The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to take measures starting on Monday at Center Hill Dam to increase the dissolved oxygen content of releases to the Caney Fork River. This action will benefit aquatic life downstream.
Sluice gate releases will be made concurrent with generation of electricity in the hydropower plant beginning on July 24. By scheduling sluice releases during periods of power generation, the Corps will be able to meet downstream water-quality objectives and minimize impacts to fishermen and power interests. The measures are considered the best way to maintain the State water quality standard.
“Our objective,” said Bob Sneed, chief of the Nashville District Water Management Section, “is to maintain beneficial dissolved oxygen levels and ultimately improve the aquatic life in the Caney Fork River. This operation was very successful last year. We were able to mix the highly aerated sluice release with turbine discharge that was, at times, quite low in dissolved oxygen, to produce a blended project release that met our goal of 6.0 milligrams per liter. We are trying to meet the State water quality standard which is 6.0 milligrams per liter for a cold-water environment like the Caney Fork below Center Hill Dam.”
In 2005 this reach of the Caney Fork experienced the best oxygen conditions it had seen since the impoundment of Center Hill Lake. As a result, more aquatic life, including stocked brown and rainbow trout, were able to thrive during this critical period.
Officials plan to schedule discharges between the hours of 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and to only two hours on Fridays, weekends and holidays. However, power needs or weather conditions could dictate a change to this plan.
Corps representatives will periodically monitor the dissolved oxygen concentration in the river below the dam to determine the success of the sluice gate releases.
The sluice gate measures four feet by six feet and releases approximately 1600 cubic feet per second into the tailwater. The Corps has added turbine venting features to three hydropower turbines at Center Hill resulting in an increase to the dissolved oxygen level of hydropower releases. The sluice gate release is simply another practice employed by the Corps to improve water quality conditions in the Caney Fork River. These actions are consistent with the Corps’ Environmental Operating Principles.
These Principles are to maintain an environment in a healthy, diverse and sustainable condition necessary to support life, proactively consider the consequences of Corps programs, accept responsibility for activities under our control that impact the health of natural systems, seek ways to mitigate such impacts, and seek solutions to the nation’s problems that enhance the environment.
Corps officials will work closely with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, TWRA, and SEPA which benefits from power generated. Fishermen and boaters should avoid the turbulent water created by the sluice gate below the dam. Turbulence could actually pull small craft in toward the dam and submerge them.
For more information, contact Bob Sneed, Nashville District Corps of Engineers, at 615-736-5675.

A 27 year old man, operating a motorcycle, was injured around 5:18 p.m. Thursday afternoon after he rear-ended an SUV at the intersection of Highway 56 and Big Hurricane Road.
Trooper Greg Tramel of the Tennessee Highway Patrol says Anthony King of Illinois was taken by DeKalb EMS to the Smithville Airport where he was airlifted by a Life Flight Helicopter Ambulance and flown to Vanderbilt Hospital.
According to Trooper Tramel, King was north on Highway 56 on a 2003 Buell Motorcycle when he ran into a 1985 Isuzu Trooper driven by Jeremy A. Scruggs of Smithville, who was stopped on Highway 56 north waiting for the traffic to clear before making a left turn onto Big Hurricane Road. King was thrown from the motorcycle upon impact.
Scruggs was not injured.

A fire early Wednesday morning destroyed the residence of Thomas Bogle at 3467 Adamson Branch Road, Liberty.
DeKalb County Fire Chief Donny Green says members of the Liberty, Short Mountain Highway, and Blue Springs Stations along with a tanker truck responded to the fire call around 1:05 a.m.
Bogle and his son, who were at home when the fire started, escaped unharmed.
Green says according to Bogle, he awoke to the smell of smoke and discovered the blaze coming from the subfloor in a hallway at the center of the house.
The blaze was protruding through the roof by the time firefighters arrived on the scene, and the home could not be saved.
Bogle says he was able to salvage some clothes and a few other personal belongings.
The cause of the fire has not been determined.

