Downtown Home Extensively Damaged in Late Night Fire

July 26, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

A midnight fire Friday gutted a home under renovation downtown Smithville.

The home, owned by Mitch Hodge, is located on West Webb Street near the public square.

Smithville Fire Chief Charlie Parker said the fire was reported to E911 dispatchers at 11:40 p.m. by a passerby who spotted smoke coming from the home which was unoccupied at the time.

The Smithville Fire Department sprang into action accompanied by officers with the Smithville Police Department, and DeKalb EMS. A crew from Smithville Electric System also responded to cut power to the house.

When firefighters arrived, flames were coming out of the windows of the home and the blaze had spread to the second floor and attic. Firefighters worked to contain the fire, keeping it from spreading to other areas. The house and all of its contents were thought to be a total loss.

Chief Parker said it appears the fire started in a front room on the first floor of the home but the cause has not been determined. No one was injured.

July 25, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County landowners will see no increase in their property tax rate this fall.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission adopted the tax rate and consolidated budget for the 2022-23 fiscal year as recommended by the budget committee.

The county property tax rate is to remain the same at $1.7308 per $100 of assessed value and distributed to the various funds as follows:

County General: 0.9891 cents
Highway/Public Works: 0.0326 cents
General Capital Projects: 0.0734 cents
General Debt Service: 0.1060 cents
General Purpose Schools: 0.5298
Total property tax rate: $1.7308

The new consolidated budget includes pay raises for county employees and others along with teachers and school support staff as well as an allocation of funding for bonuses and various projects from the county’s $3.98 million share of federal American Rescue Plan Act funding. The county received authorization to draw down $1.9 million of the total ARP funding last summer for the 2021-22 fiscal year and the rest is expected to be drawn down this fiscal year (2022-23). Although the county currently has $1.7 million in available ARP funds to spend the commission Monday night voted to hold up on making any further expenditures toward projects they have already identified and committed to until the rest of the ARP money is received from the federal government.

The county commission has obligated ARP funding totaling over $2.4 million but has actually spent only $272,799 as of June 30, 2022. As of this date, the county would have an ending ARP fund balance of more than $1.2 million by June 30, 2023.

Funds for the following projects will be spent, as approved in the 2022-23 budget at no costs to the county once all ARP funds are received:

*Fire Department: $350,000 toward construction of a new three bay Liberty/Dowelltown fire hall to improve firefighting and EMS services in the western portion of the county. Under the plan the current Liberty Fire Hall located in downtown Liberty will be replaced by the new Liberty/Dowelltown Fire Hall to be constructed on an 8.65-acre site formerly known as the old Liberty/Dowelltown Park off Highway 70 on West Main Street, owned by both municipalities, which is no longer in use. The new Liberty/Dowelltown Fire Hall could also serve as an EMS satellite station.

*EMS-$88,642 for 4- Stryker Lucas chest compression devices and $96,657 for 3-Zoll heart monitors.

*Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad- $50,000 for an underwater camera, $7,000 for a raft, and $6,500 for a drone

*DeKalb County Clerk’s office- $26,000 for a BIS outdoor self-service (vehicle registration renewal) kiosk

*DeKalb Health Department- $398,000 as a local grant match for construction of a new county $3.9 million health department center to be funded mostly by the state.

*DTC Communications- $750,000 toward a grant match to help support completion of a fiber infrastructure build in portions of DeKalb County.

* Water Utilities- The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is providing $3,730, 767 in funds to the county to be used strictly for water and sewer needs and distributed on an 80/20 grant match basis per project. TDEC will fund 80% of the match with the remaining 20% to be provided by a local source. The county has allocated $373,000 in ARP money to fund 10% of the 20% local match per project with DeKalb County water utility applicants to fund the other 10%. For example, if a utility applied for a one-million-dollar water project, TDEC would supply 80% of the funding while the county’s ARP funds would support half of the 20% local match or 10% while the utility would have to agree to fund the remaining 10% match.

