Drive Through Celebration Held for Recovery Court Graduates

May 15, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

A drive through celebration was held Thursday afternoon for five participants of the DeKalb County Recovery Court Program who have graduated and are on the path to sober living.

Each of the graduates, Marina Cornette, Joshua Baxter, Jerry Cantrell, Seth Harris, and Bradley Mullican received a certificate from General Sessions and Juvenile Court Judge Bratten Cook, II in recognition for their accomplishments.

A formal ceremony will be held for them after the COVID-19 pandemic has run its course.

Thursday’s drive through was held in the city parking lot behind the law office of Judge Cook.

Recovery Court, a 12 month program, provides an alternative to incarceration for eligible non-violent offenders, both adults and juveniles, who are deemed substance dependent.

In order to keep tabs on the participants while courts have been closed during COVID-19 , Judge Cook and other members of the team started having Recovery Court outdoors last month.

“This is our 4th Recovery Court drive through for adults and juveniles and it has worked out fabulously. We started the drive through so we could stay in touch with our recovery court participants. Its important for them that we stay in touch and that they stay in touch with us. Actually I think most of them would prefer a drive through rather than coming into court. We enjoy seeing them and they enjoy seeing us. We will keep doing this until we can get the courts opened back up,” said Judge Cook.

In addition to awarding the five graduates Thursday, Judge Cook and the Recovery Court staff checked on several other participants still in the program who were lined up in the drive through while practicing social distancing.

“The judge spoke to each participant who drove through and the team members were also there to speak with them. We checked on them as they went through the line asking questions such as how are you? Is there anything you need? How is your recovery going? What step are you on in the 12 step program? Normal things we would tend to talk with them about except this was a drive through,” said Kate Arnold , DeKalb County Recovery Court Coordinator.

Arnold commended the graduates on their completion of the Recovery Court Program and wished them well.

“This program takes an extreme amount of dedication and hard work, but our hope is that these graduates will take the knowledge and skills that they have learned throughout their time in the program and not only implement it in their life, but to be an inspiration to others,” she said.

May 14, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Justin Potter Library will host a Facebook Live Story Time on Friday, May 15th at 10:00 AM.

“We look forward to visiting with everyone during this special event. The library is preparing for our Summer Reading Facebook Live Programs with Barry Mitchell, Edgar Evins State Park Rangers & Animal Friends and other “Imagine Your Story” activities. It’s going to be a great summer of fun,” said Library Director Kathy Hendrixson

Please contact the library at 615-597-4359 for additional information.

May 14, 2020
By: Dwayne Page

Due to increased call volume over the last 15 years, the DeKalb County Emergency Communications District (E-911) is looking to hire more dispatchers and is seeking extra help from the City of Smithville and DeKalb County governments.

During a budget work session Tuesday night, 911 Director Brad Mullinax met with the Smithville Mayor and Aldermen at city hall to ask that the city increase its annual contribution to $164,000, up from $119,000. A $45,000 increase.

Mullinax is expected to make a similar request of the county.

In 2005, the DCECD (E-911) central dispatch center was established to provide emergency and non-emergency communications services for the county and the cities of Smithville and Alexandria. It is governed by a seven member board currently made up of members Brandon Cox, Sabrina Farler, Jerry Scott, Josh Tramel, Billy Adcock, Chris Russell, and Jeff Barnes. When calls come in to the center, dispatchers alert city police and sheriff’s department officers, DeKalb EMS, as well as city and county fire departments to respond. Under the inter-local agreement, the cities and county make annual payments to support the DCECD operation. The district also receives funding from surcharges assessed to residential and business landline telephone subscribers for 911 services as authorized by the state. The DCECD is also responsible for assigning addresses and naming roads when necessary to conform with state standards for 911 mapping.

The DCECD currently employs nine dispatchers, two per shift. Plans are to add to four more dispatchers in order to have three per shift. In order to do that the city and county would need to each increase their contribution while the DCECD would fund the rest.

Mullinax said call volume within the last 15 years has almost doubled and more dispatchers would better serve the public.

