Three of DeKalb County’s municipalities have elections planned for the 2012 calendar year.
First on the calendar is the Smithville Municipal Election on June 19th. A mayor and two aldermen will be elected. The seats are currently held by Mayor Taft Hendrixson and Aldermen Steve White and Cecil Burger.
The qualifying deadline for the Smithville Election is NOON March 15. The last day to register to vote in that election is May 21.
Dowelltown and Liberty will have elections on August 2. In Dowelltown, a mayor and two aldermen will be elected. The seats are currently held by Mayor Gerald Bailiff and Aldermen Joe Bogle and Elizabeth Redmon.
The qualifying deadline for the Dowelltown election is NOON April 5 and the last day to register to vote is July 3.
In Liberty, three aldermen will be elected. The seats are held by Todd Dodd, Dwight Mathis and Paul M. Neal
The qualifying deadline is NOON April 5 and the last day to register to vote in that election is July 3.
Administrator of Elections Dennis Stanley said there are two important messages voters should remember before going to the polls on Election Day or for early voting.
“If your address has changed since the last time you voted, you should contact the local election office to begin the process of updating your records,” Stanley said. “If you show up at the polls with a voter’s card that has an address different than where you currently live, you will have to fill out a ‘Fail-Safe’ form and you may even be sent to another location to vote.”
“Also, voters are reminded that with all elections in 2012, voters will have to have a valid federal or state government issued photo i.d. to vote on the machines,” he added.
Acceptable forms of photo identification, even if expired, are any of the following: a Tennessee Driver License with your photo; a United States Passport; Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security photo I.D.; a Photo I.D. issued by the federal or state government, such as an employee I.D. from the U.S. Department of Energy with your photo; United States Military photo I.D., including a Veteran Identification Card; and a state-issued handgun carry permit card with your photo.
“If you do not bring a photo I.D. to the polls, you will vote a Provisional Ballot,” Stanley said. “Then you will have two business days after Election Day to return to the election commission office to show a valid photo I.D. If not, the ballot will not be counted.”

School board races in the fifth and sixth districts will be contested in the August 2nd DeKalb County General Election.
The DeKalb County Election Commission reports that Doug Stephens and Boyd Trapp have both picked up qualifying petitions to run for the school board seat in the sixth district.
In the fifth district Incumbent school board member W.J. (Dub) Evins, III has picked up a petition to seek re-election while Kevin D. Hale, who plans to challenge Evins for the seat, has also obtained a petition.
Petitions for the fifth and sixth district school board races can now be picked up at the DeKalb County Election Commission office.
School board members, who run as non-partisan candidates, are elected in even-numbered years in August with the membership being staggered. In August 2012, members in Districts 5 and 6 are to be elected. The qualifying deadline for this election is NOON, April 5.

The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department has arrested a Smithville man in a local theft investigation.
25 year old Kenny Waymon Dyal, Jr. of Floyd Drive, Smithville is charged with theft of property over $1,000 and evading arrest. Dyal is also cited for simple possession of a schedule III and IV controlled substance. His bond is $15,000 and he will be in court on February 16.
According to Sheriff Patrick Ray, Dyal became a suspect after a deputy went to take a theft report at a residence on Oak Drive in Smithville on Wednesday, January 25. The officer then went to Dyal’s grandmother’s home on Andrew Street in Smithville, where Dyal was staying. After Dyal’s grandmother gave the deputy consent to search the home, he found in the living room a 50 inch Samsung television and three remote controls, which were taken from the residence on Oak Drive
Later, a deputy spotted Dyal on foot at Tommy Harrell Street and called out for him to stop. The deputy wanted to question Dyal about the theft. But when he saw the officer, Dyal began running. Another officer, who was in the area, caught Dyal at the back of a residence. Dyal was searched and a white bottle was found in his left front pocket. The bottle contained half of a pill believed to be suboxone and two pills believed to be xanax.
23 year old Cory Alan Bradford of Cookeville Highway, Smithville is charged with driving under the influence and cited for failure to maintain lane of travel, failure to change the address on his drivers license, violation of the financial responsibility law (no insurance), and violation of the registration law.
