(This is the second in a two-part series summarizing the top local news stories of 2011)
The last half of 2011 passed in DeKalb County with the naming of a new county extension agent, a new CEO for DTC, a new county budget, and more than one dissapearance on Center Hill Lake.
JULY
* Will McMeans of Lester, Alabama won the Berry C. Williams Memorial Award at the 40th annual Fiddler's Jamboree after the Grand Finale Fiddle-Off between the best Junior and Senior Fiddler of the event.
McMeans took the top prize by beating  Senior Fiddling contest winner Don Sadler of Cookeville
Cara Digiovanni of Greenbrier was crowned the Grand Champion fiddler and was awarded the prestigious James G. "Bobo" Driver Memorial Award.
* Two people died and seven others were injured in a two-car  crash in Warren County.
Derrick Reeder, 31, and 24-year-old Brittnay Fitts were killed in the accident.
Injured were 24-year-old Kara Funk and 22-year-old Brandon Byford of Smithville, 24-year-old Tammy Edwards of Woodbury and four juveniles.
According to the THP, Edwards was driving east on Shelbyville Road in a 1995 Ford Mustang while Reeder was heading west in a 1997 Acura.
Edwards' vehicle apparently crossed the center line, hitting Reeder's vehicle head on.
* Michael Barry was named the new director of the local UT Agricultural Extension Service in July.
Barry took over from long-time  county agent Steve Officer, who retired from the position on July 1.
Barry began his career in White County in 1994, then served at the Warren County Extension Office for 14 years before coming to DeKalb.
A Whitehouse native, Barry earned a Bachelor's degree at MTSU and a Masters degree at UT-Knoxville.
AUGUST
Richard Jennings, former Smithville Police Chief and long-time employee of the department who filed suit against the City of Smithville for wrongful termination in 2009, placed his case before the Tennessee Court of Appeals and lost in August.
The lawsuit, filed in DeKalb County Chancery Court in February, 2010 alleged that his termination from the position of police chief was fraudulent, arbitrary and capricious.
 Represented in the suit by Murfreesboro attorney Kerry Knox, Jennings had also asked the court to order the city to restore him to his position with the Smithville Police Department.
On Dec. 7, 2009, the board of aldermen upheld the city discipline board's November 2009 decision to terminate Jennings for dereliction of duties/negligence with four votes in favor of dismissal.
Jennings initially filed suit in federal court, which was dismissed in February, 2010.
Chancellor Ronald Thurman presided over a hearing in September, 2010, and issued a final order in November, affirming the decision of the Board of Mayor and Aldermen “in all respects.”
An appeal was then filed on Jennings behalf with the Tennessee Court of Appeals, who handed down a ruling on Aug. 11, 2011, again affirming the Chancery Court’s ruling in a majority opinion.
Jennings’ suit claimed that the city never established any cause for his termination, that the city violated his constitutional due process rights, and that he was the victim of age discrimination.
Jennings still has the right to appeal  the case further.
* The DeKalb County Fire Department's Insurance Services Office (ISO) service area rating improved from a Class 9 to a Class 6 in August.
The DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department was also recognized as one of Tennessee's elite fire departments for outstanding training achievement for the third year in a row.
The department logged 1,393 training hours and was recognized as a Silver Level fire department in Tennessee for 2010-11.
* The county commission voted 12-2 to increase the overall property tax rate to $1.62 cents per $100 of assessed value, an almost 10-cent increase over the certified tax rate of $1.5214 set by the state.
Five cents of the tax hike was earmarked for the school system and the other five cents will go in to the county general fund.
The  commission unanimously voted down on the school board's budget, which  included an 11.54-cent tax hike for schools and an additional $169,000 in funding from the sales tax/sinking fund.
The commission instead voted 13-1 to adopt a consolidated budget recommended by the budget committee.
* The body of 10-year-old Elizabeth Grace Hathaway was recovered from the Hidden Harbor Marina area of Center Hill Lake after she fell from a houseboat and drowned during a Labor Day boating tragedy.
The body of the child, who was not wearing a life jacket, was near the back of the family's houseboat, which was docked at the marina.
