Beth Chandler Named Smithville Alderman

October 6, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Smithville has a new alderman.

Beth Chandler was appointed Monday night upon the recommendation of Mayor Josh Miller. The aldermen voted to make the appointment during the regular monthly meeting. Chandler will fill the remaining two years of Gayla Hendrix’s unexpired alderman term. Hendrix resigned last month after being appointed Smithville Municipal Judge.

“I think Ms Hendrix and I probably did not agree on all of our politics but we worked really well together. When we run for office at this table, we run non-partisan. We can be Democrats and Republicans out there (community) but here at this table we are non-partisan. Our job is to help keep the city moving forward. I think we have done a good job at that,” said Mayor Miller.

“Tonight my recommendation to the board is Beth Chandler. This lady has owned a small business. She is a member of Leadership DeKalb and has been very active in extracurricular school activities. She is very active in our community. The bottom line is I think she will be a great asset to our town and I think she will help keep moving us forward. I would like to recommend that we appoint Beth Chandler to the city council,” said Mayor Miller

Alderman Danny Washer moved to follow the mayor’s recommendation. Alderman Brandon Cox offered a second to the motion and Aldermen Shawn Jacobs and Jessica Higgins joined Washer and Cox in voting for Chandler to get the appointment.

October 6, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Eight years after creating the first position, the city has added a second full time paid firefighter to the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the aldermen voted 4-0 to hire Dalton Roberts upon the recommendation of Chief Charlie Parker. Roberts has been a volunteer member of the department for over six years.

Chief Parker said Roberts was one of two candidates for the new position and recommended after a review process.

“We had an interview review with our fire department officers and Shawn Jacobs, our police and fire department commissioner. We had an interview session with both of the applicants and the result was to move forward with Mr. Roberts. We went through a pretty good review process. Part of the reason it has taken so long since July is we had to develop a new set of rules on how to handle this process going forward because we hope this is not the last firefighter we hire. We have the process down now. We are trying to draw from inside the department if we can first to help build our volunteer force to give them a chance to further their firefighter career. We also want to make it as fair as possible because we don’t want to lose any volunteers due to hurt feelings. We want to keep it fair in making our choices and we were confident that in this case Mr. Roberts was a good choice,” said Chief Parker.

According to the city budget, the salary for Roberts’ position is $40,876 per year including salary and benefits.

Chief Parker was the first member of the department hired as a full time city firefighter in 2012.

Every year during budget time, Chief Parker petitions the mayor and aldermen to fund more full time paid firefighter positions.

Members of the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department and their years of service as of January were as follows: Jeff Prisock-1 year, Brent Keenan-1 year, Shannon Smith-1 year, Andrew Cooper-Rookie 1 year, Kayla Williams-Photographer/Auxiliary 1 year, Brenda Soto-Rookie 2 years, Dillon Hicks-Rookie 2 years, Caleb London-3 years, Ryan Herron: 4 years, Seth Wright-4 years, Kim Johnson-4 years, Bradley Johnson- 6 years, Dalton Roberts-6 years, C.J. Tramel- 6 years, Shawn Jacobs- Auxiliary 7 years, Becky Atnip- 7 years, Cory Killian-9 years, Glen Lattimore-12 years, Stephanee Wright-14 years, Gary Johnson-15 years, James Randall Hunt-15 years, Wallace Caldwell- Chaplain 16 years, Lieutenant Kevin Adcock- 21 years, William (Wink) Brown-22 years, Greg Bess-Photographer/Auxiliary 25 years, Lieutenant John Poss-30 years, Captain Jeff Wright-35 years, Deputy Chief Hoyte Hale-35 years, Lieutenant Donnie Cantrell-40 years, Lieutenant Danny Poss-40 years, and Chief Charlie Parker-40 years.

October 5, 2020
By:

Livestock, Corn, Soybeans, Wheat, Nursery and Other Commodities Eligible for Additional Payments
Coronavirus Food Assistance Program 2.0 Underway Until December 11, 2020

Donny Green, County Executive Director for the DeKalb-Cannon County Farm Service Agency announces that the signup for the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP) 2.0 began September 21 and will continue until December 11, 2020. CFAP 2.0 is a separate and additional program that follows up CFAP 1.0 that ended on September 11 and includes categories for dairy, eggs/broilers, livestock, sales commodities, and acreage-based commodities. Producers who received payments under the previous CFAP program are also eligible to receive payments under CFAP 2.0.

USDA is providing critical support to our nation’s farmers and ranchers through the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP 2). CFAP 2 provides vital financial assistance to agricultural producers who continue to face market disruptions and associated costs because of COVID-19.

Livestock inventory eligible for CFAP 2.0 includes cattle, sheep, and pigs, but cannot include breeding stock (cows, bulls, ewes, rams, boars, sows, etc.). The eligible inventory will be the highest number (head) of livestock inventory owned on any one date between April 16, 2020 and August 31, 2020. The payment rate is $55 per head. To clarify, both sold and unsold livestock are eligible as long as they were owned on any given date between April 16, 2020 and August 31, 2020. Contract growers are not eligible.

Price trigger crops include corn, soybeans, and wheat. Payments will be based on 2020 planted acres of the crop, excluding prevented planting and experimental acres. Payments for price trigger crops will be the greater of: 1) the eligible acres multiplied by a payment rate of $15 per acre; or 2) the eligible acres multiplied by a nationwide crop marketing percentage, multiplied by a crop-specific payment rate, and then by the producer’s weighted 2020 Actual Production History (APH) approved yield. If the APH is not available, 85 percent of the 2019 Agriculture Risk Coverage-County Option (ARC-CO) benchmark yield for that crop will be used. For broilers and eggs, payments will be based on 75 percent of the producers’ 2019 production.

Sales commodities include nursery and floriculture crops, goat milk, Christmas trees, honey, wool, and animals (not including breeding stock) raised for food, fur, fiber, or feathers (alpacas, bison, buffalo, beefalo, emus, goats, llamas, pheasants, and quail). Eligible sales only include sales of raw commodities grown by the producer. Added value to the commodity, such as processing and packaging, must not be included in the amount of sales. Commodities purchases for resale are not eligible. Payment calculations will use a sales-based approach, where producers are paid based on five payment gradations associated with their 2019 sales.

Supporting production/inventory documents are not required to be provided at signup because the application is self-certification. However, the Farm Service Agency County Committee may request supporting documentation for any questionable information provided on the application. Producers who are approved for participation in CFAP 2 are required to retain documentation in support of their application for 3 years after the date of approval.

Effective Monday, September 28, 2020, customers of the Smithville USDA Service Center are now able conduct business in person in the office by appointment only. Visitors will be pre-screened based on health concerns or recent travel and must adhere to social distancing guidelines. Visitors must wear a face covering during their appointment. Visitors must call ahead and schedule an appointment. The Farm Service Agency telephone number is (615) 597-8225, Ext. 2

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