Sheriff Ray reports that on Wednesday, January 25 Bradford was operating a motor vehicle on the Old Blue Springs Road when he was stopped by a deputy for failing to maintain a lane of travel. He had an odor of an alcoholic beverage on his person and he was unsteady on his feet. Bradford performed poorly on all field sobriety tasks and he submitted to a blood test. Bradford admitted to drinking beer and taking a hydrocodone pill. He could not provide proof of vehicle registration or financial responsibility. He had also failed to change the address on his drivers license.
24 year old Amanda Brooke Washer of Ike Adcock Road is cited for failing to maintain lane of travel and texting while driving. She will be in court on February 1. Sheriff Ray reports that on Wednesday, January 25 a deputy spotted Washer driving a vehicle and weaving on the roadway. At one point, she allegedly went halfway across the oncoming lane. She was stopped at the intersection of Highway 70 east and Smith Road. Washer admitted to texting while driving. Washer had a passenger with her, 35 year old Michael Odell Bly of Bell Street, Smithville. A K-9 officer from the Smithville Police Department came to the scene and his dog made a pass around Washer’s vehicle. The dog alerted on the automobile. Bly, who was pulled from the vehicle, jerked away from the officers as they started to search him. Officers forced Bly to the ground and found on him around the crotch area three used hypodermic needles and a used straw. Bly was charged with resisting arrest and cited for simple possession of drug paraphernalia. His bond is $1,000 and he will be in court on February 2.
32 year old Bobby Jason Taylor of North Mill Street, Dowelltown is charged with hindering a secured creditor. He was arrested on Thursday, January 26. His bond is $5,000 and he will be in court on February 2. Sheriff Ray said that Taylor sold a Polaris four wheeler, valued at more than $1,000 but then reported it stolen on Sunday, January 15. After investigating, a sheriff’s department detective learned that Taylor had sold the four wheeler but that Liberty State Bank was the lien holder and the pay off on the loan was $3,857.
44 year old Paul David Johnson of Old Snow Hill Road, Dowelltown is charged with simple possession of a schedule VI controlled substance. He was also cited for running a stop sign, violation of the financial responsibility law (no insurance), and possession of drug paraphernalia. His bond is $1,500 and he will be in court on February 9. According to Sheriff Ray, on Sunday January 29, Johnson was operating a motor vehicle on Highway 70 when he was stopped by a deputy for running two stop signs at Midway Road and Smith Road. He gave the officer consent to search and found in the center console was a metal box containing marijuana in a bag. Johnson could not provide proof of insurance and upon a search of the vehicle, the deputy found rolling papers along with 3.5 ounces of marijuana.
44 year old William Boyce Butler of Lee Braswell Road, Smithville is charged with domestic assault. His bond is $2,500 and he will be in court on February 9. Sheriff Ray said that on Sunday, January 29, Butler allegedly assaulted his girlfriend by choking her, pulling out some of her hair, and throwing her to the ground.

With redistricting, DeKalb County will have two state representatives, Terri Lynn Weaver (R) of Lancaster in the 40th district and Mark Pody (R) of Lebanon in the 46th district.
Representative Pody’s district will take in about a third of the county including all of the sixth district, almost all of the seventh district including part of the City of Smithville, and portions of the second and fifth districts. Representative Weaver will represent the rest of DeKalb County.
In an effort to get to know DeKalb County better, Representative Pody is beginning to attend local events to meet and greet residents here as he gears up for re-election later this year. Pody and his wife Barbara attended Saturday night’s annual banquet of the DeKalb County Fire Department and made brief remarks.
Pody’s district will include a large portion of Wilson County, all of Cannon County, and a portion of DeKalb County.
In an interview with WJLE after the banquet, Representative Pody said he is looking forward to serving DeKalb County along with State Representative Weaver. “My current district is the eastern half of Wilson County. I have all of Cannon County and I have Trousdale County. But with the new redistricting I will be losing Trousdale County and I’m going to be coming into DeKalb County so Terri Lynn Weaver and myself will be sharing the county. I want to know exactly what the issues are here that’s affecting DeKalb County and what I can do or what the state can do to help. I know Terri Lynn Weaver and Senator Mae Beavers have done a great job down here but I feel it very incumbent upon me to find out myself so that’s why I’ve been down here a couple of times already and I’m here tonight getting to know people and meet them. I am excited about being here. I am the type of individual that I’ll even pass out my personal cell phone number 390-2444. I am available and I answer that phone myself . I want to be able to talk and be responsive to the needs that somebody has,” said Pody.
The following is the WJLE question and answer interview of Representative Pody:
Question: Are you pleased with the redistricting plan?
Pody: “Yes I am. I’m very happy with the two counties that I have down here. Cannon and DeKalb are very close and very similar so I am very comfortable with it. My kids grew up in Watertown and went to school in Watertown so I’m very excited about it”
Question: Can you tell us about yourself?
Pody: “I am very new to politics. I was elected last year (2010) when this session started. I am a business owner. I have an office in Knoxville and one in Murfreesboro. I do insurance, however I meet payroll every single week and I just decided that there has been so much regulation that has been put on the business people and the local communities that I said ‘enough is enough’ I want to try to do something about that so I went ahead and ran (for state representative) and I was elected.”
Question: What about your family?
Pody: “I married my high school sweetheart. Its ironic. We were in high school and my wife and I eloped from Wisconsin. The first state that would marry us was Tennessee so we got married in Tennessee. We were both actually underage but we’ve been married ever since which is 39 years. I have two children and they both live in Wilson County. One is in Watertown and the other one is in Lebanon. I also have eight grandchildren. I am very excited to have my family close to me. We love it. We see them all the time.”
Question: Do you live in Lebanon?
Pody: “I live just south of Lebanon on Highway 231 South.”
Question: Where are you originally from?
Pody: “I was actually born in the state of Washington. My father was in the Air Force so I was born on the base in Washington but we moved to Wisconsin shortly thereafter.”
Question: Are you enjoying your experience in the legislature?
Pody: “I wouldn’t say ‘enjoying” but I can see that we are making a difference. The most exciting thing is when somebody calls our office and they’re having issues with a state department somewhere and we can cut through the red tape and help get that problem solved for them. We’ve been able to help them save homes. We’ve been able to help people get benefits that they deserve. We’ve been able to help with individual things where they’ve fought with a state department for months or possibly even years and were not able to get anything on their own. We have been able to get something done for them. That gives me a lot of gratification that I know I’m making a difference. I am disappointed sometimes on how slow things can happen at the capitol because of political infighting or whatever when I know good things need to be done. It just doesn’t get done as quickly as I would hope.”
Question: What would you like to see done legislatively this year?
Pody: There’s a couple of bills that I’m running. I’m not going to run a lot of bills. I don’t think we need a lot more laws or regulations. That’s not one of my main focuses. But one thing that I am going to be doing is try to get an English Only bill for drivers licenses. I think if we have people who are driving, they need to be able to take that test in English and read our signs. I believe that is just a very basic safety issue. I have a couple of other bills that I’m working on. One of them is a state day of prayer. I know we have a national day of prayer but I believe that in Tennessee I’d like us to have a state day of prayer as well. My faith is very important to me and I want to stand up for that wherever I can.”
The DeKalb County Republican Party is hosting a Meet and Greet with State Representative Pody, State Representative Weaver, and State Senator Beavers on Thursday, February 9 at 6:00 p.m. at the Smithville City Hall building. Representative Pody said he hopes everyone who can will come out for a visit. “I would love to see you to introduce myself personally. I feel that since DeKalb County is going to have two state representatives and for the size that we are here (DeKalb County) and the population it will give us a little extra strength and voice in Nashville. If you only have one person (representative), that is only one voice. But at this point, Terri Lynn Weaver and myself will be fighting for the county to get whatever we need done. Its easier to lobby other legislators if we want something done by having two representatives. It should benefit the county,” said Representative Pody.
Representative Pody’s office is located at 203 War Memorial Boulevard, Nashville. The phone number is 615-741-7086. His email address is rep.mark.pody@capitol.tn.gov.

The Smithville Municipal Election will be held in June again this year.
Mayor Taft Hendrixson wanted to get the city charter changed to move the city election date from June to August but that will have to wait for now.
