DeKalb Fire Department Receives Elite Training Award

October 31, 2022
By:

The DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department has ranked #8 among volunteer and combination fire departments in the state of Tennessee for 2021-2022 training achievement. Of the 732 fire departments in Tennessee, both volunteer and career, the DeKalb County Fire Department ranked # 25 for 2021-2022 training achievement.

This is the 14th consecutive year the DeKalb County Fire Department has been recognized as one of Tennessee’s elite fire departments for outstanding training achievement. This year, the department logged 2,053 training hours at the state fire academy and was recognized as a Gold Level fire department in Tennessee for 2021-2022.

DeKalb County Mayor Matt Adcock commended the department’s members and leaders for continuing to make the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department’s training program a legacy of excellence. “Our county takes great pride in the level of commitment and service that we continue to see year after year from our firefighters who work hard and train hard to make sure our citizens have good fire department services here in DeKalb County.

Getting this kind of statewide recognition for the 14th consecutive year makes it very clear that we have an excellent group of committed men and women who sacrifice many hours to be prepared to respond to the emergency needs of our citizens,” says Mayor Adcock.

Chief Donny Green says he wants to personally commend Captain Brian Williams, the department’s Training Officer, for his leadership, planning and coordination of the department’s training activities in a manner that consistently spotlights our training program as one of top in the state, volunteer and career. The Tennessee Fire Service and Codes Enforcement Academy provides excellent training programs delivered by professional and knowledgeable campus and field instructors. In addition to the 2,053 hours at the Academy, Captain Williams coordinated over 2,400-man hours of in “in-house” training. Chief Green says that without the support of County Mayor Matt Adcock, the County Commission, the families of our volunteer firefighters, our community and business partners, and the citizens of DeKalb County, the department could not have achieved this milestone. “Properly trained firefighters are the best tools available to any fire department. Without proper training, the best and most expensive equipment is useless. However, good training coupled with good equipment is priceless,” says Chief Green. Training performance and documentation are core elements in the Insurance Services Office’s (ISO) property protection that determine how much property owners have to pay in homeowners insurance premiums. The DeKalb County Fire Department’s proven commitment to training and emergency response has resulted in a dramatic improvement to DeKalb County’s Public Protection Classification Rating of Class 6 for all areas of DeKalb County located within 5 road miles of one of the department’s 12 stations.

If you are interested in learning more about the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department, or would like
information on how to be a member of our team, you can visit the Department’s website at:
www.dekalbfire.com, or call 615-464-7176. You can also visit the Department’s Facebook group page.

Elite Club 2021-2022
PLATINUM
Knoxville Fire Department 9,730
Nashville Fire Department 8,124
Sevierville Fire Department 7,546
Kingsport Fire Department 5,635
Johnson City Fire Department 5,211
Murfreesboro Fire & Rescue 4,675
Shelbyville Fire Department 4,486
Williamson County Fire Training 4,053
Columbia Fire & Rescue 4,050

GOLD
Cookeville Fire Department 3,541
Wilson County EMA 3,268
Alcoa Fire Department 3,251
Lebanon Fire Department 3,190
Putnam County Fire Department 3,097
Bristol Fire Department 2,962
Rutherford County Fire & Rescue 2,848
Pigeon Forge Fire Department 2,808
Collierville Fire Department 2,430
Hardin County Fire Department 2,356
Elizabethton Fire Department 2,132
Bedford County Fire Department 2,132
Seymour VFD 2,105
Clarksville Fire & Rescue 2,072
Maury County Rural Fire Department 2,066
DeKalb County Fire Department 2,053
Fayette County Fire Department 2,029

SILVER
Gallatin Fire Dept. 1,941
City of Athens Fire Dept. 1,461
Pleasant View VFD 1,122
Tullahoma Fire Dept. 1,938
LaVergne Fire Dept. 1,440
Newport Fire Dept. 1,092
Jefferson City Fire Dept. 1,923
Gilt Edge VFD 1,411
Giles Co. Fire & Rescue 1,091
Kittrell VFD 1,872
Almaville VFD 1,400
Sulphur Springs VFD 1.076
Greeneville Fire Dept. 1,835
Sevier Co. VFD 1,367
Eastman Chemical FD 1,064
Montgomery Co. VFD 1,790
Manchester Fire Dept. 1,307
Mosheim VFD 1,056
Fentress Co. VFD 1,720
Humbolt Fire Dept. 1,232
Cumberland Co. FD 1,037
Hendersonville Fire Dept. 1,691
Crossville Fire Dept. 1,215
McMinnville Fire Dept. 1,032
Franklin fire Dept. 1,588
Brentwood Fire & Rescue 1,199
Dyersburg Fire Dept. 1,023
Bartlett Fire Dept. 1,581
Warriors Path VFD 1,164
Y-12 Fire Dept. 1,022
Bloomingdale VFD 1,576
Rural/Metro Fire Dept. 1,147
Covington Fire Dept. 1,018
Morristown Fire Dept. 1,510
Jackson Fire Dept. 1,134
Martin Fire Dept. 1,00

October 31, 2022
By:

DeKalb County High School hosted a successful open house Thursday featuring several exciting events.

View video below produced at DCHS

October 30, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

For the first time, members of the DeKalb County Commission Thursday night were shown plans for a proposed new 800 student Pre-K to 2nd grade elementary school to replace the existing Smithville Elementary complex.

(Click link below to view plan)

School Plans

The joint meeting between the County Commission, Board of Education, County Mayor, Director of Schools, and Upland Design Group of Crossville, the Architect of the project was held in an informal work session at the auditorium of the Mike Foster Multipurpose Center.

