County Asked to Fund Addition of EMS Sleeping Quarters at New Liberty Fire Station

April 28, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

EMS sleeping quarters at the new Liberty Fire Station.

DeKalb EMS Director Hoyte Hale is asking the budget committee to make an allocation from the county’s capital projects fund in the 2024-25 budget to add sleeping quarters to the Liberty Fire Station which opened last November.

During Thursday night’s meeting, Director Hale informed the budget committee that he has obtained a quote from Tim Pedigo, who built the fire hall, for $170,720 to make the addition to the building. Hale has also requested that $14, 170 be included in the budget to fund a generator for the new fire hall.

According to Director Hale, sleeping quarters will be needed at the Liberty station should the county budget committee grant his previous request to add four more full time employees (preferably paramedics) in order to 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 24/7 ALS crew at Liberty. ALS ambulance crews consist of EMTs and a paramedic.

“Sleeping quarters would allow an ALS unit to remain at the Liberty Station 24/7 providing uninterrupted coverage of the western and northern portions of the county. This would have a significant impact on the towns of Dowelltown, Liberty, and Alexandria,” said County Mayor Matt Adcock.

Two years ago, the county allocated $382,912 in American Rescue Plan Act funding to build the Liberty Fire Hall, a district station, which sets on an 8.65-acre site in the city limits of Liberty owned jointly by the towns of Liberty and Dowelltown and once used as a recreation park off Highway 70 on West Main Street. Leaders of both towns last year entered into a 99-year lease agreement with the county to use this property for the fire hall which is 55’ x 60’ in size and has bays to house a fire truck, tanker, brush truck, and an ambulance. The facility also has a restroom along with an unfurnished room intended for use as an office or dayroom/sitting area.

Meanwhile, Director Hale has also asked the budget committee to allocate $260,000 for a new ambulance which would include the cost of a power loading system. He also wants the county to add $9,964, the cost of purchasing and installing a new mobile radio for an ambulance being bid out this year.

The EMS is awaiting arrival of two ambulances for which funding has previously been allocated. Until the county takes delivery on them, funding authorized but not yet spent will be rolled over to the new budget including $225,000 for one ambulance due to arrive in December and $352,497 for another unit which was funded by a Community Development Block Grant with a 16% grant match by the county of $67,142. This ambulance is to be equipped with a Stryker automatic loading system, Pro 2 ambulance cot, Stryker Stair Chair, Zoll heart monitor, Stryker Lucas chest compression device, and ventilator.

The budget committee has not yet acted on EMS Director Hale’s request.

Sheriff Patrick Ray also addressed the budget committee Thursday night with his capital projects requests which is for four new patrol cars totaling $165,000.

The budget committee has not yet acted on Sheriff Ray’s request.

April 26, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

A new county fire truck!

During Thursday night’s meeting, County Fire Chief Donny Green asked the budget committee to allocate from the county’s capital projects fund in the 2024-25 budget year $425,000 for a new or demonstration (with warranty) fire engine.

With the support of the County’s Health, Education, and Public Welfare Committee, Chief Green laid out for the budget committee the three most immediate priority needs of the county fire department and a new fire truck is first on the list followed by the need for 75 portable radios for the new TACN system if not funded by a grant and an additional allocation of funds to put toward a proposed new public safety building to house a fire truck in the Wolf Creek Community.

“After considering the greatest needs of the DeKalb County Fire Department and receiving concurrence with the Health, Education, and Public Welfare Committee at our April 4 quarterly committee meeting, we are recommending these immediate priority funding requests to the Budget Committee for capital projects that will provide the most critical overall benefits to the communities we serve”, said Chief Green.

According to Chief Green, the county has not invested in a new fire truck since 2012 and its important to do so occasionally to stay on a replacement schedule.

