New City Budget to Take Effect July 1 (View Video Here)

June 4, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Property tax rates for City of Smithville landowners will not be going up this year, but water and sewer rates will be raised by 4% in order to keep utility revenues ahead of expenses, per state requirement.

During the regular monthly meeting Monday night, the Mayor and Aldermen adopted on second and final reading a budget ordinance for the 2024-25 fiscal year. A public hearing was held prior to passage but there were no public comments on the budget.

The city property tax rate is 0.7523 cents per $100 of assessed value and it is expected to generate $1,360,000 in revenue which is about the same as the actual property tax collections of $1,360,762 in the year 2022-23.

The new rates for city water customers will be $8.26 per thousand gallons of usage (up from the current rate of $7.94 per thousand). Rates for customers outside the city limits will be $12.38 per thousand (up from the current rate of $11.90 per thousand. City sewer customers will pay $7.69 per thousand (up from the current rate of $7.39 per thousand).

The new budget includes a 3% across the board pay raise for city employees, the creation of a new part time city codes/ordinance enforcement officer position, and funding for a few capital outlay expenditures.

The city is opting out of its current Nationwide retirement offering and joining the state’s 457B plan hoping to improve retirement benefits for employees who participate. With the change, the city’s local match for those who enroll will be 5%, up from the 3% match under the Nationwide plan.

The largest single expenditure planned (being funded through a budget amendment in the current year 2023-24) is for refurbished radios including portables, mobiles, and repeaters to upgrade the communications system for the police department and mobiles and repeaters for the fire department. The total cost for these refurbished (less expensive than new) radios comes to $273,307 which is in addition to the $115,000 allocated in January for new fire department portables. According to the mayor and aldermen, the city has little choice but to make the investment due to changes in technology which will soon make their current radios obsolete and unusable. The city will use funds from the general fund surplus to pay for all the radios.

The new budget also includes the following in new spending:

*The addition of a part time codes enforcement officer (budgeted salary $30,000 per year)

CAPITAL OUTLAY:

* Public Works: Purchase of F550 with bed crew cab style dump truck to replace a 2002 F350 model.-$85,000 (funded 50% or $42,500 by the general fund and 50% or $42,500 by the water & sewer budget)

*Public Works: Purchase of F-150 pickup truck-$46,000 (funded 50% or $23,000 by the general fund and 50% or $23,000 by the water and sewer budget)

*Public Works: Purchase of (2) ZTRAK lawn mowers-$24,000

*Public Works: AC Machine-$6,600 (new means of substituting refrigerants in the A/C system of city owned vehicles)

*Purchase Fire Hydrants: $40,000

*Police Department: Purchase of Dell Touch Screen Computers for patrol cars-$15,000

*Financial Administration: G-5 Software Upgrade-$55,200 (funded 50% or $27,600 by the general fund and 50% or $27,600 by the water and sewer budget)

*Street paving -$100,000
*Airport: Grounds Equipment Grant-$130,000

TOTAL GENERAL FUND CAPITAL OUTLAY: $408,700

WATER AND SEWER FUND PROJECTS:
*Fixed Asset additions: Sewer rehab project grants-$2,100,000

The General Fund Debt Service for the police department building is projected to be $162,550 for the year including $100,000 in principal payments and $62,550 in interest on long-term debt.

June 4, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County Road Supervisor Danny Hale has announced that his department will today (Tuesday) start a repaving project on Holmes Creek Road from Cooper Lane to Allen’s Ferry Road on the golf course side.

The project is expected to take up to two weeks to complete and there will be intermittent road closures but at least one lane of travel will be open most of the time.

June 3, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County Election Commission has released the sample ballot for the elections on Thursday, August 1 which will include the DeKalb County General Election, Municipal Elections in Smithville, Dowelltown, and Alexandria, and the Tennessee Republican and Democratic Primaries.

Sample Ballot

The deadline for persons to file a certificate of write-in for the August 1 elections is 12 noon June 12. The Voter Registration Deadline is Tuesday, July 2. The deadline to update an address on voter registrations is Friday, July 26. Early Voting: Friday, July 12 – Saturday, July 27, 2024 (times not yet set).

All the local Republican nominees from the March primary will be unopposed in the DeKalb County General Election including Incumbent Assessor of Property Shannon Cantrell, Sixth district incumbent school board member Jason Miller, Fifth district school board candidate Megan Moore; Constable candidates 1st District: Tyler Cripps, 2nd District: Danny Adamson, 3rd District: Incumbent Travis Bryant, 4th District: Incumbent Lane Ball, 5th District: Incumbent Mark Milam, and 7th District: Jeremy Neal, and Judge Shawn C. Fry for the newly created Criminal Court Judge position in Part III of the seven-county 13th Judicial District.

For the county commission to fill unexpired terms, Andy Pack in the 6th district and Mathias Anderson in district 7 were recently nominated and certified as Republican candidates through the local GOP caucus process and their names will appear on the August 1 ballot.

The Smithville Municipal Election will be uncontested on August 1. The three incumbent aldermen up for re-election, Shawn Jacobs, Danny Washer, and Jessica Higgins will be running unopposed. The terms are for four years each.

Only three people qualified for the Alexandria Municipal Election ballot on August 1. In this election, the positions to be filled are for mayor (unexpired term), three aldermen, and three other aldermen (unexpired terms). Beth Tripp will run for the unexpired mayor’s term while Jeff Ford is seeking to fill an unexpired alderman term and Jonathon Tripp is running for a full alderman term. No one qualified on the ballot to run for the other positions.

No one qualified to run in the Dowelltown Municipal Election on August 1 in which a mayor and two aldermen are to be elected.

The following have filed a certificate of write-in for the following offices, but their names do not appear on the August 1 ballot:

Constable- District 6:
Keith Elkins

City of Alexandria:
Mayor
Allen Lawson
Russell “Rusty” Bradshaw

Alderman
Bobbie Ford

The August 1 ballot will feature two State Judicial Retention questions as follows:

Shall Dwight Tarwater be retained in office as a Judge of the Supreme Court At Large or be replaced?

Shall Matthew J. Wilson be retained in office as a Judge of the Court of Criminal Appeals, Western Division or be replaced?

In the Tennessee Republican Primary on August 1 the candidates are as follows:

United States House of Representatives District 6: John Rose

United States Senate: Marsha Blackburn and Tres Wittum

Tennessee Senate District 16: Janice Bowling

Tennessee House of Representatives District 40: Michael Hale

In the Tennessee Democratic Primary on August 1 the candidates are as follows:

United States House of Representatives District 6: Lore Bergman, Clay Faircloth, and Cyril Focht

United States Senate: Marquita Bradshaw, Lola Denise Brown, Gloria Johnson, and Civil Miller-Watkins

Tennessee Senate District 16: Wayne Steele

Tennessee House of Representatives District 40: Daniel T. Hawthorne

State Executive Committeewoman District 16: Rupa Blackwell.

Sample Ballot

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