News

DeKalb County High School has released the names of the 39 Top Rank students in the Class of 2025 including the Valedictorian Kora Kilgore and Salutatorian Madeline Martin.

Kilgore is the daughter of John and Ginda Kilgore and Martin is the daughter of Tim and Michiko Martin.

To be considered for top Rank, students must take at least 10 honors, dual enrollment, and AP courses and students must have a 21 or higher ACT composite score.

The DCHS Class of 2025 Top Rank students are as follows:

Kora L. Kilgore, Madeline A. Martin, Seth W. Fuson, Landon D. Colwell, Andrew J. Dakas, Dallas L. Kirby, Emily L. Robinson, Jackson C. Mathis, Annabella E. Dakas, Layla K. Newby, Jordan D. Parker,  Julio C. Sebastian Santiago, Laurie B. Rigsby, Emily T. Young, Caleb B. Gray, Macy L. Anderson, Keara Milligan, Ty R. Webb, Bryan Ramirez Celaya, Cale H. Brown, Allison F. Goodwin, Alyssa B. Gilpin, Charlotte J. Paladino, Alexis R. Hawkins, Katherine I. Knowles, Jaden E. Barber, Milas B. Driver, Kelsie A. Barber, Shaelee N. Foster, Caleb R. Lawson, Owen A. Snipes, Nhan T. Truong, Caleb K. Buckley, Bradley J. Pelham, Ian K. Barnes, Daniel C. Stiffler, Luke L. Midgett, Kobe B. Roller, and Brayan Aguirre Bustillo.

DeKalb West School has announced the Students, Teachers, and Employees of the Month for both January and February. The first of the year was kicked off with the following top students: America Thompson, Pre-K; Dawson Randolph, Kindergarten; Oakleigh Poston, 1st; Adaline Gibbs, 2nd grade; Kai’lyn Hopkins, 3rd; Kaycie Avera, 4th; Noah Hall, 5th; Oliver Bell, 6th; Alyssa Cecil, 7th; and Kaylee Womack, 8th. Mrs. Teresa Sullivan was named Teacher of the Month and Mrs. Donna Driver was selected as Employee of the Month.

In February the following were chosen as Students of the Month: Hadley Pierce, Pre-K; Reese Leiser, Kindergarten; William Young, 1st grade; McKenzie Nokes, 2nd; Jude Sebolt, 3rd; Kennedy Avera, 4th; Xavier Oyugi, 5th; Holden Leiser, 6th; James Upchurch, 7th; and Kaden Mullinax, 8th.

Mrs. Jessica Antoniak was named Teacher of the Month, and Mrs. McKenzie Dunaway was selected as Employee of the Month.

How much is that doggie at the shelter?

“River” has been at the DeKalb Animal Shelter since she was a puppy. Almost a year later, its time she had a forever home of her own. You can help!

Call or come by the DeKalb Animal Shelter today to visit with “River”. Although it may take a little while for her to adjust to someone new, River loves people as well as cats and other dogs. She is very trainable and anxious to learn. River also enjoys playing in water. Her adoption fee is only $50.

If you are interested in meeting River, fill out an application on the animal shelter website or come in. Visit https://www.dekalbanimalsheltertn.com/ or call 615-597-3647.

The shelter is open Mondays-Fridays from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and Saturdays from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. on Transfer Station Road off Highway 70 east behind Tenneco.

For more than five decades, the present-day DeKalb County Courthouse has served as home to the court system, offices of local public officials, the election commission, veteran services and for meetings and other purposes.

Built in 1970 through the federal model cities program, the courthouse has served the county well and remains an active place, especially on days when court is in session, but it has also often become an uncomfortable environment due to a faulty chiller boiler heating and cooling system which causes portions of the building to be too hot in the summer and too cold during winter.

Its been a periodic problem for several years and the county has spent significant time and money trying to fix it. But now the 55-year-old system has completely failed and needs immediate attention at a time when replacement parts for it are no longer easy to come by.

During Monday night’s regular monthly County Commission meeting, County Mayor Matt Adcock said a temporary fix is the only option right now, but he plans to ask the commission to fund a completely new HVAC system in the new 2025-26 budget this summer.

“The boiler system is completely shot,” said County Mayor Adcock. “The boiler system is so old they have to make parts for it to work. They are trying to expedite it to get it here just to get the system up and running. Thinking about the future, I have asked a couple of different companies that’s come out. I have talked to them about doing a whole new heating and cooling system in the courthouse and completely get rid of the boiler,” said Adcock.

