Early voting for the Nov. 8 election ends Thursday. The deadline to turn in an application to vote absentee by mail is 4 pm today. More than 8,500 early and absentee ballots have been cast as Dickson County approaches its record for turnout. Early voting is open 8 am-4 pm Tuesday only at the Dickson County Election Office in Charlotte. Early voting resumes in Dickson Wednesday as polls will be open 8 am-4 pm at the Restoration Church and in Charlotte. Early voting concludes Thursday with both locations open extended hours of 10 am-8 pm. With more than 1,500 votes cast Friday and Saturday, the early and absentee vote total hit 8,338 as early voting continued in Charlotte Monday. Dickson County’s record for early and absentee voting is 8,711 set in the November 2012 election. Anyone who qualifies to vote absentee by mail must turn in an application by the end of today. Ballots will be mailed and must be completed and returned by U.S. mail to arrive at the Dickson County Election Office no later than Nov. 8. Ballots received after next Tuesday will not be counted. The Dickson County Election Commission recommends allowing at least four business days for a ballot to arrive, meaning absentee ballots should be put in the mail no later than Friday. Ballots in Dickson County include the races for President, U.S. House of Representatives for the 5^th District and Tennessee House of Representatives for the 69^th or 78^th district. White Bluff, Burns, Vanleer and Slayden are having municipal elections and Charlotte voters are deciding a liquor-by-the-drink referendum. Non-resident property owners who wish to vote in Slayden or Charlotte must vote absentee by mail. Polls will be open 7 am-7 pm at 17 precincts across Dickson County Nov. 8. For more information on early or absentee voting, call the Dickson County Election Office at 615-671-1146 or visit dicksoncountyelection.com.

The 41^st annual Christmas in the Country arts and crafts festival is this weekend at Dickson County High School. Presented by the Dickson County Woman’s Club, a chapter of the Greater Federation of Women’s Clubs, Christmas in the Country features dozens of vendor booths from across the region with crafts and canned goods to kick off shopping for the holiday season. Booths fill the gymnasiums, hallways and cafeterias at DCHS. Christmas in the Country will be open 9 am-5 pm Saturday and 11 am-4 pm Sunday. Admission is $2 and proceeds benefit the scholarship fund and other projects of the Dickson County Woman’s Club. The festival features only original, hand-crafted items including home-canned goods meeting Tennessee Department of Agriculture regulations. Booths range from Christmas decorations to jewelry, clothing to children’s toys, candles to wreaths and much more.

The White Bluff Town Council issued a proclamation honoring Municipal Court Clerk Carol Harmon for her 27 years of service to the town. Harmon retired with her official last day being Monday. She was not present at Tuesday night’s meeting when Mayor Linda Hayes and the council paid tribute to her for “outstanding and meritorious service.” According to the proclamation, Harmon began her career with the town Sept. 5, 1989, as assistant recorder and “advanced to positions of increasing responsibility, culminating in the position of court clerk.” Hayes read the proclamation that recognizes Harmon for serving the citizens of White Bluff with fairness and dedication. “Therefore, be it proclaimed, that we, the Mayor and Council for the town of White Bluff, do hereby extend to Carol Harmon our sincere and grateful appreciation for her dedicated service to the people of the town of White Bluff, our congratulations on her well-earned retirement, and our best wishes to her for continued success, health and happiness in the years to come,” Hayes said. Dixie Kerr has moved into the position of municipal court clerk. At its meeting Oct. 17, the Dickson County Commission appointed Harmon to continue in her role as a judicial commissioner through the end of her term. Harmon is one of four commissioners appointed to serve the White Bluff Police Department and citizens of the town as part of her duties as municipal court clerk. The terms of all 10 of Dickson County’s judicial commissioners expire Dec. 31 and Judicial Commissioner Committee Chairman Shane Chandler said Harmon’s appointment was tied to her position as clerk, meaning she had to get an interim appointment to finish her term following her retirement.

New Dickson County Election Commission member Pat ‘Sissy’ Driver (left) reviews a voter registration with Administrator of Elections Roxanne Hagewood.

