DeKalb County Libraries Summer Reading Adventure Begins Thursday, June 6th

June 2, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

School’s out for summer so let’s party! The Adventure begins Thursday, June 6 as Mr. Bond and his science guys kick off a grand summer of reading on opening day of the 2024 DeKalb County Libraries Summer Reading Program for the Justin Potter and Alexandria Libraries. The fun gets underway at 2 p.m. in the DeKalb County Complex Theatre Room.

Mr. Bond’s Science Guys will treat youngsters to an amazing interactive and educational show. Children of all ages can now register for Summer Reading at both libraries. Each child that registers and meets his or her goal will receive a participation certificate and other goodies at the end of the Summer Reading schedule. Program attendance in not required to participate.

The four-week summer reading program is held each Thursday at 2 p.m. through June 27 in the DeKalb County Complex Theatre Room.

Adventure Begins at Your Library programs include the following events:

Thursday, June 6th at 2:00 pm – Opening party with Mr. Bond’s Science Guys and
DTC Photobooth.

Thursday, June 13th at 2:00 pm – Barry Mitchell’s “Adventures in Fun with a Chicken”

Thursday, June 20th at 2:00 pm –. Edgar Evins State Park Rangers and Animal Friends.

Thursday, June 27th at 2:00 pm – Final Party with Bob Tartar’s Animalogy Critters.

For more information, call Justin Potter Library at 615-597-4359 or Alexandria Library at 615-529-4124 visit us on Facebook, Instagram or our website at www.dekalblibraries.net.

June 1, 2024
By: Bill Conger

5th grade student Karson Mullinax was the recipient of the top reading award this year at DeKalb West School. DWS School Librarian Amanda Mullinax, who is also his mom, presented Karson with the Amanda Mullinax Librarian Award for earning the most Accelerated Reader points since starting at DeKalb West. He has earned 1,877.3 points in his school career, securing him a prestigious spot on the plaque in the school library.

“He was proud that he accomplished a goal of his,” Mrs. Mullinax said. “He wanted his name on the plaque in the library!”

Karson is a brilliant student who shies away from the spotlight. But two of his teachers had no trouble bragging on the kind-hearted, studious young man.

“Karson was one of those students that was constantly reading in class,” says Karson’s 4th grade teacher Cindy Snow. “As soon as he finished with his work, he was reading a book. Free time…reading a book. During math class…reading a book. He would read any chance he would get. It seemed that reading was his “escape”, and he could totally zone everything else out while reading.”

“Karson is one of very few students in my many years of teaching that I have watched first hand find the joy in reading,” 5th grade ELA teacher Rachel Desimone said. “He will complete his schoolwork and then back into the book he goes! The AR point system encourages some students as they watch their rocket soar to new heights, but I think Karson would stick with reading even if it weren’t for that. This says a lot about him and his love for reading.”

During his 4th grade years, Mullinax was already reading the lengthy Harry Potter series. Of late, he enjoys the Percy Jackson series and rereading the Wimpy Kids books.

“He has always loved books!” his mom said. “We all read to him when he was younger, which I believe showed him the importance. Here’s a funny: It wasn’t long after he learned to read himself that he made it very clear that he didn’t want me to read aloud to him anymore. He said, “You read too slow!” Which, in comparison to him now, is true; he is a much faster reader than I am!”

His teachers see that Karson’s passion for reading is reflected in his academics.

“At the end of this school year, Karson earned “Leader of the Pack” awards in every subject area, meaning he had one of the top three highest averages in the grade,” Desimone explained. “Karson has truly excelled over the course of the year in every type of content learning.”

“Due to the fact that he is such an avid reader, he has always had a more expanded vocabulary than most students,” says Snow. “He is quick to understand and create puns and figurative language, and we enjoy (outside of school) using quite a bit of sarcasm and joking with each other,” she adds with a laugh. “Also, his writing shows evidence of the fact that he loves to read. He is imaginative, humorous, and detailed in various forms of writing.”

May 31, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Since 1968, the City of Smithville, by agreement with the county, has turned over a greater share of its local option sales tax collections to the county’s education local purpose tax fund to help pay for school building construction/debt service obligations and yearly school operation. Officials say the other towns in the county, Liberty, Dowelltown, and Alexandria are also included in that agreement.

According to officials, the City of Smithville and the other towns were already legally obligated to turn over to the county 50% of their local option sales tax collections for education purposes, but for almost 56 years under an interlocal agreement, they have been contributing 66 and 2/3%.

In 2007, the county and cities extended the agreement by 30 years. That was 17 years ago and with this extension set to expire in 13 years (2037) the county commission is interested in extending the deal again by another 30 years to the year 2067.

During Thursday night’s monthly meeting, the commission and county mayor announced plans, upon the recommendation of the government services committee, to prepare a resolution to be adopted next month seeking an extension of the agreement with the four cities which will then be presented to their mayors and boards of aldermen for passage.

Without such a long-range commitment from the cities, officials say the county is handicapped in doing long range planning for new school construction without raising the property tax. The county, they say, must be able to count on that extra sales tax revenue coming in to support debt service obligations for such school projects. The county also contributes $1,540,000 annually from the local purpose (sales tax) fund for general purpose school operation which could make renewal of the sales tax agreement even more important. Under the state’s maintenance of effort law, officials say schools have to be funded by the county, at least with the same amount of local dollars from year to year. In other words, the county may increase funding each year for schools, but it cannot cut funding.

In other business, County Mayor Matt Adcock announced that he has appointed Brian Reed to succeed James Goff as the Solid Waste Director. Goff recently resigned. The county commission confirmed the appointment. County Mayor Adcock said Reed’s career background is in the solid waste management field. He previously served as general manager for the Southern Central operation and more recently has worked for the Capital Waste company. According to Adcock, Reed has a degree in business administration, and he has a commercial driver license.

The commission adopted a salary exempt policy, upon the recommendation of the government services committee, which essentially provides that salaried county department heads are not to accrue overtime pay.

Members to the DeKalb County Equalization Board were reappointed by the County Commission including Mitchell Bowman, Jimmy Midgett, Doyle Evans, Joel Hooker, and Jimmy Goad. Tim Bradford will be an alternate.

The commission also adopted a resolution, upon the recommendation of the government services committee, establishing a new DeKalb County Beer Board to be made up of five county commissioners. The board will have the authority to approve or deny applications for beer permits based on criteria established in policies set by the county commission, such as distance requirements, etc. Beer board members are to be paid per meeting the same as present-day or current compensation for county commission committee meetings.

Several months ago, the commission abolished the seven-member citizen beer board at the suggestion of County Mayor Adcock and made the entire 14-member county commission the beer board.

Since then, the county mayor and commission have decided that a five-member beer board would function better.

According to the resolution as adopted Thursday night, County Mayor Adcock will appoint five county commissioners including a chairman, vice chairman, and secretary to serve on the beer board in September each year with confirmation by the county commission. The terms are for one year. The members will be up for reappointment each September.

The resolution calls for the county mayor to provide distant measurements to the board by request of the beer board chairman. The county clerk shall perform the clerical duties of overseeing the process of applications, accepting payment, and forwarding that information to the chairman of the beer board. The county clerk shall also oversee the background check process if the beer board policies require it and then forward results of the background check to the beer board chairman.

The chairman of the beer board will be responsible for setting the meeting date, time, and place.

The county commission will be responsible for developing and maintaining a beer board policy that will provide requirements of the beer board that have not been addressed in the resolution.

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