“I am probably going to ask for approximately $400,000 at budget time in capital projects to completely overhaul the entire system to remove the boiler, chiller, blower, and put in modern HVAC on all three floors with split units and thermostats. The cost to get it back up and running isn’t as significant as the permanent fix. The boiler works off the water pipes going up to the wall units that blows heat. The water from the boiler goes up but the pipes are so corroded between the wall units and the boiler that the hot water can’t get up there to blow hot air. You can touch the piping below the floor and its scalding hot and you touch the piping above and its ice cold. There is a lot of corrosion buildup in the lines so that the water can’t properly get throughout the courthouse to heat and cool. That’s the reason we are going to talk about doing an overall overhaul. I’m not quite sure what the cost will be yet. We will have to get an engineer to see how this project will be done and determine the cost because the courthouse has really thick marble and concrete. I’ve been told it would be anywhere from a quarter of a million dollars to half a million dollars to completely overhaul everything,” said County Mayor Adcock.

The 2024-25 DCHS Tiger basketball season came to a close Saturday night at Tullahoma in the opening round of the Region 4 AAA tournament with the Wildcats beating the Tigers 61 to 34.

DeKalb County concludes the season at 10-22.

Tullahoma led 20 to 3 after the 1st period, 37 to 13 at halftime, and 52 to 22 after the 3rd period before going on to win 61 to 34.

For DeKalb County, Dallas Kirby scored 12, Jon Hendrix and Jordan Parker each with 5, Elliot Barnes 4 and David Wheeler and Chase Young each with 3.

The county owned Pine Creek Saddle Club property may soon be up for sale.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission voted to approve a recommendation from the Revenue Research Committee to sell the Pine Creek Saddle Club property on Four Seasons Road after an appraisal has been conducted. However, the commission tabled the committee’s recommendation to also sell property behind the Smithville City Police Department.

By selling certain unused county owned properties, Committee Chairman Larry Green said the county could take revenue from the sales and apply it to other county needs.

Meanwhile, the commission Monday night also approved the revenue committee’s recommendation for the county to look into the possibility of establishing a building permit system through which the county could collect fees on inspections of new construction rather than the state. Final action by the commission is pending a more detailed plan to come later.

According to committee chairman Green builders currently obtain their permits online through the state and the state gets all the revenue from them. The idea is for the permits to be issued by the county and for the county to get the fees.

“It (permit issuance) will still be online with a copy going to the building inspector who will issue the permit and a copy goes to the tax assessor. It’s the same building codes they use now. Its just who gets the revenue from the permits, the state or county. “We would eventually need a local building inspector,” said Green.

The committee’s hope is that sufficient revenue would be raised through such a local permit program to not only fund the building inspector position but for other county needs.

The DeKalb County Tigers will meet the Tullahoma Wildcats in the first round of the Region 4 AAA basketball tournament Saturday night, March 1 at Tullahoma. The game tips off at 7 p.m. and WJLE will have LIVE coverage with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor.

The Tigers are 10-21 overall while the Wildcats are 26-4. It’s the first region tournament appearance for the Tigers since 2013. DC finished 4th in the district tournament. Tullahoma is the top seed from its district entering the region tournament.

After finishing the regular district season at 1-9 the Tigers upended White County in the 1st round of the district tournament and lost close but winnable games against Stone Memorial and Livingston Academy.

Tiger Coach Joey Agee said his team may be playing its best basketball now.

“We are pleased with the way they played in the district tournament. The game against Stone Memorial ended up being 10 points (57-47 final) but it was really a five- or six-point game. We had to start fouling at the end. If we had made a few baskets here or there we might have been in the championship game. In the game with Livingston Academy, we had three opportunities near the end but the shots just didn’t go down although they battled back. We were down by eight points with two minutes to go but we got after them on defense and they (Wildcats) missed some free throws which was good for us. I think we hit three 3-point shots in three possessions in a row which got us back in the game. We tied it up but ended up getting beat by two (51-49). Our effort was great and our defense was pretty good. If we are patient on offense we are a lot better offensively. Sometimes we get a little dribble happy or a little crazy with the ball and turn it over but that has been much better lately and I think you can see the results of that,” said Coach Agee.

Speaking with John Pryor on Tiger Talk, Coach Agee sizes up DeKalb County’s next opponent in Tullahoma.

“Nobody is really picking us to win against Tullahoma so we are basically in the same situation going into the region as we were the district tournament. We have to prove people wrong. When you play in our district you are playing in a lot of tough atmospheres especially White County, Upperman, and Livingston Academy. All those places are pretty rowdy. It shouldn’t be any different at Tullahoma. Of course, it will be a home game for them (Tullahoma) but we have been in that situation before. One of their players, Xavier Ferrell handles the ball well, shoots the mid-range well, and shoots the three point well from what we have seen. He’s the guy who really controls everything for them but they have some other good players too. They have a big 6-foot, 8-inch kid on the inside who creates a lot of problems offensively and defensively. He is back there protecting the rim. We have to move the ball and be patient on offense. Its going to take all of us to win,” said Coach Agee.