Pat “Sissy” Driver officially began her service as a member of the Dickson County Election Commission with her first meeting Tuesday night. The State Election Commission appointed Driver to complete the term of Allen Johnson at its August meeting. A Humphreys County native and graduate of Waverly Central High School, Driver has resided in Dickson County for more than 30 years. She recently retired from AT&T. Following Tuesday’s meeting, Driver said she is “very interested in politics” and looks forward to being involved with the election commission. Administrator of Elections Roxanne Hagewood said Driver has been an active poll worker at Dickson County elections. Driver also is an active member of the GFWC Dickson County Woman’s Club. She joins Nancy Johnson as the Democratic Party members of the five-member election commission. The Republican Party currently has three members on each of Tennessee’s 95 county election commissions because the GOP holds the majority in the Tennessee General Assembly. Allen Johnson submitted his letter of resignation in June and attended his last meeting in September. Johnson had served on the election commission since April 2013 when he was appointed to replace Marie Fossie, who retired after eight years. The only business at Driver’s first meeting was an audit of voter registration forms. Each quarter the commission reviews a 10 percent sample of new voter registrations to make sure they are completed correctly. The five commissioners reviewed 85 registrations Tuesday as Hagewood said the office saw 850 new registrations July-September. Driver will oversee her first election as a commissioner Tuesday as the counting board will begin counting absentee ballots at 2:30 and returns will begin coming in after the polls close at 7 pm. The State Election Commission appoints county election commissions to two-year terms in April of each odd year following the legislative elections.

Dr. Van Mills

The new amphitheater under construction in White Bluff has been named in honor of the late Dr. Van Mills and his family has pledged a $25,000 contribution to the project. At its meeting Tuesday, the White Bluff Town Council voted to name the new facility on the grounds of the Bibb-White Bluff Civic Center the Van F. Mills, M.D. Amphitheater. The Friends of White Bluff, which has been granted the right to name facilities in the town in recognition of contributions, recommended to the council that the amphitheater be named for Mills after his widow, Sara Caroline Mills, pledged $25,000 to improvements at the civic center, specifically for the amphitheater project. The town received a $250,000 grant from the Tennessee Department of Conservation’s Local Parks and Recreation Fund for the amphitheater project, but was forced to redesign the facility after the initial bids came in higher than the available funds. Assistant Town Attorney Andrew Mills, son of the late doctor, said his mother wanted to honor her husband through a donation to the project, which the Friends of White Bluff wishes to recognize by naming it in his honor. “I’m really happy and pleased and I think it’s definitely something he would love. So, it’s very awesome that we get to do this as a family,” Mills said. Dr. Mills died Jan. 9 at the age of 57 following a battle with brain cancer. One of the most popular doctors in Dickson County, Mills practiced family medicine and obstetrics with Dickson Medical Associates for 25 years, assisting in the delivery of almost 4,000 babies. Following his funeral, a “roaring wake” and potluck supper was held at the Bibb-White Bluff Civic Center. The council voted 4-0 with Seth Williams absent to approve a resolution naming the amphitheater in honor of Mills and an agreement with the Mills family for the contribution. Projects Administrator and Public Works Director Jeff Martin said the stage for the amphitheater has been poured and the rear wall constructed with the next phase being installation of the roof. Martin said the contractor has benefited from the dry and warm weather to remain on schedule for an anticipated completion later this month. Mayor Linda Hayes has said the amphitheater will be opened formally next spring.

The Tennessee Division of Forestry and Dickson Fire Department have stopped issuing permits and placed a ban on all outdoor burning due to dry conditions. Dickson Fire Department Fire Marshal Robby Street announced on the department’s Facebook page Tuesday that “until significant rainfall, conditions are too dangerous to burn.” The Tennessee Division of Forestry’s website, BurnSafeTN.org, says burn permits are not being issued in Dickson County. Already, fire departments across the county have been battling brush fires, some of which began from controlled burning of leaves or debris. The Division of Forestry reports it responded to 58 wildfires that burned almost 1,500 acres in Tennessee over the weekend. That includes 12 fires that burned 29 acres in the Highland Rim District, which includes Dickson County. One of those fires was attributed to arson, two to debris burns and nine to other causes, such as equipment, discarded cigarettes and children setting off fireworks. The division reports it responded to one wildfire in Dickson County over the weekend and reports the cause as equipment. So far in 2016, the Division of Forestry has fought 965 wildfires that burned 22,579 acres across Tennessee, with 41 percent of those fires blamed on arson. According to the Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network’s website, Dickson County has seen small amounts of scattered rainfall over the last two weeks that vary across its four reporting stations. The station in Charlotte and one in Dickson reported .02 of an inch Oct. 27, the last measurable rain. A second Dickson station reported half an inch Oct. 21 while the other three stations reported only trace amounts. On Oct. 15, the station in Charlotte reported .28 of an inch, the station in Vanleer recorded .23 of an inch and one Dickson station reported .35 of an inch while a second Dickson station reported no rainfall. The city of Dickson requires permits for any outdoor burning all year long. The Tennessee Division of Forestry requires permits for outdoor burning Oct. 15-May 15. For more information on permits and burning in the city of Dickson, contact the fire department at 615-446-6331. For information on permits and outdoor burning anywhere else in Dickson County, visit BurnSafeTN.org or call the Tennessee Division of Forestry at 877-350-BURN (2876). The forecast for Dickson County includes a 30 percent chance of isolated thunderstorms on Thursday as the only significant opportunity for rain in the next 10 days.

Dickson County set a record for turnout with two days left in early voting. Tuesday’s turnout of 271 early and absentee ballots pushed the county’s total to 8,850, according to a report from the Dickson County Election Office. That surpasses the previous highest turnout for early and absentee voting of 8,711 set in the November 2012 election. Early voting returns to Dickson today and concludes with two days of early voting at Restoration Church and the election office in Charlotte. Polls will be open 8 am-4 pm at both locations Wednesday. Early voting ends with a day of extended hours 10 am-8 pm Thursday. The two previous days of late voting hours have seen the greatest turnout with 1,142 votes on Oct. 20 and 1,336 on Oct. 27. More than twice as many Dickson County residents have voted during the early period than showed up for the August county general and primary elections, when total turnout was just 3,825. The turnout through Tuesday represents 29.4 percent of Dickson County’s approximately 30,100 registered voters. Election officials say they are hoping turnout in the last two days will push early voting past 10,000. In most recent elections, early voting has accounted for about 50 percent of the total voter turnout. If that trend continues, Dickson County could see a record turnout for an election, which is 19,519 votes cast in the November 2008 election. After early voting closes Thursday, Dickson County voters will have to wait until Tuesday when polls will be open 7 am-7 pm at 17 precincts across the county. Absentee ballots must be returned by U.S. Mail to the Dickson County Election Office by Tuesday to be counted. For more information on early voting, call the election office at 615-671-1146.

Dr. Danny Weeks

Dickson County Director of Schools Dr. Danny Weeks has been named School System Administrator of the Year for the district in the A.F. Bridges Awards presented by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association. The awards are presented annually to an administrator, principal, athletic director, female coach, male coach, official and contributor in each of nine athletic districts in Tennessee. Weeks was voted Administrator of the Year for District 6, which includes Dickson County. According to the announcement, the A.F. Bridges Awards recognize individuals across the state who represent what’s best in high school athletics and sportsmanship. Nominations are made by a Citizenship/Sportsmanship Committee and member schools with winners selected by a State Committee. The award will be presented to Weeks at a region meeting Nov. 10 at Hillwood High School. The awards are named in honor of A.F. Bridges, who served as the TSSAA’s first executive secretary 1946-72.

Participants in the 2016 Farm Tour visit the hydroponic lettuce operation at ZMAC Farm. The annual tour is one of the popular agriculture-related activities celebrated at the Farm Tour Banquet. (photo courtesy Dickson County Soil Conservation District)

Tickets are on sale now for the annual Farm City Banquet. Sponsored by the Dickson County Soil Conservation District and the Dickson County Chamber of Commerce Agriculture Committee, the banquet will be at 6:30 pm Thursday, Nov. 17, at the Tennsco Community Center. Tickets are $10 and must be reserved or purchased by Nov. 14. The Farm City Banquet highlights activities and recognizes achievement in agriculture for the past year. The program includes acknowledging people, families and businesses who have made contributions to the economy and quality of life in the county and those who have done an outstanding job in soil and water conservation in their farming operations. It also will recognize the elementary school students who received awards in the annual poster contest and the Land Judging Teams from the local Future Farmers of America chapters. There will be several door prizes. In order to plan for the meal, reservations must be made by Nov. 14 by calling Amy Clifton at the Dickson County Soil Conservation District at 615-446-2449 extension 3. For more information, visit dicksonscd.wordpress.com or the Dickson County Soil Conservation District page on Facebook.

