A White County woman , wanted by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department for allegedly passing forged checks in the names of a Temperance Hall couple, is now in custody.
40 year old Lisa Kylene Frasier of Luna Road, Sparta is charged with theft and forgery.
Sheriff Patrick Ray says someone recently burglarized the residence of Kenneth and Nadene Carter at Temperance Hall and stole two boxes personal checks from Regions Bank and the Bank of Putnam County in the names of the Carters.
These checks have been passed in DeKalb, Sumner, Wilson, Jackson, Putnam, Smith, Coffee and Warren Counties.
Sheriff Ray says Frasier used a fake drivers license to pass the checks, that has her own picture, and the actual license number of Nadene Carter.
She was arrested Friday in Sumner County.

The 2006 Report Card on the DeKalb County School System, issued by the Tennessee Department of Education, reveals that overall students in grades K through 8 are meeting or exceeding state goals while students in grades 9-12 are still working toward their goals.
Carol Hendrix, Supervisor of Instruction for the DeKalb County School System says the school system’s annual report looks really good this year. “It’s reported in two areas, Academic and Non-Academic. In the Non-Academic areas in both grades K-8 and 9-12 we exceeded all state goals in attendance and promotion. Our 9-12 grade indicator graduation rate is currently under revision and we’ll find out about that a little later on.”
Hendrix says in grades K-8, Academic Achievement is reported in two areas, Student Achievement and TVAS Value Added Scores. “In Student Achievement, grades K-8, which demonstrates what our students have learned from Kindergarten to the present, we have an “A” in Math and a “B” in Reading/ Language, Social Studies, and Science, which are all above state levels. They are also all above our 2005 scores.”
“In TVAS Value Added, which calculates how much a student has learned in one year, in grades K-8, we have three “A’s” and one “B”. We have an “A” in Reading/Language, Science, and Social Studies, and a “B” in Math.”
“In our Writing scores, two grades are reported and both have an “A”.
“In grades 9-12, we have Proficiency levels and Value Added scores. In grades 9-12, our students met Proficiency levels in Algebra I, Biology I, English II in Gateway and English I, U.S. History, and Math Foundations as End of Course.”
Concerning the 9-12 grade Value Added Scores, Hendrix says ” Our students met Proficiency in Algebra I, Math Foundations and English I but we were below levels in Biology I and English II.”
“Our Writing Assessment at the high school is at a “B” this year.”
A.C.T. scores were below levels in English, Math, and Science Reasoning but students met the predicted score in Reading.
Hendrix says “The goal of the federal government, the state department of education, and our school system is to ensure that all students are proficient academically. The DeKalb County School System is not only moving toward that goal, we consistently exceed expectations in grades K-8 and are working diligently toward meeting the mandates in grades 9-12.”
She says “This year’s report card demonstrates the dedication of our students, teachers, parents, and the hard work of the principals and other administrators in ensuring that our students are being taught the necessary skills and objectives to meet not only the mandated proficiency but to ensure that our students leave the DeKalb County School System with the skills to go to higher education or to enter the work force.”

A large crow turned out for a special Veteran’s Day recognition program at the courthouse Saturday morning.
The special guest speaker for the occasion was Colonel Thomas Lippart of the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky.
Lippart, who has served three tours of duty in Iraq, said the strength of this nation is not in it’s weapons, but in it’s people. ” This nation is build on it’s people. It’s not the technology. The United States has always been known for it’s great technology but that’s not what makes our military great. There’s lots of other countries out there that have a lot of technology. It’s the people who make us such a powerful nation to deal with.”
Colonel Lippart says while many still question whether the United States military should be in Iraq, most still support the troops. “I still believe firmly in my heart that the American people by and large support it’s military and are in fact there for us and stand behind us. I returned from Iraq on September 2nd and I’ve had more people come up to me and say thank you for your service and for what you have done.”
While most of the news coming out of Iraq seems to be bade, Colonel Lippart says there are a lot of good things happening there too. “When we first got to Iraq, obviously we had not established a relationship with the local vendor base and were still coming back to the states for most of the supplies we were buying. But the longer we are there, the more we are growing the local economy back. We’re starting to do more and more business with the local economy. In fiscal year 2006, our contracting command did about 27,000 contracts and just about half of those were with Iraqi vendors but that’s increasing every day. It increased by about 25% when I first got there to nearly 50% when I left, so we’re doing more and more business with the economy, with the local businessmen to try to build their economy.”
