Corps Contractors Begin Work Inspecting and Repainting Existing Boundary Line

December 13, 2024
By:

Contractors with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Nashville District, at Center Hill Lake Project have begun work inspecting and re-painting approximately 28 miles of the existing boundary line, primarily in DeKalb and Warren Counties, starting near Webbs Camp Road, near the White/Warren County line, and ending near Jefferson Road, near Pates Ford Marina. This routine boundary maintenance does not move present property lines. The work makes existing property lines more visible.

Fortis Industries LLC, a contractor with the Corps of Engineers, uses bright yellow and white paint along with posted signs to mark existing boundary line. The marked trees do not delineate the exact boundary, instead, they “witness” the approximate boundary line. The exact line can only be located by surveying the monuments and pins.

“Painted trees are a guide to locate the physical boundary pins installed in the ground,” said Kevin Salvilla, Natural Resources Manager at Center Hill Lake. “When buying property or planning to build on your land, adjacent to public property, a professional survey is a good investment. Monument pins should never be disturbed from their permanent locations. If you don’t see a pin, please call our office so we can help you correct the situation.”

The contractors will complete work on foot with hand tools. In most cases, the workers will avoid crossing private property. In the event the workers cannot access public land without first crossing over private property, all efforts will be made to contact the owner for permission.

“It’s also important to know the location of the boundary line when removing trees or vegetation from private property, as its illegal to remove trees from public land,” Salvilla said. “Adjacent property owners should remove any personal property items which may have wandered across the government line and pets should not be unattended on public land, especially when workers are present,” Salvilla said. “Work to repaint the government boundary line will continue through the winter and wrap up before spring arrives.”

For any questions or concerns, please call the Center Hill Lake Manager’s Office at 931-858-3125.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at: Center Hill Lake Resource Manager’s Office, 158 Resource Lane, Lancaster, Tennessee 38569.

December 13, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Where does the funding come from to support the DeKalb County School District?

During Thursday night’s regular monthly meeting of the school board, Director Patrick Cripps gave a school funding breakdown from local, state, and federal sources.

“I am going to break down our budget and where our money comes from,” said Director Cripps. “One thing I want to stress is that a majority of our money comes to us from the state and that is right at $24 million. When that money is sent to us it is not designated per school. Each student will generate $7,050. On top of that, students that may have unique learning needs will generate a percentage above that. Unique learning needs vary from how many hours that they may receive services outside the classroom so they will generate a little bit extra money for that,” explained Director Cripps.

“Another source of our income is from our county and that is right around $5.3 million that we get from the county. The next pot of money we get is from grants that we write. Our pre-K program includes four classrooms at Smithville Elementary School and one classroom at DeKalb West School. Those programs are totally funded by the state”.

“In the budget this past year was an innovative school grant for CTE programs and that was right at $500,000 to $800,000 and it was a two to three year grant”.

“Another pool of money we get is from federal dollars,” Cripps continued. “We generate about $2 million total but that is split up with special education money which is around $785,000. And then our Title I,II,III, & IV funding supports our English as a second language programs and it provides our RTI programs that we have at each school. RTI is remediation to intervention. That generates about $1.2 million”, said Director Cripps.

“That $7,050 that each student generates breaks down among different departments including salaries for educators and for bus drivers, purchasing buses, maintenance personnel and projects they do, custodial staff and the contracts we have for them, books, technology, and paying for utilities. All our departments are wrapped up in that $7,050 per student”.

“When the state switched to TISA funding they stopped saying this department is getting a certain amount of money versus other departments. They are now saying you are generating enough for a certain number of teachers. That $7,050 is taking care of all those departments for the county as a whole. Its not that Smithville Elementary gets a certain amount of money and DeKalb West gets a certain amount of money, etc. it is all pooled together and we are to meet the needs of those students at each individual school within the money generated for us,” explained Director Cripps.

“With the new 3rd grade reading law, we have money that is generated to provide support for those students in 3rd grade and also in kindergarten, first, and second grades and for tutoring in 4th grade. That money is divided within the TISA allocations sent to us from the state”

“Looking at our budget, nearly 70% of our budget is salaries. That is the majority of our budget. I have said many times if you are going to get good quality educators, you are going to have to pay them. I do think we have good quality educators. We are always looking to improve in areas we see we need improvement”

“This is how our budget is broken down for our district,” concluded Director Cripps.

Meanwhile in his monthly report on personnel, Director Cripps said Morgan Oyster has been granted a leave of absence as requested and Lori Vandergriff has retired as teacher at DeKalb West School.

December 12, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb Emergency Services Association will once again be delivering Christmas Eve meals in the community.

If you are in need of a meal visit https://www.dekalbesa.com/meal-deliveries/ or call 615-464-0575 to sign up. If you received a meal at Thanksgiving, you are already on the list. If you received a meal on Thanksgiving and do not need a meal or need to change the number, please fill out the form and enter 0 if you no longer need a meal.

If you would like to volunteer to plate or deliver be at the County Complex by 9:30am on Christmas Eve.

As always DESA needs desserts and/or MONEY! You can bring desserts to Adoration Home Health and Hospice in front of the hospital the week before, the night before between 5pm and 7pm, or the morning of. You can donate to the purchase of 400 pounds of ham with all the sides by following the link or at Wilson Bank & Trust.

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