Other ARP funded projects included in the budget are as follows:

*County Complex Renovation: Re-locating County Complex Main office closer to the front door- $20,000

*Liberty Tennis Court Renovation: $18,000

*DeKalb Fire Department Brush Truck Purchase: $220,000. The county currently has only one brush truck

*Bonuses or Premium Pay for County Employees: Under the plan, which has been approved with passage of the budget,  a total of $372,818 of ARP funds will be distributed to county employees and volunteers. Employees of the county general department will receive a bonus including 75 full timers at the full amount of $2,500 each for their service through the 15-1/2 month pandemic period of March 13, 2020 to June 30, 2021 . Eight full timers will get a prorated share at $166.67 per month for the time they worked for the county during a portion of those 15-1/2 months. To qualify for the money, all bonus recipients must still be employed by the county and no one who works for more than one county department will be allowed to double dip. The bonus pay will also go to 56 part time county general employees at $1,250 each along with nine health department employees. Twelve employees of the county highway department will receive the full bonus of $2,500 each while five will get a prorated share. Twenty-nine county volunteer fire fighters will receive either $350 or $300 each based on training attendance during the 15-1/2 month pandemic period and 15 members of the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad will receive a share of the bonus for meeting certain criteria. The plan was presented to the full county commission last month (June) for approval and although it received six votes in favor and two against the proposal fell short of the eight votes needed for passage.

Aside from ARP funded projects, other budget highlights as approved by the county commission include the following from the School Budget, County General, Capital Projects, and Non-Profit Charitable contributions:

*Pay raises- Under the plan employees of the Circuit Court Clerk, Trustee, Register of Deeds, County Clerk, Assessor of Property, Clerk and Master, and Administer of Elections will receive step raises at a percentage of $82,396 per year, which is what all these public officials will earn next year except for the county mayor who is paid more and the administrator of elections who is paid less. The starting pay in year one for new employees will be at $32,134 and top out after 30 years at $46,142. In addition to the scheduled step increases, salaries of all employees of these offices will automatically increase at the same percentage as their employer (office holder) when he or she gets a raise by the state. The two employees of the county mayor’s office will receive step raises at a percentage of $95,168 which is what the salary of the county mayor will be next year and top out after 30 years. As with the other employees, the county mayor’s staff will automatically receive the same percentage increase in pay by the county as the county mayor’s percentage salary increase when he gets a raise by the state. Meanwhile, the wage scale for full time library employees, the senior citizens center directors, and custodians will be updated . Under the plan, these employees will receive step raises at a percentage of $82,396 per year and get the same percentage increase in pay by the county as the percentage given to county office holders by the state. Pay for part time personnel will go from $10 to $12 per hour. The sheriff’s department and DeKalb EMS currently operate under their own pay scale systems previously established by the county and will not be affected by these plans.

*EMS: Pay raise of a dollar per hour to be applied to the existing EMS wage scale which tops out at 20 years of service for full time Paramedics, $2.00 per hour increase for full time Critical Care staff, and a $3.00 per hour increase in pay for part-time staff. DeKalb EMS staffs 2–24-hour trucks and a day truck seven days a week from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m. EMS staff operate on a 24/72 schedule meaning they work 24 hours on duty and 72 hours off duty.

*Fire Department
– Existing shared county firefighter position pay to increase from $15 to $15.75 per hour. No one specific individual holds the 40 hour per week position. Available county firefighters, who are trained and certified, rotate in and out of the position as needed. No one works more than 24 hours per week.

-Funds for 5% grant match ($5,400) to purchase 70 new sets of turnout gear and a 5% grant match ($45,300) to purchase a new Quint fire truck pumper equipped with a short aerial. If the grants are not awarded then the local grant match funding would not be spent.

*Judicial Commissioners: $1,000 increase in pay for each of the three judicial commissioners which is currently $13,900 each per year. This will be the third and final installment of the judicial commissioners’ overall three year pay raise request.

*Full-time technician with the DeKalb County Soil Conservation District. The county has budgeted $38,817 including salary and benefits but will be reimbursed $21,000 by the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) and the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The actual cost to the county will be $17,817. The new employee will help the district provide more services to local farmers and landowners. The new hire will be a county employee but serve under the direction of the DeKalb County Soil Conservation District Board of Directors. Currently DeKalb County has one district employee that is the secretary/office administrator.