Colonel Lippart gave some examples of how the Iraqi people have benefitted from the overthrow of Saddam Heussein. ” In many occasions, some of these Iraqi people, because I was a point of contact, held me responsible for some of the wonderful things that have been happening to them, They were so gracious and so thankful for us being in Iraq and helping them with the good things. I heard stories of how none of the power generation plants and none of the sewage treatment plants had any kind of repairs, modifications, or updates since they were built in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. The entire country was in disrepair. There’s a small suburb of Baghdad where only as recent as about eight months ago, did we finally get the power generators fixed so that we could get the pumps running to pump the sewage out of the city. There was six inches of sewage running through about a one mile square city area. Imagine your children having to walk through that on their way to school. Because of our engineers, technology and our assistance to show them how to do it, they now have the power generators working again and the pumps are working and they’re able to get the sewage out. That’s just one small example.
Colonel Lippart says in addition to a stronger economy, educational opportunities are improving in Iraq. “We’ve had an opportunity to put new roofs on the schools. The textbooks the students were using were from the 1960’s. They never bought new textbooks. These people are so much better off. Young girls are now allowed into the schools again. For a number of years, there were no young girls going to school whatsoever. So while I know that it’s a matter of opinion whether you believe we should be there or not, I just wanted to share with you today that we’re doing a tremendous amount of good in Iraq and while it’s frustrating to see all the bad stuff on TV, we must show them what right looks like. There’s an entire generation there that doesn’t know what it looks like. They don’t know what organization looks like. There were no city councils before. There are now because we’ve stood them up in all the little towns. They now have organization on how to provide services for their people.”
Colonel Lippart is a 1989 graduate of Penn State University and later received his Masters degree in Business Administration at the University of Texas. He is a Distinguished Military graduate, having been commissioned into the U.S. Army where he joined the Aviation branch. During 2001-2002, he attended the Army Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He has been the Chief of Contingency Contracting at the 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. During his service in Iraq, Lippart served as Chief of Plans and Programs Contracting Headquarters for Iraq and Afghanistan.
Colonel Lippart has received numerous medals including the Bronze Star Medal, Meritorius Service Medal with Oak Leaf Cluster, Army Commendation Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, Joint Service Medal, Meritorius Army Achievement Medal, National Defense Service Medal, Iraqi Freedom Campaign Medal, Global War on Terrrorism Expeditionary Medal, Korean Defense Service Medal, and Humanitarian Service Medal, among others.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the United States Fire Administration have announced that Dowelltown has been awarded a $164,650.00 grant from the 2006 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program.
The award will be used to purchase a Class A Pumper and all the necessary equipment. The grant is funded 95% federally or $156,418 with a 5% local match or $8,232.
The new fire truck, when delivered, will be stationed on King Ridge Road at Dowelltown.
The Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program is designed as an opportunity for the United States Congress to work with DHS to enhance basic fire service delivery across the United States. $485 million will be awarded for fiscal year 2006 to nearly 5,000 fire-related organizations nationwide.

The DeKalb County Board of Education is considering the possibility of replacing cell phones on school buses with two way radios.
Technology Director Brad Mullinax and Transportation Supervisor Shane Cook say two way radios would be more reliable and cost effective than cell phones. Cook says around 70% of Tennessee county school systems are already using two way radios and 20% of them are looking into it.
Mullinax presented the proposal to the Board of Education Thursday night. ” Mr. Willoughby asked me toward the beginning of the school year to start to work on this, and to try and get some information regarding installation of a VHF repeater system for the transportation department. The reason for the system is to greatly improve the communications between the schools, the Transportation Director, and the school buses. We probably have about 70% of the county that may be covered by cell phones or maybe not. We have a lot of trouble with communications, getting in touch with school buses, and that type thing
We asked Wireless Solutions of Cookeville to work us up a proposal on a system. We now have a proposal from them but there’s two or three steps we need to get approved in order to press forward with this. The first being a site. We have a site on Miller Road, the Genesco water tank, but we don’t have formal approval from the City of Smithville. I think they will allow us to base our repeater there at no charge. Once that is done, Wireless Solutions has agreed to prepare the forms for us to obtain an FCC license. This is the next step involved. We will have to submit an application to the Federal Communications Commission to obtain a license for that particular site. This will take from sixty to ninety days. Once the license is obtained, then you can press forward, purchase the repeater, get the repeater on the site, and then over a period of time, you can progressively buy so many radios per year to go on your school buses. This is not something you would have to do all at one time.
