In a little over a month, downtown Smithville will come alive as thousands of tourists flock to town for the 41st annual Fiddlers Jamboree and Crafts Festival, Friday and Saturday July 6th & 7th.
(Click the following link for the 2012 Fiddlers Jamboree schedule)http://smithvillejamboree.com.
Jack Barton, President and Coordinator of the festival, and members of the Jamboree committee meet regularly throughout the year making plans, but they will become even busier over the next five weeks.
In addition to hundreds of crafts displayed along many of the downtown streets, the Fiddler’s Jamboree will once again offer plenty of delicious foods for sale at local food booths, lots of shade tree picking, and great on-stage music and dancing competitions.
Over the years, the Fiddlers Jamboree has allotted twelve food booth spaces to non-profit groups, for a fee. That number was expanded to fourteen spaces last year and the application fee to rent a space was raised from $350 to $500. But since only seven of the fourteen available spaces have been booked by non-profits this year, the Jamboree committee is looking to bring in a few for-profit or commercial food booths to fill the remaining spaces.
The fee to for-profits will be $1,000, while the fee to non-profits will be dropped back to $350. “We have fourteen spaces,” said Barton. ” Traditionally we always had twelve, but last year we expanded it to fourteen spaces. As of our deadline in March, we only had seven local non-profits apply. So we have seven empty booths that the Jamboree was faced with trying to fill. Given our rules, we couldn’t fill them with local non-profits so we went straight to contractors. But in fairness to those non-profits who have tried to abide by the rules, and who had success last year as far as sales, we decided to take the $500 fee back down to $350. Those seven booths who have applied for this year will actually be getting a refund because they paid $500 for this year and we’re going to drop it back to $350,” said Barton.
With the large crowds that attend the festival each year, food booths have historically proven to be a good means of raising funds for local charities and other causes and Barton said the goal remains to give non-profits the first opportunity ” Our goal has always been to have local and area non-profits as our food booths and to try and retain as much revenue in the county as possible of what’s gathered during the Jamboree,” said Barton. “Over time, we had realized that some booths were contracting with for-profit food booths and a lot of the money was escaping or leaving the county and the local non-profit was actually not getting very much of the profit. Two years ago we began to put into place that we did not want the local charities to actually contract with any for-profit booths so all the proceeds stay here. If there was any contracting to do, we, the Jamboree being a non-profit as well, would go directly to a contracted food booth, should the need arise. So new for 2012, we voted to change our food booth rules for the next year. The first right of refusal on all fourteen booths that we have would go to our local non-profits. If we don’t receive enough applications to fill all fourteen booths to serve the Jamboree crowd, we would then take the excess booths that are not filled and go to contracted food booths at a much higher rate,” said Barton.
As for craft booths, Barton said the Jamboree expects to be at about the same number this year as last, but a few spaces may be opened up to government or non-profit groups for information only booths. “It remains a challenge to draw people here since our rules are strictly for handmade crafts. I think as time evolves, its harder and harder to find people that are truly hand making their product,” said Barton. “We have opened it up this year, where we will do a few information only booths as long as they are government or non-profit. So the Corps of Engineers may very well have a booth. We’re going to approach the TWRA and others like those that set up at the DeKalb County Fair,” he said.
“We have the full capacity of 220 craft booth spaces. Last year we had 185 craft booths,” said Barton. ” This year, so far we’re at about 135. That’s on par with where we were last year. It seems like a lot of people, more and more are last minute. They try and plan with how expensive fuel is or how far they travel and some people wait til the last minute to register to have a booth,” he said.
Barton said the line-up of competitive events on stage will remain virtually unchanged this year. “The only thing that we’ve made a concession on. I think we changed the schedule two years ago to have youth square dancing on Friday night. Since Friday is typically a work day for most families, we are going to push the youth square dancing a little bit later so the parents have the opportunity to travel here with their children to participate in that. As our events timed out, we were seeing that the youth square dancing was sometimes needing to be started at three o’clock in the afternoon but that being a work day for most parents, the children weren’t here yet. Last year, we manually on the fly moved the event later. This year we’re actually going to move it in the rotation a little bit later,” he said.
The Fiddlers Jamboree also is always looking for volunteers who want to pitch in and help. “We’re always looking for volunteers and people who would like to come out,” said Barton. No matter in what capacity. It could be somebody who helps during the event or somebody that helps during the year on our committee,” said Barton.
Realizing that many people want to know more about how the Fiddlers Jamboree operates, Barton said a news release has been prepared that will hopefully address any questions they may have concerning the festival.
CLICK THE FOLLOWING PDF FILE TO READ ENTIRE FIDDLERS JAMBOREE NEWS RELEASE
2012 Jamboree Press Release FINAL.pdf (190.87 KB)

