Tense Exchange between Alexandria Police Chief and Members of Town Council (Listen Here)

February 2, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

A tense exchange occurred during Friday night’s regular monthly meeting of the Alexandria Mayor and Aldermen between Police Chief K.D. Smith and Aldermen Bobby Simpson and Luke Prichard.

Listen to audio from meeting

It all began when Chief Smith, at the end of his monthly report to the mayor and aldermen, asked if there was any validity to talk he has heard that the police department could be defunded or that he might lose his job.

Alexandria city leaders include Mayor Beth Tripp and Aldermen Jeff Ford, Sherry Tubbs, Luke Prichard, Bobby Simpson, Tiffany Robinson, and Jonathan Tripp.

The following conversation ensued:

K.D. Smith: “Its come to my knowledge that there are some board members that are looking to defund or get rid of the police department or get rid of me. I would like to know if there is any validity to that. Not for my sake but for the officer’s sake. We have one (officer) in particular, this is her job and her livelihood”

Bobby Simpson: “Whenever we hired that young lady (from White County) I told her specifically not to be driving the (city patrol) car back and forth to White County. Is she driving it?”

K.D. Smith: “No”

Luke Prichard: “Yes she is. That’s a lie. She has been driving it to Smithville”.

K.D. Smith: “She drives it to Smithville”

Luke Prichard: “That’s not what you told us”

Bobby Simpson: “And the other boy (police officer) is telling that he is driving his to Dunlap

K.D. Smith: “No”

Bobby Simpson: “Where is it at?”

K.D. Smith: “Setting right outside”.

Bobby Simpson: “ Both of them?”

K.D. Smith: “Hers is setting in Smithville right now”

Luke Prichard: “That ain’t got nothing to do with Alexandria. You told us they were not going to drive them. That’s exactly what you said”.

K.D. Smith: “No they didn’t drive them because we didn’t have enough vehicles”.

Luke Prichard: “No you had them”

K.D. Smith: “We have enough now”

Luke Prichard: “Well we don’t want them driving them”

Bobby Simpson: “ Right”

K.D. Smith: “Well, if they are going to park theirs, I’ll park mine because its not fair for them”

Luke Prichard: “That’s fine with me”

K.D. Smith: “But here’s the thing and I want everybody to understand this and I addressed this with the mayor, I have been in this situation before. If there is an emergency where we have to call officers out from their residence. If they get in their personal car and they are responding here, they are trying to get here as quick as they can. If they get in an accident they are under the city’s insurance at that time”.

Bobby Simpson: “Wouldn’t it be closer to call the DeKalb County Sherriff’s Department?”

Luke Prichard: “That’s what happens at 10 o’clock anyway”

K.D. Smith: “Right because I don’t have enough officers to cover 24/7”.

Bobby Simpson: “There ain’t never been nobody here after 10 o’clock”.

K.D. Smith: “ I’m just asking if there is any validity?”

Bobby Simpson: “Yes there is”

K.D. Smith: “Is it the department in whole or is it me? Because if its me don’t punish the officers”

Bobby Simpson: “ Its mostly you”

K.D. Smith: “ We could sit down and have a chat Bobby. Anytime you like”

Bobby Simpson: “KD you have treated me like I am a stepchild. You won’t even wave at me. I have been up here working at this house and you drive by and don’t wave or nothing. I’ve known you for 30 years. K.D. I recommended you for the (police chief) job”

K.D. Smith: “Don’t accuse me of something I haven’t done. I spoke with you at your house the other day and asked how close you were to getting done with it”

Bobby Simpson: “ Its me K.D.”

K.D. Smith: “ My door is always open. We can sit down and discuss”.

Bobby Simpson: “The second meeting you were here you came in and said you were embarrassed”. (referring to the current small, confined space of offices at city hall police department)

Luke Prichard: “You knew the way it was to begin with”

Bobby Simpson: “It would be like me coming to your house and saying I’m ashamed to be here”

K.D. Smith: “I am ashamed of the way the police department looked, the building back there”

Bobby Simpson: “That ain’t got nothing to do with policing. What’s that got to do with policing”

K.D. Smith: “Morale”

Bobby Simpson: “Morale?”

