Carnival workers, members of the DeKalb County Fair Board, and other volunteers spent several hours over the weekend preparing for opening night of the fair Monday.
The DeKalb County Fair in Alexandria kicks off Monday through Saturday.
With the theme “You need a FAIRCATION”, the Grandpa Fair of the South will feature a fun filled week of activities.
The following events are scheduled:
Monday, July 20th: National Anthem at 5:45 p.m. at the Lion’s Club Pavilion; T-Shirt Preview at 5:50 p.m. at the Lions Club Pavilion; Cattle Show at 6:00 p.m. at the grandstands ; Off-Road Challenge at the T.C. McMillen Arena at 6:30 p.m.; Junior Fair Princess Pageant at 6:00 p.m. followed by the Fairest of the Fair Pageant at the Lions Club Pavilion. $1000 cash giveaway at 9:00 p.m. and announcement of DeKalb Idol winners at the Pavilion.
Tuesday, July 21st: the Little Mr. and Miss Pageant at 6:00 p.m. followed by David Turner and Friends at the Lions Club Pavilion; Go-Cart Racing at 6:00 p.m. at the T.C. McMillen Arena; and a Horse Show at 7:00 p.m. at the Grandstand; $1000 cash giveaway at 9:00 p.m. and announcement of DeKalb Idol winners at the Pavilion.
Wednesday, July 22nd: Little Miss Princess Pageant at 6:00 p.m. followed by the Miss Sweetheart Pageant at the Lions Club Pavilion; Four Wheeler and Motorcycle Racing at 6:00 p.m. at the T.C. McMillen Arena; $1000 cash giveaway at 9:00 p.m. and announcement of DeKalb Idol winners at the Pavilion.
Thursday, July 23rd: Senior Citizen Day activities at 9:00 a.m. at the Lions Club Pavilion; 4-H Chick Chain Show at 5:00 p.m. at the barn; Junior Goat Show at 6:00 p.m. at the barn; a Baby Show at 6:00 p.m. followed by a Vintage Fashion Show at the Lions Club Pavilion; and a Rodeo at the T.C. McMillen Arena at 7:30 p.m.; $1000 cash giveaway at 9:00 p.m. and announcement of DeKalb Idol winners at the Pavilion.
Friday, July 24th: WSMV Channel 4 Snow Bird from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.; Doug Collins in concert at 5:30 p.m. at the Granstand; Toddler Show at 6:00 p.m. followed by DeKalb Idol Final Competition at the Lions Club Pavilion; an Antique Tractor Pull at 6:00 p.m. at the T.C. McMillen Arena; and a Demolition Derby at 7:00 p.m. at the Grandstand; $1000 cash giveaway at 9:00 p.m.
Saturday, July 25th: A Horse Shoe Tournament at 3:00 p.m. at the barn; Gospel Singing at the Lion’s Club Pavilion at 6:00 p.m. and a Super Tractor and Truck Pull at 6:00 p.m. at the T.C. McMillen Arena: and a $1000 cash giveaway at 9:00 p.m.
Fair Manager Jeff McMillen urges fair goers to take the time to enjoy lots of delicious foods from the food booths and stop by to see the many commercial, agricultural, and women’s exhibits.
The Kenneth Sandlin Center will be open Monday through Friday from 5:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m. and Saturday from 4:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m.
Enjoy nightly entertainment at the Memory Lane Stage in Memory Village. The line-up is as follows:
Monday night, July 20th:
7:15-7:35 p.m. Kevin Roberts (Elvis Impersonator)
8:15 p.m.- until? Jubal’s Cry-CD Release Party
Tuesday night, July 21st:
6:00 p.m.- 7:00 p.m.- Suzanne Slager and Friends
7:15-8:15 p.m.- Terri Lynn Weaver
8:15-9:15 p.m.- Unfinished
Wednesday night, July 22nd
6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.- Broken Vessels
7:15 p.m.-8:15 p.m.- Krystal Marie
Thursday night, July 23rd
7:00 p.m.-? Karaoke Night
Friday night, July 24th
6:00 p.m.-7:00 p.m.- Bryan Keith
7:15-8:15 p.m.- Pickin’ Friends
Saturday night, July 25th
6:00 p.m.-7:45 p.m.- Country Pride
7:45 p.m.-until Lakside Drive
One thousand dollars in cash will be given away each night, Monday through Saturday and you must be present to win. If no one presents the winning ticket within three minutes, the money will be saved and given away on Saturday night in increments of $1,000. Your fair admission ticket is your ticket for the cash drawing.
Rides on the Midway will be provided by the Family Attractions Amusement Company. Unlimited rides will be available each night for $16.00.
Admission to the fair is $3.00 per person. Children age four and younger will be admitted free! Gates open at 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday and at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. Parking is Free!
For more information, call 529-FAIR or visit on-line at www.dekalbcountyfair.us or www. dekalbtn.com.

