Smithville Elementary School Placed on Lockdown Early Monday Morning

October 25, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Lockdown!

Smithville Elementary School was placed on lockdown early Monday morning before the arrival of students after a teacher reported seeing an intruder in a classroom.

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said the teacher immediately reported the incident and a walk through was conducted inside the building and around the campus by the School Resource Officer, Smithville Police, and School Administrators along with himself, Transportation Supervisor Michael Agee and Attendance Supervisor Joey Reeder. Video from school security cameras were reviewed but revealed no one suspicious on the premises. Nothing occurred to trigger the school system’s security alarm and no windows or doors were found to have been tampered with.

Bus drivers kept Smithville Elementary students on their buses at other schools and parents who had transported their children to SES were kept from entering the campus until the lockdown order was lifted.

Director Cripps said he wants to thank everyone who took part in the effort to ensure the safety of the school and for the support of county and city law enforcement departments.

School administrators say they have remained in contact with the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office and that the investigation is ongoing. The Smithville Police Department has also offered extra support. Meanwhile additional security measures have been taken at the school.

October 24, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County has been approved for a special needs grant in the amount of $65,130 to replace the current HVAC system, phone system and to repave the parking lot at the local health department.

Michael Railing, Director of the DeKalb Health Department applied for the grant from the Upper Cumberland Primary Care Project, supported by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

County Mayor Tim Stribling said there is no local match requirement for the grant.

“We received a grant for our health department and this is through the Tennessee Department of Health. No matching funds are required for the county. It’s to repave the parking lot at the health department, to install a new phone system there, and to put in a new HVAC system with some air purifiers. They have two. One went out about two years ago and we had to replace it. This is to replace the other one with the air purifiers and to put air purifiers on the one we replaced about two years ago. There will probably be a budget amendment coming for that and it might be one of those where we have to spend it and then get reimbursed by the state. We have done that before,” said County Mayor Stribling.

October 24, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County’s share of local option sales tax collections for September 2021 outperformed the same month in 2020 by more than $26,000 according to the Tennessee Department of Revenue. For the county and the four cities therein combined collections were up by more than $42,000.

According to the report, DeKalb County brought in $164,809 in September 2021 compared to $138,476 for September 2020.

All four cities within DeKalb County also hauled in more local option sales tax revenue.

The comparisons between the two months for each municipality are as follows:

Smithville: $318,877 ( September, 2021), $309,782 (September 2020)

Alexandria: $30,394 (September, 2021), $28,890 (September 2020)

Dowelltown: $2,678 (September, 2021), $2,251 (September, 2020)

Liberty: $10,581 (September, 2021), $5,812 (September, 2020)

NET COLLECTIONS (LOCAL OPTION SALES TAX): $527,341 (September, 2021), $485,214 (September, 2020)
September sales tax collections reflect previous month activity.