
News
Smithville Police Department Joins Santa in Spreading Christmas Cheer at Head Start
December 18, 2024
By: Shawn Jacobs
The parking lot at LBJ&C Head Start in Smithville was scattered with police cars Tuesday, but this particular “call” was a good one.
The Smithville Police Department brought some extra holiday cheer to the youngsters by delivering toys purchased with donations to all the kids. The Christmas Story was read to the youngsters, along with an appearance by Mountain Man of Duck Dynasty fame, who recently moved to Smithville. The kids’ biggest smiles, however, probably resulted from a visit from the jolly old man himself, Santa Claus who received the children’s Christmas lists.
The event is sponsored annually by Smithville Police.
24th Annual Dowelltown City Lights Contest
December 17, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
Residents of Dowelltown are encouraged to participate in the 24th annual Christmas City Lights Contest.
First, second, and third place prizes will be awarded for “Best Scene Overall”, and first and second place prizes will go to winners of the “Best Door/Porch” and “Best Window”.
Participants must reside in the City of Dowelltown and have their Christmas lights on for display nightly through December 22 between the hours of 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. Homes will be judged at different times.
Winners will be announced and prizes awarded on December 23
This event is sponsored by DTC Communications, Wilson Bank & Trust, and by Liberty State Bank.
Alexandria Meeting of Mayor and Aldermen Cancelled Due to Lack of Quorum
December 17, 2024
By: Dwayne Page
Now what?
A decision was expected Tuesday night by the Alexandria mayor and aldermen on whether it would extend the town’s local option sales tax agreement with the county through the year 2055 to help support debt on new school construction as the other three municipalities have done but there was no vote, because there was no meeting.
Due to the lack of a quorum, Mayor Beth Tripp announced that the meeting could not be held as planned. Normally, the Alexandria mayor and aldermen convene on the fourth Tuesday night of the month but apparently because of the approaching Christmas holiday, the December meeting was re-scheduled a week earlier for Tuesday night, December 17.
Only Mayor Tripp and Aldermen Jeff Ford and Sherry Tubbs showed up. The other four aldermen, Luke Prichard, Bobby Simpson, Tiffany Robinson, and Jonathan Tripp were absent.
County Mayor Matt Adcock and county commissioners Tony Luna, Tony (Cully) Culwell, Greg Matthews, Glynn Merriman, Andy Pack, and Beth Pafford attended the meeting, had it been held, and were available to answer questions about the proposed sales tax extension. Also at the meeting were Director of Schools Patrick Cripps, School Board Chairman Shaun Tubbs, and school board member Danny Parkerson.
In October, the county commission went on record voting 12-0 committing to fund construction of a new Pre-K to 2nd grade school if the four city governments in the county, Smithville, Alexandria, Liberty, and Dowelltown voted to extend their existing sales tax agreements with the county by January 1, 2025 as recommended by the county budget committee. If the four cities agreed to do that, the county planned to act on a 30-year bond resolution not to exceed $55 million to fund construction of a new school. If the cities failed to extend their agreements, the county at that time apparently had no plans to proceed on its own.
Since that October vote by the county commission, city leaders in Smithville, Liberty, and Dowelltown have all voted to extend their sales tax agreements with the county as requested along with the Board of Education. Smithville’s vote came with one condition that the county act on issuance of bonds for new school construction within 12 months.
Alexandria has not yet publicly signaled whether it will or won’t extend its sales tax agreement but the county’s self-imposed deadline to hear from them is only two weeks away, January 1, 2025. The next regular monthly city meeting is not until January 28, 2025 unless a special meeting is called.
With no word yet from Alexandria, the county commission may be forced to address this issue again, perhaps at the next regular meeting on Monday, December 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the county complex auditorium.
Although neither the county mayor or county commission have said publically, the options seem obvious. Either extend the January 1, 2025 deadline to give Alexandria more time to act; move forward on a school project without an agreement from Alexandria, or drop the plan for building a new school.
Under the existing sales tax agreements with the county, which are set to expire in 13 years on July 16, 2037, the four cities, Smithville, Alexandria, Liberty, and Dowelltown turn over to the county for schools a greater percentage of their local option sales tax collections than they would otherwise be required to do. By law, the municipalities must contribute 50% of their sales tax money to the county for schools but by agreement, since 1968, the towns give basically two thirds of their share and all that sales tax money goes into what is called the Local Purpose Tax Fund for Schools to help fund school operation and debt. Officials say the county must be able to count on that extra sales tax money coming in from the cities over the life of a 30-year bond up to $55 million in order to cover the costs of a new school without having to use or raise property taxes to fund it.
All five county schools have benefitted over the years from this local purpose sales tax fund which has helped support various school construction and renovation projects including at DeKalb West School. In fact the debt has apparently yet to be retired on the Tornado Safe classroom addition project which was completed over 10 years ago. The construction debt on Northside Elementary School was paid off only recently, within the last two or three years.