Today is the final day to vote early before next week’s election. Polls will be open 10 am-8 pm Thursday at the Dickson County Election Office in Charlotte and Restoration Church in Dickson. Dickson County’s early and absentee voting turnout set a new record as it hit 8,850 after the polls closed Tuesday. Election officials said there were waits in line up to 45 minutes at the Dickson satellite location while voting was proceeding much quicker with the smaller turnout in Charlotte Wednesday. Anyone in line at 8 pm tonight will be allowed to cast an early ballot. Election officials recommend that absentee ballots be put in the mail no later than Friday to make sure they will arrive at the election office by Tuesday. Absentee ballots must be delivered by mail and cannot be returned in person, by fax or email. Ballots received after Tuesday will not be counted. Polls will be open 7 am-7 pm Tuesday at 17 precincts across Dickson County. All ballots in Dickson County include the races for President, U.S. House of Representatives in the 5^th District and Tennessee House of Representatives in the 69^th or 78^th district. Municipal elections are being held in White Bluff, Burns, Vanleer and Slayden with the only contested races being for two seats on the White Bluff Town Council and for mayor of Burns. Charlotte is holding a liquor-by-the-drink referendum. For more information on early voting, call the Dickson County Election Office at 615-671-1146.

Security camera image of suspect in robbery of Fred’s in White Bluff. (photo courtesy White Bluff Police Department)

Police are seeking help in identifying a woman who robbed a White Bluff business Tuesday night. White Bluff Police Department Chief Mike Holman says he believes the same suspect might have attempted to rob another local business last month. Holman says the female suspect entered the Fred’s store at 4928 Highway 70 E. just before closing at 9 pm Tuesday. The woman indicated she had a weapon and demanded money from a clerk. Holman said the clerk is unsure what kind of weapon the suspect had but she showed what could have been a handgun tucked into her waistband. The clerk complied with her demand and gave the suspect an undisclosed amount of money from the register. Holman said the suspect fled on foot and police have no information about a possible vehicle that might have been involved or her direction of travel. Based on the description of the suspect and her clothing, Holman said he believes the same woman attempted to rob the White Bluff Shell last month. Police released a security camera image from Fred’s showing a suspect wearing a dark jacket, with a hood over her head, jeans and gloves. Holman asks anyone with information on the robbery to call the White Bluff Police Department at 615-797-3131.

Katelyn Hinson

The Family and Community Education Clubs of Dickson County announce that Katelyn Hinson is the first-place winner in the county’s CHARACTER COUNTS! Essay and Artwork Contest. A student at Charlotte Elementary School, Hinson was chosen from 263 entries. She received a $50 cash prize and an FCE stuffed animal – Squeak, the fairness mouse. The theme of the 2016 contest was the characteristic of Fairness. The contest is open to all fourth graders. Second place was awarded to Nathaniel Black and third place went to Whitt Ferrell, both students at Centennial Elementary School. The FCE Clubs of Dickson County are sponsoring the contest again this year. The purpose of the 2017 National FCE Essay and Artwork Contest is to encourage students to understand and practice Caring, one of the Six Pillars of Character as presented by CHARACTER COUNTS!, a project of the Josephson Institute of Ethics. CHARACTER COUNTS! is the most widely implemented approach to character development in the United States. The project promotes basic ethics presented as the Six Pillars of Character, which include responsibility, trustworthiness, respect, fairness, caring and citizenship. There will be cash prizes for first-, second- and third-place county winners. Information about the contest will be distributed to all fourth-grade teachers in Dickson County later this fall. The contest also is open to home-schooled students in the fourth grade. With a mission to strengthen individuals, families and communities through education, leadership development and community service, FCE Clubs meet monthly at various times and locations throughout Dickson County under the direction of UT Extension and membership is open to anyone. For information, contact Extension Director Janet Cluck via email at jccluck@utk.edu or call 615-446-2788.