“In 2006 we ran a total of 10,814 calls and in 2019 our annual call volume was 19,406. That is about a 90% increase in call volume over 15 years,” said Mullinax. “During that time agencies have also expanded as well. We now have a part time or a combination type fire department for the City of Smithville. The Smithville Police Department has doubled its officer coverage since 2005. DeKalb EMS has added an extra EMS unit. We have added two additional National Crime Information Center (NCIC) terminals at 911 for entering warrants, checking for wanted persons, entering protection orders, and everything else that keeps our community safe. The DeKalb County Fire Department has added two new fire stations and the Sheriff’s Department has about three times the number of deputies now than in 2005 plus they have added a school resource officer at every single school,” Mullinax continued.

“We currently staff two full time dispatchers on every shift and we have a swing shift person that works the busiest hours of the day but the time has come that we really need to look at adding an additional staff member on every shift”.

“I think there is a significant need for this because numerous times there have been delays in getting warrant checks for officers over the radio creating a pause and that could be dangerous for our police officers making them wait,” said Mullinax.

While the city and county are being asked to up the ante, Mullinax said DCECD has and will continue to do its part.

“We are trying to put three dispatchers on every single shift. We (DCECD) have already funded one of those. The plan is for the city to pick up one, for the county to pick up one, and with additional revenue we’re hoping to get from the state we will be able to fund that additional one. That will give us a total of four extra personnel we would need in order to staff three people on every shift,” Mullinax said.

The City of Alexandria’s annual contribution to the DCECD was increased last year to $27,000.

More financial help may also be on the way to the DCECD thanks to action taken by the Tennessee General Assembly which has authorized an increase in landline surcharges for 911 services.

“We went to bat with the Tennessee Emergency Number Association (TENA) and got legislation passed to increase the 911 surcharge from the state from $1.16 to $1.50. That is a 34 cent increase per 911 line even though that is not equally distributed among all districts. Currently we really don’t know what that number is going to be for us because there is other pending legislation the state has not yet acted on to change the revenue formula for each county. One legislation some of the counties are sponsoring would totally distribute the money based on population. That is great if you live in Shelby, Davidson, Knox, or Hamilton counties. They would see a pretty good increase in their revenue. If they do that we would actually lose revenue because right now the funding mechanism is on a base amount plus a population percentage figured on the number of people living in our county. Of course the 2020 census will play into that some too. But even if that is approved with more revenue for us we will not be able to undertake this full funding for extra dispatchers ourselves,” added Mullinax.

Although the DCECD is financially sound, Mullinax said it is an expensive system to operate .

“We do have a good reserve fund but our operating costs as far as equipment is very expensive. 911 equipment, radio equipment, are astronomically priced and the price keeps going up. We are seeing a lot of shift in technology right now to cloud based type services which increases the maintenance fees and yearly subscription fees so all of that is going up on us exponentially while our operating revenue has really not kept pace with that. We do have a good rainy day fund and we could keep functioning the way we are but our budget is like a water/sewer utility district. We have to present a budget to the state that is in the black,” said Mullinax.

Meanwhile Smithville Police Chief Mark Collins, Public Works Director Kevin Robinson, and Fire Chief Charlie Parker made budget requests for the 2020-21 year during Tuesday night’s work session with the mayor and aldermen.

Chief Collins is asking the city to budget funds for the purchase of two Dodge Charger patrol cars and he provided options for buying new or pre-owned (less than 50,000 miles) cars. 2017 models are available for $17,950 each and 2018 vehicles may be bought for $19,500 each plus another $7,000 for equipping and the striping the cars to make them road ready. The purchase price under the state contract for 2021 cars is $24,458 each.

“If we buy two used vehicles fully equipped its $49,900. Two new vehicles with zero miles and factory warranties is $62,916, a difference of $13,016,” he said.

Chief Collins said he would like to keep two of the four Ford Explorers and one of the three Ford Crown Victoria’s in the fleet as back up vehicles.

Public Works Director Robinson is asking the city to budget funds to purchase a new chipper truck and a Ford F150 pickup truck.

“A new chipper truck with bed is almost $60,000 and a new Ford F150 is $28,000,” said Robinson.

Chief Parker is again asking that the city budget funding for “a couple of full time firefighters” as well as extra money for firefighter training and travel.

“A few extra people have joined the department so our roster has gone up to 29 which means more costs for training. I am asking that this be increased from $5,000 to $7,500.

Chief Parker also asked for a small shift in funding from repairs to supplies to “bump that up from $15,000 to $16,000.

He also wants a new pickup for the department to replace a 14 year old truck with 190,000 miles at a cost of $35,000 which would include the price of the light bar package, striping, etc.

The mayor and aldermen have taken no action yet on any of the requests.

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