage of this plan will be the beginning of a strong focus on cleaning up the mess in Washington and on Wall Street.”

A physical disability has forced Circuit Court Judge John Turnbull to take a temporary leave of absence from the bench.
Governor Phil Bredesen has appointed Judge Turnbull’s daughter, Amy V. Hollars of Livingston, to serve as special circuit court judge for the Thirteenth Judicial District in his absence, effective immediately. The Thirteenth Judicial District includes Clay, Cumberland, DeKalb, Overton, Pickett, Putnam and White Counties.
Hollars, who is currently a solo practitioner in Overton County, is a former partner in the Knoxville firm Hodges, Doughty and Carson.
“I appreciate Amy’s willingness to step in and serve the state as special judge during the absence of Judge John Turnbull,” Bredesen said. “I believe her skills, education and practice experience will serve her well in this temporary capacity.”
Judge Turnbull submitted a notice of physical disability due to a ruptured disc in his neck and back surgery. Tennessee law provides a process for the appointment of a special temporary judge in the event sickness or disability prevents a state judge from carrying out his or her duties. TCA Section 17-2-116 (a)(1) states: “the governor shall appoint and commission a special judge who shall have the same qualifications as the regular judge to attend and hold such courts for and during the absence or disability of any such judges.”
Hollars, 41, holds degrees from the University of the South and Vanderbilt University and received her Doctor of Jurisprudence from the University of Tennessee College of Law. Since 2002, she has served on the Board of Directors of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands. She and her husband James Hollars have three children.
“It is an honor to have the confidence of Governor Bredesen, and I am happy to be able to help out by serving in this capacity on a short term basis,” said Hollars. “I will bring to this appointment a strong work ethic and a commitment to fairness and good work for the people of the Thirteenth Judicial District.”

Although natural gas prices have declined since the summer, your heating costs may still be higher than last winter.
Leslie B. Enoch II, CEO of Middle Tennessee Natural Gas Utility District, says natural gas prices are currently higher than last year, though they have been trending downward in recent weeks. “We’ve watched a lot of different factors. We’ve been watching the recent turmoil in the financial markets and hurricane activity but neither of those has seemed to have had an impact on natural gas prices. We’re pleased that natural gas prices, at the national level, have declined significantly since the record highs of the summer months. They’ve stabilized at a lower level. They’re still higher than they were at this time last year, but just like gasoline prices, the trend is in the right direction, it’s down and we’re encouraged by that.”
As for this winter, Enoch says expect to pay a little more on your monthly heating bill. “We believe at this point and time that the projected increase will be lower than we originally expected. If the weather is the same as last year, gas bills should be about 10% higher but that’s substantially less than we thought it was going to be with the high energy prices we were seeing earlier in the summer. There’s still room for natural gas and petroleum prices to go down and we’re optimistic that will continue.”
Enoch says the utility makes every effort to keep prices down. ” We’re very fortunate to have a very robust storage capability which helps stabilize prices for our customers. We have the opportunity to put natural gas in storage in several different locations around the country. We buy a lot of our gas in the summer and put it in underground storage, then we also buy some gas on the futures market. We’re pretty well set. We have about 50% of our supply already ready and available and we’ll buy the balance of it as we go into the winter based on how the temperatures change.”
Enoch adds that natural gas customers can save money on their monthly heating costs by winterizing and conservation. “There are several ways to reduce energy usage and lower gas bills. We encourage our customers to winterize their homes by improving insulation, applying weather stripping, changing filters, and setting the water heater to a lower temperature, maybe to 120 degrees. One of the most important ways to do it (conserve) is to keep your heat at a lower, but comfortable level. For every degree you lower your thermostat, you can save about three percent on your heating bill. The district appreciates it’s customers and provides free safety inspections and pilot lighting. We encourage our customers to go ahead and call us to set up those appointments. Call 597-4388.”

A 48 year old woman was injured in a one vehicle traffic accident around 4:30 a.m. this morning (Tuesday) on the Cookeville Highway.
Trooper Allen England of the Tennessee Highway Patrol says Valerie Helms Rodriguez of Beaufort, South Carolina was driving north on Highway 56 in a 2009 Chevy HHR when she failed to maintain the proper lane of travel, entered a ditch on the east side of the road, struck a driveway culvert and overturned twice. The vehicle came to final rest upright on it’s wheels on the east side of the highway.
Rodriguez, who was in the area visiting relatives, says she was going to the store at the time of the accident.
She was airlifted from the scene by a Life Force helicopter ambulance and flown to Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga.