County Commission Authorizes November Public Referendum on Judicial Center/Jail Bond Issue (View Video of Meeting Here)

August 27, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County voters will have even more reason to make it to the polls in November.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission voted 13-0 to adopt a resolution to authorize a public referendum on the November 5, 2024 State and Federal General Election ballot asking voters whether the county should borrow up to $65 million to fund the eventual construction of a judicial center/jail.

The only member of the commission absent Monday night was Greg Matthews. All the others including Commissioners Tom Chandler, Daniel Cripps, Sabrina Farler, Myron Rhody, Tony Luna, Susannah Cripps, Tony (Cully) Culwell, Larry Green, Glynn Merriman, Jeff Barnes, Andy Pack, Beth Pafford, and Mathias Anderson voted in favor of the resolution to send the question to the ballot.

In June the county commission adopted an initial and detailed bond resolution not to exceed $65 million through issuance of General Obligation Bonds to build a judicial center/jail as well as a 51-cent property tax increase for debt service to fund it. Less than a month later a petition signed by more than 10% of registered voters protesting the move was submitted to and certified by the election commission clearing the way for a referendum subject to action by the county commission calling for a public vote.

While the referendum will gauge the public’s approval or disapproval of the issuance of bonds, it will not force a repeal of the 51-cent tax increase. The total county property tax levy for the year 2024-25 is now set at $2.51 per $100 of assessed value which is up from the tax levy of $2.00 per $100 of assessed value a year ago.

In addition to the referendum on the bond question for a judicial center/jail, local voters will get to decide whether or not the county should establish a $50 wheel tax in November.

In June, the county commission adopted an amended resolution to have a public referendum placed on the November 5 ballot for an up or down vote on a $50 wheel tax to support the debt service fund.

If approved by the voters, County Mayor Adcock said the revenue raised from the wheel tax would offset somewhat the 51-cent tax increase for debt service for the jail/judicial center and bring the property tax hike for debt service next year (2025-26) down from 51 cents to 33 cents.

The Presidential election is November 5th and voters in Tennessee will elect candidates for the U.S. Senate, U.S. House of Representatives, Tennessee Senate (even-numbered districts), and Tennessee House of Representatives.

August 27, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

The Alexandria Police Department has no officers!

Both Police Chief Travis Bryant and K-9 Officer Brandon Deffendoll resigned earlier this month only a couple of weeks after the municipal election that brought a change in the city administration and in recent days the only remaining officer, Jackson Franks has quit.

Does the town have any law enforcement protection?

Sheriff Patrick Ray said although the sheriff’s department does not function as a police department for the town, it will continue to do routine patrols and answer calls in Alexandria just as it has always done, but isn’t in a position to attend city meetings, etc.

Without a police chief in place, there are issues regarding the Alexandria police department in obtaining information from the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) according to Brad Mullinax, DeKalb 911 Director.

“We are handling it basically the way we have always handled it when they did not have a police officer there. We just dispatch the sheriff’s department,” said Mullinax.

“The Alexandria Police Department has to have an agreement with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in order to get information from the NCIC computer such as criminal history information, driver license tags, etc. When Chief Bryant resigned that nullified that agreement that we had with TBI. When that happened I talked with the mayor (Beth Tripp) and explained what is happening. I said we are still dispatching for you but you can’t get any information off NCIC because you don’t have anybody with a user agreement with us and the TBI. She asked if she could sign the agreement and I said no it has to be a police officer. I said you could name an interim Chief and we can do that agreement and she said ok, I think I’ll do that,” said Mullinax.

WJLE tried to contact Mayor Beth Tripp at the Alexandria City Hall Monday morning but she was not available at the time.

In addition to the police department, the new administration at the Town of Alexandria has had other issues on its plate since taking office earlier this month.

During a special called meeting last Monday evening, August 19 the aldermen, on a 3-1 vote, terminated the city recorder, Pat Houser who had been placed on suspension by the mayor the previous week. Until a replacement is hired, Jeff McMillen has been named to fill the role as temporary recorder.

Two new clerks were hired to fill vacancies, Rhonda Conatser and Jessica Howard.

In other business, the aldermen voted 3-1 to hire Rich Potter of Utility Management Services, LLC as manager of the town’s water and sewer plant operations. Potter’s quote of $142,000 was the least expensive of the three submitted but not the one recommended by the town’s consulting engineer, Jerry Warren of Warren & Associates.

“At the request of the board, we had gotten quotes from operators and received one from Clayton Anderson who was formerly the manager of the water and sewer operations for the City of Lebanon for several years,” said Warren. “He gave us quotes on water distribution and sewer collection. We recommended his quotes in a meeting to the previous council. The previous mayor was to sign his contract but he didn’t have a chance to come by my office and sign it prior to the election. He was not comfortable signing it after the election. We brought it to the new mayor for discussion and then to the council last week in a workshop,” Warren said.

“In addition to Clayton, we talked to Penny Sutherland who is a well qualified waste water plant operator in Hartsville. She has another young man that works with her. She would take care of paperwork and reporting and he would do the day to day things such as samples, etc. at the wastewater plant,”

“We recommend they (Anderson and Sutherland) be hired”, said Warren.

