Donations Needed for School Backpack Program

November 8, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

Somewhere in our community right now kids are going hungry.

To make sure those children have nutritious meals when they are not at school, the DeKalb County Coordinated School Health Program is seeking donations for the Backpack effort.

Approximately 6% of the DeKalb County student population goes hungry on a regular basis, with meals provided at school being their main source of food.

The DeKalb County Coordinated School Health Backpack Program was established in 2009 to help students with food insecurity. Through this program, students in need receive a bag of non-perishable food items to be taken home on the weekends during the school year. When funding allows, extra food is sent home on breaks and food boxes are delivered to each student’s home for Christmas break.

This program is funded solely on donations from individuals, churches, civic organizations, and grants. Due to these generous donations and grants, the Backpack Program has maintained its ability to feed each participant of the program thus far. However, funding is not always consistent or guaranteed. Donations are constantly sought for food and/or money to sustain the program.

If you are interested in making a donation, please contact CSH Coordinator, Elise Driver, at 615-215-2118 or elisedriver@dekalbschools.net.

Please remember all food items should be non-perishable and within the products expiration date.

November 8, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

The City of Smithville will soon be launching a new transitional housing program for up to eight females with or without children who are in recovery from substance abuse including an on-site residential manager. Tenants will be subject to drug testing and are expected to maintain employment and pay rent of $125 per month. A project manager will periodically visit the site and oversee rent collection, maintenance, etc.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the Mayor and Alderman approved a Housing Management Plan contract with the Cumberland Regional Development Corporation, a subsidiary of the Upper Cumberland Development District to move forward with the project.

The location for this housing, to be known as Smithville Recovery House #1, is 415 Wade Street. The purchase price is $375,000 (grant funded) and closing on the property is expected within 30 days. The recovery home is to be operational by January.

City officials stress that this home will not be a halfway house nor have any of the negative aspects of a halfway house.

“The tenants will have gone through some type of treatment program, have gotten through the detox, be on the road to recovery, and then be at that level to where they can begin independent living and start working and being productive,” said UCDD and UCHRA Executive Director Mark Farley.

In March, the City of Smithville learned that it had been approved for a Community Development Block Grant through the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development in the amount of $433,790 to fund this program.

The Upper Cumberland Development District applied for the grant on behalf of the city last year and the program is to be administered by the Upper Cumberland Human Resource Agency. The grant is 100% funded with no local match requirement by the city.

The city first learned of the grant opportunity last year from Farley. “The state rolled out a new grant this year (2022) to fund two to three projects across the state to help create some transitional housing opportunities for those individuals coming out of substance abuse,” said Farley. “They produced some data to measure how all the communities stacked up. Unfortunately, when you look at it per capita according to their statistics, DeKalb County had the highest percentage of fatal and non-fatal overdoses based on your population. In fact, DeKalb County scored the highest in the state of Tennessee at that time,” said Farley.

Under the grant program, the UCDD and city will partner with UCHRA to manage the transitional housing facility in serving up to eight women in recovery who will be charged rent of $125 per month.

According to Farley, UCHRA will provide wraparound substance abuse programs to the residents of the home along with all the standard programs and services already offered by UCHRA in DeKalb County. Other groups may also get involved.

Three other properties were originally identified by UCDD as possible locations for the home including at 411 Juniper Lane, 805/809 West Broad Street, and 1309 South College Street but neither of those options worked out.

UCDD is subcontracting the project with CRDC which already houses approximately 400 other UCDD rental units across the region.

“The city will transfer the project over to CRDC through a subcontract from UCDD. After you confer it over to us CRDC will handle all the steps to acquire the property, make any renovations necessary, and assume all expenses of the property moving forward. The site will remain on the tax rolls for collection of property taxes and whatever else is due from that standpoint,” said Farley.

In March Mayor Josh Miller named Aldermen Beth Chandler and Jessica Higgins, with the approval of the city council, to co-chair an oversight committee consisting of community members, faith-based leaders, and other stakeholders including recovery court representatives to work with the partnering agencies on how the program is to be established and operated.

“I believe this transitional housing is going to be a great thing for moms and children. I toured the Emmanuel House in Carthage, which is similar to this project, and was very impressed with how well it seems to function. I know this is our first time with something like this but I’m confident we will get it right,” added Mayor Miller.