Dickson County’s unemployment rate rose to 4.6 percent in September. According to the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development report, there were 1,150 Dickson County residents receiving unemployment benefits during the month, pushing the rate up from 4.4 percent in August. The rate for the same period last year was 5.4 percent. Dickson County was one of 46 Tennessee counties that saw an increase in unemployment, while the rate went down in 21 and remained the same in 28. Williamson County continues to have the state’s lowest rate at 3.7 percent while Hancock County is the highest at 8.4. Tennessee’s unemployment rate rose from 4.4 to 4.6 percent in September while the U.S. rate was up from 4.9 to 5 percent. Dickson County has seen unemployment growing slowly since hitting a 15-year low of 3.6 percent in April.

Stephen C. Wallick

A Brentwood-based accounting company claims in a lawsuit that a Dickson accountant copied and stole more than 35,000 computer files and used that information to convince clients who owed them money to pay him directly after he left the firm. The complaint by the Blankenship CPA Group led to an investigation by the 23^rd Judicial District Attorney’s Office, which resulted in 47-year-old Stephen C. Wallick of Richardson Cemetery Road in White Bluff being indicted for stealing more than $60,000. In his answer and counter claim to the lawsuit filed in Williamson County Chancery Court, Wallick denies the allegations of the Blankenship CPA Group and claims it never completed a 2012 agreement to purchase his company. Wallick asserts in his response that Blankenship owes him more than $136,000 and, in a statement on his company website, Wallick says he is owed $175,000 and is filing a suit against the company. As of Thursday, the Williamson County Clerk and Master’s office has a several-hundred-page lawsuit filed by Blankenship CPA Group against Wallick on March 16 and Wallick’s response and counter claim filed April 27. Court records show that a restraining order was issued against Wallick doing business as Stephen Wallick and Associates at 102 Highway 70 East in Dickson to not use any files or information obtained while he worked for the company to contact or solicit clients of Blankenship. Wallick filed a motion in April to delay any action on Blankenship’s civil suit because of a potential criminal prosecution after the district attorney’s office executed a search warrant at his business March 9 and seized computers, external hard drives, USB storage devices, records, files and other documents. That investigation was presented to the grand jury last month, which indicted Wallick for theft over $60,000, a class B felony punishable by 8-30 years in prison and up to a $25,000 fine. The Williamson County lawsuit states Blankenship agreed to purchase Wallick’s tax preparation and bookkeeping business and hire him at its Dickson office in August 2012. It claims the company and Wallick agreed in principle to terms that would include acquiring his clients and paying him a monthly draw against an agreement to set his salary based on a percentage of his billings. It also included a provision that Wallick would agree to a non-compete clause in which he would not solicit clients or practice bookkeeping outside of his duties at Blankenship within 100 miles. While Wallick claims that agreement was never finalized and formally signed, Blankenship claims Wallick agreed to the terms verbally and in emails and moved into the company’s office in Dickson and worked for Blankenship until he resigned Nov. 30, 2015. The lawsuit claims the accounting company discovered Wallick “clandestinely” backed up almost 800 clients’ tax files and copied them to a USB storage. Further investigation showed Wallick allegedly copied over 35,000 company files containing personal and confidential information of Blankenship clients, including many for whom he never did work. The lawsuit further alleges that after leaving Blankenship, Wallick contacted clients who owed the firm money and instructed them to pay him directly, even bartering some of those bills for services including improvements to his home. The lawsuit says an examination of the Google history on Wallick’s company-provided laptop revealed a search for “how to poach your employer’s clients.” Even after the seizure of computers and records from Wallick’s office, the lawsuit says Blankenship is worried he has other copies that he can continue to use. Blankenship claims in emails and phone conversations with senior partners, Wallick said he was prepared for leaving the company because he “had 14 months to get ahead of this situation” and threatened that he is “drawing blood this time” and “taking you down.” The lawsuit claims Dickson police had to remove Wallick from the Blankenship property on at least one occasion and he threatened to hold a press conference with the media in front of its Brentwood headquarters. Blankenship claims that Wallick was overpaid more than $190,000 for his business and in salary and illegally diverted funds owed to the company as well as claims of defamation and extortion. Wallick responds the company was unjustly enriched by failing to complete the agreement to buy his practice and cannot demonstrate it suffered irreparable harm, while being guilty of fraud itself. A judge in Franklin will rule on Wallick’s motion to delay the civil proceedings pending the outcome of the criminal prosecution. Wallick remains free on $5,000 bond with an arraignment in Dickson County Circuit Court Nov. 15.

