County Commission Reorganizes

September 26, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

County Mayor Matt Adcock was Re-elected Chairman of the DeKalb County Commission Monday night.

Sixth district commissioner Jeff Barnes, the longest serving member of the commission at 21 years, was returned as Chairman Pro Temp, replacing Fifth district member Larry Green who served in that role this past year. Barnes had previously served as Chairman Pro Temp for several years. Barnes would preside over county commission meetings in the absence of the chairman.

The county commission reorganizes each September naming a chairman and chairman pro temp to serve for the ensuing 12 months.

In other business, the commission approved the county mayor’s committee appointments as follows:

Budget Committee: Jeff Barnes (Committee Chairman), Susannah Cripps Daughtry (Vice Chairman), and Sabrina Farler along with Glynn Merriman replacing Larry Green, Tony (Cully) Culwell replacing Greg Matthews, Tim Reynolds replacing Beth Pafford, and Tom Chandler replacing Daniel Cripps.

Audit Committee: Trevor Glover (citizen member), Justin Adcock, Myron Rhody, and Daniel Cripps. Gone from the committee are Beth Pafford, Tony Luna and citizen member Tom Janey from this past year.

Community Economic Development: Tony Luna (Chairman), Greg Matthews (Vice Chairman), Beth Pafford, Justin Adcock, and Susannah Cripps Daughtry. Gone from the committee are Glynn Merriman, Tom Chandler, and Tony Culwell.

UT Agriculture Extension Committee: Tony Culwell and Tony Luna replacing Myron Rhody, Jeff Barnes, and Daniel Cripps.

Purchasing Committee: Matt Adcock (County Mayor), Danny Hale (Road Supervisor), Patrick Cripps (Director of Schools), Myron Rhody, Larry Green, and Jeff Barnes. Tom Chandler is gone from the committee.

Public Works Committee: Glynn Merriman (Chairman), Tim Reynolds (Vice Chairman), Sabrina Farler, Tom Chandler, Justin Adcock, Jeff Barnes, and Myron Rhody. Gone from the committee are Tony Luna and Tony (Cully) Culwell.

Health, Education, and Public Welfare Committee: Larry Green (Chairman), Tom Chandler (Vice Chairman), Jeff Barnes, Tim Reynolds, Glynn Merriman, Myron Rhody, and Daniel Cripps. Gone from the committee are Greg Matthews, Susannah Cripps Daughtry, Justin Adcock, and Sabrina Farler.

Government Services Committee: Sabrina Farler (Chairman), Daniel Cripps (Vice Chairman), Larry Green, Greg Matthews, and Tom Chandler. Gone from the committee are Janice Fish Stewart (citizen member), Beth Pafford, and Susannah Cripps Daughtry.

Planning Commission: Rick Cantrell (citizen member), Danny Pirtle (citizen member), Harold Bain (citizen member), Alan Webb (citizen member), Jack Barton (citizen member), Beth Pafford, Greg Matthews, Justin Adcock, and Susannah Cripps Daughtry. Gone from the planning commission are Glynn Merriman, Tom Chandler, and Tony (Cully) Culwell.

Ethics Committee: Brandon Cox (General Sessions Court Judge), Greg Matthews, Jack Barton (citizen member), Larry Green, and Tony (Cully) Culwell. Gone from the committee are Debra Malone (Clerk and Master), Timothy Reynolds, and Glynn Merriman.

911 Board: Jeff Barnes and Sabrina Farler

Other appointees also confirmed by the commission are County Attorney Hilton Conger, County Fire Chief Donny Green, County EMS Director Hoyte Hale, County EMA Director Charlie Parker, and Solid Waste Director James Goff.

Membership constituting the DeKalb County Beer Board is changing.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the County Commission approved County Mayor Matt Adcock’s request to abolish the current citizen member makeup of the beer board and make the county commission itself the beer board.

For years the beer board had consisted of one citizen member from each of the seven districts in the county. The standing members of the board had been Jim Stagi in the 1st District, Myron Rhody in the 2nd District, Bobby Johnson in the 3rd District, Robert Rowe in the 4th District, John Hummer in the 5th District, Leonard Dickens in the 6th District, and Johnny King in the 7th District.

All seven members served as appointees of the county commission and the two-year terms were staggered with the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th district positions being appointed in odd years. The 2nd, 4th, and 6th district seats were filled in even years.

County Mayor Adcock said he believes the beer board would function better if the county commission itself served as the beer board.

The change becomes effective immediately and the next time a beer board action is needed the matter will come before the regular monthly meeting of the county commission for a decision.

September 26, 2023
By:

District Champions!

The DCHS Lady Tiger Golf Team won the District 7AA Tournament at Golden Eagle Golf Club in Cookeville Monday improving their overall record to 19-0.

Alison Poss led the way with a 79, finishing 3rd overall in the tournament. Chloe Boyd shot an 81 to finish in 4th place individually. Emily Anderson finished with a 103.

