C.J. Tramel of the Midway Station was named “County Firefighter of the Year” Saturday night during the department’s annual awards banquet held at the Smithville Church of God annex.
County Fire Chief Donny Green, who presided over the ceremony, said Tramel met all the department’s criteria in earning this award. “That award is based on three elements. One of the elements is firefighter training attendance. The second part is fire call response. We look at the number of fire calls that they actually responded to in correlation to the number of calls we had that year. The third element is community service. Anything we do with outside groups, schools, senior citizens, or projects we’re working on, all those are evaluated as community service and it’s one third of the score in meeting the criteria. The scores are then totaled and the person with the highest score gets the Firefighter of the Year award. The same three elements are also used by the department in honoring the Officer of the Year.”
Lieutenant Bradley Mullinax received the “Officer of the Year” award. Chief Green says Mullinax is also the department’s Fire Prevention and Safety Officer. ” One of the big things that Bradley has really worked hard at and spent a lot of time on, in addition to his fire calls and training attendance, is the fire prevention program that he has actively spearheaded and directed here in the county, going to the schools and senior citizens groups. He has taught some CRP classes to some of the community groups. He’s had a lot of community involvement. When we have community involvement, it makes the fire department look good. It’s a good public relations tool, even though it might not be directly related to fire calls. When we have a representative who is going out and interacting with the community, it’s makes for good public relations and Bradley has done that.”
The “Rookie” award went to Logan Maynard of the Cookeville Highway Station. Chief Green says this award is totally based on hours of training. “We look at their monthly training drills and any outside training they do through the fire academy or any of the Upper Cumberland or Smoky Mountain weekend training courses. The award is based on the cumulative total of training hours. It’s straightforward. Whoever gets the most certified training hours, gets the Rookie of the Year award because we feel like the first year of a firefighter’s time in the department is the most critical in getting him or her in touch with the safety measures and everything that goes with firefighting and that’s why emphasis is placed on training for Rookie of the Year.”
Captain Jeff Williams was presented the “Git-R-Done” award. Chief Green says this award is based on a cumulative total of work session hours. ” As we have work sessions, we send out notices to all of our firefighters that we’re having a work session and we try to recognize the person who participates in our work sessions, whether it be working on a station, working on a truck, or putting equipment on a truck. One of the big things this last year was working on our main station renovation. We spent a lot of hours over there doing that. Again, the Git-R-Done award is based solely on work session hours. It doesn’t take into consideration training or fire response. It’s totally work session or additional effort type hours.”
Lieutenant and department Chaplain Anthony Boyd received a ten year service pin and Dick Kinsey of the Short Mountain Highway Station, who was absent, was recognized for five years of service and he will receive a pin for his length of service.
Meanwhile, Dan Hancock, formerly of the Midway Station, Tim Pedigo of the Blue Springs Station, and Chris Tramel of the Liberty Station received “Honorary Lifetime Membership Awards”.
Chief Green says these three men are very deserving of this honor. ” Dan Hancock was one of the original charter members of the DeKalb County Fire Department back when it started in 1975. He was a member for more than twenty years and even though he is no longer an active firefighter, he still supports the fire department.”
“Tim Pedigo was one of the key players in our main station renovation project. He is a contractor and construction worker and we used his skills. He contributed countless hours. He would get off from work in the afternoon and come out there and work until nine or ten o’clock, three and four nights a week, and all day on Saturday using his equipment, his tools, and his time. He was one of the key players in getting the main station building done and we felt like that was certainly a contribution that was extremely significant and we wanted to recognize Tim for his work on our building project.”
“When he first joined, Chris Tramel actually was the firefighter who designed our fire department patch that we still use today. Chris has a lot of graphic skills. In addition to the patch design, he started our first website. He designed it and kept it updated. We have another guy who is taking care of that now but Chris still offers technical support and helps us with anything having to do with our computers and that sort of thing and we wanted to recognize his contributions. He’s done all this in addition to being on the fire department. The mark that he has left on the fire department with the website and the patch is certainly something that’s going to be carried on for many years.”

County Mayor Mike Foster says the intersection at Highway 70 and Highway 83 near Kilgore’s Restaurant is dangerous and several wrecks have occurred there in recent months. So he will ask the county commission Monday night to join him in requesting that TDOT consider installing caution lights there.
“We’ve talked to the guy in Chattanooga who is over engineering and asked that they look at it. There have been about twelve wrecks there. Three of them required extrication and several of them had to be life flighted. We’re asking first that they do the engineering study. Really what it amounts to is we would like to see a caution light, where it would be a caution light for Highway 70 and flashing red lights on Highway 83 on either side. At least, we would like to see installed those small ripples on the road to alert you (motorists) that something (intersection) is coming up and some signs that say ‘Dangerous Intersection Ahead’. There is a sign there that has like a red centerpiece that says ‘Ahead’ but it doesn’t say stop. Butch Agee (of TDOT) has been helpful and so have the people in Chattanooga so hopefully we’ll get this done”.
Foster says he and the commission may also request a street light be installed to better illuminate the intersection of Highway 70 and Dry Creek Road.
In addition, Foster says the county commission may request the Tennessee Highway Patrol to recommend a safe speed limit for Holiday Haven Road and the Old Sparta Highway as requested by local residents there. “We’ve had several local residents that have called about the speed on those roads. I think the Old Sparta Road used to be a 35 mph speed limit. They’re asking for the highway patrol to go determine what a safe speed is for both of these roads and to recommend to the commission that speed limits be established there. These are county roads.”

Funds could become available to replace Sligo bridge if the Congress approves a new economic stimulus package.
County Mayor Mike Foster said Thursday that TDOT has included Sligo bridge in it’s request for funding of projects in Tennessee. “Mr (Paul) Degges, who is the chief engineer for TDOT, said at a recent public meeting that Sligo was not on the list of roads and bridges that would be proposed for the stimulus package. But we were told about two weeks ago by TDOT that it is now on the list for the proposed stimulus package, if it happens. Senator (Lamar) Alexander’s office called and said that it (Sligo bridge) is on the stimulus package list that has been submitted by TDOT for the state. So if the stimulus package passes the U.S. House and Senate, then hopefully we are in line for a replacement bridge, which would be just north of the existing bridge. If you’re going toward Sparta, the new bridge would be on the left side of the old bridge and the road on either side of the bridge would be straightened for better access. If all this happens, they would probably have meetings here in March for a pre-bid letting, and possibly be on line for contracts to be let in July and maybe the bridge could be started in September, which is really good news for tourism, school buses, and people who travel back and forth through there to go to work.”
Degges, during a public meeting last month, said it would cost about $32 million to replace Sligo bridge at today’s estimates, while a rehab would be about $12 million and extend the life of the bridge by 10 to 15 years. “From a time frame standpoint, between two and four years from now this bridge is going to be in a condition to where we’re going to have to replace the bridge or do a rehab on it.”
“If we were able to find the funding for this project, I could see us under contract in maybe fifteen months or less if we were going to go with the new bridge. If the money doesn’t materialize somewhere, I would guess somewhere between two and four years from now we would be looking at a rehabilitation project on the existing bridge.”

The Corps of Engineers will be conducting a test of an emergency evacuation siren at Long Branch Campground, located directly below Center Hill Dam, on Tuesday, February 3rd, 2009 at 1 p.m.
This siren serves the Long Branch and Buffalo Valley Recreation Areas immediately below the dam. Additionally, neighboring private landowners downstream of the dam may possibly hear the siren. The test will last for approximately one minute.
This is only a test.
In the unlikely event of a breach of the dam, the siren will be activated and an evacuation plan put into effect to assist the visiting public in the Long Branch and Buffalo Valley Recreation Areas. Anyone with questions should call the Center Hill Lake Resource Manager’s Office at 931-858-3125 or 615-548-4521.

The DeKalb County Circuit Court Clerk’s Office is under investigation over a cash shortage of $8,501 in General Sessions Court funds.
The shortage was discovered during an annual state audit and is included as a finding in the latest audit report just released.
Circuit Court Clerk Katherine Pack says she has made the District Attorney General’s Office aware of the shortage and the D.A. has requested the TBI investigation. Ms. Pack says the shortage occurred during the period of time when she was out of the office undergoing surgery.
According to the audit report, “A cash shortage of $8,501 existed in the General Sessions Court at June 30th, 2008. This cash shortage resulted from numerous bank deposits for the period April 2008 through June 2008 being less than the amount of deposits posted to the general ledger. We noted the following internal control deficiencies that should have alerted officials of possible irregularities:
A. “The bank reconciliation prepared at June 30th, 2008 did not reconcile with the general ledger by $515. This variance should have been investigated and corrected promptly.”
B. “Deposits for May 22, 28, 29, and June 11 totaling $8,331 were listed as in transit on the June 30th, 2008, bank reconciliation; however, these deposits actually cleared the bank prior to June 30th, 2008; therefore, these deposits could not be in transit.”
C. “Beginning April 11, 2008, several bank deposits were not made intact; i.e., funds collected during a specific period of time were not deposited together. Because the clerk used this method of depositing collections, we could not trace specific collections to specific deposits.”
D. “Of the bank deposits that were not made intact, the difference between the sum of the receipts and the sum of the bank deposit was in cash receipts. This difference indicates that cash was being manipulated.”
“This cash shortage has been reviewed with the district attorney.”
Auditors made the following recommendation:
” The clerk should take steps to liquidate the cash shortage of $8,501. Bank statements should be reconciled with the general ledger monthly, and any differences should be investigated and corrected promptly. Deposits should be made intact.”
In the management response, Ms. Pack states that “I have been in contact with the District Attorney General’s Office and have extended our full cooperation to the district attorney. We have taken steps to improve the deposit and reconciliation process.”
All employees of the Circuit Court Clerk’s office remain on the job, pending the outcome of the investigation.
The annual audit report also reveals accounting and other deficiencies in offices of other county officials. To read the entire audit report, click the following link. (Findings, reccomendations, and management responses contained on pages 176-184 of audit)
http://www.comptroller1.state.tn.us/repository/CA/2008/DeKalb.pdf
Orhttp://www.comptroller1.state.tn.us/RA_CA/CountyAudits.asp?C=21