Over the long haul I think this is going to save the county several dollars. You’re not going to have recurring telephone charges on your cell phones anymore. With a two way radio system, when you purchase it, you own it. I think it would be a fantastic move. I think it would improve your safety. What we have also agreed to do as far as 911 is concerned is have this frequency that we obtain programmed into our radios at the 911 center and in the event there is an emergency situation, we could pick up on that over the air and go ahead and dispatch units accordingly. We could also put a base station at each school so that in the event somebody needed to get in touch with somebody on another school bus, they could radio the school or radio the transportation department so that contact could be made through those means. You can also have simplex frequencies programmed into those radios and they could talk from bus to bus if they are in close proximity. On those, if you’re within 10 to 15 miles of a school bus, you don’t necessarily have to go through a repeater system, you can go through a talk around channel. You’re not going to have perfect coverage, there will be dead areas, but I think the dead areas will greatly be minimized by going with a two way radio system rather than cell phones.
Director of Schools Mark Willoughby says a new two way radio system could be phased in over a period of time. ” In our Transportation budget, we’re going to have some money left over with some decisions we’ve made in transportation that Shane has implemented, so we’ll have some savings. If we don’t have enough savings to do everything in one year, we can do it over a two or three year period, if we need to.”
The board took no action on the issue.

WJLE would like to express it’s regret for the failure of our Internet streaming service during the LIVE radio broadcast of the election returns Tuesday night.
A brief power failure earlier in the day at the radio station caused a disruption in the service and we experienced further problems re-establishing our audio streaming capability over the Internet after the power was restored.
We apologize for the inconvenience.

Smithville Police have made another drug arrest.
Police Chief Thomas J. Stufano, in a press release, states that Bradley Ferrell of 708 South Mountain Street, Smithville was arrested at approximately 3:20 p.m. Wednesday for sale and delivery of illegal narcotics.
Stufano says “In a continuing crackdown on illegal drugs in the city, officers working surveillance of a known drug area, witnessed Ferrell making a transaction and then quickly hiding the remaining contraband inside his pants.”
Upon his arrest, a bottle of illegal pills was discovered in his waistband. Ferrell was booked into the DeKalb County Jail on a $30,000 bond.

Flu season is just around the corner and the DeKalb County Health Department is ready to offer flu shots to area residents. No shortage of vaccine is expected this year and the health department says local supplies will not be restricted while they last.
A mass flu clinic is currently scheduled for Monday, November 20th at the Smithville Church of God Family Fellowship Center from 9:30 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. The Church of God Family Fellowship Center is located at 801 West Broad Street, Smithville beside the Farmers Coop.
“October and November are often the best months to get the influenza vaccine because that’s generally before we begin seeing many flu cases. In Tennessee, flu activity usually peaks in late January, and can peak as late as April, so we will continue to vaccinate residents through the winter, or as long as we have vaccine available, said Elizabeth Burgess, ANP, APRN, BC.
Certain people are at especially high risk of serious illness or death from influenza, especially the elderly and the very young. People who live with or care for those at high risk for serious illness also should be vaccinated to prevent exposing them to the virus. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that individuals in the following groups receive the vaccine unless their health care provider has told them otherwise:
Children aged 6 months through 59 months (up to the 5th birthday); pregnant women (or those who will be pregnant during flu season); adults aged 50 years and older (especially those 65 and older); residents of long term care facilities; people of any age with chronic medical conditions (such as heart disease, lung disease, or diabetes); all healthcare workers; and household members and caregivers of people in these high risk groups.
In DeKalb County, the cost of the flu shot will be $25.00 for adults and $13.70 for children. Pneumonia vaccine will also be available for $40.00. Payment can be made in the form of cash or check and Medicare, TennCare, and Health Spring can be billed. Please bring all your insurance cards with you. Correct change is preferred. Individuals receiving flu shots need to wear a short sleeve shirt.
For more information about the mass flu clinic, call the DeKalb County Health Department at 597-7599.

Governor Phil Bredsen, Congressman Bart Gordon, State Senator Mae Beavers, State Representative Frank Buck, and U.S. Senate candidate Harold Ford, Jr. all carried DeKalb County in Tuesday’s Tennessee General Election.
DeKalb County voters also overwhelmingly endorsed the proposed Marriage Protection Amendment to the State Constitution as well as the proposed Property Tax Relief Amendment.
A total of 5,727 DeKalb Countians voted in the election including 2,580 early voters and absentees and 3,147 on election day. That represents 44% of the 12,000 registered voters in DeKalb County.
In the Governor Race, Bredesen defeated Republican challenger Jim Bryson in DeKalb County 3,847 votes (69%) to 1,559 votes (28%).