An updated rendering, schematic site, and floor plan were unveiled as to what a new Smithville Elementary School campus would look like, and representatives of Upland Design took questions from the commissioners.

“I thought it was a really informative meeting. The school board had a very good presentation,” said County Mayor Matt Adcock after the workshop.

Although the Board of Education has settled on the plan, it may be months before the County Commission decides whether to fund it. In the meantime, County Mayor Adcock said he has asked CTAS County Government Consultant Ben Rodgers to conduct a debt study for the county before action is taken.

“I want him (Rodgers) to do this study to give us what our options are and what resources we could use to fund something like this. They (CTAS) need somewhat of a firm number to do a debt study, so I have asked them to do a debt study for $50 million. We would definitely have to find some revenue source to fund it,” said County Mayor Adcock.

Director of Schools Patrick Cripps said after the meeting that he thought the workshop was productive.

“We just wanted to get the school plan out there for everybody to see because we are all going to have to work together to get this project going in the right direction. I would like to see us get started on the project whenever they (county) get their debt study done but there are a lot of steps to do. This is just a preliminary sketch of the building, and we still have to do some more surveys, permit work and things of that nature. We just wanted to introduce the plan to them (commissioners) and let them see what we would like to see going forward. It’s the first step of many,” said Director Cripps.

The existing Smithville Elementary School, originally built in 1958, now is 70,557 square feet in size, and has a current enrollment of 581 students. As far back as 2017, a facilities study by Upland Design Group, concluded that the school, which has mold and other concerns, should be replaced and repurposed for other uses.

The current estimated project cost to build a new Smithville Elementary School is $46,199,875.

“The building construction cost has been based on current industry standards school construction in today’s economic market and recently bid school projects. We have used Park View Elementary in Putnam County and Jasper Middle School in Marion County as references to determine the estimated cost. Both have recently bid in the last 60 days,” said Brian Templeton, Architect and Firm Principal of Upland Design Group.

“We started planning for the project in 2018 prior to COVID and since then construction costs have really been volatile and it’s been a hard thing to pin down but the way we get ideas about costs is we look at other projects and we gauge the cost per square foot of a school. At the end of June and early July Putnam County bid a new school project and it just started construction. That project bid roughly $330 per square foot and a couple of weeks later we got some information on a middle school project in Marion County that had bid around $340 per square foot but those projects had pretty expensive sites so talking to the contractors there and trying to determine what the cost of building was versus site we were able to come up with what we are presenting to you right here for this project (Smithville Elementary) of about $325 per square foot for the building and that would include site work. This is what we think the project would cost if we bid it today. Just to put that into perspective, the contractors we have spoken with and the construction prices we have seen indicate that over the last 18 months there has been a little over a one percent increase per month in inflation in the construction industry. A couple of years ago it was 2% a year. When we first started talking about this a few years ago it was about $200 per square foot. This is the best cost information we have at this time. That is not to say that it could not change but there is no sign right now of the commercial market taking a dive,” said Templeton.

When asked how long it would take to build a new elementary school, Templeton said about three years. “To produce it I think it’s about a three-year period. Before you can get it to contract, before getting the drawings done to get it out to bid it’s about six to eight months and then I would estimate about 24 months for construction,” said Templeton.

The project budget estimate as presented by Upland Design Group is as follows:

*Building & Sitework 124,207 square feet x $325 per square foot: $40,367,275

*Additional bus and car drives to connect the two schools (New SES and Northside Elementary)- 10,000 square yards $550,000

*Survey-$29,600

*Additional Subsurface Investigation- $10,000

*Construction Testing- $125,000

*Construction Contingency- $1,000,000

*Architectural & Engineering Fees- $2,045,000

*Final Printing: $3,000

*Fire Marshal Review Fee: $70,000

*Loose Furniture/IT & AV Equipment: $2,000,000

*Playground: Not Included

Total Estimated Project Cost: $46,199,875

More than two years ago the school board voted to allocate funds from its own budget to purchase 24.5 acres of property on North Congress Boulevard adjacent to Northside Elementary School for construction of a new Pre-K to 2nd grade elementary school. The price paid was $18,000 per acre for a total of $441,000.

The purchase was made after a favorable core drill assessment of the property and TDOT approval of a traffic plan into the proposed new school off Highway 56 north.

According to Upland Design Group, the proposed new Pre-K to 2 Smithville Elementary School would be 124,207 square feet in size and would be designed to accommodate 800 students with room for future expansion to house up to 300 additional students (1,100) total. The school would be built with 11 classrooms for each grade level of kindergarten, first, and second grade (33 classrooms for 20 students each) along with seven Pre-K classrooms for 20 students each plus four CDC/SPED classrooms as needed. The future expansion would accommodate 15 new classrooms at 20 students each. There would be 189 parking spaces on the campus.

In September 2020 the School Board adopted a traffic plan as proposed by T-Square Engineering based in Franklin and approved by TDOT on how best to get traffic entering the schools off of Highway 56 to reduce congestion.

Under the plan each school (The proposed new Smithville Elementary School and Northside Elementary) would have its own entrance for car traffic off of Highway 56 (North Congress Boulevard) but there would also be a lane connecting the two schools should parents have to pick up and drop off children at both places.

Buses would enter the Northside campus from Smith Road for student pickup/drop off and then would follow a bus (only) lane to the new elementary school for pickup/drop off to be located at the rear of both schools. After making a turnaround at the new school, buses would then exit the same way they entered via the bus lane and then back onto Smith Road.

No construction or alterations will be needed on Highway 56 to accommodate the school traffic plan according to T-Square Engineering.

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