WJLE Radio

10/18/2026

“They’re bad”

During Thursday night’s meeting, County Mayor Patrick Ray informed the budget committee that most of the county’s community centers are in need of immediate attention because of structural disrepair.

“I went around to every one of them and took pictures,” said County Mayor Ray. “Some of them can be fixed and I’ve been fixing some of them but the Midway community center is a wreck. The walls are rotted out, the floor is warped. One of the doors is torn off from one of the rooms. It looks like the center of the floor is rotted out and the carpet is nasty,” he said.

The Temperance Hall Community Center, which also serves as a voting precinct, will also have to be addressed or abandoned for future use. “At Temperance Hall, we barely scraped by letting the election commission use that on election day November the 3rd, “said County Mayor Ray.” The state guy was down there at the Temperance Hall site. It’s got asbestos in it and he said no more. You can’t do anything with it but we called and they’ve allowed us to use it for that one day but we are going to have to do something there,” he said.

Ray plans to present a slide show of pictures showing the condition of each community center at the next meeting of the county public works committee.

“I’m going to ask the committee to set a priority of the ones that they want to start with and go from there. That’s going to be my recommendation to them, and then we’ll see how far the $100,000 goes and revisit it when that time comes. Other than that, the county is going to have to come up with the money to pay for it,” said County Mayor Ray.

Last summer the county commission budgeted $100,000 from the capital projects fund for the 2026-27 fiscal year for community center repairs. Ray said the county may have to prioritize which community centers get fixed first with the available funds for repairs. Going forward, he said the county, as previously recommended by the government services committee, may want to look at future funding of a maintenance team, whose responsibility would be to make regular repairs at county buildings including community centers, similar to the school system’s maintenance team that addresses issues at school buildings.

“You can see on this list (of repairs) what all needs to be fixed and I’m telling you, this is going to go back to the government services committee that had recommended that we look into hiring a couple of people to do our maintenance for us, because this right here (repairs of community centers) is going to be very costly,” said County Mayor Ray.

In January, 2025 the county commission voted to increase the daily rental rate from $50 to $100 at the Johnson Chapel, Belk, Keltonburg, Blue Springs, Midway, Snow Hill, and Temperance Hall Community Centers. The Cherry Hill Community Center is currently under lease. The increase approved at that time did not apply to the rental rates at the county complex.

County Mayor Ray said the Snow Hill Community Center seems to be in the best condition because it is used more often by a church group and the American Legion and they keep the center clean. The Blue Springs Community Center, he said, only needs some shrubbery trimming, Ray said he is having other centers cleaned before anyone rents them.

“I’ve hired somebody to do the cleaning before somebody rents them and to set the air conditioner and then we’ll have to make sure to turn the heat on at every one of them with winter time coming to keep the pipes from freezing,” said County Mayor Ray. “Someone wanted to do a wedding at the Belk Community Center. I went down there and looked and it was full of rat droppings. Rats had found a bag of plastic Easter eggs that had been broken open and they had eaten the candy out of them. Candy was strewn everywhere. The toilets didn’t work and the air conditioner didn’t work,” he said.

Should the county rehab the community centers, County Mayor Ray said they might be rented out more and help offset monthly county expense.

“A lot of them don’t get rented, but every one of them cost an electric bill, water bill, a gas bill, the insurance, and the upkeep every month. They might rent better if they were cleaned and kept up to date. If somebody pays $100 (rental) they expect it at least be clean,” he said.

In addition to Temperance Hall, the Johnson Chapel, Keltonburg, Blue Springs, and Snow Hill county community centers serve as voting precincts as well as the Town of Liberty community center.

10/17/2026

A fire swept through Center Hill Sports Marine on Sparta Highway in DeKalb County Friday evening.

The DeKalb County Fire Department posted the following social media news release about the fire:

“The DeKalb County Fire Department was dispatched to a commercial structure fire on Sparta Highway at Center Hill Sports Marine Friday evening at 6:04 p.m.