* Craig Gates was named the new CEO of the DeKalb Telephone Cooperative in September.
Gates, a 27-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, began his career in 1984 and previously served as chief operating officer and vice president for Project Mutual; a cooperative in Rupert, Idaho.
OCTOBER
* Nashville surgeon William Coltharp went missing while kayaking on Center Hill Lake on Oct. 2, and has yet to be located.
An empty handgun case belonging to Coltharp was found near the Hurricane boat ramp, and a witness reported that he had seen a man loading a concrete cylinder onto a kayak before paddling away on the day the doctor went missing.
Coltharp's life jacket and laptop were found with his kayak, but the doctor, his keys, nor his cell phone were found.
 * Gerald Wayne (J.B.) Bounds of McMinnville, convicted in the February 1981 shooting of Smithvillian Sherman Wright, was told that he must serve at least two more years in prison before being eligible for another parole hearing.
Four members of the State Board of Pardons and Paroles voted to deny Bounds petition for parole.
Bounds is serving a life sentence for the first-degree murder of Wright, who was shot once in the head  outside a now-defunct video arcade on West Broad Street in Smithville, apparently over a gambling debt.
* The DeKalb County Commission adopted a redistricting plan in October to bring the population inside the seven districts of the county into line with requirements based on the results of the 2010 census.
Some residents who were formerly in a particular district will soon vote in another district, which means that they will have different county commissioners, a different school board member and a different constable representing them.
The commission approved the plan with Director of Schools Mark Willoughby and Election Commissioner Dennis Stanley voting along with the commission.
All 13 commissioners present, as well as Stanley and Willoughby, voted in favor of the plan.
In order to put the districts within a 10-percent deviation population, each of the seven districts required a population of no more than 2,675.
The 3rd and 7th districts had the most people under the old plan, while the 2nd had the least.
The 3rd District had a total of 2,890 residents under the old boundaries, while the 7th District's population totalled 2,881, which makes each of those districts deviation over by 8 percent.
The 2nd District, meanwhile, had only 2,428 residents, putting it under the required population by 9 percent.
* A 21-year-old woman and her 42-year-old stepmother were found dead at an Allen's Chapel Road residence in October, the victims of a shooting and stabbing.
Heather Nichole Eley and her step mother Lori Ann Eley are believed to have been killed by  22-year-old Brandon Michael Gray of  Smithville, the younger woman’s ex-boyfriend.
Gray later died at Vanderbilt Hospital of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, which he suffered when deputies cornered him on Rolling Acres Drive a few hours after the incident.
NOVEMBER
* The 25-year-old man charged with statutory rape for having sex with a 15-year-old girl inside Smithville Elementary School was sentenced to a two-year jail term in November.
Judge David Patterson handed down the the two-year sentence in DeKalb County Criminal Court after Roel Celaya Sosa entered a plea of guilty by information in the case.
Sosa was given credit for time served, and must register as a sex offender.
The girl’s mother told the Review at the time of the incident that she had dropped the minor off to accompany a younger sibling to a Reading Night program at the school.
Sosa, who had told the underage female that his name was Carlos Oliver Aldino, apparently arranged a meeting with her at the school, where they slipped away to a vacant classroom and had sex.
According to informed sources, school surveillance caught the entire incident on video, including the activity in the classroom.
After eluding authorities for more than two months, Sosa, who had by then added Martinez to his list of aliases, was arrested on May 25 by authorities in New Wilmington, Pennsylvania where he was working on a ranch under his newest last name.
DECEMBER
* The county commission narrowly voted to leave beer regulations unchanged in December.
Commissioners failed to adopt proposed changes to the statuteon a 7-7 tie vote.
A motion to reduce the minimum distance requirement from 2,000 feet to 400 feet between beer retailers and places of public gathering such as churches and schools.
The 2,000-foot regulation, the maximum allowed under state law, has not been changed since the county adopted it in 1939.
Fourth District commissioner David McDowell made made the motion to rescind the minimum 2,000-foot rule and change it to 400 feet, the same as the City of Smithville's regulation.
Third District member Bradley Hendrix seconded the motion. But the measure failed to muster the eight votes needed for passage.