A change in the city charter requires approval by the aldermen and the state legislature and Mayor Hendrixson reported to the council during Thursday night’s special meeting that state lawmakers won’t be able to work in that legislation this year. The deadline for filing proposed state legislation was Thursday, January 26. “I talked to State Representative Weaver last Friday. She said it was going to be impossible to get it through. We can go ahead and do it (change the charter) but it won’t apply to this year. We cannot get it through. So as of tomorrow (Friday) I plan to write the election commission a letter and call for a June election. Its about the only thing I can do,” said Mayor Hendrixson.
The city election is set for Tuesday, June 19 to elect a mayor and two aldermen, each to serve a two year term. The election commission is now issuing qualifying petitions to candidates who want to run. The qualifying deadline is March 15.
The positions are currently held by Mayor Taft Hendrixson and Aldermen Cecil Burger and Steve White.

Steve Repasy of the Midway Station was named the “2011 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 Repasy met all the department’s criteria in earning this award. “Steve was nominated this year and his evaluation was of his fire calls, training attendance, and his community service. The fire calls and training attendance stand for itself. He excelled in both of those. As far as his community service, Steve has been very instrumental in helping us with our extrication program. He is a retired metal worker so he has been able to help us fabricate some of our equipment that we use on our extrication truck. He has been able to do some things that has saved us a lot of money with our extrication program where we didn’t have to hire it done or we didn’t have to buy the pieces of equipment that he actually fabricated. So he has helped us with that. Starting last January, many people may have noticed out in each community where we have a fire station, we have put fire station signs up in front of the fire halls. Along with some others who helped, Steve took a lead role in getting these signs erected and put up across the community. We now have the new signs put up. I want to add that we did get these signs on a grant. We now have all these signs up across the county. They’re very nice signs and they are out by the roadway. It identifies where all of our fire stations are located. It also has a little message on there, if we have people who live in the community who would like to be a volunteer, it gives a contact number where they can call and offer their services if they want to be a volunteer to help in their communities. Steve has done all that and he has spent a lot of his personal time. These are things we look at which are above and beyond the normal training and fire response. These are things our firefighters do out in the community and we try to look at the firefighters who excel in those things each year in selecting these awards and for those reasons Steve Repasy was selected as our 2011 DeKalb County Fire Department Firefighter of the Year,” said Chief Green.
Lieutenant Jay Cantrell, County Fire Department Equipment Officer, received the “Officer of the Year” award. Chief Green said the same three elements used to select the “Firefighter of the Year” are also used by the department in honoring the Officer of the Year, training attendance, incident response attendance, and community service. “Jay spends countless hours working on buildings, equipment, and vehicles to help keep our maintenance costs down. The most notable thing that Jay does is that he keeps all of our equipment maintained and proof of that is that during our inspections with our ISO evaluations this year, we were commended highly on the maintenance of our vehicles and the safety features that has been kept up on these things. So Jay has played a very instrumental part in our department and as a result of that it has benefitted the community greatly because, as everyone knows, we have the reduced ISO rating and a huge component of that evaluation in that survey with ISO was how the equipment and buildings are kept up. Jay played a major role in that and for that reason Jay was selected as the 2011 Officer of the Year,” said Chief Green.
The “Rookie” award went to Rodger Sweet of the Main Station. Chief Green said this award is totally based on hours of training and goes to a firefighter in his first year of service to the department. “We feel like during the first year of a firefighter’s membership, the most important thing they can do is train so that is the sole criteria that we use in the Rookie of the Year selection. For 2011 Rodger had 174 hours of training, which is a significant amount of training. Included in that 174 hours was the 64 hour basic firefighter school and also the 22 hour LIVE burn that is done at the fire academy. But outside of those two trainings he has done extra training to improve his fire fighting abilities. We certainly want to recognize that because Rodger has done a good job, as well as all these other guys that have come along this year. We define a rookie as any firefighter who has been on the department for a year or less. We pull all those training hours and then we determine who has the most training hours. Rodger had the most training hours for 2011,” said Chief Green.
Twelve firefighters were recognized and presented pins for their years of service including the following:
Five years of service: Duncan Block (Austin Bottom Station), Ryan Carlile (Austin Bottom Station) Gelasio Chacon (Marco) (Johnson’s Chapel Station), Larry Dalton (Austin Bottom Station), Cathy Jones (Austin Bottom Station), Bob Myracle (Austin Bottom Station), Wesley Slager(Liberty Station), and Paulino Solorzano (Liberty)
Ten years of service: Jason Rice of the Keltonburg Station
Fifteen years of service: Gene Foster of the Short Mountain Highway Station and Howard Pyles of the Liberty Station.