DeKalb 911 received multiple reports from passing motorists of heavy smoke and flames coming from the roof of the business. When firefighters arrived, they found heavy fire throughout the building with threatened exposures to other nearby buildings that contained new vessel inventory. Fire crews successfully contained the blaze and protected the exposures that included several new pontoon boats. Firefighters remained on the scene for nearly 6 hours performing firefighting and salvage and overhaul operations.

The main building and shop located in the rear, including all contents, were complete losses. A pickup truck parked outside at the rear of the business was also a complete loss. The business was closed at the time of the incident. No injuries were reported.

While the final determination of origin of the fire is still pending, the preliminary finding is that the fire started from a pickup truck parked outside at the rear of the building.

The DeKalb County Fire Department’s Johnson’s Chapel, Midway, Four Seasons, Cookeville Highway, Main stations, and county-wide personnel responded to the scene, along with mutual aid assistance from White County’s Cassville and Central View fire departments.

Other agencies assisting on the scene were DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department, DeKalb County Emergency Medical Services, DeKalb County Emergency Management Agency, Caney Fork Electric Cooperative, and Middle Tennessee Natural Gas”.

Thanks to Jim Beshearse for sharing video and photos from the scene

10/16/2026

The new makeup of the county budget committee met for the first time Thursday night at the courthouse for a quarterly budget review and to act on a couple of requests.

County Mayor Patrick Ray asked the budget committee for a recommendation to the full county commission to move $500,000 from the solid waste fund’s $ 7 million fund balance into the solid waste operating budget to make repairs at the county’s convenience sites.

“We are going to have to do something with the convenience centers,” said County Mayor Ray. There are probably three or four people a day (public) that ask me something about a convenience center, whether it’s the driveways, the rickety steps, or the buildings,” he said.

The county solid waste budget is not funded by local property tax dollars but from state b**r tax, wholesale b**r tax, bank excise tax, state revenue sharing-TVA funds, proceeds received from payments in-lieu of taxes, alcoholic beverage tax, and the county’s portion of the local option sales tax.

“This will be a request for an action item from the commission,” said County Mayor Ray, “I would ask that we move $500,000 out of that (solid waste fund balance). Those things that are on there (list of repairs and upgrades), I don’t know if we can do all those between now and the end of the year, but we would sure like to try to do a few of those. Some of the compactors need fixing. We’d like to put a compactor at Belk, Blue Springs, and Silver Point because those are the farthest away. They’re (truck drivers hauling garbage) making two trips to Belk and two trips to Blue Springs (per week) but this would probably take it down to one trip every two weeks. We have a skid steer at the solid waste that was bought out of a grant. The only thing it has is a bucket on it. We need at least a bush hog for the skid steer and a Harley Rake to pull up the gravels that are there around the sites and to tar and chip what we can. We also need some new buildings. The one on Sparta Highway is the worst,” said County Mayor Ray.

“We have some new signage that’s going up,” Ray continued. “I also put out a bid for porta potties with a sink in them. Our convenience sites guys (employees) have outdoor toilets there with no running water, so they have to dump people’s trash all day, and when they use the bathroom and sit down to eat, they don’t have a place to wash their hands. We bid that out to get that done,” explained County Mayor Ray

The budget committee voted 5-0 to forward County Mayor Ray’s funding request onto the full county commission for action. Members of the budget committee are Chairman Mathias Anderson, Steve Cantrell, Daniel Cripps, Danny Adamson, and Don Rigsby. Members Tony (Cully) Culwell and Andy Pack were absent.

Samantha Bowman, Youth Resource officer for the DeKalb County Juvenile Court requested a commitment from the county for a local grant match of $100,000 over three years to establish a new Juvenile Drug Treatment Recovery Court.

“It is a 75%/25% match. We are requesting $100,000 from the federal government and the county would need to cover about $33,000, or a little bit over that each year. It is a 3 year grant so the total match for the county would be $100,000. This would be a recovery court, just like we have for adults. The difference would be that we would be able to wrap the families around a little bit more, as far as getting the treatment for the parents and possibly the sibling. We all know, working in law enforcement, the schools, and anywhere in public, there’s a generational cycle that we have here and Judge (Brandon) Cox and I try to help families get the services and things in place so they can make better decisions, because a lot of the parents of children weren’t taught how to do certain things so if we can give them the skills for decision making, that’s what we would like to do. It would cut back on recidivism and we could get a larger pool of service providers that come here for juveniles and that would help us on all cases and not just the recovery court portion,” said Bowman

The budget committee voted 5-0 to recommend approval to the full county commission. The grant application must be filed before the end of the month.

