EMS Request for Four New Employees Denied by Budget Committee

May 1, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

No new employees for the DeKalb County Ambulance Service.

Last month, DeKalb EMS Director Hoyte Hale informed the budget committee that he wished to expand the number of EMS staff from the current level of 20 to a total of 24 beginning with the 2024-25 budget year.

During Tuesday night’s meeting, the budget committee denied the request.

By having four more full time employees (preferably paramedics), Hale said the ambulance service could fully staff three Advanced Life Support 24/7 crews (24 hours per day, 7 days per week) including two crews at the headquarters in Smithville and one at the new Liberty Fire Hall. ALS ambulance crews consist of EMTs and a paramedic.

If approved the EMS budget line item for medical personnel would have increased from $775,028 this year to $911,787 next year (fiscal year 2024-25).

First district commissioner and budget committee member Tom Chandler suggested Tuesday night that now is not the time to expand the EMS staff and add to the budget with other issues the county is facing that need to be addressed.

“Prior to last year there wasn’t even an ambulance in Liberty. There is one there now and its there for 12 hours a day. I don’t see any reason at this point especially given the other things like the situation with the jail and school to be expanding that building in Liberty and adding staff to make those 24 hours,” said Chandler.

Chandler later made a motion that the four new EMS positions requested be removed from the proposed budget and that Director Hale re-submit his budget after changing the numbers. The motion was approved on a 6-1 voice vote with member Tony (Cully) Culwell voting no.

Currently, the county has three staffed ambulances but only two operate 24 hours per day every day (ALS) while the other (day truck) is staffed for 12 hours per day every day (Basic Life Support).

“The way we have it split up right now, we have a paramedic truck on top (Smithville) and a paramedic truck in Liberty. If that paramedic truck here in town goes outside the city limits the one in Liberty comes back to town (Smithville). We have the BLS crew, but their call volume has increased greatly because they have been catching 911 calls during that transition of us coming up the hill,” explained Assistant EMS Director Trent Phipps at a previous budget committee meeting.

“Anything (ambulance) with a paramedic on it is an ALS truck. When we have two EMTS on it that’s considered a BLS truck. Their (EMTs) abilities are slightly limited to that of a paramedic. They can’t do as much stuff. If that BLS truck with two EMTS responds to a call, the Liberty truck almost always has to come to them wherever they are in the county and assist them with that depending upon the type of the call,” said Phipps.

“The state requires in my yearly audit that we have an Advanced Emergency Medical Technician (AEMT) with a paramedic on 95% of our calls,” added EMS Director Hale.

“There are no ambulances at the Liberty Station after 8 p.m.,” explained County Mayor Matt Adcock. “The BLS (Basic Life Support) day truck hours are 8:00 a.m. until 8:00 p.m. After the day truck shift has concluded the 12-hour shift, the ALS (Advanced Life Support) truck at the Liberty Station returns to the Smithville Station (station 1),” said Adcock.

Director Hale had also asked for a capital project allocation of $172, 720 for sleeping quarters to be added to the Liberty Station to house the requested third ALS unit providing uninterrupted coverage of the western and northern portions of the county. Although the budget committee has not yet taken up that request (sleeping quarters), members have signaled that they may also cut funding for that in the new budget.

May 1, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Meeting them halfway!

Last month, the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad asked the budget committee to allocate in the 2024-25 budget over $122,000 to replace with used models all the agency’s portable, and mobile radios, and at least four repeaters.

During Tuesday night’s meeting, the budget committee voted 4 to 3 to grant funding for half the request, $61,435 and that the City of Smithville be asked to fund the other half for the Rescue Squad. Voting in favor of the motion were Tom Chandler, Susannah Cripps, Mathias Anderson, and Jeff Barnes. Voting against were Glynn Merriman, Sabrina Farler, and Tony (Cully) Culwell.

Both the county and city annually make a contribution to the Rescue Squad as a non-profit group, since it is not part of county or city government like other emergency services. The county’s annual contribution to the rescue squad has grown in recent years from $11,500 in 2011 to $42,821 this past year. With the action taken by the budget committee Tuesday night, the rescue squad would be getting from the county in 2024-25 a total contribution of $104, 256 which includes half the funding request for the radios.

The City of Smithville’s annual contribution to the Rescue Squad is $3,000. No request on behalf of the rescue squad has been made to the city to help fund purchase of radios this year and the city’s 2024-25 budget is up for passage on first reading Monday night, May 6 with no such allocation.

Rescue Squad Captain Dustin Johnson addressed the county commission’s budget committee in April with the request. According to Johnson, the cost of new radios is more than $400,000 but he could make do with used radios which are cheaper.

“We are not asking for any more money in our budget,” said Captain Johnson. “We just want you to think about our radios. To replace all our radios is something like $400,000 but I have talked to Brad (Mullinax-911 Director) and I have come up with a plan. Starting to come on the market are used radios and I think for $122,870 we can replace all of them and have four repeaters in our vehicles. I couldn’t just go buy them tomorrow, but they are coming online, and Brad said he could buy them when he finds them online. If you (county) have any extra money, think about that so we could get our radios. I hate to go used but sometimes you have to do that,” said Captain Johnson.

