Cookeville Man Dies in Crash

August 6, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

A 70-year-old Cookeville man lost his life in a pickup truck crash Thursday afternoon on Highway 56 near Center Hill Lake.

Trooper Bobby Johnson of the Tennessee Highway Patrol said Phillip Smith was traveling north in a 2016 Nissan Frontier when he ran off the left side of the road and struck a rock bluff head on. Smith died at the scene.

Members of the DeKalb County Fire Department, Sheriff’s Department, and DeKalb EMS all responded along with other members of the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

August 5, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

New mayors were elected in Liberty and Alexandria Thursday.

Audrey M. Martin unseated Incumbent Liberty Mayor Jason Hayes Ray 73 to 58 while in Alexandria Alderman Lloyd Dyer was elected Mayor. He defeated Alderman Jana Beth Tripp in the mayoral race 101 to 47. Dyer will succeed Mayor Bennett Armstrong who chose not to seek re-election but opted for an unsuccessful run for a seat on the county commission in the 1st district.

Meanwhile Curtis J. Rutter received 86 votes to fill an unexpired Alexandria Alderman Term.

Five were elected Alderman in Liberty Thursday including Kevin R. Mullinax with 98 votes, Joe D. Bratten 91, Ryan Dodd 88, Kendra Stanford 86, and William H. Reynolds, Jr. 80. Derek Johnson lost with 74 votes.

In Smithville, Mayor Josh Miller was re-elected unopposed with 805 votes while Alderman Beth Chandler won her first full term with 670 votes. She had been filling an unexpired term. Don Crook was also elected Alderman. He received 508 votes. Rhonda Tiefenauer garnered 337 votes in an unsuccessful bid for Alderman.

Alderman Greg Fish ran unopposed and received 51 votes in the Dowelltown municipal election.

August 5, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Its not often that an incumbent officeholder loses a primary but that is what happened to 40th District State Representative Terri Lynn Weaver Thursday.

Smithville businessman Michael Hale secured the Republican nomination for the office in a decisive win over the 14 year veteran state lawmaker. Weaver was defeated district wide 6,696 to 4,542 and she will leave office when her term is completed. Hale will face Tom Cook, the Democratic nominee , in the November 8th Tennessee General Election. Cook, a resident of the Silver Point community of DeKalb County was unopposed in the Tennessee Democratic Primary on Thursday.

Weaver lost every county in the district but her home county of Smith and it was even close there at 1,678 to 1,534. Hale won DeKalb, his home county, with 2,392 votes compared to 1,152 for Weaver. Hale also carried Jackson County 1,175 to 722; Cannon 1,422 to 830; and Wilson 173 to 160.

Cook, the Democratic nominee, received 1,464 votes in the district including 504 in DeKalb County.