Bredesen carried fourteen of sixteen precincts including Alexandria 269 to 98; Temperance Hall 91 to 46; Liberty 108 to 90; Dowelltown 95 to 47; Snow Hill 90 to 62; Middle School 230 to 79; Cherry Hill 44 to 29; Courthouse 213 to 55; Johnson’s Chapel 93 to 47; Elementary School 171 to 69; Belk 130 to 32; Keltonburg 129 to 40; Blue Springs 123 to 55; Church of Christ Annex 219 to 63 and Early Votes/Absentees-1,770 to 674.
Bryson carried Edgar Evins State Park 22 to 21 and tied Bredesen 51 to 51 at Rock Castle
The Independent candidates for Governor and their vote totals in DeKalb County include George Banks- 38, David Gatchell 9, Marivuana Stout Leinoff 10, Charles E. Smith 6, Howard M. Switzer 8, and Carl “Twofeathers” Whitaker 33.
Republican State Senator Mae Beavers defeated her Democratic challenger Bob Rochelle in DeKalb County 2,630 (55%) to 2,132 (44%).
In the eight counties of the 17th District combined, Beavers received 34,699 votes (58%) to 25,521 (42%) for Rochelle. That’s with all precincts reporting.
Beavers carried thirteen of the sixteen precincts in DeKalb County including Temperance Hall 72 to 58; Edgar Evins State Park 33 to 7; Liberty 129 to 50; Dowelltown 81 to 51; Snow Hill 80 to 62; Middle School 149 to 119; Cherry Hill 36 to 29; Rock Castle 63 to 19; Courthouse 135 to 105; Johnson’s Chapel 76 to 50; Elementary School 123 to 98; Blue Springs 81 to 64; Church of Christ Annex 130 to 109; and Early Votes/Absentees 1,163 to 995.
Rochelle carried Alexandria 160 to 153; Belk 70 to 61; and Keltonburg 86 to 65.
Democratic Incumbent State Representative Frank Buck defeated Republican challenger Terri Lynn Weaver 3,171 (57%) to 2,151 (39%). Independent candidate Carl Jones received a total of 162 votes in DeKalb County,
In the three counties of the 40th district combined, DeKalb, Smith, and Macon, Buck won with 9,646 votes (57%) to 6,898 votes for Weaver (40%) and 520 votes for Jones (3%). That’s with all precincts reporting.
Buck carried twelve of sixteen precincts in DeKalb County including Alexandria 223 to 135; Temperance Hall 73 to 60; Dowelltown 75 to 65; Snow Hill 88 to 67; Middle School 184 to 127; Cherry Hill 40 to 31; Courthouse 158 to 106; Elementary School 154 to 90; Belk 97 to 62; Keltonburg 117 to 50; Blue Springs 103 to 72; Church of Christ Annex 176 to 99; and Early Votes/Absentees 1,487 to 905
Weaver carried Edgar Evins State Park 25 to 19; Liberty 121 to 75; Rock Castle 66 to 33; and Johnson’s Chapel 70 to 69.
Democrat Harold Ford, Jr. beat Republican Bob Corker in DeKalb County 2,998 (54%) to 2,450 (44%).
Ford carried ten of sixteen precincts including Alexandria 224 to 150; Temperance Hall 72 to 65; Snow Hill 81 to 76; Middle School 174 to 141; Courthouse 150 to 114; Elementary School 143 to 103; Belk 98 to 62; Keltonburg 114 to 55; Blue Springs 103 to 80; Church of Christ Annex 179 to 102; and Early Votes/Absentees 1,365 to 1,086.
Corker carried Edgar Evins State Park 26 to 18; Liberty 129 to 76; Dowelltown 71 to 68; Cherry Hill 39 to 36; Rock Castle 75 to 31; and Johnson’s Chapel 76 to 66.
Independent candidates for the United States Senate and their vote totals in DeKalb County include Ed Choate 38; David Gatchell 22; Emory “Bo” Heyward 15; Gary Keplinger 16; and Christopher Joseph Lugo 9.
Democratic Congressman Bart Gordon easily carried DeKalb County over his Republican opponent David R. Davis. Gordon received 3,811 (77%) to 1,052 (21%) for Davis.