With a rush of 2,500 voters in the final two days, Dickson County finished the two-week early voting period with a record total of 11,388 early and absentee ballots cast. The final day of early voting with extended hours on Thursday saw a record single-day turnout of 1,461 votes, despite machine problems that temporarily forced officials to use paper ballots. Waits of up to an hour were reported at peak times at the Dickson location in Restoration Church. Combined with Wednesday’s turnout of 1,077, the last two days saw 2,538 votes cast to exceed the old early voting record of 8,711 set in 2012 by 2,677 votes, an increase of 30.7 percent. The 11,388 early and absentee votes represents a turnout of 37.8 percent of Dickson County’s approximately 30,100 registered voters. The number of votes cast prior to Tuesday’s election will continue to rise as the election office receives more absentee ballots by mail. The Tennessee Division of Elections reports 1.6 million early and absentee ballots were cast statewide through Thursday. Cheatham County, which is also in the 78^th District for the Tennessee House of Representatives and the 5^th District for the U.S. House of Representatives with Dickson County, saw 11,235 early votes with just more than 20,000 registered voters. Also part of the 5^th District, Davidson County reports 174,519 early votes. Divided between the 69^th and 78^th state House districts, the Dickson County Election Office has not released how many early votes were cast in each district. The 69^th District includes the western half of Dickson County, all of Hickman County, where 4,623 early votes were cast, and a portion of Maury County, where 24,038 votes were cast but it is not known how many were in the 69^th District race. In recent elections, early voting has accounted for around 50 percent of the total turnout, meaning Dickson County could set a voting record with Tuesday’s election. The previous high for voting is 19,519 set in the November 2008 election when Pres. Obama beat John McCain for his first term. Polls will be open 7 am-7 pm Tuesday at 17 precincts across Dickson County. Your voting precinct is listed on your voter registration card. Absentee ballots by mail must arrive at the Dickson County Election Office by Tuesday. For information on polling locations, call the Dickson County Election Office at 615-671-1146.

Holden Foster

Dickson County High School graduate Holden Foster scored his first collegiate football point when he kicked the point-after following Tennessee’s final touchdown in a 55-0 rout of Tennessee Tech Saturday. A red-shirt junior who walked on with the Volunteers last year, Foster got his first action on the extra point following a 62-yard punt return for a touchdown by Marquez Calloway with under three minutes remaining in Saturday’s Homecoming game in Knoxville. Vols junior Aaron Medley from Lewisburg has been handling all field goals, extra points and kickoff duties for the last three seasons, going 133-134 in point afters. Foster was an All-District goalie for coach Chris Cardona’s soccer team at Dickson County, leading the Cougars to their most successful season ever and first district and region championships in 2012. He earned a soccer scholarship to the University of the South in Sewanee where he started 12 games as a freshman, making 55 saves and giving up 13 goals with four shutouts. Foster transferred to Tennessee and made the roster as a walk-on kicker in spring 2015 but had not seen any game action until Saturday. Following his successful kick, Foster was mobbed by teammates on the sideline. Fellow DCHS graduate Trevor Daniel had three punts for the Vols in Saturday’s win. For the season, Daniel has 54 punts for an average of 44.5 yards. He has 16 punts of 50 or more yards with his longest being 70 yards. Daniel has 21 punts downed inside the 20 with seven touchbacks. Daniel is currently ranked 19^th in the NCAA and fourth in the SEC. For the second season, Daniel is among the 66 FBS punters who are candidates for the Ray Guy Award. The list will be narrowed to 10 Nov. 22 with the winner announced Dec. 8 at the annual College Football Awards on ESPN. DCHS graduate Ben Powlas is a freshman wide receiver on the Vols roster but has not seen any action this season. With Saturday’s win making 6-3 Tennessee bowl eligible, the Vols play Kentucky at 11 am Saturday on the SEC Network and WDKN and The One FM 101.5. Tennessee closes the regular season against Missouri and Vanderbilt and remains in contention for the SEC East title.

