Sixty Five Pounds of Drugs and Prescriptions Collected During Take Back Day (VIEW VIDEO HERE)

April 28, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

Many people cleaned out their medicine cabinets of unwanted, out of date, or no longer needed prescriptions and brought them to the Smithville and Alexandria city halls for disposal Saturday during the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s National Prescription Drug Take-Back Day.

Lisa Cripps, local Coordinator of the DeKalb Prevention Coalition, said 65.2 pounds of prescription drugs and controlled substances were collected for disposal Saturday at Smithville and Alexandria.

“Thank you DeKalb County for another successful drug Take-Back. We had a total of 8.6 pounds of controlled substances and 56.6 pounds of other medications, making our overall take back at 65.2 pounds,” said Cripps.

The event was sponsored by the DeKalb Prevention Coalition and supported by the DeKalb County Health Department, DeKalb County Coordinated School Health, and local law enforcement officers and constables.

“Take-Back Days in April and October each year are a safe and easy way to protect your loved ones and to get these drugs out of your home,” added Cripps.

“The reason we do this is because we have found when we work with recovery groups is that a lot of their abuse of medications started from them taking it out of their grandparents’ house or their own medicine cabinets,” said Cripps.

“We advocate Count It, Lock It, Drop It. Count your medications and keep them locked up. Today in Smithville and Alexandria we gave away lock boxes and you can come by the coalition office at the county complex and pick one up. They are free. You can lock up your medications in these lock boxes,” added Cripps.

“Remember that if your medications are unused, out of date or unwanted you can drop them off in one of our local drop boxes. If you missed Saturday’s take-back event,  the county has drop boxes at the City Hall in Alexandria and City Hall in Smithville that are open Monday through Friday each week”.

“We thank the people of Alexandria. The city has allowed us to set up here at city hall and the police department has been a great help to us today to monitor this. We also want to thank our health department for partnering with us because they handle all the medications. As the DeKalb Prevention Coalition Coordinator I hand out the surveys and the lock boxes. Thanks to the DeKalb County Coordinated School Health program. Coordinator Elise Driver provided a healthy snack of fresh berries this year to the participants. Thanks to all of our participants. We’ll see you again in October,” said Cripps

April 27, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

Seven teams from at least four counties competed today (Saturday) in the second annual Officer Joe Bowen Memorial Men’s Softball Tournament at the Alexandria ball field.

This double elimination tournament featured teams from DeKalb, Putnam, Warren, and Wilson Counties and all of the proceeds will support a scholarship for a 2019 DeKalb County High School student athlete in honor of Joe.

Officer Bowen lost his life in a traffic accident at Dowelltown in March 2018 while on his way home from work. A resident of Smithville, Officer Bowen worked for the Lebanon Police Department.

“We did this last year and all proceeds went to the Bowen family. We plan to do this every year but starting this year and going forward the proceeds will go to the scholarship fund. We appreciate everybody who has come out for the tournament and those who have donated,” said tournament spokesman Chris McMillen.

“This means a lot to our family. We appreciate everybody coming out in honor of Joe,” said Officer Bowen’s father Dwayne Bowen.

“He loved ball and this is a good way to honor him. Some of his teammates are playing today in honor of him,” added Lisa Bowen, Joe’s mother.

“You’ll notice the man (softball player) shown on our jerseys. That is actually an image of Joe Bowen himself and we named our team today “Badge 16” in his honor,” said McMillen.

April 27, 2019
By: Dwayne Page

The County Budget Committee has begun the process of either approving or rejecting requests for new spending by county department supervisors for the 2019-20 fiscal year

During Wednesday night’s meeting, the committee considered proposals made by the Emergency Management Agency Director Charlie Parker, Fire Chief Donny Green, and Sheriff Patrick Ray. Other requests will be considered at later meetings.

All favorable recommendations will be funded in the new budget subject to approval by the county commission with passage of the 2019-20 budget this summer.

Under his request EMA Director Parker would be paid at least for one year. He has served in the role for 16 years without pay. Parker met with the budget committee last month to formally submit his proposed spending plan which includes a salary for himself of $5,200 for the new year.

Parker plans to apply for a federal grant through TEMA which if approved would provide matching funds for the local operation. But in order to get the grant the county must have a paid EMA director.

If approved, Parker said an Emergency Management Performance Grant would reimburse the county up to 50% of its costs for EMA operations which would be $13,800 including the director’s salary under the 2019-20 proposed budget.

The budget committee’s vote to fund the EMA Director position is conditional upon the grant being funded and Parker’s willingness to accept being the county’s flood plain director, a responsibility he once volunteered to do but later gave up.

Parker said the county’s EMA operation needs to be more active because TEMA expects local jurisdictions to be better prepared to help themselves first.

Disaster relief funds have been made available locally in the past thanks to the work of the DeKalb EMA and damage assessments were recently completed due to the flooding in February and March which will result in more assistance due to a Presidential Disaster Declaration.

Meanwhile, the budget committee Wednesday night voted to honor Fire Chief Green’s request to allocate funds in the new budget to upgrade and add restrooms to three existing fire halls.

“The emergency services committee suggested that we look at doing these fire halls a few at a time picking out two or three that need it most so we identified the Johnson Chapel, Blue Springs, and Keltonburg stations. We ask that funds be budgeted to add unisex restrooms including a sink and toilet in each of these fire halls,” said Chief Green.

The budget committee voted to increase the fire department spending for maintenance from $7,500 this year to $20,000 in the new budget. The difference, $12,500 would be taken from the capital projects fund

The committee also approved funding of $36,100 to meet a 5% local match for an Assistance to Firefighters Grants which if approved would fund the purchase of another fire truck and related firefighting equipment.

Action has been delayed on Chief Green’s request to fund two shared part-time positions in the fire department. The cost to the county would be $68,640 per year. No two specific individuals would get the jobs.  Available firefighters, who are trained and certified, would rotate in and out of the positions as needed and no firefighter would work more than 24 hours a week. The two fire fighters would be assigned to work out of the main station on King Ridge Road, which serves as the hub of the county fire department.

Sheriff Patrick Ray had requested that the budget committee fund the purchase of five patrol cars in the new budget at a cost of $165,000 from the capital projects fund. The committee voted instead to fund three cars at $100,000 because the county may have to allocate money from capital projects to meet obligations in other budgets if revenues are not sufficient.

The committee has not yet taken up Sheriff Ray’s request to fund five new positions including one extra court officer, two extra shift supervisor positions for the sheriff’s department operation, and two extra shift supervisors for the jail.

The county has been digging into its savings account (surplus or fund balance) for the last couple of years to fund the government (county general) and unless it can tap into new sources of revenue limits may have to be put on new spending in the 2019-20 budget year.

During Wednesday night’s budget committee meeting, the county’s financial advisor Steve Bates warned that the revenues are not keeping pace with expenditures in both the county general and capital projects fund. Bates said sooner or later the county is going to have to face this revenue problem.

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