Smithville Police Treat Head Start Children to Gifts for Christmas

December 18, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Children at the Smithville Head Start Center were treated to bags of gifts Friday thanks to the Smithville Police Department’s “Cops4Kids” program.

In what has become an annual event, Police Chief Mark Collins and members of the department made sure each child had a bag of toys for Christmas but due to COVID-19 there was no formal program featuring Santa, Christmas carols, nor a local minister sharing the Christmas story with the kids. All 74 Head Start students were served including the 40 on campus and the remaining 34 off site.

Chief Collins said the effort is made possible due to generous donations of the community and the help of Cash Express who conducted a toy collection drive.

“We always look forward to this although we were not able to interact with the children this year due to the pandemic. Cash Express sets up collection boxes across the community to accept donations of toys. We also have people who bring toys or cash directly to the police department and if we don’t have enough toys donated then we take that cash and go to Walmart and buy gifts for the kids. I especially want to thank my fellow officers along with records clerk Beth Adcock, and the staff here at the Head Start Center who work to make this come together. Hopefully next year things will get back to normal and we can once again put on a complete Christmas program for the children,” said Chief Collins.

December 18, 2020
By:

Eight Upper Cumberland counties have been recognized as best values in several categories including home value growth, school value, and lowest average property tax.

SmartAsset, a financial technology company, reviewed the data from all 95 Tennessee counties
to rank the top 10 in several “best value” categories.

Of locations named “Best Overall Value”, six Upper Cumberland counties made the top 10 list:
Overton (1), DeKalb (2), Van Buren (4), Smith (7), Pickett (9), and White (10).

Particulars, such as property taxes paid, school rankings, and the change in property values over
a five-year period were reviewed and compared county to county. Counties with the highest
scores were those where property tax dollars are going the furthest.

All counties listed in the top 10 for lowest average property tax listed a property tax rate below 50 percent; well below the state’s average property tax rate of 0.73 percent. Among the top 10, five Upper Cumberland counties made the list of lowest average property tax rates: Pickett (1),
Cumberland (2), DeKalb (6), Fentress (7), and Overton (9). When considering most value for home value growth Pickett (1), Cannon (3), and Overton (6) claimed three spots on the top 10 list; each nearly doubling the state’s average home value growth of 14 percent. Pickett County’s reported home value growth stands at 58 percent, Cannon County at 33 percent, and Overton County reporting a 25 percent home value growth rate.

Three Upper Cumberland counties ranked among the top 10 school ratings: Cumberland (3), Overton (4), and Smith (10) counties. When measuring the quality of schools, SmartAsset analyzed
the math and reading/language arts proficiencies for every school district in the country; creating an average score for each district and weighting them to account for the number of students in each school.

SmartAsset states, “our study aims to find the places in the United States where people are
getting the most value for their property tax dollars. To do this, we looked at property taxes paid, school rankings, and the change in property values over a five-year period.”

To learn more, visit https://smartasset.com/taxes/tennessee-property-tax-calculator

About the Upper Cumberland Development District: The Upper Cumberland Development
District provides regional planning and assistance to the 14-county Upper Cumberland region to
promote economic growth and community enhancement. Find UCDD on the web at www.ucdd.org and at facebook.com/UCDDconnect.

December 17, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Although COVID-19 has forced changes in the way it has operated for most of the year, God’s Food Pantry continues its mission to feed the hungry through the holidays and year round.

For 13 years the pantry has provided food and other essentials to help meet the needs of the medically frail and elderly, children, veterans, the homeless, and the working poor.

Food is distributed on the first Friday after the first Thursday and on the third Friday of every month from 9:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. from the pantry at 430 East Broad in Smithville in a drive through pickup line. Senior citizens are served first from 9 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. and others can drive through after that up until 12 noon.

The next food distribution is Friday morning, December 18 and will be the last before Christmas.

Pat Zornow, God’s Food Pantry volunteer and coordinator, said thousands of people from within and outside of DeKalb County have been served by this ministry over the years, which is supported by churches, businesses, and caring individuals. And its not just people in the urban areas who are in need of help, but many in rural areas too.

“We want people to realize that that we are here and that the need for our services is just as great in the rural area if not more so than in the urban areas basically because there are more facilities available as far as pantries in the cities versus the rural areas,” said Zornow.

Anyone in need of food can drive up and get a box which includes basic staples, perishables, and sometimes meats including either beef, pork, and this time of year turkeys provided by Tenneco Automotive. Turkeys and hams typically go to the larger families.

“Every month we still have two food drives on the first and third Friday. The first Friday is basically staples with perishables and the third Friday is the staples, perishables, and meats. We are one of only a few pantries in the area that provide meat to everyone. Typically on pantry days when we don’t offer meat products we average about 250 cars pulling up but on days when we do have meats we usually get 300 plus cars drive through in addition to our regular 120 deliveries we do twice a month. With all these families we are feeding it comes to between 1,200 and 1,400 people per pantry with an average of 35% children and 31% senior citizens,” said Zornow.

Gods Food Pantry can also be reached to meet a dire emergency need anytime at 615-597-4540. Leave a message and someone will promptly return your call.