Dickson County High School’s record-setting quarterback has been named a candidate for the Tennessee Titans Mr. Football Award by the Tennessee Secondary School Athletic Association. Senior Jacob Murphree is one of four semifinalists for Class 5A Back of the Year announced Friday by the TSSAA. Four semifinalists were named for Back of the Year and Lineman of the Year in six classifications for Division I and two classifications for Division II along with four semifinalists for Kicker of the Year for all classifications combined. Nominations were made by high school coaches and media members. A committee of statewide sportswriters will select the winners. Two finalists for each award will be announced Nov. 15 on titansonline.com. They will be invited to the awards ceremony where winners will be named Nov. 28 at Nissan Stadium. The winners will receive a Mr. Football trophy with the runners-up receiving plaques and all semifinalists receive a certificate. Murphree broke his own school records with 3,200 yards passing and 28 touchdowns as the Cougars went 3-7 in 2016. The other nominees for Class 5A Back of the Year are Knoxville Halls quarterback Caden Harbin, Oak Ridge wide receiver Tee Higgins and Gallatin running back Jordan Mason. Only Knoxville Halls remains in action following the first week of the TSSAA playoffs as Harbin threw for six touchdowns in a 42-21 win over Daniel Boone. Oak Ridge was eliminated 35-21 by Walker Valley and Gallatin lost 35-0 to Independence while Dickson County did not qualify for the playoffs.

After showing the Dickson County Commission how the county can borrow money to build a new school, Mayor Bob Rial will discuss school operations at tonight’s work session. The discussion could include what the school system anticipates its needs will be when it opens a new middle/high school in the Burns area as early as fall of 2019. Rial was present at the Dickson County School Board’s September work session when Director of Schools Dr. Danny Weeks presented a projection of operating expenses for the first three years of a new school for grades 6-12. The proposal is to open Aug. 1, 2019, with grades 6-10 at a projected operating cost of $4.2 million, which includes almost $1.2 million in one-time startup costs. The proposal adds the 11^th grade in 2020 with a projected operating cost of $3.6 million and reaches capacity with a 12^th grade in 2021 with a projected annual operating cost of $4.1 million. The proposal does not include a principal or assistant principals and Weeks has said those costs could be absorbed by reassigning existing administrators. While Rial has shown commissioners a debt projection that indicates the county could borrow $40 million for county projects and $30 million for school projects next year without needing additional revenue, he has consistently told the school board before the county commits to building a school he wants to see the board’s plan for funding operations. While the board has not discussed any formal plan for creating the additional $4 million a year, the agenda for tonight’s county commission work session includes a presentation on school operations by Rial. The work session also includes quarterly financial reports and budget amendments, a proposed amendment to present to the Tennessee General Assembly regarding constables presented by Commissioner and Constable Jeff Eby, accepting Daugherty Lane into the county road system, the proposed holiday calendar for 2017 and county commission committee appointments. All items requiring approval of the commission must be forwarded to its Nov. 21 regular business meeting. The commission’s work session is 7 pm tonight in the Courthouse Annex in Charlotte.