Listen for Tiger Talk Saturday, March 1 starting at 6:45 p.m. featuring John Pryor interviewing Tiger Coach Joey Agee and Tiger players and All-District Tournament team members Dallas Kirby and Jon Hendrix followed by the game at 7 p.m. on WJLE AM 1480/ FM 101.7 and on the LIVE stream at www.wjle.com.

Smithville Elementary has recognized its Students of the Month for February. These students were selected for their outstanding character, academics, and other traits that make them an all-around excellent student. Selected as Students of the Month for February are:

PreK – Hadley Ralph, Ethan Meighan
Kindergarten – Jahlia Cantrell, Allie Snow
1st Grade – Dalilah Velazquez, Blakelyn Cripps
2nd Grade – Jesus Garcia, Jacob Garcia Sanchez

Sixth graders at DeKalb Middle School graduated from the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in a ceremony Friday.

D.A.R.E. is a DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department-led series of classroom lessons that teaches sixth graders in DeKalb County how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.

Joseph Carroll of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department is the D.A.R.E Officer instructor for the sixth-grade classes at DeKalb Middle School.

The 10-week course identifies fundamental, basic skills and developmental processes needed for healthy development including: Self-awareness and management, Responsible decision making, Understanding others, Relationship and communication skills, and Handling responsibilities and challenges.

D.A.R.E. believes that if you can teach youth to make safe and responsible decisions, it will guide them to healthy choices, not only about drugs, but across all parts of their lives. As they grow to be responsible citizens, they will lead healthier and more productive drug-free lives.

As part of the course, students prepared essays on what they have learned from D.A.R.E. and the overall essay winner at DeKalb Middle School was Jackson Longmire, while second place went to Nevaeh Knight and Sophia Pina received third place. Each student was given baskets of prizes.

Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin presented awards to students in an art contest held in conjunction with the D.A.R.E. program.

“Before I was elected to this job, I was a court reporter and part of that was to travel around to different court houses in the state of Tennessee but the one that stood out was Wilson County because outside their courtroom they had some art from D.A.R.E. students displayed there so I thought that was a good idea. A few years ago, I reached out to our SRO officers and asked as part of D.A.R.E. can we include an art contest. This year I have done a first, second, and third place and an honorable mention and the art from these award winners will be displayed in my office at the courthouse for all your family to see,” said Martin.

Winners of the art contest were first place Ava Gillis, second place Sidney Rigsby, third place McKenzie Hendrixson, and honorable mention Miller Williams.

In addition to recognizing DeKalb Middle School Principal Teresa Jones, Assistant Principal Josh Agee, Director of Schools Patrick Cripps, and the Board of Education, Sheriff Patrick Ray welcomed special guests Register of Deeds Daniel Seber, Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin, Road Supervisor Danny Hale, members of the DeKalb Prevention Coalition and Coordinated School Health, DCHS SRO Jasmine Garza, DMS SRO and D.A.R.E. Officer Joseph Carroll, and Sheriff’s Department Detectives Chris Russell and Jacob Parker.

Mailbox vandalism is about to land one adult and five juveniles in trouble with the law.

Sheriff Patrick Ray issued the following statement about the investigation. “My detectives today (Thursday 2-27-25) interviewed 5 juveniles and 1 adult about destroying mailboxes across the northern and southern parts of DeKalb County. We have had written and some verbal reports of mailboxes getting vandalized on Cookeville Highway, Old Bildad Road, Blue Springs Road, Ike Adcock Road, Keltonburg Road, Antioch Road, Green Hill Road, and Short Mountain Road all in DeKalb County,” he said.

“I am asking the public, if you live outside the City limits of Smithville and you are seeking any financial restitution for damages to your mailbox that has been vandalized, you will need to contact dispatch at 615-215-3000 and let a deputy respond to your location and see the damage or evidence of the damage. All damages to the mailboxes must have been vandalized between the dates of Monday February 17, 2025 and Thursday February 27, 2025. Your report must be turned into the Sheriff’s Department by Wednesday March 5. Charges then will be brought forth on these individuals,” said Sheriff Ray.

“If you are a resident of Smithville, you will need to report your vandalism of your mailbox to the Smithville Police Department. The Smithville Police Department will be taking charges on your reports,” added Sheriff Ray.