The DeKalb County Junior League All Star 13-14 Year Old Team participated in the State Tournament on Saturday, July 18th at Cumberland Gap High School near Cumberland Gap, Tennessee. In the tournament opening game, the DeKalb All Stars faced the District 7 All Stars
from Murfreesboro.
The DeKalb All Stars were defeated 6-5. DeKalb started out with a 4-0 lead. A series of pop flies followed with two errors and the game was tied in the top of the 4th Inning. At the bottom of the 4th Inning DeKalb had three up and three down, which resulted in no runs.
Murfreesboro gained the lead in the 5th Inning.
DeKalb rallied in the 7th Inning with singles from Stephen Howell, Evan Cripps, Evan Curtis, and Jordan Huling. A questionable call occurred as Steven Howell attempted to steal at third base, but was ruled out. The game concluded when Devin Summers had a ball hit just over first base and snagged by Murfreesboro.
Steven Page had the loss on the mound for DeKalb. Those having singles included: Stephen Howell; Evan Cripps (2); Steven Page; Evan Curtis (2); Jordan Huling; Dustin Cook; and Devin Summers had two doubles.
DeKalb will enter the Loser Bracket in a game scheduled for Sunday, July
19th at 2:00 p.m. E.D.T. or 1:00 p.m. Smithville time.
(Top Picture) DeKalb 13-14 Year Old All Star Pitcher Steven Page
(Bottom Picture) – Coach Steve Page confers with the team in the 5th Inning
(Special thanks to Freddy Curtis for providing pictures and story)

For the second consecutive year, DeKalb County Fire Department has been named, by the Tennessee Fire and Codes Academy (TFACA), as one of the Elite Club members that attained over 1,000 student contact training hours. For FY 2008-09, there are 42 of the state’s approximately 700 fire departments that met the requirements to join the “Elite Club” and DeKalb County Fire Department ranked # 28, with 1,288 student contact hours.
According to DeKalb County Fire Chief Donny Green, “the 1,288 hours only includes a portion of the larger amount of training hours that our firefighters have attended. We have specialized training courses, such as vehicle extrication/rescue, wild land firefighting, CPR, medical first responder, and monthly training drills, that our firefighters complete which accounts for over 3,000 department training hours annually.”
Chief Green says that he credits much of the department’s training program success to Asst. Chief Roy Merriman who coordinates and manages the training activities for the department’s 11 stations and 70 volunteer firefighters. “The fact that we are ranked # 28 on this list, which is mostly full-time paid fire departments, speaks volumes about our training program and the commitment our volunteer firefighters have; especially when you consider that 19 of the 27 departments ranked above DeKalb County Fire Department are full-time paid departments whose firefighters are actually on the clock when they are training. Our volunteer firefighters are doing their training on their own time, on nights and weekends when they are not at their paying jobs”, says Chief Green.
DeKalb County Fire Department continues to seek committed volunteers who are willing to serve their communities. If you are interested in becoming a volunteer firefighter, contact the department at 615-464-7176, or visit the department’s website at www.dekalbfire.com to submit an online application.

Members of the Smithville Police Department want the community to get to know them better, and according to at least one officer, the effort has paid off.
Chief Richard Jennings says Officer Nathan Estes recently came up with the idea of handing out police department stickers to children in the housing project, in a get acquainted campaign.
Officer Estes says children should not be afraid of the police. “What it consisted of is a particular officer going through the housing authority on foot patrol when we had time and handing out these stickers. Basically what this is doing, when we hand out these stickers, is we’re interacting with the children and letting them know that they shouldn’t be afraid of us.”

According to Officer Estes, the effort has not only had a positive impact on the children, but their families have become more open in providing valuable information to the police. ” I saw this as something positive and I originally started it for the children but it wound up going further than that, because we wound up getting a lot of information we needed for investigations for the police department, through the moms and dads, aunts, uncles, grandmothers, and grandfathers. We had two fugitive from justice people that I helped locate from the housing authority. There were two or three drug deals we got interested in while we were over there, things of that nature. But the main thing I wanted to prove with this was that the housing authority people and their kids are just as important to us as anybody else in the city or the county.”
Officer Estes says he hopes to continue the campaign in other parts of the city. “Now that I’m back on nights, I’m going to start at a different place, such as Village Place subdivision, Morgan Avenue, and places like that while still keeping up the same streets such as Andrews and others where I have been going to let everyone know that just because we’re the police does not mean we don’t care about them or their kids. We’re not in this just to take people to jail and write tickets. We’re supposed to be a role model to the public and set an example for the public.”