While it is scheduled to vote on doubling its contract for phase IV of the downtown project, the Dickson City Council also is slated to vote tonight on authorizing application for grant funding for phase V. The council is scheduled to vote tonight on amending its engineering contract with Lose and Associates to increase the funding and project scope in phase IV. At a special session three weeks ago, the council approved amending its grant contract with the Tennessee Department of Transportation to accept an additional $832,000 in grant funding for phase IV. Mayor Don L. Weiss Jr. said TDOT had leftover funds after other cities did not use their grants and before returning that money to the federal government asked other cities receiving grants if they are interested in additional funding. The extra money will increase phase IV from $724,000 to $1.55 million with the city’s cost increasing from $181,00 to $404,000 for its 20-percent share and non-reimbursable engineering fees. The additional money will change phase IV from its original plan for improvements on East College Street from Church Street to Poplar Street by extending it to Academy Street. While being asked to approve the amendment to the engineering contract for phase IV, the council’s agenda also includes authorizing the mayor to apply for grant funding for phase V in the 2017 Transportation Enhancement Program cycle. The city opted not to apply for a grant in the 2016 cycle because it had not begun work on phase III and already had funding for phase IV in the bank. Dickson was turned down on its first application for phase IV funding in 2014 because it was still working on phase II and had grant money in the bank for phase III. It applied for and received a grant for phase IV in 2015. Faced with the same potential circumstances, the city decided to skip 2016 and will vote tonight on applying for 2017. The agenda for tonight’s council meeting also includes recognizing three police officers for their efforts in rescuing a man who suffered a medical emergency and drove into City Lake, approval of employee health insurance renewal, an annexation request from Ted Williams, the final draft of Historic District regulations, repairs to the War Memorial Building and a report on the city’s plan to purchase the former site of the Alvin Jones Chevrolet dealership at the corner of College and Church streets. The council meets at 7 pm in Dickson City Hall.

Robert Edward Huse

Because the Dickson County docket is so full and the defendant has been in jail almost four years, a judge has bumped the trial of a woman accused of killing her husband for the trial of a man accused of killing his infant son. During a hearing in Dickson County Circuit Court Friday, Judge Larry Wallace said he postponed the trial of 33-year-old Robert Edward Huse last week because of the sudden death of retired Judge Robert E. Burch on Oct. 28. Huse was scheduled to stand trial Oct. 31 in Charlotte on charges of felony murder and aggravated child abuse for the 2012 death of his two-month-old son. The judge said after learning of the visitation and funeral schedule for Judge Burch, he contacted District Attorney Ray Crouch Jr. and Public Defender Jake Lockert in a conference call Oct. 30 and informed them of his plan to continue Huse’s trial. The judge said both attorneys objected to another delay but he overruled them. Wallace said he is rescheduling the Huse trial for Feb. 6, 2017, which is the date for the trial of 35-year-old Mendy Powell Neal for the 2012 death of her husband. Wallace said because Huse has been in jail unable to make his $500,000 bond since his arrest in April 2013 and Neal is free on bond, Huse’s trial takes priority over Neal’s and will be held Feb. 6. Wallace placed the Neal case on his Nov. 15 arraignment docket to schedule another trial date with defense attorney Olin Baker. Crouch said the delay of Neal’s trial will result in a delay of the trial of 36-year-old January Paige Shelton on 52 counts of obtaining prescription medications by fraud. Shelton is charged with calling in unauthorized prescriptions while working at a local medical practice and Neal is charged with picking up nine of those prescriptions, including one on July 11, 2012, the day her husband, 50-year-old Matthew B. Neal, died in a fire that destroyed their home on Loggins Road in Charlotte. Neal is charged with first-degree murder, felony murder, aggravated arson and nine counts of obtaining prescription drugs by fraud. Crouch has said Shelton’s trial on 52 counts of prescription fraud will “track” Neal’s trial. Wallace also placed Shelton’s case on his Nov. 15 docket to schedule a new trial with defense attorney Mike Flanagan. Huse is now scheduled to stand trial Feb. 6 on charges of felony murder and aggravated child abuse for the Sept. 24, 2012, death of his two-month-old son, Grayson Michael. An autopsy revealed the child died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head. At the conclusion of Friday’s motion hearing, Lockert asked Wallace to order Huse moved from the Montgomery County Jail to the Dickson County Jail to make it more convenient for his office to prepare for trial. Crouch said there is “an issue” with housing Huse in Charlotte but his office would agree to a transfer to the Cheatham County Jail, which Lockert said would be even better since his office is in Ashland City. Wallace agreed to issue an order moving Huse to Cheatham County in advance of his Feb. 6 trial.