*Health Insurance: Due to rate hikes and mandates of the Affordable Care Act the county is budgeting an increase of $76,800 in the amount it pays toward health insurance for employees under its group plan. The contribution will go from $350 to $450 per month to meet the federal mandate in covering 64 county employees enrolled in the plan. Under the law, the lowest paid full-time county employee cannot pay more than 9.565% of their salary for insurance.

*Schools: The Board of Education is funding a pay raise of $2,000 per teacher and other certified personnel (227 employees) and a $1,000 increase in pay for support staff (173 employees). Half of the ($2,000) increase for teachers is coming from the state and the rest ($1,000) for educators and support staff will be funded locally including plans to absorb projected increases in employee health care premiums.

*Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad: $2,500 increase for fuel expense. The county’s total contribution to the Rescue Squad, a non-profit organization, has been $38,321 but will go to $40,821.

*Sheriff’s Department- The Sheriff’s Department has been awarded a $264,446 Facilities Confinement Grant through the Tennessee Department of Health to purchase 4 new patrol cars, a booking system, HVAC units, and laptops for the cruisers with no local match requirement for the county. The department will also contract out its food service to a private company rather than continue the operation in-house.

The 2022-23 county budget includes the following spending from the Capital Projects Fund:

*Fire Department:

-Carryover funding of $80,000 already allocated but not spent from this year’s budget (2021-22) as a local grant match for the purchase of a new tanker under the Community Development Block Grant Program. The grant has already been awarded the county but the tanker has not yet been delivered.

-Funding of $10,000 to add unisex restrooms at two fire stations (Temperance Hall and Belk stations). Rooms will be enclosed within the existing fire stations consisting of a toilet and pumping system to an outside tank. There will be no septic system.

-Another $25,000 in seed money ($100,000 total) allocated to eventually build a fire department station in the Wolf Creek Community.

*EMS: Purchase of new ambulance $225,000

*EMA- $14,000 to purchase a RadarOmega system to provide high quality NEXRAD/TDWR radar data to keep the community alert to rapidly changing weather conditions and for an interoperability radio box to allow public safety personnel to better communicate by radio with users from other agencies or departments especially during times of emergencies.

*Sheriff’s Department: $65,000 – One patrol car (capital projects fund) and truck for litter pickup (partially funded from litter grant).

* Solid Waste-$250,000 for solid waste rollback truck; purchase of used pickup truck, $125,000 for dumpsters and compactors, $100,000 ($50,000 of which is carried over from last year) to replace a couple of convenience site buildings and to supplement a state grant for paving at the county complex, EMS, and 911 parking lots and around convenience site locations and a few fire department stations

*Courthouse: Remodeling first floor courtroom of courthouse- $60,000

*County Complex sign: $40,000 ($20,000 of which is carried over from last year)

Non-Profit Contributions:
Tennessee Forestry Division- $1,500
Plateau Mental Health- $7,180
Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad- $40,821
Senior Citizens- $80,645
Soil Conservation-$84,596
Chamber of Commerce-$25,000
Imagination Library-$12,000
Veterans Honor Guard-$1,500
DeKalb County Fair-$5,000
WCTE: $5,000
UCHRA: $9,717
Total: $272,959

July 25, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb Animal Shelter is commemorating the Dog Days of Summer by offering a pet adoption special this week, July 25-30.

Adopt any dog or cat at the DeKalb Animal Shelter and your adoption fee is only $32.

Need a little help making your selection? How about “Elaine”?

A five-year-old Boxer Mix, “Elaine” is the WJLE/DeKalb Animal Shelter featured “Pet of the Week”. She is also currently the longest serving pet resident at the shelter and needs a forever home as soon as possible.

“Elaine has been with us since December. She came from a really bad situation but we and other volunteers have worked with her and she has come a long way. Elaine is well mannered and great on a leash. She seems to be potty trained and does really well outside. She doesn’t make a mess and sits patiently waiting for her food every morning. Elaine is an all-around good girl. She has been spayed, heart worm screened, micro-chipped, and vaccinated. We really want to find her a home,” said Shelter Director Emmaly Bennett.

Visit our website at https://www.dekalbanimalsheltertn.com/ and fill out and submit an adoption application and we will call you to come in and meet Elaine,” said Bennett.

The shelter is open Monday-Friday from 8 to 4 and Saturday from 8 to 12 on Transfer Station Road behind Tenneco Automotive.

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