K.D. Smith: “Morale of the officers. I’m sorry Bobby but if you can do my job better than I can do it you can have it”

Luke Prichard: “We don’t want it”

K.D. Smith: “Then let me do my job”

Bobby Simpson: “Who did you (police chief) have to call to come and help you (make arrest) over there at the apartments?”

Luke Prichard: “The county”

K.D. Smith: “The county was already there when I got there, and I got two broken ribs for it”

Bobby Simpson: “You should have let the county handle it”

K.D. Smith: “We both had to fight her. I am going to stand my ground and for what I think is right for the police department. That is what you hired me to do. I am not going to sit here and argue. I asked for some validity to it. You have answered it. Thank you.”

Mayor Beth Tripp: “We are going to go past. I had already talked to you about that anyway. You believe in rumors but that ain’t going to work with me”

Sherry Tubbs: “All he asked for was validity and he has been treated disrespectfully just as much as you guys believe you are. You all walked out on a meeting with him”

Luke Prichard: “Yeah when he is yelling, hooping, hollering, bitching and griping the whole time. That’s all we’ve listened to”.

Sherry Tubbs: “You are too. You’re loud and rude”

Luke Prichard: “Yeah I am too because he started in”

Mayor Beth Tripp: “I am in charge of this meeting and we are going to take control. Enough is enough. We have moved past it. No more talking about it”.

Listen to audio from meeting

February 1, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

Dr. Denise Dingle has stepped down as the DeKalb County Medical Examiner.

The resignation, effective January 31, comes just as a new county policy went into effect February 1 regarding how the medical examiner and medical investigator are to be paid per death call.

Dr. Dingle issued the following statement to WJLE Saturday through her attorney Jon Slager

“Dr. Denise Dingle, MD, did, in fact tender her resignation as DeKalb County Medical Examiner. The most recent adoption of new policies and procedures for the DeKalb County Medical Examiner’s Office, over the objection of Dr. Dingle, is the most recent example of an untenable work environment which began last year with the County Mayor’s failed attempt to suspend and ultimately fire Dr. Dingle as medical examiner,” the statement concluded.

As a contracted service, Dr. Dingle was paid $5,000 a year by the county as medical director and $100 per body as medical examiner. However, County Mayor Matt Adcock reported to the county commission in November that an invoice from July, when Dingle was on suspension and not the ME, charged a $200 fee for one decedent.

During December’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission adopted the following written policy as recommended by the government services committee to become effective February 1, 2025.

Under the policy, “$200 will be paid to the Medical Examiner per decedent. The $200 will be $100 for the Medical Examiner and $100 for the Medical Investigator. 911 will notify the Medical Examiner. The Medical Examiner will be responsible for contacting a Medical Investigator on each body. The Medical Examiner will be responsible for paying the Medical Investigator within 30 days of receiving the money from the county. A DeKalb County employee can be the Medical Investigator as long as they are not on the DeKalb County clock during the investigation”.

County Mayor Adcock said members of the DeKalb Ambulance Service trained in medical death investigations may be called upon during their off times to perform this duty but not while they are on the clock because that amounts to double dipping according to the state comptroller.

February 1, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

A done deal!

Thanks to the Alexandria Mayor and Aldermen, the final piece of the puzzle is in place to make construction of a new Smithville Elementary School eventually become a reality.

By a six to nothing margin, the Alexandria Aldermen Friday night voted to extend their existing local option sales tax agreement with the county through the year 2055. The current agreement was set to expire on July 16, 2037.

The county commission had set February 1, 2025 as the deadline to hear from Alexandria on the proposed extension.

Aldermen voting for the extension were Jeff Ford, Sherry Tubbs, Luke Prichard, Bobby Simpson, Tiffany Robinson, and Jonathan Tripp. Mayor Beth Tripp is the mayor.

Alexandria now joins all the other municipalities, Smithville, Liberty, and Dowelltown in extending its local option sales tax agreements in partnership with the county and Board of Education to ensure that funding is in place for debt payment up to $55 million for the life of a 30-year bond yet to be issued for new school construction. The county commission went on record last fall committing to proceed with the funding for a new school if all the cities signed on to an extension of their local option sales tax agreements with the county. Smithville made its extension conditional upon the county issuing bonds within 12 months.