One of the aldermen pointed out that the quotes of Anderson and Sutherland were almost double that of Potter’s and did not include water and sewer repairs and maintenance.

Meanwhile, the Tennessee Board of Utility Regulation has ordered the Town of Alexandria to be placed under an administrative review based on a number of complaints as to the entity (town). The Commissioner of the Department of Environment and Conservation’s designee to the Board advised that TDEC has also received several complaints raising concerns as to the financial, technical, and managerial competence of the entity, and warranting further investigation by Board staff.

According to Greg Moody, Chair of the Tennessee Board of Utility Regulation, the order requires the entity (town) to comply with Board staff requests for interviews and information. Board staff shall update the Board as to its findings at the Board’s next regular meeting. Should the entity fail to comply with any directive in this order or Board staff requests, Board staff and Counsel may issue subpoenas for the entity’s governing body and manager to appear in person before the Board during its next meeting following non-compliance with this order.

Mayor Tripp was quick to point out last week that this review by the Tennessee Board of Utility Regulation began on July 18, 2024 prior to her election.

“The previous board (mayor and aldermen) had calls from people who had complaints about their water quality but the board did nothing. The old board had over a month to get someone to run the water and sewer operations but failed to get anybody in here”, said Mayor Tripp.

Getting someone on board to begin overseeing the town’s water and sewer departments was one of the reasons for the special meeting of the Mayor and Aldermen last week.

Among the complaints raised by residents is the quality of their drinking water and the high bills they have had to pay.

Sherry Tubbs of High Street said for months, she has had cloudy and brown water coming out of her faucets forcing her to have to boil the water or in most cases buy bottled water for household use. Tubbs said she has also had to deal with extremely high monthly water bills, in some cases double and triple what they should be. According to Tubbs her highest bill last year was $424 and the year before it went to $700 in one month. “They almost shut me off. I needed some help with the bill and asked for them to give me some time. They gave me a $75 one day late fee and another $250 for being more than seven days late and then they charged me $50 to rehook it. It cost me over $1,000 to get my water back,” she said

Whether it’s a leak or a faulty meter, the source causing Tubbs’ high water bills has apparently not yet been identified.

However a remedy for the cloudy and brown water may be in sight within a period of months according to Rich Potter of Utility Management Services, LLC, a former manager of Alexandria’s water and sewer plant operations, who has just been hired by the aldermen to take it over again. Potter is also affiliated with the Smith Utility District, the entity which supplies water to the town of Alexandria. The source of the water is the Caney Fork River.

“In 2009 we had from Caney Fork about 4 parts per million of iron in the raw water. We now have about 17-19 parts per million. If iron comes into solubility you are going to see it. If you see brown, cloudy water its iron. I had to get my board to authorize a chemical polyphosphate treatment that I put in play two months ago and what it does is it sequesters the iron. It doesn’t get rid of it but it hides it. You won’t see it but its working. Polyphosphates sequester iron and manganese to prevent discolored water,” said Potter.

The Alexandria Mayor and Aldermen are scheduled to meet in regular monthly session tonight (Tuesday, August 27) at 7 p.m. at the Alexandria City Hall.

August 26, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

The man who allegedly beat his girlfriend to death with a hammer almost two years ago was sentenced today (Monday) in DeKalb County Criminal Court.

36-year-old Simon Rodriguez Martinez, charged with first degree murder in the death of 39-year-old Yuri Guerra, entered a plea to the lesser offense of second-degree murder and received a 40-year sentence to serve at 100%. He was given jai credit of 704 days for time served from September 21, 2022 to August 26, 2024. Martinez was represented by Assistant Public Defender Allison West.

The murder of Guerra occurred at the couple’s trailer home at 620 South Mountain Street on September 21, 2022.

In October, 2022, a preliminary hearing was held in DeKalb County General Sessions Court.

The only witness to testify during that hearing was TBI special agent Brandon Davenport, who was summoned to the scene the morning of the killing. He was questioned by Assistant District Attorney General Greg Strong and Assistant Public Defender West about what the investigation revealed.

Martinez, who doesn’t speak English, sat quietly in the courtroom near the assistant public defender who represented him and an interpreter who was translating for him during Davenport’s testimony.

Davenport said he questioned Martinez after the killing, and he admitted getting into a domestic dispute with Guerra over allegations of infidelity. According to Davenport, Martinez claimed to have pushed Guerra down during the struggle and that she grabbed the hammer and struck him with it. Martinez claimed he then took the hammer away from Guerra and struck her once. Davenport said Martinez’s version of the story was not supported by the evidence in that the condition of Guerra’s body showed multiple blows to her head. After the killing, Martinez allegedly admitted to taking a shower and throwing away his bloody clothes. Three children were present in the home at the time of the killing and the oldest, a 14-year-old witnessed the attack and gave a statement to investigators. A blood-stained claw style hammer, believed to have been the murder weapon, was also recovered.

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