Three local residents of DeKalb County competed in the USSSA Memorial Day NIT Tournament in Franklin, Tennessee over Memorial Day Weekend.
A.J. Mooneyham, Cason Oakley and Sam McMillen are part of the Mid-South Mayhem Travel Baseball team that went a perfect 5 and 0 in the tournament and captured the 1st place trophy.
Other players on the team include: Logan Fields and Bailey Kemp from Smith County, Luke Turner, Bronson Bell, Jackson Vance, Drew Trice and Matthew Dillon all from Wilson County, Ethan Roberts from White County and Weston Burris from Rutherford County. Caleb Dillon is the batboy.
The Mid-South Mayhem is coached by Paul Fields from Smith County and Chad Vance and Kenny Dillon, both from Wilson County. This was the Mayhem’s 2nd Title in 3 tournaments. They also won the USSSA NIT in Columbia, Tennessee the 2nd week of May.

Recently several 4-H members competed at the Regional Wildlife Judging competition.
For the last two months, these 4-Hers learned to identify 45 wildlife species and to determine appropriate wildlife management practices.
The coaches for the team were TWRA officer Mike Beaty, Army Corp. of Engineers Ranger Terry Martin, and Extension Agent April Martin.
The Junior High Team members included: Caitlyn Lawrence, Wyatt Martin, Eli Oliver, Casey Taylor, Morgan Vickers, and Casey Vickers. The team placed 7th in the region and Caitlyn Lawrence was 12th high individual.
The Senior High Team members included: Brooke Reffue, Crystal Vickers, Justin Bass, and Lydia Trail. The team placed 7th in the region.
4-H judging teams is just one of the many activities offered through 4-H to teach important life skills. The University of Tennessee Extension offers all its programs to everyone in the county.
(This is for the photo caption)
4-H Wildlife Judging Team Members: front row (l-r): Crystal Vickers, Casey Vickers, Casey Taylor, Eli Oliver, and Wyatt Martin. Back row: Lydia Trail, Justin Bass, Brooke Reffue, and Caitlyn Lawrence. (photo by April Martin)

Four hundred fifty one people have voted early to date in the Smithville Municipal Election with four days to go.
Here’s how the voting breaks down each day:
Wednesday, May 30, 48 voters
Thursday, May 31, 55 voters
Friday, June 1, 45 voters
Saturday, June 2, 24 voters
Monday, June 4, 38 voters
Tuesday, June 5, 40 voters
Wednesday, June 6, 27 voters
Thursday, June 7, 58 voters
Friday, June 8, 23 voters
Saturday, June 9, 47 voters
Monday, June 11, 22 voters
Tuesday, June 12, 24 voters
Voting continues through Thursday, June 14 at the DeKalb County Election Commission Office on the first floor of the courthouse.
Hours for early voting are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m,
Thursday from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 9 a.m. until Noon.
A mayor and two aldermen will be elected on Tuesday, June 19, each to serve a two year term, beginning July 1. The candidates for mayor are Taft Hendrixson and Jimmy Poss. Candidates for alderman are Scott Davis, Jason Judd Murphy, Tim Stribling, and Steve White.
The ballot will also include a referendum on liquor by the drink in city restaurants. Voters will have the opportunity to vote either “yes” or “no” on whether to “authorize the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises in the City of Smithville.”
Election day voting, June 19 will be from 8:00 a.m. until 7:00 p.m. in the basement courtroom of the courthouse.