The Lady Tigers’ score of 160 bested 2nd place Upperman by 13 and 3rd place Warren County by22.

The Tigers finished in 4th place with a score of 338. Cookeville won with a  297, Upperman came in 2nd with a 334, and Stone Memorial finished 3rd at 336.

The Tigers finish the season at 19-14.

“We were so close to qualifying as a team. Two strokes is tough to take. I am so proud of these guys. They fought really hard, but just came up a little short,” said DCHS Golf Coach John Pryor.

The Lady Tigers will go to the Region 4AA Tournament on Monday, October 2 at Tim’s Ford. There, six teams will compete for one spot in the state tournament.

Brad Hale, with an 81, and Will Blair, with an 82, also qualified for the Region Tournament as individuals. They will be two of 35 golfers competing for three spots in the State Tournament.

September 25, 2023
By: Dwayne Page

Not yet!

Whether or not the county commission will commit to building a new jail, criminal justice center, or new school has not been determined and may not be for some time. Neither has the commission had any serious discussions on how those projects would be funded, whether it be a higher property tax rate or a wheel tax.

County Mayor Matt Adcock and members of the county commission wanted to clear the air on that subject Monday night, September 25 during their regular monthly meeting after some angry public reaction to a discussion during last week’s jail committee meeting in which Adcock informed the commission for the first time about a 38-acre site in Smithville he identified as a possible desirable location for a building project, possibly for a criminal justice center.

During the jail committee meeting last week, Adcock said he had contacted the owner of the property, Peggy Hayes and she was willing to talk about selling the land, but she wanted the county to make an offer. During last night’s county commission meeting, September 25, County Mayor Adcock proposed, and the county commission adopted a budget amendment in the amount of $3,500 to have a commercial appraisal of the Hayes property as the county continues to explore its options.

The Hayes property, which is currently open farmland once owned by Hayes’ father the late Rex Hayes, is situated in the heart of Smithville in the area off West Broad Street and behind Anthony Avenue, Morgan Drive, and Short Street near the housing projects in the vicinity of Walmart.

After consulting with officials of Bell Construction recently, Adcock recommended to the jail committee that if the county were to build a criminal justice center that the facility be made to accommodate four courtrooms, sheriff’s department, and a jail with 225 beds. He said the turnkey project, estimated at over $50 million, could be scaled down if necessary.

Although the Hayes property was the one he discussed most at the jail committee meeting last week, County Mayor Adcock said other locations might also be available for the county to consider purchasing.

For example, Adcock said he also had the idea of the county possibly working out a deal with the board of education to build a new elementary school on the property the board acquired in 2020 near Northside Elementary School, repurposing the existing Smithville Elementary School building for a criminal justice center, while building a new jail behind it on the same property. Again, Adcock said he had Bell Construction look at that option and they came to the same conclusion that such a facility would cost the county about $50 million to build, not counting the estimated $46 million to build the new school.

Almost a year ago, the county commission was shown plans for a proposed new 800 student Pre-K to 2nd grade elementary school to replace the existing Smithville Elementary complex that in August housed 550 students, down by 31 students from August 2022. 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 in October, 2022 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. Although the Board of Education has settled on the plan, there has been no further movement since last fall by the school board or the county commission to proceed with the project, mainly some say because of the economic climate and higher construction costs today. In 2020, the board of education purchased 24.5 acres of property on North Congress Boulevard near Northside Elementary School for construction of a new elementary school. The price paid was $18,000 per acre for a total of $441,000.

If the county were to initiate any significant building project, jail, justice center, and or school, Adcock said it would need a sufficient revenue stream to pay for it which the county apparently currently does not have in place. Thus, talk by Adcock about a possible wheel tax last week, which again is not up for consideration by the county commission at this time.

All discussions on this subject (building and funding plan) remain very preliminary, according to County Mayor Adcock, but he said plans have to be considered given the dilemma the county is facing with the jail in particular after the Tennessee Corrections Institute recently decertified 50 of the DeKalb County Jail’s 102 beds that were being used to house male and female prisoners. According to TCI standards, the jail can now house no more than 52 inmates (16 females and 36 males) to remain certified by the state and none of the prisoners can be kept in the basement of the older portion of the jail building. Since that decertification move by TCI, Sheriff Patrick Ray has had to find other county jails to house many of DeKalb County’s prisoners, mostly the females and the cost of that is running up to $55 a day per prisoner, which over a year’s time could cost the county as much as $500,000 according to County Mayor Adcock. Because of that fact alone, Adcock said the county cannot afford to do nothing regarding the jail.

“We want to maybe look at building a facility, but the county commission has not made a decision on what they want to do yet as far as a criminal justice center, new jail, or even doing the project at all. It is still in the very preliminary stages,” said County Mayor Adcock Monday night. “There was some talk about a way to fund the project and the commission has done well in doing their due diligence into looking at every solution out there. I have talked with them about a wheel tax or property tax to see what the best for the citizens of DeKalb County (in funding a project) would be, but no decisions have been made at this time,” Adcock continued.