10/15/2026

10/12/2026

The DeKalb County Board of Education Thursday night voted to join the DeKalb County government in funding half the cost of a traffic control officer in the school zone during the mornings and afternoons on school days at DeKalb West.

Unlike in Smithville at Northside Elementary and DeKalb Middle School, DeKalb West has never had a traffic control officer.

The county commission in September voted to pay half the cost provided the Board of Education agreed to do the same and Thursday night, the school board voted 6-0 to partner with the county to fund the DWS traffic control officer position.

First District County Commissioner Randy Slager raised the issue at the September commission meeting citing traffic safety concerns at DeKalb West without an officer there,

“Its got where recently at the West School the traffic is at a dangerous point and if we don’t do something its going to be a bad problem,” said Commissioner Slager.

For several years the county has partnered with the Board of Education and City of Smithville to each pay one third of the cost of employing the two school traffic control officer positions in Smithville, each one working during the mornings and afternoons in the school zones at Northside Elementary and DeKalb Middle School.

Each traffic control officer earns $52.50 per day and only works on school days.

Under the plan, the county pays the salaries of each officer in Smithville and the City of Smithville and Board of Education each reimburse the county for their one third of the total costs. At DeKalb West, the school board will reimburse the county for half the cost.

With the board of education now on board, the county commission will later act on a budget amendment to fund the DWS traffic control officer position.

In other business, the board voted to grant a request by the Center Hill Soccer Club to install at their own expense temporary lighting at the soccer fields on the Northside Elementary School campus

“Right now they’re talking about putting up temporary lights until the final construction of the new school and they (Center Hill Soccer Club) will be paying for the lights and the utilities on the premises.,” said Director of Schools Patrick Cripps

In his monthly personnel report, Director Cripps said Tiffany Cowart has been granted a leave of absence and that Patricia Linder, a cook and Brian Cadle, a teacher at DCHS have resigned

Director Cripps also commended DCHS Golfer Chloe Boyd on her second-place finish at the state golf tournament this week.

“We had Miss Chloe Boyd who competed at the golf championship this week. She finished runner up. We just want to congratulate her and thank her for representing the DeKalb County golf team and DeKalb County with her play of golf, but also how she carries herself,” he said.

10/11/2026

The DeKalb County Board of Education has scheduled a special called meeting to make one last move on the new elementary school project before construction begins in November.

The Board will meet on Monday, October 19 at 6 p.m. at the Ernest Ray Education Center to consider and act on approving the Guaranteed Maximum Price from the CMC/CMR (Construction Manager RG Anderson) for the new Smithville Elementary School

According to Brian Templeton, Principal for Upland Design Group, the Board of Education’s architect, groundbreaking for the new elementary school will be the first week of November.

“The construction manager, RG Anderson opened bids on September 22 and 24 and since that time they’ve been compiling and sorting through all those bids to bring everything into one lump sum number which is called the guaranteed maximum price and that includes all the scopes required for the project,” said Templeton. “They (RG Anderson) will present the guaranteed maximum price to the school board for their approval and then physical construction will begin on site the week of November 2nd,” explained Templeton.

Templeton said the new school should be completed and ready for occupancy before the fall of 2028.

10/06/2026

Groundbreaking for construction of the new Smithville Elementary School is less than a month away.

New Smithville Elementary School PDF

Brian Templeton, Principal for the Board of Education’s architect firm, Upland Design Group, told WJLE Tuesday that RG Anderson, the project manager opened bids two weeks ago and is preparing to submit a guaranteed maximum price to the Board of Education at an upcoming meeting after which construction will begin the week of November 2.

