Some members of the school board are displeased with the mayor’s office after being turned down for a free traffic study.
The story began in October, when the Board of Education voted to ask the mayor and  city council to formally request the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) to conduct a free traffic study in hope of getting suggestions for relieving congestion near local schools.
The board requested that city officials order a traffic-flow study for the vicinity of DCHS and DeKalb Middle, as well as the Northside Elementary area.
The reading of a letter from the mayor’s office at the school board meeting Thursday night revealed that city officials have denied the request.
 In the letter, dated Nov. 16, the mayor said that he had consulted the city attorney, and that they had concluded that the school board could seek the traffic study through CTAS.
"I have two concerns about this request and I have consulted our attorney about my concerns," Hendrixson wrote.
"Even though in the Smithville city limits, Northside, Middle, and DeKalb County High School are all located on state highways, any physical changes to those highways would be the State of Tennessee's decision,” the mayor continued.
“DeKalb County has access to the sister arm of MTAS. This is CTAS, which does the same for counties as does MTAS for cities.
“Since this is a county organization requesting this to be done, it is my and our attorney's opinion that you should make this request to the county's technical service, CTAS, or maybe even to the Tennessee Department of Safety.
"The City of Smithville is diligent in trying to keep all streets and roadways safe. The patrol division of our Police Department put special patrols on school zones for the safety of all citizens,” the letter concluded.
After some discussion, board members voted to ask county attorney Hilton Conger and city attorney Vester Parsley to contact the County Technical Advisory Service (CTAS) and the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) to sort out exactly which branch of local government should request a traffic study, and from what agency.
School Board Chairman Charles Robinson told those gathered at Thursday night's meeting thathe has spoken to CTAS officials since receiving the letter, and has been told that both CTAS and MTAS would work together to do a traffic study, but the city and county must both request it.
 "I contacted CTAS and talked to the assistant director, Robin Roberts, and he reports that he has spoken to Rex Barton, who is the one who would do the traffic study with MTAS,” Robinson said.
“Their recommendation is that Mr. Barton, along with Mr. Roberts, and the CTAS people who make recommendations to county law enforcement, do a traffic study with the City of Smithville and the School Board.
“It would be of no cost to the county government or to the city," he concluded.
Fifth District board member W.J. (Dub) Evins, III expressed concern that the city refused order the study.  
“I don't understand why this is such a hot potato and no one wants to deal with it,” Evins said.
“We are not in the policing business. We should be completely out of this. There are issues between the city and county that are of much more magnitude than what we're talking about here,” he opined.
“We're asking the city of Smithville to ask for a free study and they are basically refusing to do that. Is that my understanding? " Evins asked.
"Yes," was Robinson’s response.
"We had a right to request it, but we should not have to request it,” Evins continued. “That should be something that the city should be willing and eager to do especially since its free.
“This is nothing. It’s just asking for a study for the safety of our 2,800 students in this system and the 35 buses that are coming in and out of there and the other parents that are bringing 1,000 students to school each day. Out of the 2,800 there's approximately 1,800 to 1,900 on buses.
“There's another 1,000 that are being brought to school by their parents or driving themselves and we're asking for a study to determine the safety of the transportation of these students. That should be quite simple," added Evins.
Robinson first wrote a letter to Rex Barton, police management consultant for MTAS, requesting a traffic study in August and Barton responded in a September letter, telling Robinson that the request would have to come from the city of Smithville.
"MTAS exists to provide consulting services to Tennessee cities,” the letter read. “The schools you reference are in the city of Smithville, but the city will have to make the request for the traffic study.
“I am copying this letter to Mayor Taft Hendrixson to ensure he is aware of your request,” Barton wrote.
According to Director of Schools Mark Willoughby, the board followed the path that they had been advised by MTAS in asking the city to request the study.
"We made a request with MTAS,” Willoughby said.
“We were directed indirectly by some people from the Department of Safety to do this. We made that request and after making that request MTAS said since it was in the city of Smithville, then the city of Smithville should make that request. We asked the mayor to make the request and we're at the same place that we were. It needed to come through the city and we still don't have our study done," the director finished.
Willoughby also called for cooperation between city and county offices and the board in getting the matter resolved.
“I realize nobody wants anybody to get hurt and we want all of our children to be safe, so surely we can get both entities to work together and say we want to do this study,” said the director.
“It’s going to be no cost to anyone. Now they might recommend something that's going to cost some money and then we'll have to decide if somebody is going to pay for it or not going to pay for it. But just getting a recommendation that's free shouldn't be a problem," Willoughby said.
Fourth District board member Billy Miller made the motion to ask the city and county to contact CTAS and find out how to get the study done properly.
The motion was amended to request that the city and county attorneys respond to  within 30 days with their decision.
Meanwhile, Willoughby gave his monthly personnel report to the board.
Employed by the school system since since the last board meeting are Carl Malone, as a custodian at the high school; Thomas Fitts, as a substitute bus driver; and Pam Baines, as a cafeteria manager at Northside Elementary School.
DCHS teacher Melvin Young will resign as of February.
The board gave its approval to a request to offer new classes at DCHS in the Career and Technical Education Department for the 2012-13 school year, including Culinary Arts I, II, and III;  Computer Applications; Interactive Multimedia Presentations; Web Design Essentials; Web Design Applications; Banking and Finance;  Calculus 2; Linear Algebra; and Multivariable Calculus.
The board will conduct its yearly evaluation of the director on Jan. 12 at 5:30 p.m. followed by the regular meeting at 7 p.m.