JULY
For the first time in the history of the festival, a mother and daughter competed against each other for the coveted Berry C. Williams Award at the 41st annual Smithville Fiddler's Jamboree in July.
Maddie Denton of Murfreesboro took the junior fiddling title Saturday and went on to clinch Best Overall Fiddler crown in a fiddle-off against her mother, Marcia Denton, also of Murfreesboro, who had won the senior fiddling competition earlier in the day.
Jamboree Coordinator Jack Barton presented the award to the younger Denton at the end of the competition, around 10:45 p.m. Saturday.
The Grand Champion Fiddler crown went to Ivy Phillips of Chapmansboro in the National Championship for Country Musician Beginners, in which children up to age 12 compete in seven categories.
Phillips won the coveted James G. "Bobo" Driver Memorial Award, named for the man who began the youth competition at the Jamboree during the 1980s.
Phillips also won first-place awards for Beginner Buck Dancing and Clogging, and second-place honors in the Beginner Dobro Guitar.
Kyle Ramey of North Vernon, Indiana,  took the Entertainer of the Year Award for the second year in a row.
Entertainer of the Year is presented to the entrant judged best overall among the winners of the dobro guitar, mandolin, five string banjo, and flat top guitar competition.
Ramey not only received first-place honors in all four of those categories, he also placed second in fiddling as well.   
The Smithville Board of Aldermen voted in July  to settle a lawsuit brought by two former city employees for $130,000.
The two men, Kenny Waymon Dyal, Sr. and Christopher Derrick Ferrell, lost their jobs after being charged with theft for allegedly taking scrap brass from the water treatment plant and selling it to a recycler.
Dyal and Ferrell filed the lawsuit against the city in DeKalb County Circuit Court on Feb. 17, 2011, asking for a jury trial.
Dyal was the supervisor of the Smithville Water Treatment Plant and Ferrell was a city maintenance employee and water meter reader.
Dan Rader, the attorney appointed by the city's insurance carrier, recommended that the aldermen approve an offer to settle the lawsuit for $130,000.
The settlement  included $100,000 in city funds, $30,000 from insurance funds, and up to $2,500 for mediator, discretionary, and court costs.   
AUGUST
The body of 36-year-old Waylon Farless, a DeKalb County prisoner who managed to escape from the Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute in August, was found about a mile from the spot where he jumped into the Tennessee River while evading Chattanooga authorities.
Farless was arrested and charged with driving on a revoked license and theft of property over $1,000 after being accused of stealing a trailer from property just off New Home Road.
According to Sheriff Patrick Ray, Farless was transported to the Smith County Jail, where he allegedly tried to harm himself.
Farless was then taken to the hospital in Smith County, underwent a mental evaluation, and was sent to Moccasin Bend.
Chattanooga police said Farless jumped off a roof and climbed a fence and jumped into the Tennessee River in an attempt to escape the facility.
Witnesses told authorities that they saw Farless swim about halfway across the river before calling for help, then going under.
The body was recovered and identified as Farless.
An Aug. 7 double murder  resulted in a December indictment on the charges.
The DeKalb County Grand Jury returned two first-degree murder indictments against 44-year-old David Howard Dixon of McMinnville.
Dixon faces charges that he murdered Ervin Raymon Beacham, 55, and 43-year-old Jose Sagahon Ticante.
According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Beacham was found shot to death on a couch inside his residence on Tommy Harrell Street on Aug. 7, and Ticante’s body was found hidden beneath a tarp in a pile of lumber behind the home soon afterward, also the apparent victim of a gunshot wound.
Dixon was reportedly picked up after the murders, and has been held in the DeKalb County Jail without bond since then on violation of probation and failure to appear charges.
Dixon was apparently already well known to local authorities, having been charged in the past with violations including manufacture and delivery of a Schedule IV controlled substance, possession of a handgun while under the influence, assault, aggravated assault, domestic assault, public intoxication, violation of an order of protection, theft and simple possession in this county.