“The first immediate priority need, as recommended by me and the Health, Education, and Public Welfare Committee is a new fire engine in the amount of $425,000,” said Chief Green. “That is not a fire engine that we would specify. Its one we would probably have to buy that is a spec unit already built. The reason we would probably go with that is it will probably take way less time to get one of those delivered as it would if we ordered one with our detailed specifications. I have talked to three manufacturers and the turnaround time to get one of those after placing an order is anywhere from 18 months to 24 months,” said Chief Green.

“The last time the county bought a new fire truck was 2012. We have 11 of our 17 front line apparatus that are over 20 years old but I don’t pretend that all 11 of those need replacing right now. I don’t really go by age or even miles on them. I look at functionality of the truck and how long we can make it work,” Chief Green explained. “We are not too good to buy used trucks. Most of our fleet came from used apparatus but in this replacement cycle we have to occasionally put in a new truck or we will have all of our fleet at one time that becomes very aged. That is the reason I am asking for a new truck this year. Two years ago we got a Rural Development truck on a grant and that helped in our fleet but we are a large department with 12 stations and a lot of apparatus we need to keep a rotation on. We cannot continue to have across the board old apparatus and if we do we will hit the wall at once and have to start looking to buy five or six trucks at a time instead of one,” Chief Green continued.

“I haven’t asked for a new fire truck in a while but I think its time. This would be a spec truck. A general truck. If we were to spec one and order specifically like we would want it designed the price would be over $500,000 so we are trying to be as efficient and conservative as possible in asking for a new truck and keep it as basic as possible while still having the functionality we need for a new fire truck,” said Chief Green.

If the county funds the purchase of a new fire truck, where would it be stationed?

“The way we place our trucks, we have an order based on which station is due to get the next truck, how old their truck is, and if they have ever had a new truck in their station before. This truck would be due to go to the Cookeville Highway Station. That station has never had a new truck. They have always had the hand me downs. All the five original stations that were started in 1975 have all at some point received a new truck except for the Cookeville Highway Station,” said Chief Green.

With a new fire truck, one of the older engines could be used to replace the department’s reserve truck that is now out of service.

“Our reserve engine that we have right now has been out of service for over six months,” explained Chief Green. “It’s a 1987 truck that we got from Brentwood when Mike Foster was County Mayor but we cannot find parts for it now. When we had our last fleet apparatus check done that we do annually through a third party company, they failed the truck and told us to not put it back on the road so we don’t have a reserve truck,” said Chief Green.

“ISO (Insurance Services Office) gives us points in our insurance rating for having a reserve apparatus in our fleet, so we need to have a reserve truck. Operational wise, if I have any one of our 12 stations fire trucks go out of service without a reserve truck, I don’t have a spare to slide in and take care of that which happens frequently. Last year we had an engine go down and we were without it for about eight months and that station was without coverage. Its important to have a reserve truck especially for a fleet our size with 12 stations that covers 305 square miles. This new fire truck will let us take one of our oldest apparatuses out of service, put it into reserve status, and get rid of the old reserve truck that is not working,” added Chief Green.

The budget committee has not yet acted on Chief Green’s request.

April 26, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

If you didn’t beat the February 29 deadline in paying your 2023 DeKalb County property taxes you need to settle up. But now you have to add interest accruing at 3% or 4.5% as of May 1.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, Trustee Sean Driver informed the county commission that as of Monday (April 22) collections were at 94.75% of almost $12.8 million in DeKalb County property taxes to be collected for the 2023 year which includes property, residential, commercial, personal, and public utility taxes. Collections as of that date (April 22) a year ago were 95.27%. For budgeting purposes, the county expects tax collections each year to be at least 95.5% with a 4.5% delinquency.

As a further reminder to delinquent 2023 property taxpayers, Trustee Driver said 1,700 notices will be mailed from his office on May 1 in an effort to collect the $666,326 still owed for the 2023 tax year.

Meanwhile, Trustee Driver said that on April 5th he turned over to the Clerk and Master in the Chancery Court a total of $81,127 in 2022 delinquent property taxes still owed. The collection rate for 2022 stands at 99.28% of the $11.2 million to have been collected for the 2022 tax year.