According to Templeton, the cost to build the new school will be below the initial construction cost projection of $46 million and well within the 30-year detailed bond resolution amount not to exceed $55 million issued by the county commission earlier this year. The new 800 student pre-K to 2nd grade elementary school will be built near Northside Elementary School on North Congress Boulevard.

“The construction manager, RG Anderson opened bids on September 22 and 24 and since that time they've been compiling and sorting through all those bids to bring everything into one lump sum number which is called the guaranteed maximum price and that includes all the scopes required for the project,” said Templeton. “They (RG Anderson) will present the guaranteed maximum price to the school board at an upcoming board meeting for their approval and then physical construction will begin on site the week of November 2nd,” explained Templeton.

“We got lots of interest and good bids,” Templeton continued. “ I don’t have the exact number, but I know that the total project construction cost is going to be less than we initially projected with our estimate at the very beginning which was $46,789,000. We're going to be below that. Even when you take everything into account including soft costs, we are going to be under what was initially appropriated for the project. We have all the approvals in place. The fire marshal has approved the plans for construction and TDOT has approved the entrances. They should hopefully be able to take advantage of mild weather to get a jump start on some of the earthwork,” he said.

According to Templeton, the new school should be completed and ready for occupancy before the fall of 2028.

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said he and the Board of Education are anxiously anticipating ground breaking next month.

“We're finally getting to a place where we’ll be able to put a shovel in the ground," said Director Cripps. " We got all our bids taken care of two weeks ago and now RG Anderson is looking at the bids making sure everybody's qualified and that we get the best bids to meet our needs. They will then put all that together, see what the total package is, and present it to the board,” he said.

"RG Anderson said they'd like to start the first of November and hopefully get this thing done by 2028. It looks like we're finally ready to go,” said Director Cripps.

The size of the building is 120,980 square feet and it is designed to have classroom space for 800 students when it opens but we are also planning for future additions that can hold eight more classrooms bumping it up to about 960 students total,” said Templeton. Students will be dropped off by car at the front of the building and by bus at the rear of the new school. A side drop off under an awning will be included for cars bringing pre-k and special education students to school”.

The existing Smithville Elementary School, originally built in 1958, is 70,557 square feet in size (including additions over the years)., and had an enrollment of 522 students as of August 2026. As far back as 2017, a facilities study by Upland Design Group, concluded that the school, which had mold and other concerns at that time, should be replaced and repurposed for other uses.

10/04/2026

Northside Elementary proudly announces their September Eagles of the Month: Jesse Roller, Callie Grandstaff, Brooklyn Luther, and Ava Roller (pictured left to right). These students were selected by their teachers for working hard, being kind, and consistently being safe, on time, accountable, and respectful. Jesse's teacher described him as "kind and funny" while Callie's teachers said she "brings a joyful spirit wherever she goes." Brooklyn's teachers described her as "kind, hard working, and a pleasure to have in class" and Ava's teachers said they "can always count on Ava to do what is right." Congratulations Jesse, Callie, Brooklyn, and Ava! Together, you SOAR!"

10/03/2026

DeKalb County High School students took their homecoming excitement and celebration to the streets Friday afternoon with a parade culminating a spirit week of activities and fun.

The parade lineup included class and club floats, Homecoming queen Summer Poss and her attendants, the Tiger football squad and other athletic teams, Mr. and Miss DCHS Tucker Webb and Lillie Young, the DCHS Band King and Queen, decorated automobiles, emergency vehicles, and more. The motorcade made its way from the high school down West Broad Street and then to South Congress Boulevard over to Smithville Elementary School and then north on Congress Boulevard to Northside Elementary where the DCHS band joined the parade enroute to the public square. The parade concluded with a brief performance by the band and a pep rally led by the Tiger Football Cheerleaders.

The DCHS Senior Class won first place in the Homecoming float competition with the theme “To Victory and Beyond”

Second place went to the Sophomore Class float with the theme “Poor Unfortunate Souls”

The FFA Club took third place with the theme “Pooh on the Dragons”

In the best decorated vehicle category, Dayani Franco Canseco and Michelle Torres won first place. Sophie Adcock and Lakelyn Nelson took second place and Haylee Killian and Katie Holland got third place.