County Budget Committee begins work on 2022-23 spending plan

April 21, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

The DeKalb County budget committee met Tuesday evening at the courthouse to begin making plans for the 2022-23 budget.

Half of the 14-member county commission makes up the budget committee including 1st district commissioner Julie Young, 2nd district commissioner Sabrina Farler, 3rd district commissioner Jenny Trapp, 4th district commissioner Dr. Scott Little, 5th district commissioner Anita Puckett, 6th district commissioner Jeff Barnes who serves as chairman of the budget committee, and 7th district commissioner Beth Pafford.

County Mayor Tim Stribling said that one cent of the local property tax rate this year is to generate $64,155 at full value or $60,306 at a 94% collection rate, which is the percentage that the county usually uses for budgeting purposes.

Two department heads, Fire Chief Donny Green and EMS Director Hoyte Hale appeared before the committee in person to present their budgets and to make requests along with Dusty Johnson, Captain of the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad. No action was taken.

EMS Director Hale requested that raises of a dollar or $1.50 per hour be applied to the existing EMS wage scale which tops out at 20 years of service for full time EMT, AMT, Paramedics and Critical Care staff and he also requested that part time personnel be given a $3.00 per hour increase in pay.

Full time DeKalb EMS personnel were granted a pay raise only four months ago to start the new calendar year (2022). In December, the county commission approved a recommendation from the health, education, and public welfare committee to increase the pay of full-time ambulance service personnel by $3.00 per hour and to adopt a budget amendment of $72,975 from the general fund balance to pay for it through the rest of the fiscal year, January 1-June 30, 2022.

The ambulance service is budgeted for 20 full time positions but at the time (December) Director Hale said it had been difficult to retain and attract full time employees because the DeKalb EMS was not pay competitive with surrounding counties.

Director Hale said Tuesday night that this new request for an increase in pay for his staff will help keep pace with other counties.

“We got a three dollar increase for them (full time EMS employees) in January because people were leaving. In January I was 4-5 full timers down but I have them back now. An increase of a dollar or a dollar fifty per hour will keep us up there because other counties will be raising their pay,” said Director Hale.

In addition to the pay raises, Director Hale is also asking that eight new EMS positions be created and funded to staff a third 24 hour a day ambulance.

DeKalb EMS staffs 2–24-hour trucks and a day truck Monday-Friday from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. EMS staff operate on a 24/72 schedule meaning they work 24 hours on duty and 72 hours off duty.

“I have two (employees) on the day truck right now but starting May 1st I plan to have four on the day truck seven days working in 12 hour shifts,” said Hale.

Chief Donny Green then addressed the budget committee concerning county fire department needs.

“My budget is pretty static except for a couple of items. One of them is fuel. I don’t really know how to project that. We budgeted $15,000 last year. I think we are okay right now because our call volume comes usually later in the fall through the winter but I don’t really know how to predict next fiscal year. I have budgeted $25,000 but I am flexible with that and if you have a better formula I am okay with changing that but I think we all know we will have to project an increase,” said Chief Green.

“We put $31,200 in last year for my part-time position at the Main Station Monday-Friday from 7:00 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. We gave them a raise last year to $15.00 an hour. If we go across the board with employee raises this year, I would like for that to be applied to this (part-time position) as well,” Green continued.

“I have added $3,000 for in-service. We have a higher number of people on our roster than we have had in a long time. We are currently at 92 which is up by a good number and with that comes more training expense,” said Chief Green.

“Equipment maintenance has been increased by $3,000 and $1,500 for communication equipment to replace pagers and radios”.

“We have applied for a grant to fund personal protection equipment or turnout gear and a Quint apparatus which is a fire engine with a ladder on it. It is the same thing we applied for last year through the Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program and the local match (from the capital projects fund) will only be spent if the grant is approved,” explained Chief Green.

“I would also like to budget $10,000 from the capital projects fund to add two more restrooms to existing fire hall stations. We have been working on restrooms at the Blue Springs and Johnson Chapel stations and we have done Midway and Cookeville Highway but I would like to add restrooms at the Temperance Hall and Belk stations. It would be putting a small bathroom in the corner like what we have done at the others”.

“We would further request to add another 4×4 brush truck to our fleet (funded from the capital projects fund). We only have one brush truck and it is at the Main station. Many times we need more than one. There are places we can’t get our big fire engines in to access homes and property because of brush fires and many times we use the brush truck to resupply water to our fire engines,” said Chief Green.

“Finally, I would ask that another $25,000 be set aside as seed money for a future fire hall in the Wolf Creek Community. That would put that fund at $100,000,” added Chief Green.

Captain Dusty Johnson of the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad then addressed the budget committee.

“I would ask for a $2,500 increase for fuel expense because its hard to figure how much we are going to need,” said Captain Johnson. The county’s total contribution to the Rescue Squad, a non-profit organization, is $38,321. If Johnson’s request is granted the county’s total contribution would go to $40,821.

The next county budget committee meetings will be Tuesday, April 26 and Thursday, April 28 at 6:30 p.m. each night on the third floor of the courthouse in a courtroom.

April 21, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Students and staff at DeKalb County High School will experience what life in a wheelchair is like firsthand today (Thursday) as part of the Team ALeX “Spend a Day in My Wheels” challenge.

“Spend a Day In My Wheels” was the idea of 16-year-old Alex Johnson, a tenth grader at Friendship Christian School in Lebanon and a wheelchair user. Alex is the son of Smithville native and DCHS alumni Nathan Johnson. Alex is the grandson of Mike and Jeana Johnson.

The challenge is used to raise accessibility awareness for people that use wheelchairs and other mobility devices. Team ALeX challenges participants to spend a work or school day doing their daily activities in a wheelchair. Alex designed the challenge to open everyone’s eyes to the difficulties people with mobility devices face on a daily basis. The Permobil Foundation supplies the wheelchairs for all wheelchair challenges. Through a partnership with the Permobil Foundation, Alex hopes to change the world one challenge at a time.

Students and staff at DeKalb County High School will be participating in “Spend a Day In My Wheels” today (Thursday April 21). The participants will be using wheelchairs the entire school day. Team ALeX will be in attendance at an assembly at 9 am.

Below is the social media information and a link to our webpage.

@In_My_Wheels–Instagram
@In_My_Wheels–Twitter
@In_My_Wheels–Facebook
@goTeamALeX—Facebook

Learn more about the challenge here: https://permobilfoundation.org/spend-a-day-in-my-wheels/

April 21, 2022
By: Bill Conger

Sixteen DeKalb West School students participated in the recent Upper Cumberland Middle School Math Contest at Tennessee Tech. 7th grader Leyton Scarbrough placed 2nd out of 126 7th graders; 6th graders Kaitlyn Swearinger placed 5th and Cameron Salas placed 8th out of 113 6th grade students.

The test was conducted as one continuous 60-minute test. It consisted of 30 problems/questions with multiple choice answers that cover material normally taught, plus challenge problems or questions.

Other students from DWS involved in the event were 6th graders Jordyn Agee and Autumn Crook, 7th graders Ben Barton, Ethan Brown, and Jennifer Fortune, and 8th graders Autumn Dies, Johnathan Keith, McKenna Miller, and Alex Vaughn.

Pictured front row left to right are Leyton Scarbrough, Alex Vaughn, Cameron Salas, Kaitlyn Swearinger, and Autumn Crook. Second row left to right are Jennifer Fortune, Johnathan Keith, Ben Barton, Ethan Brown, Autumn Dies, McKenna Miller, and Jordyn Agee.

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