If the county can’t fund the total amount of $122,870 in the new budget for the total purchase, Johnson said he would like to see at least some seed money be allocated.

Under an arrangement approved by the county commission earlier this year, a one- time expenditure of $1.3 million is to be made in a joint venture between the county and the 911 board to replace radios for the sheriff’s department and ambulance service through Motorola Solutions, except for the EMS mobile radios the state is going to fund. The Motorola radios are to be under warranty for seven years. The county and 911 are to share the cost with the county contributing $600,000 and 911 to put in $700,000. The purchase of mobile radios for the county’s fire trucks, which can be bought for half price, is also included in this package. Radios for the rescue squad were not part of that deal. The county has also made a regional application for funding through the FEMA Assistance to Firefighter Grant program to fund the purchase of portable radios for the county fire department.

After action on the rescue squad’s allocation Tuesday night, the budget committee approved by a vote of 4-3 the total appropriations to the various non-profit groups for the year 2024-25 which totals $406,946.

Meanwhile, the budget committee unanimously voted Tuesday night to remove from the proposed budget $5,000 in new spending for tablets as requested last month by Commissioner Greg Matthews. The fourth district commissioner wanted each member of the commission and county mayor to have tablet computers instead of having to work off paper documents, especially around budget preparation time.

“I am requesting for us to switch over to tablets and do away with all this paper, ink getting wasted, and time spent for thousands of sheets of paper getting copied and printed every year. It will cut back on a lot of waste and a lot of money in the long run. I don’t know what it would cost yet because there are different prices. There are 14 of us (commissioners) plus the mayor and whoever so we would probably need around 20 tablets. I would like to ask for $5,000 to be put back for the equipment and what doesn’t get spent can be returned,” said Commissioner Matthews.

With no hard numbers available as to exactly how much, if any money, would be saved by going to tablets, the budget committee rejected the request. Commissioner Tony (Cully) Culwell said at a time when the county is facing the possibility of a property tax increase or even a wheel tax to fund a jail/judicial center, he personally did not want any funds for a special consideration (tablets) spent on him.

All action by the budget committee is subject to final passage by the full county commission when the consolidated budget is adopted in June.

May 1, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Tennessee Secretary of State Tre Hargett Tuesday presented DeKalb County High School with the prestigious Anne Dallas Dudley Gold Level Award. The school earned this designation by registering 100 percent of its eligible students to vote.

Student Ambassadors Westin Wright and Dayanna Martinez received special recognition for helping their fellow Tigers go for gold through the support of DCHS Tigers faculty and staff like Principal Bruce Curtis and Government Teacher Ms. Debi Loring DePriest.

The Secretary of State’s office launched the Anne Dallas Dudley Award program for the 2023-2024 school year to promote voter registration among Tennessee high school students. High schools that registered 100 percent of eligible students earned the Anne Dallas Dudley Gold Level Award. High schools that registered at least 85 percent of eligible students earned the Anne Dallas Dudley Silver Level Award.

The award is named in honor of renowned Tennessee suffragist Anne Dallas Dudley, who helped lead the successful effort to ratify the 19th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. On Aug. 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th and final state needed to give women the right to vote.

“We created this award trying to recognize schools in taking the necessary steps to get their students registered to vote,” said Hargett. “This is one of 33 schools in the entire state that got 100% of its eligible students registered to vote. For all of us as Tennesseans and Americans its important to make our voices heard and the most fundamental way we do that in our form of society and our form of government is to get registered and go vote,” he said.

Also on hand for the occasion Tuesday at DCHS was State Representative Michael Hale, DeKalb County Administrator of Elections Dustin Estes, and Election Commission member Kim Luton.

“I am thankful to the Secretary of State and his office and the work they do, first of all for secured elections and doing this recognition for our high schools to encourage students to take part in the election process,” said Representative Hale.

Election Administrator Estes gave special recognition to Ms. DePriest who has helped supervise this student voter registration effort for several years. “I really appreciate Debi DePriest,” said Estes. She was one of my high school teachers. I registered to vote in her class and I appreciate everything she does for the students and for my office. It’s a tremendous help and I really appreciate her,” he said.

“The election commission also wants to recognize Ms. Debi,” said Luton. “She has been here for almost 30 years. She has been one of the best teachers around and has done an amazing job in getting these kids to vote”.

“I am a firm believer in voting,” said DePriest. “ We have always had great success as far as getting students to register. It doesn’t matter who they are we want them to register and they tend to do that in class under my supervision and we turn it into the election commission. We have had that going on for probably 25 years or more now,” she said.

All Tennessee public, charter/private school, and home school associations can participate in the Anne Dallas Dudley Award program.

The Anne Dallas Dudley Award is part of the Secretary of State’s civics engagement initiative to increase voter registration in Tennessee and prepare students to be actively engaged citizens. For more information about the Anne Dallas Dudley Award and other Tennessee Department of State civic engagement efforts, visit sos.tn.gov/civics.