“We did look at one piece of property (Hayes property) just because the property owner had reached back out to me,” Adcock explained. “That is the only reason we looked at that one certain property at our jail committee meeting last week. That too is not certain. We don’t yet know where we are going to build the facility if we do build the facility, we are looking at multiple lots all throughout the city limits as well as every single option and revenue source”.

Putting inmates over school children is not the right decision, according to Anita Puckett, who addressed the county commission on this subject during the public comment period Monday night.

“I was selected to be part of the committee formed to rectify the many issues with the jail back in 2019. The commission knew if something was not done soon, the state would be involved. My concerns are that with the delay in movement on a new facility, the state will come in and tell DeKalb County what to building,” said Puckett, who is native and taxpayer of DeKalb County, mother, grandmother, a longtime educator, former 5th district county commissioner, and now Smithville Elementary School Principal.

“I am here tonight to plead with the commission to reconsider action on the proposed new school construction that was presented back in October, 2022,” said Puckett. “The architectural plans have been submitted, the land paid for and TDOT traffic studies completed. The thought of $50 million being spent on 85 inmates for a justice center as opposed to $50 million to be spent on 525 students is appalling. The students of DeKalb, the future of our county deserve to be regarded with our utmost importance,” she said.

“As a commissioner, I had shared my thoughts on the repurposing of Smithville Elementary School after a new elementary school was constructed. The school’s site is in a perfect location within the city limits. The land is paid for, the grounds are large enough for future expansion. It offers a fully functioning cafeteria, a gymnasium, outside recreation area and library if desired. The front of the building will need to be completely remodeled for a more desirable office space for the Sheriff. The idea that Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin would join a justice center would be ideal. Instead of purchasing new properties, I ask the commission to be wise and reconsider the construction of a new school with the intention to repurpose the existing Smithville Elementary School for a Justice Center. Again, I stress the thoughts of $50 million being spent on 85 inmates for a justice center as opposed to $50 million to be spent on 525 students is simply appalling,” said Puckett.

In February, 2020 Puckett was among 10 county commissioners who voted against the Board of Education’s proposal at that time for a multi pre-K to 8 school construction project. The commissioners opposed to the project said it was something the county could not afford long term and still be able to fund other future needs. The DeKalb County Commission at that time followed the budget committee’s recommendation to deny the Board’s request for a minimum of $48,685,000. The move forced the school board to change its plans to what eventually became the current proposal for a pre-k to 2 school.

“I totally agree with her (Puckett) in that we are putting inmates in front of our children, and we just can’t do that” said Terry Bailey of West Broad Street who also addressed the commission during the public comment period. “We are also looking at 38 acres and that is ridiculous for a justice center or a jail. The City of Lebanon has a Wilson County Jail and seven and a half acres and justice center and 455 beds. They (Wilson County) have a population of 150,000. We (DeKalb County) have a population of 20,000. There is no reason to have that size of a facility and use that land for a justice center that could be developed into housing. I think a school is an excellent idea but there is also land around the jail. I would also like to see what could be done with the existing jail. If offices or facilities could be moved to the basement, the upstairs could be turned into jail cells. $55 million dollars with a 30-year mortgage? Come on! We can’t afford that. Something has to be done,” said Bailey.

In response to Puckett and Bailey, County Mayor Adcock said “the county commission has never said it would buy 38 acres. We were looking at a piece of property that happened to be 38 acres. We did mention that it would be a good future investment if we had the additional revenue to have a large piece of land that you could build things on for the next 50 to 100 years whether it be future libraries, health departments, etc. but we never did make a decision on where we were building, what location. We have talked about building on South Mountain Street, the 38 acres of the Hayes property, and property the city industrial board owns, but no decisions have been set in stone anywhere, and not even on whether we will build a criminal justice center. We’re not even saying we would build one before we built a school,” said Adcock.

“I don’t think anybody here would pick inmates over children,” County Mayor Adcock continued. “That’s not something anybody would want to do but the state has told us that if we do not build something (jail) that there will be actions taken on us later where the federal government will come in and tell us what to build and how to build it and if that were to happen it could be $80 million when they get done with it. This commission has a lot of responsibility placed on their shoulders and it weighs on them every night like I know it weighs on me. Unfortunately we are stuck in a situation where the state has their finger down on us. Some people have said don’t listen to the state. Don’t do what they tell you to do. That’s how you get in trouble. I don’t want us spending more money in the long run when we might save money now (short term) by building a smaller size than what we need. Again this is all preliminary. Nobody is saying we are going to do a wheel tax or higher property tax. No one is saying we are going to build a jail or criminal justice center right now. I know a lot of people have become passionate about this and they should be but we all feel that same passion and we are here to make the most sound, responsible, educated decisions that we can,” said County Mayor Adcock.

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