DeKalb County Board of Education Federal Programs Supervisor Michelle Burklow along with committee members Kim Foutch, Jennifer Mitchell, Angela Johnson, Pamela Poss, Suzette Barnes, Clark Oakley, and Alan Hayes are planning a first of its kind for DeKalb County, a First Day of School Education Celebration to be held on August 4th from 5-8 P.M. downtown around the Court House Square.
This Education Celebration is nationally known as First Day of School America and is held annually in a lot of the bigger cities in the United States. Since 1997 the First Day Foundation organization has been assisting schools, families and communities to come together for a celebration on the First Day of each new school year to support education and begin a year-long partnership to promote student success. This is also a time that parents and students can become more familiar with the faculty, staff and PTO of the school that they are entering.
The community can support First Day in a number of ways. Community based organizations can provide materials and resources to parents to make them aware of services available to them in the community. Community leaders- mayors, city council members, clergy, businesses, corporate leaders and others can visit the schools and events and show their support. Local businesses partner with schools by donating products, services and volunteers to the First Day Celebration.
All five schools in DeKalb County will have a booth and will be displaying a photo board with their staff and their individual credentials during the First Day Celebration. Each school will also be represented by their school’s PTO about what the PTO does and how parents can help. The Lion’s Club Vision Screening van will be available that day for vision screenings, the DeKalb County Health Department will be there giving out information, Tennessee Voices for Children and many other organizations will be represented, and school bus shuttle rides will be provided(we are encouraging parents to park at Northside Elementary starting at 4:45pm. Refreshments, inflatable jumping balloons and FREE school supplies will also be available.
This event is still in the planning stages and volunteers are needed. Business sponsors are also needed. If you would like to help with this event please call Michelle Burklow at 215-2107.
This celebration is totally free of charge to those who attend so make plans now to attend in Downtown Smithville on August 4th.
The First Day of School American– Education Celebration committee would like to take to THANK the sponsors that are making this event possible:
Churches
Smithville Church of Christ
Tabernacle, The Baptist Church
Dowelltown Baptist Church
House of Prayer
St. Gregory’s Church
Keltonburg United Methodist
Indian Creek Baptist Church
Covenant Baptist Church
Gospel LightHouse Baptist Church
Snow Hill Baptist Church
Smithville First Free Will Baptist Church
Johnson’s Chapel
United Methodist Church
Peoples Missionary Baptist Church
Jacobs Pillar United Methodist Church
Smithville Seventh Day Adventist Church
Snow Hill Methodist
Grace Bible Church
New Hope Baptist Church
Walkers Chapel Primitive Baptist
Malone’s Chapel Baptist Church
Alexandria Church of Christ
Salem Baptist Church
Businesses
Middle Tenness Natural Gas Utility District
DeKalb Telephone
Dr. Cliff Duke DDS
Triple A Coating
Architectural Custom Cabinetry
Dr. David Foutch, OD
Tri Star Aluminum
DeKalb Community Bank
Liberty State Bank

The recent installation of three speed humps on West Main Street between Juniper Lane and the four way stop at North Mountain Street has become a controversial issue for the Smithville Board of Mayor and Aldermen.
The city board, earlier this year at the request of several residents in the area, voted to install the speed humps as a pilot project, but since they were put down most of the aldermen say they have heard nothing but complaints from the public, who often travel the street going to and from the downtown business district.
Based on those complaints, the city board decided to re-visit the issue Monday night during it’s regular board meeting.
Having learned that the matter was on the agenda for discussion, many of the residents in the neighborhood where the speed humps are located, showed up at the meeting to voice their support for the speed humps and to request that they remain in place.
No one opposed to the speed humps attended the meeting to express their views.
Residents in the neighborhood say the speed humps have been very effective in slowing traffic on a street where speeding has been a problem and the posted speed limit is 15 miles per hour.