The Chairman of the Tennessee Republican Party was in Smithville Thursday night.
Chris Devaney met with members of the local party at the community room of city hall.
Devaney says he is excited about the 2010 elections and the opportunity Republicans have to win more public offices. “There’s a lot of excitement across Tennessee, I see it in the tea parties that are going on. Six weeks after President Obama was elected we saw these tea parties pop up across the country and across Tennessee and I think it really signaled that people are concerned about the direction of our country. ”
“Republicans in Tennessee have had success because they have stood on principled leadership and core Republican principles of individual freedom, low taxes, and personal responsibility and I think that is resonating with people in Tennessee and across the country. We are setting the example here in Tennessee of what can be done. We have majorities in the General Assembly. We’re going to solidify those majorities in 2010. We’re excited about the direction we’re headed in this state.”
“I think people are looking at the example of Terri Lynn Weaver, who is providing excellent leadership for this district. She was elected in 2008 and already she has become a leader in the General Assembly because she is standing up for principles. That’s why Terri Lynn will be re-elected and that’s why we’re going to elect a Republican in (State Senator) Mae Beaver’s seat.”

An 18 year old Liberty man was seriously injured when his pickup truck crashed into a tree on Big Rock Road Thursday afternoon. Central Dispatch received the call at 4:41 p.m.
Carlos Dustin Nokes was airlifted from the scene by a Life Flight helicopter ambulance and flown to Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville.
Trooper Darrell Knowles of the Tennessee Highway Patrol says Nokes was driving a 1986 Chevy S-10 south on Big Rock Road when he went off the right side of the road, overcorrected, continued south, and then went off the left side of the road. The pickup struck a ditch, went airborne, and then crashed nose down and top first into a tree. The truck then fell back and came to rest on it’s wheels. Nokes was pinned inside the truck and had to be extricated by members of the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department’s Rescue Team. Others on the scene were members of the Keltonburg and Short Mountain Highway Stations of the Fire Department, county deputies, and DeKalb EMS.
Meanwhile two people were transported by DeKalb EMS to DeKalb Community Hospital after a two vehicle wreck on Whorton Springs Road Thursday afternoon.
Trooper Knowles says 17 year old Kiesha M. Kunze of Smithville was east on Whorton Springs Road in a 2005 Toyota and 39 year old Benjamin D. Barlow of Smithville was traveling west in a 1996 Mazda pickup truck when they made contact in a curve.
Both Kunze and a passenger of her vehicle, 69 year old Marga Spruill of Smithville were transported to the hospital with minor injuries. Two others in the Kunze vehicle, Sandra Kunze and an eighteen month old child were not injured. Barlow was also uninjured.

Members of the DeKalb County Election Commission met Wednesday and voted to seek an extension in filing an answer to a Chancery Court lawsuit brought against them last month by the former administrator of elections Lisa Peterson.
The commission has thirty days to answer the lawsuit, but still does not have an attorney to handle the case, and the thirty days are up next week.
Peterson also filed a federal court lawsuit last week against three members of the commission and they have twenty days to answer that complaint.
The special meeting of the election commission Wednesday was supposed to be for the purpose of possibly hiring an attorney, but an issue has arisen which has forced a delay.
Walteen Parker, Chairman of the Election Commission, says the State Attorney General has rendered an opinion that members of election commissions and administrators are county employees, while previous judicial rulings stemming from a case in another county, have held that they are state employees.
Parker says the issue is who is to provide and pay for the defense, the county, through attorneys for the county’s liability insurance carrier, or the state. “There are two lawsuits at stake and the reason we needed to meet tonight (Wednesday) is to determine where we’re going with this as a commission.”
“The Chancery Court lawsuit was sent to (County Attorney) Mr. (Hilton) Conger who did what he was supposed to do in contacting the County Mayor and contacting the insurance company and seeing where to go from here because the issue is, are the commission and the administrator of elections state employees, and that term is used very loosely, or county employees?. The (State) Attorney General’s opinion was written that we are county (employees). A judge in Bradley County, I believe, issued an opinion that it’s state (employees). Therefore there is an issue. Is it the county or the county’s insurance carrier’s responsibility to provide counsel and advisement or is it the (State) Attorney General’s Office who is to provide counsel and advisement?”
“The insurance attorney has said that until this issue is resolved they are not going to take any kind of action which is reasonable. As it turns out, we don’t know what to do about counsel until we get a judgement as to whether it’s state or county. If it’s considered a state issue, the Attorney General will provide counsel, if it’s a county issue then we can go with the county insurance carrier and their attorney. The county attorney (Conger) is not responsible in this. He is not the one we would turn to, it would be the insurance carrier’s attorney. Mr. Conger was here (tonight) to guide us in information that we needed. We can hire an attorney at our own choosing and that could be played out in the courts as to whether the state would reimburse this attorney or whether the county would so that is an option.”
In the meantime, County Attorney Conger apparently will petition the Chancery Court on behalf of the election commission for an extension in filing the answer to the lawsuit in that court.
Parker says she is hopeful the issue is resolved by the time the election commission meets in regular session again on the first Thursday in August.
Meanwhile Parker says she wants to assure the public that the litigation in court will not distract the commission nor the staff in the office from discharging their duties.