A 64 year old Smithville woman was injured in a rollover accident Sunday afternoon on Allen Ferry Road near the Elizabeth Chapel Baptist Church.
Captain Steven Leffew of the Smithville Police Department said Mary Harris was driving east in a 1995 Ford Focus when she went off the right side of the road, struck a culvert, knocked down a speed limit sign, and overturned. The vehicle came to rest on its side at Mt Holly Cemetery. Police say Harris claims she lost control the car after taking her eyes of the road to reach for cigarettes she had dropped in the car.
Members of the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department performed extrication services to get Harris out of the vehicle. She was taken by DeKalb EMS to DeKalb Community Hospital.
Captain Leffew said Harris will be cited for violation of the financial responsibility law (no insurance).
Smithville Police investigated another accident in almost the exact same spot the day before, on Saturday.
Officer Matt Farmer said 30 year old Russell Johnson was driving east on Allen Ferry Road in a Ford Ranger pickup when he lost control and went off the right side of the road and overturned. The truck came to rest on its top near the cemetery. Johnson was injured and taken to DeKalb Community Hospital by DeKalb EMS.

The DeKalb County Unemployment Rate for April was 8.2%, the same as March but up from 7.5% in April, 2012.
The local labor force for April was 9,730. A total of 8,930 were employed and 800 were without work
DeKalb County’s jobless rate for April was fifth lowest among the fourteen Upper Cumberland counties. Here’s how they ranked from highest to lowest:
Pickett:13.2%
Van Buren: 11.6%
White:11.3%
Clay:10%
Cumberland: 9.5%
Warren: 9.3%
Fentress: 9.1%
Overton:8.7%
Jackson: 8.4%
DeKalb: 8.2%
Putnam: 7.6%
Macon: 7.5%
Smith: 7.4%
Cannon: 6.5%
County unemployment rates for April 2013 show the rate decreased in 62 counties, increased in 23, and stayed the same in ten.
Knox County had the state’s lowest major metropolitan rate of 6.4 percent, up from 6.2 percent in March. Davidson County also increased from 6.2 in March to 6.5 in April. Hamilton County was 7.5 percent, down from 7.6 percent in the previous month. Shelby County was 9.2 percent, down from 9.5 percent in March.
Tennessee’s unemployment rate for April was 8.0 percent, which increased two tenths of one percentage point from the March revised rate of 7.8 percent. The national unemployment rate for April 2013 was 7.5 percent, decreasing by one tenth of one percentage point from the previous month.
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.

Six people from the fifth district have applied to fill the unexpired term of John Green on the county commission.
Those hoping to succeed Green on the commission are James Young, Anita Puckett, Hunter Hendrixson, Steven Cantrell, Eugene LaFever, and Rick Cantrell.
County Commissioners are expected to interview the applicants soon and then name one of them to serve out Green’s term which runs through August 31, 2014.
Green turned in his resignation letter to County Mayor Mike Foster on Monday, April 8 stating that he had moved his permanent residence to White County.
The county recently advertised seeking applications from persons in the fifth district interested in filling the unexpired term. The deadline for submitting applications was Tuesday, May 28.
Green had served on the county commission for eleven years. He was first elected in 2002 and then re-elected in 2006 and 2010.