“My goal is for Smithville to be a model for other cities and I think it will be run great. I have even spoken to Judge Brandon Cox about this and he is excited about it as well. I also want to thank Aldermen Chandler and Higgins and the committee as well as City Attorney Vester Parsley for the time and thought which has been put into this because I think it’s going to be a good thing,” added Mayor Miller.

“We believe we have developed a model that can handle up to eight people and make it financially work,” said Farley. “Between the rental income we also have some contracts with the state that administers services which would help recover costs of it as well. The contract has terms that require that the house be a recovery home for at least four years. If for some reason it became not viable and could not sustain itself within that time, we would probably liquidate the property and that money would either go back to the state department of economic and community development or back to the city. If at the end of four years we thought it would not be sustainable going forward, we would probably turn it into low-income rental housing like we operate already,” said Farley.

Myra Walker of CRDC in Cookeville is the contact person for the managing agent of this project.

November 7, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

DCHS Basketball Coaches Joey Agee and Brandy Alley are about to embark on their second year at the helm of the boys’ and girls’ programs with high hopes for a successful season.

The 2022-23 season for the Tigers ended in February with a loss to White County in the District 7AAA Tournament. The Tigers finished with an overall record of 12-15. The Lady Tigers wrapped up their season at 14-15 after losing to White County in the district tournament in February.

The 2023-24 season begins Tuesday, November 14 as the Tigers and Lady Tigers host Wilson Central in the annual Hall of Fame competition. Action begins with the girls’ game at 6 p.m. followed by the boys’ game. WJLE will have LIVE coverage with John Pryor.

“This season has been very fun starting off with this group of girls. They have all been very hardnosed about wanting to get work in and put in the extra effort, so I am very excited to see where this season takes us,” said Coach Alley.

“We’re ready to get going,” added Coach Agee. “We’re getting our football players back and we have a little catching up to do with them. That’ll give us about five good days of practice. We have a scrimmage game Saturday, November 11 at Watertown and then next week we’ll get started so we are excited to get going,” said Agee.

This year’s Tiger squad is made up of four seniors, Alex Antoniak, Conner Close, Ian Colwell, and Kaleb Spears along with four Juniors, Seth Fuson, Dallas Kirby, Jordan Parker, and Owen Snipes. The sophomores are Wyatt Carter, Logan Duke, Jon Hendrix, Aidan Turner, and David Wheeler and the four freshmen are Ben Driver, Ryan Lyons, Kiece Hannah, and Chase Young, The managers are Nick Daw, Brayden Summers, and Jackson Mathis.

“I think our depth is going to be one of our strengths. We’ll have eight or nine kids that will be able to play for us during varsity games and hopefully some of these younger kids will come on too and if they do we’ll be even deeper, but I believe we’ll be able to play multiple people at multiple positions this year,” said Coach Agee.

“I really like the way these kids play. They play really hard on the defensive end and get after you so I believe we’ll be a little bit better defensively this year. We’ll do some things different. We’re probably not as big as we were last year so we’ll have to figure out some ways to create turnovers. Of course we still have Conner Close so a lot of our offense will run through him with him being the kind of athlete and scorer that he has been,” Coach Agee said.

“We have Jordan Parker back this year. Last year he missed all the season except for one game at the end of the year because of elbow surgery but he is healthy now”.

“Dallas Kirby is another kid we will rely on heavily. He missed all last year with a broken leg so he is back this year.”

“Of course, we have some guys like Seth Fuson and Jon Hendrix who saw playing time last year so I think we’ll be okay”,” said Coach Agee.

As for the district race, Coach Agee said the consensus right now is Upperman and Stone Memorial are probably the teams to beat but it’s always a challenge for all programs in the league.

“Its tough year end and out and you probably won’t find teams, both boys and girls, in any other district more competitive than this one about getting to the state tournament. We have scheduled some games early this year against some bigger schools so hopefully that will help us out later on,” added Coach Agee.

The Lady Tigers will be led by four seniors, Makayla Scales, Tess Barton, Camryn Branin, and Ella VanVranken, a member of the 1,000-point club.

“Our strength is going to be on the offensive end creating looks for us from different people. Defensively we have to be willing to fight every second. Another strength is how we have been able to work together in getting things done. We want to continue to be unified and having each other’s back in pushing through so that if one player gets hot in one game the next player may be hot in another,” said Coach Alley.

“Makayla is one of the most encouraging kids I have seen. She is a hard worker. We call her the mama duck of the team because she takes everybody under her wings and that was great this past summer with us having several new kids come in,” Coach Alley continued.