The voters of DeKalb County elected Scott Cantrell as Assessor of Property in August.
A total of 2,444 voters took to the polls in the Aug. 2 election, with 1,525 casting ballots on election day and 919 during the early voting/absentee period.
Cantrell clinched the Democratic Party nomination in March when he defeated 16-year incumbent Timothy “Fud” Banks 833 votes to 418.
Cantrell faced Republican nominee Mason Carter in the general election, where he garnered 62.9 percent of the vote to win.
Meanwhile, Kevin Hale gave long-time incumbent W.J. (Dub) Evins III a run for his money for the 5th District school board seat, but Evins held out for a win with 55.8 percent of the vote.
Doug Stephens received 173 complimentary votes in his unopposed bid for the 6th District school board seat.
In the five uncontested constable races, Wayne Vanderpool earned 232 votes in the 3rd District. Paul Cantrell clinched the 4th District constable race with 235 complimentary votes. Mark Milam received 307 complimentary votes in the 5th District. Carl Lee Webb garnered 189 votes in the 6th District, while Johnny King earned the 7th District constable seat with 186 complimentary votes.
 A mayor and two aldermen were elected in the Dowelltown city election.
Mayor Gerald Bailiff received 51 votes in the uncontested mayoral race, and Joe  Bogle won an alderman seat with 45 votes.
Michael Kevin Kent qualified as a write-in candidate and won another alderman position with eight votes.
Three aldermen were elected in the Liberty city contest.
Dwight Mathis, Paul Neal, and Jason Ray all ran unopposed, with Mathis and Neal taking 64 complimentary votes and Ray receiving 57.
Richard Mooney, 34, was found not guilty of the murder of 63-year-old Robert “Bob” Senick in DeKalb County Criminal Court in August.
Senick’s body was found in the remains of his burned Liberty home in October 2009.
Mooney, who was represented by attorney Joshua Crain and facing life in prison if convicted, was acquitted after a jury  of eight women and four men found him not guilty of felony murder and theft of property over $1,000 in the death of Senick.
The DeKalb County Grand Jury returned an indictment in November 2010, alleging that Mooney killed Senick during the commission of a robbery, and took  cash and drugs with a value of over $1,000 from Senick’s home.
The defense was reportedly willing to enter a guilty plea to a lesser charge of manslaughter, but the District Attorney General's Office rejected the offer.
Dr. Feng Li of the state medical examiner's office said the fatal wound was probably inflicted with a handgun, but he did not have concrete proof that it was not a rifle or other long gun.
The slug that passed through Senick was never recovered, and no murder weapon was found.
Senick’s body was so badly burned that his remains had to be identified through dental records.
Mooney was returned to jail in Rutherford County, where he is currently serving a 10-year sentence for the carjacking.
 SEPTEMBER
Smithville Police arrested two people in September after they were found with a meth lab in an outbuilding just a few feet from DeKalb County High School.
According to city police, 36-year-old Bobby Pinegar, Jr. and 32-year-old Misty Goff were both charged with initiation of a process intended to manufacture methamphetamine, sale and delivery of a controlled substance in a drug-free school zone, and reckless endangerment.
Smithville Police Officer Chip Avera was reportedly on a routine patrol of the high-school parking lot when he saw smoke coming from the outbuilding, which is on private property adjoining school grounds on West Main Street.
Chief Randy Caplinger and Detectives Matt Holmes and Brandon Donnell of the Smithville Police Department rushed to the scene, and when they knocked on the door authorities said Pinegar came out of the shed.
Police said that when he opened the door they could see a green bottle containing liquid with smoke coming from the bottle inside the building.
Officers said they could also see other meth-lab components inside the shed, including coffee filters, tubing, bottles of unknown liquids, a 20-ounce bottle of a liquid sludge and other items.
Two bags containing the finished product, ready for sale, were also reportedly found at the scene.
