Chamber Honors Love-Cantrell Funeral Home with 65-Year Milestone Award

April 11, 2024
By:

The Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce has presented Love-Cantrell Funeral Home with a 65-Year Milestone Award, commemorating their six and a half decades of unwavering commitment to serving the community with compassion, dignity, and professionalism, according to Chamber Director Suzanne Williams

“Founded three generations ago, Love-Cantrell Funeral Home has upheld a tradition of excellence, providing personalized services that honor and celebrate the lives of those who have passed on,” said Williams.

“As they embark on the next chapter of their journey, Love-Cantrell Funeral Home remains committed to upholding the values of integrity, respect, and love that have defined their decades of service to the community,” Williams said

April 10, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

A year ago, DeKalb County General Sessions and Juvenile Court Judge Brandon Cox asked the budget committee to consider funding measures to increase courthouse security. He was back again Tuesday night addressing with them the same issue.

Judge Cox presented to the budget committee his plan for beefing up security in the courthouse which includes, among other measures establishing one main entrance with a full-time security officer and a screening station (metal detector) through which the public enters the building.

Although the county commission is considering construction of a new jail or judicial center, which if approved could still take up to three years to complete, Judge Cox said security concerns at the existing courthouse need to be addressed now.

“On a daily basis here, this courthouse is left vulnerable and the folks who work here are left vulnerable. I challenge you to find another courthouse in the state of Tennessee that you can walk into without being scanned into. I don’t think you can. We are unique in that respect,” said Judge Cox.

“My requests are taken from the National Best Practice Standards for courthouse security. My main ask is that we have a full-time security officer here, that there is one main entrance that the public enters through and that everybody who enters this building is scanned and checked. That will cost money and I don’t know what those numbers are like but its cheaper than the cost of the disaster that’s probably coming down the line,” Judge Cox said.

“We already have the scanners they have to walk through. Ideally, we would have the x-ray machines, but we can work on getting that in the future with some security grants. Ideally, we would also have each and every non-public office space locked down with either a keypad or a key card for only folks that are supposed to be in there. Right now, you basically have free reign when you come in this building, and I don’t think that is safe for anybody”.

“My requests would further be that all entrances and exits be secured and locked except for the main entrance”.

“It is my understanding that this county commission amended the court fees some years ago to include  $25 for each disposed case for court security. Last year the numbers were around 3,200 cases and while not all a good majority of them were disposed with that fee so there are some monies supposed to be set aside for court security. I would ask that you look into that, and a plan be made for that,” added Judge Cox.

The Courthouse Security Request as presented by Judge Cox is as follows:

Main Entrance Issues:
1. Establish one (1) main entrance through which the public can enter the court building. (for ADA compliance, this would of necessity need to be the east entrance with the ramp).

2. Install appropriate signage at the main entrance to alert the public what items cannot be brought into the court building (e.g., guns, knives, mace, scissors, etc.) and that all persons are subject to search by security personnel.

3. All other exterior doors will remain locked at all hours, including business hours.

4. Emergency exit crash bars should be installed on all exterior doors and all exterior doors should be alarmed, with a ten second delay consistent with local codes.

5. Establish appropriate signage for “Exit Only” doors.

6. Set up a screening station, including a Magnetometer at the main entrance.

7. Install or adjust cameras to cover all exterior doors.

8. Implement keycard, coded access to the south entrance (basement level) for approved personnel.

Offices and Work Areas:
1. Implement keycard or coded access to all offices and work areas, with only authorized individuals being permitted access for each such office.

2. Install plexiglass enclosure over all public counters.

3. Install, update all duress alarms.

4. Install doors with glass panes in all mediation and conference type rooms.

5. Install or upgrade security cameras to capture public encounters consistent with maintaining confidentiality in the offices or work areas.

Parking:
1. Provide for judicial and clerk parking toward the south entrance (basement level) of the building, having signage of “RESERVED” and remove all language of “Judge” or “Clerk”, etc.

2. Install security cameras that cover the parking area.

3. Do not permit in-custody defendants to be near the parking area.

Personnel:
1. Provide for one (1) full time security officer to operate the manometer and screen all individuals entering the courthouse.

2. Provide for coordination between the security officer and the court officers present when court is in session”.

The budget committee has not yet acted on Judge Cox’s request.

April 10, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Election Commission is seeking more funding in the 2024-25 fiscal year.

During Tuesday night’s first county budget committee meeting for the year, Administrator of Elections Dustin Estes presented the proposed election commission budget which includes an increase in pay of $25 per meeting to the five election commissioners, who meet monthly, and a two dollar per hour adjustment for the people who help hold elections. Plans are to expand early voting to six hours a day, four of the five days a week during the early voting period and to make the daily hours more uniform.

“I am requesting an increase of $2,500 to pay the election commission for their monthly meeting from $75 to $100,” said Estes.

“For the election commission workers, I am requesting in total (for 2024-25) an amount of $42,000, an $8,000 from the 2023 budget. I would like to make mention based on how the fiscal year operates, every other year we have one election and then the other year we have two elections. We are coming out of one year that has one election and going into the next fiscal year that has two elections. In our 2023 budget, we had $34,000 so in total this is an increase of $8,000. This increase is to help pay for the early voting workers’ hourly rate increase from $10 to $12 that was approved last year, and for extended early voting hours” explained Estes.

“If you are not aware of our early voting hours, they are a little irregular. Mondays are 1-5 p.m., Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are 9 a.m. until 1 p.m., and Thursday hours are 2- 6 p.m. There are four hours each day Monday – Friday. The thought process was that (by having irregular hours) we were capturing different times of the day throughout the week (for early voting). The election commission is now requesting that we have more standardized hours for early voting that helps voters in a way they are not so much confused. We are requesting enough pay increase (for election workers) to cover extended regular hours each day either from 9 a.m. until 3 p.m. or 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. for four of those five days throughout the week,” said Estes.

Saturday early voting hours would continue which in the past have been 9 a.m. until noon.

The budget committee has not yet acted on the election commission request.

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