Assessor of Property Shannon Cantrell Claims Victory in Local GOP Primary

March 5, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County Assessor of Property Shannon Cantrell is enroute to a third term after defeating challenger Amy Clare Lockhart in the DeKalb County Republican Primary Tuesday.

Cantrell, the Republican nominee, carried all 12 precincts including early voting and absentees for a total of 1,566 votes (61.90%) to Lockhart’s 961 votes (37.98%). He will be unopposed in the August DeKalb County General Election. The term is four years.

A total of 2,897 people voted in the March 5 DeKalb County Primaries including 1,743 on election day, 79 by absentee, and 1,075 during early voting.

The breakdown by precinct is as follows:

Early Voting/Absentees combined: Cantrell- 598; Lockhart- 433

Alexandria: Cantrell-107; Lockhart-64

Temperance Hall: Cantrell-42; Lockhart-25

Liberty: Cantrell-97; Lockhart-54

Snow Hill: Cantrell-53; Lockhart -29

Church of God: Cantrell- 119; Lockhart-87

Rock Castle: Cantrell-17; Lockhart-11

Courthouse: Cantrell- 102; Lockhart-64

Johnson Chapel: Cantrell-61; Lockhart-23

County Complex: Cantrell-93; Lockhart-48

Keltonburg: Cantrell-111; Lockhart-50

Blue Springs: Cantrell 72; Lockhart-30

Church of Christ: Cantrell-94; Lockhart-43

March 5, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Together We Soar!

The administration and staff at Northside Elementary held a celebration last week to commemorate the school’s having made the list of Tennessee’s highest performing schools and districts.

The staff was treated to a barbeque lunch, and they cut a cake to mark the accomplishment.

In a report released last month, the Tennessee Department of Education gave hundreds of schools including Northside Elementary “Reward” status for the 2022-23 school year, meaning they demonstrated high levels of performance, met specific goals to improve performance or both.

First year Northside Principal Angela Johnson said the “Reward School” honor was hard earned by the educators at the school and well deserved.

“Today we are celebrating that Northside Elementary is a Reward School and that designation was given to us by the Department of Education,” said Principal Johnson. “Its based-on performance and growth in the school. Its also for schools that have an overall federal accountability score greater than or equal to 3.1 out of 4.0. We are celebrating our teachers, faculty, and staff and all their hard work as a team. They have held themselves to high standards and accountability and we wanted to recognize them in this way to let them know how proud we are,” said Principal Johnson.

“As my first year here, I am proud to be a member of Northside Elementary and for this opportunity. This award shows that the teachers and staff here hold themselves to high standards and are working very hard to help our students succeed. This is a great accomplishment that these teachers have made,” added Principal Johnson.

Director Patrick Cripps and central office staff along with school board members were invited to join the school faculty and staff for the celebration.

March 5, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

The City of Smithville gets a thumbs up from its auditor in the latest financial audit report for the year ended June 30, 2023.

John Poole, Hendersonville CPA, who performed the annual audit for the city, addressed the mayor and aldermen Monday night.

Poole said the audit showed no major deficiencies.

“In doing the state audit we are really trying to do three things. One is to make sure we provide the state the financial information that they require in their oversight. Another thing we do that is most important to this board is to look to make sure we are getting the monies we are supposed to be getting, whether that’s from annual property taxes, monthly utility billing and monies from the county and the state such as gas taxes, sales taxes, etc. as well as the interest we are earning on CDs and the collection of fines and fees and then once we receive those monies at city hall we have to make sure our employees are following city policy and handling those monies and grants appropriately. The third thing we look at is making sure the monies this board authorizes the department heads to spend is done for city business and that they are following purchasing guidelines and procedures, and we didn’t find anything to cause a concern as to how the monies are being spent. In our opinion as auditors, we didn’t see anything that gave us any concern,” said Poole.

According to Poole, the water and sewer fund showed a surplus for the year which meets the state’s requirement that the utility be financially self-supporting. “With utility funds it’s a state law that you must have at least a one-dollar surplus every other year. The change in net position for the year is $150,000 related to water and sewer (not counting grants) so we had a surplus and you certainly met the state’s threshold. From a financial standpoint your utility system is in good shape,” said Poole.

“At the end of June 2023 there was over $6 million in the water and sewer fund related to checking and savings accounts and we had some certificates of deposits of $600,000 for a total of almost $6.8 million. Our budget for the water and sewer fund is a little over $2 million so what this means is that we actually have a couple of years’ worth of (water and sewer) expenses covered in the bank account. A lot of that money will not be used just for regular expenses but also for construction projects and upgrading and improving the infrastructure of the water system but with almost $6.8 million you do have the money for when you need to take action for those kinds of things,” said Poole.

As for the general fund, Poole said the net change in position or surplus is $169,000 for the year. In the checking and savings accounts the city has in the general fund $5.6 million and CDs of over $510,000 which totals over $6 million,” Poole explained.

Although the city has some debt mostly for construction of a new police department building in 2020, Poole said overall the city’s debt amount is very low.

“We have very little debt at the City of Smithville. Certainly, for a city of this size, we have very little debt. In fact, almost no debt. Of course, that will change over time because sometimes you have to do big projects but right now when we look at the cash balances and the low amount of debt, it just shows the city’s strong financial condition,” said Poole.

After hearing Poole’s glowing report, Mayor Josh Miller said city property owners can rest assured that no city property tax rate increase will be needed anytime soon.

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