OCTOBER
In their quest to end the euthanization of animals at the city animal shelter, members of the Joe Black Effort have reached a temporary agreement with city officials to accept all animals that the shelter takes in into their program.
The Joe Black Effort coordinates with local veterinarians and private citizens to care for abandoned animals.
The organization attempts to find homes for the animals and to save them from the unpleasant alternative.
Effort members acquired a key to the shelter Friday, and transported all the animals to veterinary clinics and foster homes.
“Our intent was not to undermine our city authorities and certainly not to condemn or hurt the present caretakers of the pound,” Joe Black member Rene’ Stufano said. “I believe they were contracted to be there 40 hours a week, which isn't nearly enough time to properly care for the facility. There are 168 hours in a week, which leaves the pound unattended for 128 hours a week.”
Mayor Jimmy Poss and city officials are seeking a permanent solution to the dilemma, and while the city has neither the time nor the resources to operate a “no kill” shelter on its own, many hope that some sort of permanent partnership with the Joe Black Effort can be formed.
“I just want to find a satisfactory solution for everybody,” Poss said.
All parties involved seem to agree that while there is no actual wrongdoing at the pound, the outdated facility is in need of attention.
“I’ll go along with whatever’s right,” said David Summers, the current caretaker at the shelter.
“I believe the city thought it was being taken care of,” Stufano said in her email. “There is no blaming here, no fingers to point, we only need to move forward from here.
NOVEMBER
Smithville voters said no to liquor by a narrow margin in November.
The referendum on whether to allow package liquor sales inside the city limits was defeated with 558 city voters casting ballots “To permit retail package stores to sell alcoholic beverages in the City of Smithville,” while 684 Smithvillians voted  “Not to permit retail package stores to sell alcoholic beverages in the City of Smithville.”                      DECEMBER
A brazen attempt to steal an ATM machine from Jewel’s Market on South Congress Boulevard in Smithville resulted in the would-be thieves abandoning the stolen Chevy Tahoe they used to drive through the front of the store building and flee on foot into a nearby wooded area.
 At last report, the two suspects had not been apprehended.
According to employees of the business, the suspects backed the SUV through the front entrance of the building and attempted to take the ATM machine,which was apparently not operational -nd had not contained cash for some time.
The thieves reportedly tied a chain to the ATM, pulling it outside of the building.
Smithville police officers arrived while the attempt was still in progress and the duo abandoned both the stolen vehicle and the ATM, running into the woods behind the store.
The entire event was captured on the store’s video surveillance system.
The two men’s faces were reportedly covered with ski masks.
Johnny Lynn Hickey, 52, of Liberty, was indicted on one count of vehicular homicide, two counts of vehicular assault, and driving under the influence in December.
Hickey was arrested on Dec. 3 and charged in connection with a June 23 crash on Snow Hill that injured two people and cost one man his life.
The vehicular homicide charge came after the death of 30-year-old Chris Gammons at Erlanger Hospital in Chattanooga on July 9.
Gammons was in the passenger seat of a 2002 Nissan Altima driven by his wife, 32-year-old Cleva Elaine Gammons, along with Troy Bruno, who was reportedly riding in the back seat of the vehicle, when a 2004 F350 driven by Hickey allegedly crossed the turning lane near the Dale Ridge Road intersection and slammed into the Altima.
The accident occurred just before 3:30 a.m.
Chris Gammons was ejected from the Nissan, landing on the highway in front of the vehicle.
Bruno was trapped in the backseat and was extricated by members of the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department's Extrication and Rescue Team.
Gammons and Bruno were both airlifted after the crash.
The other person injured in the wreck was 32-year-old Cleva Elaine Gammons of Smithville, wife of Chris Gammons. Hickey was not seriously hurt.
Hickey allegedly admitted to officers on the scene that he had consumed  four beers.
After allegedly performing poorly on field sobriety tasks, Hickey was taken to the emergency room of the DeKalb community Hospital for a blood-alcohol test and then to the sheriff's department to be booked.