Facing a tight budget year with no tax increase, city officials are not expecting much in the way of extra spending for 2013-14. That may not be good news for the Smithville Fire Department which had hoped to add one or two new paid full time firefighters.
In their final workshop before Monday night’s council meeting, the mayor and aldermen met Tuesday evening with financial consultant, Janice Plemmons-Jackson to crunch the budget numbers. Jackson said she and secretary-treasurer Hunter Hendrixson have gone over the proposed budget in recent days cutting “fluff”. But with all the revisions that have been made, the city could still go slightly in the red or just break even by the end of the fiscal year. “The (proposed) general fund had a (projected) $200,000 deficit for the year,” said Jackson. “Hunter and I went through and talked about taking out all the fluff, or the rounding, or the cushioning. We decided to go back to a barebones (budget). We’ve got the general fund tightened down as good as we can get it without eliminating positions or hours. This is a very tight budget,” she said.
If emergency spending is required during the year, Jackson said the aldermen could approve budget amendments, taking money from the general fund surplus.
As for the fire department’s request, Jackson said with revenue streams not keeping pace with expenses, the city would have to look for new money at some point if it added another firefighter position. “We’ve weeded out a lot of fluff. If you want to do it (add firefighter position), you’ve got surpluses that will provide some money to do it. But to know that it’s a today, tomorrow, in the future and a never ending thing makes me look at revenues and other expenses and say, sometime you’re going to need more revenues or you can’t afford it. Right now today, yeah you can afford it but you may have to cut other things out. Revenues are pretty flat. They are not growing at the same rate that expenses are growing. That’s why I’m cautious about adding new kinds of recurring things when you’re not adding sources of revenue,” said Jackson.
Still, Aldermen Shawn Jacobs and Gayla Hendrix want to find a way to fund one new firefighter position this year. “We have a group of city firefighters and a majority have been with the department for a long time, fifteen, twenty, thirty years, which is almost unheard of,” said Alderman Hendrix. “You’re not going to see this coming up in the newer generation. The younger people are not going to make that kind of commitment . Full volunteer departments will eventually become a thing of the past because people have jobs that they can’t take off from and leave when there is a call. Factories are not going to let you up and leave like it was when we were an agricultural community when people worked for themselves and they could do that. These guys have been doing all this stuff volunteer on weekends and nights away from their families for years and years. I like the idea that we would have people on staff that could make a call in the middle of the day if someone else were not available. I would like to see us put in one more position. I think there’s a lot of other areas we could start cutting back on to make this work. I think that’s more necessary than a lot of things we’re putting money into right now. We know we’re never going to have a full time paid fire department. We’re still going to rely on volunteers, but if you have a couple of paid firefighters who can do so much stuff during the week, that keeps the volunteers from having to spend all their time doing the regular routine stuff that has to be done, then the volunteers can be there to do the training and be ready to go on a call when needed,” said Alderman Hendrix.
“If he gets one other firefighter, (Fire Chief) Charlie (Parker) and that firefighter could respond with a vehicle immediately. One person can’t do that. They could also do first responder calls, said Alderman Jacobs. “Sometimes we fool ourselves by saying every job is as important as the other. That’s not true. Public safety is a special breed and I think you’ve got to pay for it. If we do add this extra fireman, I would like to see the salary start at the same salary that our policemen start at,” said Alderman Jacobs.
“We projected what one person would cost, benefits and all that,” said Jackson. “I took the middle number of (Fire Chief) Charlie (Parker’s) projections $28,000 to $32,000 and said if I take $30,000 and added the payroll tax and the insurance (benefit). Its roughly $42,000. That gets you another full time person at a $30,000 salary,” she said. “Some discussion came up about, maybe that’s higher than what police people start at. So you may say we’ll budget only $25,000 for (one firefighter) salary,” said Jackson.
The other three aldermen, Jason Murphy, Tim Stribling, and Danny Washer said the city cannot afford adding a paid firefighter position right now without tapping into general fund surpluses, a practice they believe is not appropriate for meeting recurring expenses. ” I hate not to do it (fund a firefighter position). I believe in what the firefighters do. But we don’t have that much of a gap (between revenues and expenses). We’re eventually going to need a new fire truck. We’re going to need garbage trucks and other equipment. We need to build up our fund (surplus) so that we can take those capital hits. That’s what scares me about it all,” said Alderman Murphy.
“Our revenue streams are going down and there’s other equipment that’s got to be purchased and it’s going to have to come out of our surplus,” said Alderman Tim Stribling. “I’m not against having them (paid firefighters) but I want to be able to fund it every year without having to worry about kicking into our surplus. Who knows, a garbage truck might break down,” he said.
“I’d like to have two (paid firefighters) if we could afford it. But in my opinion, it’s too much too quick,” said Alderman Danny Washer. We’re leveled off right now. I’d like to stay leveled off for another year and see if we generate any more revenue and see how it looks a year from now,” he said.
In addition to the firefighter positions, Chief Parker had requested extra funding for other needs in the fire department. Jackson said some of those proposed amounts have been cut back in this budget. “Charlie had requested $55,000 for capital outlay but he said he had about $5,000 of specific costs for hoses. So we cut that back to $10,000. If something comes up, you could amend the budget,” said Jackson.
“He (Chief Parker) had asked for $50,000 for payments to volunteers. Two years ago, the city paid $32,000. This year we paid $30,000. I bumped it down to $35,000 (in new budget). If they have a lot of fires, we’ll have to amend the budget,” said Jackson.
The budget does include a 1.5% pay raise for all city employees including salaried personnel and those on the police department’s step increase plan.
The proposed budget for the water and sewer fund shows a deficit by the end of the 2013-14 fiscal year but that is expected to change when its known what the new water rate will be for the DeKalb Utility District in January, according to Jackson. “Water and sewer, we didn’t project as much increases in revenues. We’re at a (projected) loss of about $58,000 to $59,000. If you have an actual loss for two years in a row, the state makes you raise your rates to make you be profitable so we want to avoid that if possible. The big question will be what will the DUD rate be when their contract runs out?,” she said. “January 1 we will be looking at having to come up with a number. We may end up, depending on where the DUD rate goes and how other costs go, that we can be profitable in 2014. My hope and goal is that we’re not in the red and that we don’t have to be forced to change rates,” said Jackson.
The aldermen are expected to adopt on first reading Monday night, June 3 a new budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year. Two proposed budgets will be presented for consideration, one with a firefighter position included, and another without. Three votes are required for passage. The meeting begins at 7:00 p.m. at city hall. WJLE plans LIVE coverage.

Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) contract crews will close the Hurricane Bridge on SR 56 over the Caney Fork River in DeKalb County to all traffic on Friday, May 31 beginning at 8:00 p.m. for approximately 20 hours. The closure is necessary to allow the contractor to perform structural work (replacing a bearing pin on the bridge pier) that cannot be done with traffic driving on the bridge.
The work is weather dependent. Should inclement weather or unforeseen circumstances prevent this work from occurring as scheduled, it will be rescheduled to take place as soon as possible.
During the closure, the Tennessee Highway Patrol and flaggers will be present to assist with traffic control. Message boards will be in place to notify drivers of the closure. While the bridge is closed, all traffic will be redirected to the currently posted truck detour that utilizes I-40 at Exit 254 to SR 53. The bridge should be reopened to normal one-lane signal-controlled traffic by 4:00 p.m. on Saturday, June 1, 2013. The current weight postings of 10 tons for two-axle vehicles and 18 tons for vehicles with three or more axles will continue to remain in effect and will be strictly enforced.
The work is part of a $26.9 million rehabilitation project which is scheduled to be complete in October 2013.

The Town of Liberty is mourning the loss of their beloved mayor.
95 year old J. Edward Hale, Jr. died Wednesday at DeKalb Community Hospital. The funeral will be Saturday at 2:00 p.m. at Salem Baptist Church. Dr. Bill Northcott will officiate and burial will be in Salem Cemetery. Visitation will be Friday from 1:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Love-Cantrell Funeral Home and Saturday from 10:00 a.m. until the service at 2:00 p.m. at Salem Baptist Church in Liberty.
In forty two years, Mayor Hale never lost an election, having first been elected mayor in 1971. In most of those years, he didn’t even have an opponent in an election. Until his death, Mayor Hale held the distinction of being the current longest serving elected public official in DeKalb County. But rather than seek another term in the August election, Mayor Hale told WJLE earlier this month that he would not be a candidate this year.
WJLE interviewed Mayor Hale on April 4, 2013 for a feature story on his life and career that was aired on WJLE and posted on our website on April 16. You may click the following link to read the article
http://www.wjle.com/news/2013/liberty-mayor-j-edward-hale-legacy-public-….
Mr. Hale was preceded in death by his parents, John Edward Hale and Sadie Hale and two brothers, Dr. Jerre Hale and James Hale.
He is survived by his wife of 63 years, Gloria Hale of Liberty. Two sons, Tom Hale of Kentucky and Jamie and wife Carol Hale of Liberty. One daughter, Sally and husband Randy Baskin of Mount Juliet. Four grandchildren, Jacob Hale of Liberty, Leah Schitter of California, Anna Baskin of Mount Juliet, and Jonathan Baskin of Mount Juliet. Two great grandchildren, Lucas Hale and Livy Schitter. One sister, Betty and husband Harry Henderson of Martin, Tennessee. Five sisters-in-law, Betty Hale of Smithville, Mary Herbert of Nashville, Judy Sandlin of Alexandria, Jo Hobson and Barbara Hobson of Nashville. Several nieces and nephews survive along with a large loving church family.
Love-Cantrell Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements. In addition to flowers, the family has requested that donations be made to Salem Baptist Church or Cemetery.

All customers of Smithville Electric System and a large service area of Caney Fork Electric Cooperative in DeKalb County were without power for about an hour Wednesday morning after a problem developed at the sub-station on West Main Street.
“We had a fault on one of our distribution meters that came through to the backup relay and that fault caused that relay to burn up and that actually caused a little fire for a short period of time there,” said Michael E. Parker, manager of Smithville Electric System.
“It caused the power to be out. We were able to restore the power by isolating and bypassing the normal backup equipment. The backup relay. We’ve got it back going for now but we will have to do some more repairs in the future. We hope to limit any future outages to a minimum if at all,” said Parker.

Sheriff Patrick Ray has released the annual report of School Resource Officer Keneth Whitehead at DeKalb County High School.
In his report to Sheriff Ray, SRO Whitehead wrote that “It has been a busy year. I have made many arrests. Sometimes we tend to think the worst of our school system because of those arrests. Regardless of the numbers, I feel that the SRO 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 look at 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, 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 SRO program and what benefits it can obtain from having it,” wrote SRO Whitehead.
The end of year SRO Report is as follows:
Offense reports including follow-ups: 4
Misdemeanor Arrests: 44
Drug Arrests: 3
Assists with Patrol Division (Police, Sheriff, or other): 39
Assists with Investigation Division (Police, Sheriff, or other) :48
Assists with Warrants or Petitions: 5
Advisory Sessions with Students (School): 1,024
Advisory Sessions with Students (Family): 17
Advisory Sessions with Students (Law Enforcement): 18
Advisory Sessions with Parents: 344
Advisory Sessions with Teachers or Staff: 489
Conflict Resolution: 21
Classroom Lectures: 36
Called out from Classroom: 4
Special School events attended (Ball Games, etc.):23
Meetings attended (school or community): 9
Court Appearances: 33
Medical Assists: 2
Motorists Assists: 37
Club Meetings: 1
Others (Not Categorized): 356
TOTAL CALLS FOR SERVICE FOR THE MONTH: 2,633
Cigarette Citations: 24
Fighting: 24
Total Value of Reported Stolen Property: $326
Total Value of Recovered Stolen Property: $211
Theft Arrests: 5
Unruly:12
SRO Whitehead, at DCHS is the county’s only School Resource Officer. Sheriff Ray has asked the county budget committee to include funding for four more SROs in the 2013-14 budget so that each school in the county will have one.