Bert Driver, who lives on West Main Street, presented a petition in April signed by twenty three residents requesting the speed humps. During Monday night’s meeting, Driver re-stated the reasons he says the speed humps are needed..” The residences of historical West Main Street are gravely concerned about our safety. More importantly, we are concerned about the safety of our children and grandchildren. Motorists continually speed down our street with blatant disregard to the speed limits and caution signs (Children at Play). Many years ago, government officials recognized that West Main Street was not designed to accommodate such high rates of speed; therefore, West Broad Street was developed and continues to be the most direct and safest thoroughfare for motorists. We feel that speed humps need to be installed near the intersection of Juniper Lane and at the top of the hill near the intersection of Shady Lane. Although enforcement of speed limits by police departments is an effective means of reducing speeds, limited resources do not allow such enforcement on a regular and permanent basis. Please note that we are not in favor of flashing lights because they are ineffective and can be detrimental to the historical value of West Main Street. In brief, traffic calming measures need to be implemented now in order to protect all citizens, especially our children”.
Driver says if the speed humps are removed, the problem would only worsen, especially with the new Wal-Mart store coming soon on Broad Street. “West Main has become a collector street because of the city’s steady growth over the past ten years. As a result, many motorists use West Main as a cut through (a by pass) around the red lights on highway 56 and highway 70. This will only become more intense when the new red lights are installed on Broad Street in front of the new Wal-Mart Super Center. In brief, please leave the speed humps on West Main Street and continue to protect our right to safety and to protect the lives of our children.”
Alderman Steve White says he is also concerned about speeding on city streets but says the problem is not just on West Main Street and that if requests start coming in for speed humps all over town, the city could be creating another problem.
In fact, residents on South College Street and Smith Road, also present for Monday night’s meeting, asked that speed humps be put down on their streets.
White says he has further received requests or inquiries from residents on several other city streets about the city possibly installing speed humps in their neighborhoods.
The Mayor and Aldermen plan to schedule an informal workshop with the Police Chief to discuss the speeding problem city wide and to explore possible alternative solutions to the problem.
Alderman and Police Commissioner Aaron Meeks pointed out that the police department has issued more citations for speeding within the last couple of months, since Chief Gus Clemente took over as head of the department.
Meanwhile, in other business, Mayor Taft Hendrixson re-appointed Alderman Cecil Burger as the city’s representative on the Smithville Electric System Board. Anthony Hagan was appointed as a citizen member, succeeding Vester Parsley.
David Terrell was reappointed and John Daniels and George Davis were appointed to the Airport Committee and Glen Nichols, Jr. was named to the Civil Rights Committee.
All the appointments were approved by the aldermen.
In other business, the city board denied a request by Smithville Police Chief Gus Clemente to adopt a vehicle take-home policy for officers of the police department.
Alderman Aaron Meeks made a motion that the resolution be adopted, but it died for the lack of a second.
Under the proposal, each officer, who is already assigned a patrol car to drive while on duty, would have been permitted to take that cruiser home after work.
Some members of the city council had reservations about that proposal since most of the city police officers reside outside the city.
Under the proposed policy, only officers living within a 25 mile radius of the corporate city limits of the City of Smithville would have been allowed to drive the police vehicles home. All other officers would have been forced to park the vehicles at the police department headquarters.
Chief Clemente says the goals of this policy would have been to promote the security of the citizens of Smithville by greater visibility and presence of vehicles on the streets and highways; provide quicker response time to certain types of calls and therefore increase the opportunity to apprehend criminals; reduce the yearly mileage on each vehicle, therefore increasing vehicle life; reduce maintenance cost on each vehicle in the fleet; provide quicker response of off-duty personnel when called back to duty because of an emergency; provide increased incentive and morale of officers participating in the program; and maintain vehicles in top condition through preventive maintenance and personalized assignment.
Members of the council agree that the policy could have provided for quicker response time by some officers in the event of an emergency, but others argue that it would have added to the city’s fuel cost and potentially increased liability.
Some also questioned how that there could be greater visibility and presence of patrol cars on city streets, when most of the city patrol cars would be outside the city, when driven home by officers who live outside the city.