Election Commission Seeks Approval to Eventually Relocate Office from Courthouse to County Complex

August 18, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Electing to move?

Amid calls by some for stronger security measures at the courthouse and due to the need for more office and storage space itself, the DeKalb County Election Commission is seeking authorization from the county to eventually move it’s operations from the first floor of the courthouse to unused space at the county complex.

During a meeting of the county commission’s public works committee Thursday evening, Administrator of Elections Dustin Estes made the formal request on behalf of the election commission and explained the reasons for wanting to make the move.

“I am here on behalf of the DeKalb County Election Commission to formally request to move our offices from the courthouse to the complex,” said Estes.

“Why make this move? There is a strong effort to lock down the courthouse to a single point entrance with security screenings but that does not work for the type of traffic we have to our office especially during early voting times,” Estes explained.

“We are also outgrowing our limited office space at the courthouse, occupying shared space including the lower court room which we use for early voting and for our trainings, meetings, etc. Further, parking is limited around the courthouse and voters have to compete for parking especially during days of court”.

According to Estes, the election commission proposes moving to a larger space in the county offices portion of the county complex down the hall near the Assessor of Property office toward the rear of the building. That office is currently unfinished but if and when completed, Estes said it could suit the election commission’s needs.

“We want to have enough space to function properly and provide better accessibility and a more conducive work environment. We also want to keep our offices in close proximity to where early voting occurs in case there are any potential issues with voters should they need to update their addresses, etc.” explained Estes.

Administrator Estes provided the committee with an initial floor plan for how the large space could be renovated by adding walls and doors to create smaller offices for the administrator and deputy administrator, rooms for meetings, trainings, and early voting, and a place to keep election records, supplies, and storage of voting machines and equipment with a complex IT closet.

Even though the county complex has been in operation for 12 years, this particular room, originally intended for use by the county mayor’s office was never finished.

Estes said this room has no drop ceiling. It needs flooring with tile and while there are electrical outlets there are none for telephones. HVAC in the room is also not completely finished.

The committee voted to request that the county mayor seek estimates on renovating the office based on the election commission’s initial floor plan proposal but stopped short of making a final recommendation for approval until the estimates come in and a determination is made as to whether funds are available to do the work this budget year.

Even if approved, a relocation of the election commission office would still be months away and the public would have to be oriented on the layout and accessibility of the new location.

Meanwhile, Kim Luton, member of the election commission addressed the committee asking that some cleanup and repairs be done to community centers, especially those that serve as voting precincts.

“Some of our community centers are in terrible shape,” said Luton. At Temperance Hall during the election, we found trash in the building and even a snakeskin. Our poll workers cleaned it. The grass was extremely high, but somebody had mowed it this week. The Johnson’s Chapel community center is in the worst shape. There the handicapped ramp is coming out from the wall, the rails are down, and the sidewalks are buckled. We are just asking that you get some of these community centers in shape for the November election to make it easier for voters to access”.

“We have a person bid out to mow all county properties,” said County Mayor Matt Adcock. While he could not assure that all needed community center repairs could be done by the November election, County Mayor Adcock said he would have County Public Works Director Brian Reed take a look at it.

“I am absolutely ashamed of the condition that the community centers were in during the election, and I apologize for that, but we are going to take care of it,” said Reed, who has only been on the job as Public Works Director for a few weeks.

August 18, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

A joint undercover drug investigation over several months by the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, Smithville Police Department, and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has resulted in grand jury indictments against several persons accused of illegally selling narcotics including methamphetamine.

A special session of the DeKalb County Grand Jury met last Monday, August 12 to consider cases presented by both departments and the TBI. Sealed indictments were returned in those cases.

Several defendants have already been arrested and more arrests are forthcoming. The arraignment date for them in criminal court is August 21.

“Chief Mark Collins and I met earlier in the year and formed this task force in order to combine our resources and for each department to know what the other was doing regarding drug investigations. We will continue that effort and use every resource we have to stem the flow of drugs in DeKalb County. We are proud to be working together,” said Sheriff Patrick Ray.

According to the sheriff, drug roundups have to be managed better these days due to the lack of available jail space.

“With only 52 certified beds, a challenge we have at the jail is to not go over that amount and have to put prisoners on the floor. In this case, we had to do some maneuvering. We also had to restrict some of the indictment arrests because we can’t just go out and pick up 50 or 60 people at one time because it would cause overcrowding,” said Sheriff Ray.

“We currently have 27 inmates that are farmed out to other jails, and we are paying from $45 to over $55 per day per inmate and at an average of $50 per day per prisoner with 27 inmates that comes to $1,350 per day to taxpayers and over a 30-day period its over $40,500 per month,” Sheriff Ray explained. “ Its very expensive housing inmates out of the county. We still have to leave bed space open for arrests made daily such as for DUI’s and public intoxication’s, etc. We also have quite a few people who are on medical watches in our holding cells and probably some of these new arrests (from the drug indictments) will have to be put on a medical watch because they will likely be coming off the drugs they are on. It’s very challenging for us here at the jail to be able to do drug roundups like this but we have to still fight the drug and crime problems and if we should go over our 52-bed capacity, it’ll have to be that way. We can’t stop doing our job,” added Sheriff Ray.

Arrests made from the drug indictments last week are as follows:

55-year-old Alphonso Dewayne Maynard of Restview Avenue, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) under 0.5 grams. His bond is $75,000. Offense date November 29, 2023

50-year-old Shawn Edward Soales of Blue Springs Road, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams. His bond is $125,000. Offense date November 28, 2023

37-year-old Rickey Wilbert Hendrixson of Midway Road, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams. His bond is $125,000. Offense date January 24, 2024

30-year-old Richard Wayne Norrod of Calhoun Street, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) under 0.5 grams. Bond $125,000. Offense date November 29, 2023

65-year-old Ricky Lee Dowell of Wade Street, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams and sale and delivery of a schedule III drug (Buprenorphine). Bond $150,000. Offense date February 20, 2024

32-year-old Joshua McAllen Beckham of White Street, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams (3 counts each). Offense dates November 29, 2023, December 21, 2023, and December 28, 2023; Separate indictment for sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams. Offense date February 24, 2024; Another separate indictment for sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) over 0.5 grams. Offense date March 22, 2023. Total bond $225,000

37-year-old Troy Lee Cunningham of Jefferson Road, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) (2 counts each). Total bond $225,000. Offense dates January 18 & 24, 2024

44-year-old Brandon Edward Smith of Cooper Street, Smithville: sale and delivery of a schedule II drug (methamphetamine) under 0.5 grams (2 counts each). Bond $175,000. Offense dates February 21 & 26, 2024

August 17, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

I do solemnly swear

Although their terms of office don’t officially start until September 1, most of those elected to county wide and district offices in the DeKalb County General Election on August 1 took their ceremonial oath of office Friday evening in the county complex auditorium.

County Mayor Matt Adcock presided over the program and administered the oath to each individually.

Those taking the oath of office were Assessor of Property Shannon Cantrell; Board of Education members Megan Moore (5th district) and Jason Miller (6th district) and Constables: Tyler Cripps (1st district), Danny Adamson (2nd district), Travis Bryant (3rd district), Mark Milam (5th district), Keith Elkins (6th district); and Jeremy Neal (7th district); and County Commissioner: Andy Pack (6th district).

Fourth district Constable Lane Ball and 7th district County Commissioner Mathias Anderson were unable to attend. They will take their oath of office at a later date.

The terms for each office are for four years except the two county commissioners who were elected August 1 to fill the remaining 2 years of unexpired terms.

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