“Tess has worked really hard over the summer on creating her leadership role. We look for her to be a little more offensive this year than she was last year. That has been a goal of hers over the summer and she has worked her tail off for it”.

“At the end of last season, Camryn started making a huge change and impact on the court. She is a very vocal leader and tough kid. She is one of those who would run through a brick wall for you and she has taken on a leadership role”.

“We expect Ella to continue to be who she is offensively, and she has put in a ton of work recently on making sure she is a great team player and getting lots of shots up. She is putting in all this extra work for her senior season to be a good one for the group,” Coach Alley continued.

Averie Agee is the lone Junior on the team.

“Averie is a really good shooter for us and works really hard defensively. She has spent a lot of time getting quicker so that will be a big impact”.

The three sophomores are Bella Rackley, Allie Melton, and Chloe VanVranken.

“Chloe is a returner from last year. She has been working really hard in putting in extra work and being a vocal point guard and taking care of business for us there”.

“Allie Melton is a transfer sophomore who will have an impact for us. She has started fitting in right away. Allie is a quick little guard who gets stuff done on the court especially defensively. She is really fast and gets after it”.

“Another sophomore is Bella Rackley who has been a very fun person and has bought into our team”.

“Our freshmen are Katie Bechtel, Brooklyn Fuson, Lillie Young, and Hannah Brown”.

“Katie has moved in here to be with us this year. She is new but will be able to come in as a guard and make an impact offensively for us”.

“Brooklyn Fuson will be doing a lot of cleanup work. She reminds me of a baby Cam Branin”.

“Lillie Young will be a post player. She has put in a lot of work over the summer trying to fit into the high school realm of basketball by getting quicker and tougher”.

“Hannah Brown is a quick little guard who wants to get after it and be a great teammate”.

The managers are Gracie Randolph, Phoebe Martin, Rowan Miller, and Alyssa Hendrix.

As always, Coach Alley expects a tough and competitive road to the regular season district title among the seven teams that make up District 7AAA.

“All of them have amazing strengths. Of course, Livingston Academy and Upperman made a state tournament run last year. White County still has some talented kids on their roster and Stone Memorial is returning most of their players, so every game is going to be tough”.

Meanwhile, members of the DCHS Basketball Cheerleaders are:

2023-24 DCHS Tigers and Lady Tigers Basketball Schedule

*District – 7AAA Games
Date -Time -Opponent- Home/Away

NOVEMBER
Tues, 11/14- 6:00pm- Wilson Central-HOF Home • Non-District
Sat, 11/18- TBA- Gordonsville- (HOF Play Day-2 games each) • Non-District
Fri, 11/24- 6:00pm –Providence Christian Academy (Girls Only)- Away • Non-District
Tues, 11/28- 6:00pm- Cannon County- Home • Non-District

DECEMBER
Fri, 12/1-6:00pm-Watertown- Away • Non-District
Tue, 12/5- 6:00pm- Smith County- Away • Non-District
Fri, 12/8- 6:00pm-Warren County- Home • Non-District
Tue, 12/12 -6:00pm- Smith County- Home • Non-District
Fri, 12/15- 6:00pm- Cannon County- Away • Non-District
Mon, 12/18-6:00 pm- Watertown-Home • Non-District
Wed, 12/20-Fri. 12/22- (BOYS) Adidas Shootout- Riverdale • Non-District-TBA
Wed. 12/27-Fri, 12/29 (BOYS) Watertown Classic- Away • Non-District-TBA

JANUARY
Fri. 1/5-6:00pm-White County*-Home • District
Tues. 1/9-6:00pm-Cumberland County*- Home • District
Fri. 1/12-6:00pm-Upperman*- Away • District
Tue, 1/16-6:00pm-Livingston Academy*-Away • District
Fri, 1/19-6:00pm-Stone Memorial*-Home • District
Mon. 1/22-6:00 pm- Warren County-Away• Non-District
Tues. 1/23-(OPEN DATE-District Make Up Day)
Fri. 1/26-6:00pm-White County*-Away • District
Tues, 1/30-6:00pm-Cumberland County*-Away • District

FEBRUARY
Fri. 2/2-6:00pm-Upperman*-Home • District
Mon, 2/5-6:00pm-Livingston Academy*-Home • District
Thurs. 2/8- 6:00 pm-Stone Memorial*-Away • District
Mon. 2/12- 2/17- District Tournament-TBA

*District 7AAA Games. Game time listed is the start of the girls contest. Boys contest to follow