Prior to the vote Friday night, County Mayor Matt Adcock addressed the Alexandria Mayor and Aldermen.

“This agreement was set in place in 1967 with all the municipalities and the county,” said County Mayor Adcock. “Although they are a separate department of county government, we do approve the school budget and their debt. Any debt they accrue we have to fund. We are a funding source for the school board, but they run the school operation”.

“In 1967 DeKalb County and the municipalities made an agreement to create a school sinking fund. Its also called the Local Purpose Fund,” said County Mayor Adcock. “The state statute requires that every municipality in DeKalb County provide 50% of their sales tax proceeds toward schools. This agreement calls for an extra one third of the sales tax to go into the school sinking fund only to be used for school construction and operation ($1.9 million budgeted annually for school operation). In the past we have used this money for construction of Northside Elementary. We built a storm shelter (Tornado Safe Classrooms) at DeKalb West School and a new cafeteria at the high school. An energy efficiency project was funded at the west school. The initial agreement between the county and cities was extended for another 30 years and the agreement we are under now runs through 2037,” said County Mayor Adcock.

“The school board approached the county commission about replacing the elementary school. It is the oldest school and it is antiquated. This (sales tax money) would go toward construction of a new pre-K to 2^nd grade Smithville Elementary School and it would be put next to Northside Elementary School on North Congress Boulevard,” County Mayor Adcock explained.

“As a county our responsibility is to find a way to fund it. When we started looking at what a bond would take to build this facility, we couldn’t guarantee any revenue for it past 2037 which is when our sales tax agreements with the cities would expire,” Adcock said. “This is just one school in a plan they have to eventually replace all their schools. Revenues after 2037 cannot be allocated into our debt service forecast because we don’t know if its going to be there. The only way we can know for sure that we have the funding in place to make future payments is if we extend this agreement at least through the life of the bond. That’s why we have based it (sales tax extension) only on the life of a 30-year bond. We are adding another 18 years to go from 2037 to 2055. On July 16, 2055 this agreement would expire at the same time that the school bond would expire. If they want to build another school past that date in 2055 they would have to seek another sales tax extension agreement in order to build the next school,” said County Mayor Adcock

“I would like to ask for your vote for this. All the other municipalities in DeKalb County have passed this along with the county and school board. We would appreciate your cooperation. The only way we have been able to fund schools like we have in DeKalb County is because of this agreement. We have all worked together to make it happen,” Adcock concluded.

Several members of the county commission attended the meeting in support including Daniel Cripps, Sabrina Farler, Tony Luna, Glynn Merriman, Larry Green, Andy Pack, and Beth Pafford.

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps also addressed the Mayor and Aldermen.

“We have not made a decision on what we would do with that (existing Smithville Elementary School) property but I do want to add to what the county mayor said about the infrastructure of the school. We are outgrowing that school. We actually have two second grade classes at Northside Elementary School and we are looking at moving another one next year. Those second-grade kids are separated from their peers at Smithville Elementary because we have run out of space due to the different programs we have had to add at Smithville Elementary to meet the individual needs of the students that are attending that school,” said Director Cripps.

During the public comment period, William Lambert, who lives just outside the city on New Hope Road spoke out against the extension of the sales tax agreement.

“I am here tonight as a concerned citizen of DeKalb County and a close neighbor and friend of the town of Alexandria,” said Lambert. “I have lived in this area for 20 years both here and in Smithville.  My family of origin has lived here for almost 30 years.  I can remember when this little town was bustling. I am here to ask you to retain your sales tax for local use. Everywhere I look around town I see ways revenue could be used to improve the area. Further because of our geographic proximity to Davidson and Wilson Counties we could be a growth anchor for the entire county if the town invests properly. Look past today and what the future might be for this town I love so much,” he said.

City resident Mike Prichard spoke in support of the move.

“I am Mike Prichard and I have lived in this town for 73 years. I think the county has made a good presentation. This is DeKalb County. Its not Wilson County or Smith County. We’re DeKalb County. Our school system is all together here in DeKalb County. I would encourage the city to vote yes on this and give them the tax money like they deserve. We need a school,” he said.

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