Its Almost Football Time in DeKalb County (View video here)

July 23, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Its almost football time!

The DeKalb County High School Tiger Football Program is gearing up for the 2021 campaign now that the TSSAA dead period requirements have passed and practices are underway with sights set on the season opener at Warren County on Friday August 20 at 7 p.m. WJLE will have LIVE coverage.

During Tiger Media Day Friday, Tiger Coach Steve Trapp talked about what’s in store for this team over the next month.

“At this moment (Friday) we are in our second week back in after the dead period. Our first week was helmet only. This week is considered the heat acclimatization period so we had to do two days in helmet and then three days in helmet and shoulder pads. We will have a sleep over camp on Friday night and then wake up and have a practice Saturday morning. After that Saturday practice we will have covered everything we need to cover. From that point on it’s about making it better and then tweaking it to whoever we are playing for that week. After this week we will go full pads. We will have a scrimmage next Friday, July 30 against Gordonsville there. The following week, August 6 we will have a scrimmage at home versus Friendship Christian. Those start times typically are at 6 p.m. and then the week after that we will have a Jamboree on a Saturday, August 14 at Gordonsville and we will play Clay County for two quarters,” said Coach Trapp.

“We have a lot of guys coming back with a lot of experience. For some it will be their first opportunity to make a name for themselves in this program but we have a lot of confidence and faith that they will do that. There are a lot of juniors and seniors out there on the field. I think we have one sophomore who will be a starter. Last year we had a freshman. It’s about who can get out there and produce but we feel like we have a lot of quality guys this year,” Coach Trapp continued.

This year a new assistant coach will be roaming the sidelines with Coach Trapp and the other assistants.

“Our new coach is Dalton Stallings. He will be working with the running backs and safeties. He got hired in to lead our new ISS program here in the school system. We are excited to have him on board. He has been a great addition and fits in well with the culture of our coaching staff,” said Coach Trapp.

Stallings will be filling the void left by former assistant coach Thomas Cagle, who is succeeding David Gash as Assistant Principal. The other assistant coaches will be returning including Corey Rathbone, Michael Shaw, Brad Trapp, and Luke Green.

The same foes from last year will make up the 2021 DCHS Football Schedule with the exception of Goodpasture, a private school from the Nashville area, which will replace Grundy County. As for the region, the Upperman Bees, a familiar regular season opponent of the Tigers in recent years, will be joining DeKalb County and the other four teams that make up Class 4A, Region 4.

“We have been in a region with them before but now they are moving up from Class 3A to 4A so they will be in the Region with us (DeKalb County) Livingston Academy, Macon County, Cumberland County, and Stone Memorial. The addition of Upperman is the only change in the makeup of Region 4. We like challenges and this gives us a chance to step up even more,” said Coach Trapp.

In addition to the region foes, the Tigers will also again meet Warren County, Cannon County , Smith County and Watertown this fall

The 2021 DCHS Football schedule is as follows (* Region Opponent):

August 14: Jamboree at Gordonsville: 7 p.m.

August 20: Warren County- Away: 7 p.m.

August 27: Smith County-Home: 7 p.m.

September 3: Macon County*- Away: 7 p.m.

September 10: Watertown-Away: 7 p.m.

September 17: Cumberland County*-Home: 7 p.m.

September 24: Cannon County (Homecoming): 7 p.m.

October 1: Livingston Academy*- Away: 7 p.m.

October 8: BYE- NO GAME

October 15: Upperman*- Home: 7 p.m.

October 22: Goodpasture- Home: 7 p.m.

October 29: Stone Memorial*- Away: 7 p.m.

July 23, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County recorded a banner year in net collections of local option state sales taxes for the 2020-21 fiscal year which ended June 30.

According to the Tennessee Department of Revenue, net collections (County and Four Cities Combined) were up each of the 12 months during the fiscal year (July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021) compared to the same time period in 2019-2020. The best performing month for net collections in 2020-21 was January at $602,647 (reflecting December activity). The weakest month was March (reflecting February activity) at $399,784.

In 2019-20, the strongest month for net collections was January, 2020 at $488,761 (reflecting December activity) and the weakest month was February, 2020 at $340,857 (reflecting January activity)

DeKalb County’s share of local option sales tax collections for June 2021 outperformed the same month in 2020 by more than $45,000 according to the Tennessee Department of Revenue. For the county and the four cities therein combined collections were up by more than $53,000.

DeKalb County brought in $167,815 in June, 2021 compared to $122,195 for June, 2020.

Three of the 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: $350,327 (June 2021), $336,123 (June 2020)

Alexandria: $28, 637 (June 2021), $36,471 (June 2020)

Dowelltown: $3,366 (June 2021), $2,613 (June 2020)

Liberty: $9,078 (June 2021), $8,414 (June 2020)

NET COLLECTIONS (LOCAL OPTION SALES TAX): $559, 225 (June 2021), $505, 818 (June 2020)
June sales tax collections reflect previous month activity

July 23, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

The Tennessee Highway Patrol has had an office in the courthouse for several years but doesn’t pay rent to the county.

Although the county commission has no desire to evict them, at least one county commissioner, Bruce Malone has inquired for several months why the office is provided rent-free to the THP.

During a committee meeting Thursday night, THP Lieutenant Billy Prater addressed the county commission about this issue. Lt. Prater explained that the THP does not pay rent to any county in this district for the use of office space where that county receives revenue from adjudicated court cases stemming from citations filed by the THP against traffic offenders in that county.

“The Highway Patrol typically does not pay counties for office space. Usually the counties are tickled to death to get to have the Highway Patrol use an office. Granted we are not there during office hours. We are in and out. We work the road. We’re pretty self sufficient in our cars but we still have to submit case files and paper work to headquarters in hard copy form so we must have somewhere we can print and compile our case files and store what hard paper supplies we have. That’s the case with any office we have. We are in and out of that office all hours of the day and night including weekends and holidays. It’s a convenience to us. I know two of the three troopers assigned to DeKalb County live in DeKalb County. They stop by that office a lot during their off time and drop something off or pick up something they need. I live at Centertown and my Sergeant who is over DeKalb County lives in north Carthage. This is a central point for us. We meet over here a lot,” said Lt. Prater.

“Everything we cite in the General Sessions Court, whether its on a state highway, a county road, or city street, everything goes through General Sessions Court and if they (defendants) are convicted and ordered to pay court costs, the county reaps the benefit of that,” he continued.

“I have done some checking with (Circuit Court Clerk) Susan Martin and she gave me some numbers that I want to share with you. Out of each citation that is required to be paid there’s a total of $69.50 that goes directly to the Trustee of DeKalb County. My question to her was ‘can you tell me over a period of time how much revenue is generated by highway patrol tickets that are run through court’. She could not because her software and program that she uses to file could not generate that but she was able to give me the breakdown on the court costs. I asked if the percentage of the number of citations that troopers write which are paid is at least 50% and she responded that it was closer to 90%. I did a little calculation and in 2019 THP issued 1,974 citations in DeKalb County. If I take that 10% out, its 1,777 citations and according to my math, we generated that year out of THP citations $123,501 based on the number Ms. Martin gave me. I realize there could have been some adjustments and court costs may have gone up since. Of course, COVID hit us in 2020 like it did everybody else plus we had the riots in Nashville so our citations in DeKalb County dropped down to 985 in the year 2020. Deduct that 10% and that’s 887 citations which based on her knowledge and average of the tickets generated $61,646 in court costs that went straight to the county. To date (this year) through July 17 THP has written 875 citations in DeKalb County. Minus the 10% so far this year through the citations and court costs $54,766 has been generated,” added Lt. Prater.