A fire Tuesday damaged a large barn and destroyed more than 200 rolls of wheat hay belonging to Frank Colwell on Evins Mill Road.
County Fire Chief Donny Green told WJLE that Colwell was feeding cattle on his farm when he saw a puff of smoke coming from the barn, a 200 x 75 foot structure, which once served as a dairy barn, now used for hay storage.
Colwell phoned Chief Green to report what he saw. Green then called for firefighters to get enroute. Central dispatch received the call at 10:33 a.m.
Chief Green said the fire, which is believed to have started from spontaneous combustion within the rolls of hay, was difficult to put out. Firefighters spent almost twelve hours on the scene, before leaving around ten p.m. Tuesday night.
According to Chief Green, the barn held more than 300 rolls of wheat hay and two thirds of it was destroyed. But Mr. Colwell was able to save 108 rolls, using a forklift to remove them from the structure. The fire also destroyed about a fourth of the barn.
Chief Green said about 38,000 gallons of water was used to extinguish the fire, most of it coming from an irrigation pond at Pirtle’s Nursery.
Members of the Short Mountain Highway, Midway, Main Station, Keltonburg, and Blue Springs Stations of the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department responded along with manpower from other county stations. Members of the City of Smithville and North Warren County Fire Departments came to the scene with fire trucks and manpower to render mutual aid assistance, along with deputies of the Sheriff’s Department and DeKalb EMS. No one was injured.
Chief Green said he wishes to thank the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department and the North Warren Fire Department for their support.

Sheriff Patrick Ray has been pleased with the School Resource Officer program at DeKalb County High School and would like to see another one in the school system.
Sheriff Ray said grant funds have been sought in recent years for another position without success. “We tried to apply for another SRO two or three years ago, but we did not get that position. We would like to see another SRO in our school system. We would like to see one stationed at DeKalb West School who could also help with schools in Smithville We will probably try again for a grant,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kenneth Whitehead, School Resource Officer at DCHS, has filed his year end report with Sheriff Ray.
In his letter to Sheriff Ray, Officer Whitehead reported ” As you can see, it has been a very busy year. I have made many arrests and sometimes we tend to think the worst of our school system because of those arrests. Regardless of the numbers, I feel that the school resource officer program is a great asset to the DeKalb County school system. We should not look at only the arrests and evaluate the success or failure of the program, but the overall results both good and bad. I have met with many students and dealt with all kinds of problems throughout this school year. I feel that due to this contact that I have helped these students deal with some problems that the school system just does not have time to deal with. I also feel that just my presence at the school does wonders for the student body. I hope that the school system and the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department continues to see the importance of the school resource officer program and what benefits it can obtain from having it. I have enclosed a copy of the 2011-12 school year SRO report. I hope that my reports will help show that there is a need for a second school resource officer in our school system,” wrote Whitehead.
The report is as follows:
42 misdemeanor arrests at school (juvenile petitions)
9 drug arrests
27 assists with patrols or with detective divisions of the sheriff’s department or police department
776 advisory sessions with students (six of those were with students families and three with law enforcement officers)
236 advisory sessions with parents.
382 advisory sessions with a teacher or staff member
37 classroom lectures
32 special school events attended
30 court appearances
28 motorist assists in parking lot of school
8 club meetings attended
46 cigarette citations
9 fights
Total value of reported stolen property $2,627, of which $2,415 in property was recovered.
Some alcohol, marijuana, pills, and bb gun seized from the school.
15 unruly juveniles dealt with

DeKalb County’s April unemployment rate dropped to 7.5%, down from 8% in March, and well below the 9.1% rate in April, 2011.
The local labor force for April was at 9,810. A total of 9,070 were employed and 740 were unemployed.
DeKalb County’s unemployment rate for April tied for third lowest in the fourteen county Upper Cumberland region with Cannon and Macon. Here’s how they rank highest to lowest
Picket County- 12.1%
White- 10.6%
Van Buren-10.5%
Clay- 9.1%
Cumberland-8.7%
Warren-8.7%
Fentress-8.4%
Jackson-8%
Overton-7.9%
DeKalb-7.5%
Macon-7.5%
Cannon-7.5%
Putnam-7.2%
Smith-6.7%
County non-seasonally adjusted unemployment rates for April show the rate decreased in 84 counties, increased in five counties, and remained the same in six counties.
Tennessee’s unemployment rate for April fell to 7.8 percent, down from the March revised rate of 7.9 percent. The national unemployment rate for April 2012 was 8.1 percent, 0.1 percentage point lower than the March rate.
The state unemployment rate is seasonally adjusted while the county unemployment rates are not. Seasonal adjustment is a statistical technique that eliminates the influences of weather, holidays, the opening and closing of schools, and other recurring seasonal events from economic time series.
Knox County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate of 5.8 percent, up from 5.6 percent in March. Davidson County was 6.5 percent, down from 6.6 percent in the previous month. Hamilton County was 7.0 percent, down from 7.3 percent, and Shelby County was 8.3 percent, down from the March unemployment rate of 9.1 percent.