Gordon carried fifteen of sixteen precincts including Alexandria 264 to 60; Temperance Hall 96 to 32; Edgar Evins State Park 26 to 17; Liberty 107 to 62; Dowelltown 104 to 24; Snow Hill 114 to 28; Middle School 220 to 59; Cherry Hill 51 to 19; Courthouse 213 to 35; Johnson’s Chapel 82 to 44; Elementary School 194 to 34; Belk 126 to 19; Keltonburg 135 to 19; Blue Springs 127 to 29; Church of Christ Annex 205 to 37; and Early Votes/Absentees 1,706 to 488
Davis carried Rock Castle 46 to 41.
Independent candidates and their vote totals in DeKalb County included Robert L. Garrison with 56 votes and Norman R. Saliba with 25 votes.
The Marriage Protection Amendment defining marriage as only between one man and one woman carried all sixteen precincts in DeKalb County with a total of 4,794 (87%) voting YES to 674 (12%) voting NO.
The precinct by precinct vote is as follows: Alexandria 323 (Yes) to 54 (No); Temperance Hall 122 to 13; Edgar Evins State Park 40 to 4; Liberty 179 to 24; Dowelltown 121 to 23; Snow Hill 139 to18; Middle School 280 to 41; Cherry Hill 62 to 13; Rock Castle 91 to 13; Courthouse 229 to 52; Johnson’s Chapel 130 to 19; Elementary School 220 to 30; Belk 147 to 14; Keltonburg 164 to 10; Blue Springs 171 to 12; Church of Christ Annex 266 to 23; and Early Votes/Absentees 2,110 to 311.
The Property Tax Relief Amendment which would authorize local governments to freeze property taxes of senior citizens was approved in DeKalb County 4,125 (83%) to 805 (16%).
The precinct by precinct vote is as follows: Alexandria 295 (Yes) to 63 (No); Temperance Hall 115 to 13; Edgar Evins State Park 39 to 4; Liberty 142 to 30; Dowelltown 114 to 14; Snow Hill 118 to 26; Middle School 219 to 60; Cherry Hill 57 to 10; Rock Castle 85 to 13; Courthouse 205 to 48; Johnson’s Chapel 121 to 21; Elementary School 186 to 36; Belk 113 to 31; Keltonburg 140 to 20; Blue Springs 134 to 32; Church of Christ Annex 207 to 51; and Early Votes/Absentee 1,835 to 333.

The Smithville Mayor and Board of Aldermen have decided to hire an Airport Manager at the Smithville Municipal Airport rather than lease the facility to a fixed based operator.
The issue was discussed during Monday night’s meeting.
A committee made up of Mayor Taft Hendrixson, Secretary-Treasurer Burnace Vandergriff, and Alderman Cecil Burger will review the three applications received and select a new Airport operator, after receiving input from members of the airport committee, who will be serving in an advisory capacity.
A background check will also be conducted on the three applicants for the job.
The city board, in September, accepted a bid from Highland Aviation of Crossville to become the new Fixed Based Operator of the Airport, subject to the new tenant’s approval after a review and inspection of the property.
However, the city board, in October decided not to enter into a contract with Highland Aviation after City Attorney Sarah Cripps reported that a background check had been conducted on the company. Cripps says she learned, as a result of that background check, that officials of Highland Aviation had made several misrepresentations to the city.
Cripps told the mayor and alderman last month that Paul Sutta, the chief financial manager for Highland Aviation, was a convicted felon and has served a nine month sentence in a federal facility for fraud. Cripps says she learned that Highland Aviation has been dissolved as a corporation since 2002 and that the company was indebted to a fuel supplier by over $50,000.
Cripps recommended, after conferring with the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS), that it would be in the city’s best interest to hire an Airport Manager rather than lease the airport to a Fixed Based Operator.
An Airport Manager would be a city employee and answer directly to the Mayor and Board of Aldermen and the city would receive all fees generated from the airport through fuel sales, etc.
In other business, the city board formally voted to hire Thomas J. Stufano as the new Chief of Police.
Stufano was appointed to the position November 1st, subject to being hired by the city board.
The vote to hire Stufano was 4 to 1. Aldermen Steve White, W.J. “Dub” White, Aaron Meeks, and Cecil Burger voted to hire Stufano. Alderman Paul Young “passed”.
Stufano will be paid $708.80 per week or $17.72 per hour.
The city board, in other business, approved an ordinance on first reading to abandon Ken Circle between the intersection of Dry Creek Road and the intersection of Ed Taft Drive. The ordinance states that Ken Circle was never developed or used as a roadway and no landowner would be landlocked by the abandonment of it.
Second and final reading passage will be scheduled following a public hearing at the next meeting on Monday, November 20th at 7:00 p.m. at city hall.