Fuson Ropes in Cowboy Award

December 28, 2020
By: Bill Conger

D.C.H.S. Freshman Riley Fuson is the Middle Tennessee Junior Rodeo All-Around Cowboy. He won the award in the age 11-14 bracket on December 5 in Sparta.

“I have been working hard for years but always fell short,” Fuson said. “This year it was my goal to win the saddle. I had to practice a little harder and had to try harder against all of the competitors.”

Riley, the 14-year-old son of Tracy and Stephanie Fuson of Liberty, competed in seven events, taking first place in both Flank and Tie and Dally Ribbon Roping Roper, 2nd place in Steer Stopping, 4th place in both the Poles and Chute dogging.

“I have been roping since I was 3 years old,” Fuson says. “I got into the sport because of my love for horses and going to rodeos.”

Fuson puts time into practicing roping like any other sport.

“Roping the dummy and going to a practice pen to rope calves with other ropers is an important part of roping. I also ride my horses on a regular basis.”

Fuson also competed in the Senior Division (age 14-18) of the Tri-Star Little Britches Rodeo in Lebanon in Team Roping, Tie-down Roping and Ribbon Roping.

“My next goal is to win a spot to the National Little Britches Rodeo Finals in Oklahoma.”

December 27, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Two days after the explosion of an RV outside an AT&T transmission building in Nashville, 911 cell phone service has not yet been fully restored in much of Middle Tennessee including DeKalb County although progress has been made.

“In DeKalb County, AT&T provided and deployed a mobile cellular unit Saturday at our request to provide network access to first responders,” said Bradley Mullinax, Director of the DeKalb County E-911 Center.

“DeKalb 911 is utilizing a backup call notification system that will notify us when we have received a 911 call from a connected cell phone. We then call that phone back to determine the emergency. This has been extremely helpful in several situations already,” Mullinax said.

Due to the outage, anyone with an emergency needing to call 911 is urged to use a landline rather than a cell phone or call the DeKalb Central Dispatch non-emergency line at 615-215-3000 until further notice.

“911 professionals across the state have been working around the clock to restore services in Nashville but we still do not have a timeline on full restoration of services,” said Mullinax.

“The Tennessee Emergency Communications Board held conference calls with 911 districts Saturday to establish the extent of outages in each county. Everyone has been affected a little differently. Many different teams from AT&T have been activated across the country to render aid”.

“AT&T continues to provide updates to us multiple times during the day on the repairs and restoration of service,” Mullinax continued.

“This has been a very difficult time for 911 in Tennessee and we are doing our best to ensure the safety of our community. Please continue to use our non-emergency number at 615-215-3000 to reach our call center or simply call 911 from your home phone. Again, we are not receiving connected calls from cellphones or from voice over IP telephone services such as Comcast, Vonage, etc. With that being said, if your phone depends on an internet connection to make a call, then it is unlikely your call will be completed to 911. We would like to thank ATT for providing this mobile cell unit to keep our first responders connected,” Mullinax concluded.

December 26, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Possible human remains were found at the site of a Christmas eve house fire on Talley Road in the Blue Springs Community. The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation have been called in to investigate.

DeKalb 911 received a call of a structure fire and dispatched members of the DeKalb County Fire Department at 9:15 p.m. Although county firefighters were on the scene within five minutes the home, already fully involved in flames, had collapsed and the blaze had spread to another home six feet away.

Fire crews were able to bring the blaze under control but the adjacent residence was extensively damaged. The owner was not present when the fire department arrived.

Members of the Short Mountain Highway, Main Station, Blue Springs, and Belk stations responded along with DeKalb EMS and DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department.

The suspected human remains were found in the home which was destroyed where the fire originated.