Twenty five years of service: Chief Donny Green
Several members of the department were also presented cash awards, funded through a federal safer grant, which Chief Green said is to help retain and recruit firefighters.”In 2010, we were awarded a Safer Grant from the federal government that is a non-matching local grant and does not require any local funding, it’s 100% federal, to help us recruit and retain firefighters. Some of the things we’ve done is provide these training award incentives for firefighters such as length of service awards, firefighter of the year, rookie of the year, and for firefighters who made 100% of their monthly training or at least 75% of their monthly training. We’ve made those awards and we hope that’s a tool we can use to help encourage our firefighters to stay on board and continue being involved with training in our department.” Firefighters who made 100% of their monthly training each received $400 and those who made 75% of their monthly training took home $200 each.
Those receiving 100% Training Perfect Attendance Awards are as follows:
David Agee, Anthony Boyd, Jay Cantrell, Kelly Cantrell, Gelasio Chacon (Marco), Nelson Davis, Bill Fowler, Anthony Johnson, Bradley Johnson, Darrell Johnson, Donnie Johnson, Dustin Johnson, Jerry Wayne Johnson, Kristie Johnson, Gary King, Richard Kinsey, Michael D. Lawrence, Ronald Merriman, Roy Merriman, Bob Myracle, Jeremy Neal, Andy Pack, Shawn Puckett, Jeff Rankhorn, Steve Repasy, Jason Rice, Robin Summers, Rodger Sweet, Calvin Tramel, and Jeff Williams.
75% Training Attendance Awards:
Lee Ansell, Jacob Bond, Kyle Casper, Billy Crymes, Billy Fuson, Donny Green, Shane Hickman, Cathy Jones, Jimmy Martin, Kenny Maynard, Logan Maynard, Bradley Mullinax, Billy Parker, Danny Parker, James Pennington, Richard Roberts, Paulino Solorzano, Hunter Stanfield, Bradley Taylor, Hugh Washer, and Chris Wyke.

Smithville Police made a drug bust on Friday in the housing projects on Morgan Drive and arrested a suspected dealer.
Smithville Police Chief Randy Caplinger told WJLE that 33 year old Teresa Pauline Thomas of 436 Morgan Drive has been charged with sale and delivery of a schedule VI, II, and III controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. Her bond totals $45,000 and she will be in court on February 2.
Acting on numerous citizen complaints about suspected drug activity from this residence, Smithville Police conducted an undercover drug investigation, using an informant, who went to Thomas’ home on Tuesday and made the drug buy, according to police.
A search warrant was prepared and served on Thomas at the residence on Friday. According to Chief Caplinger and Detectives Matt Holmes and Brandon Donnell, police found in Thomas’ purse nineteen baggies of marijuana each weighing one gram; ten baggies of pot each weighing two grams; and one baggie containing five grams of marijuana. Also found in her purse were twenty five and a half hydrocodone pills and two and a half suboxone pills. A further search of the home turned up another thirty grams of marijuana, cut straws with residue, a pipe, multiple prescription pill bottles without their labels, two pill crushers, two marijuana cigarettes, scales, two boxes of sandwich bags apparently intended for packaging drugs, and a notebook containing the names of people who allegedly owed Thomas money for drug transactions. An undisclosed amount of cash was also seized. Because children were present in the residence at the time of Thomas’ arrest, the Department of Children Services was notified.
Thomas was taken into custody and charged in the case. Police said during the interview, Thomas allegedly admitted to police that the drugs and paraphernalia found in the home belonged to her.
In addition to Chief Caplinger and Detectives Holmes and Donnell, Captain Steven Leffew, K-9 Officer James Cornelius and Officer Matt Farmer assisted in the case.
Chief Caplinger praised his officers for their work in this and other cases. “The officers are working really hard on drugs and I urge anyone who has information on suspected drug activity in the city to call the crime tip line at 464-6046,” said Chief Caplinger