Fire Chief Asks Budget Committee to Allocate More Seed Money Toward Proposed Wolf Creek Public Safety Building

April 26, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

The county budget committee is being asked to set aside another $100,000 in seed money from the capital projects fund for the future development of a new public safety building to house a fire truck in the Wolf Creek community.

County Fire Chief Donny Green made this request during Thursday night’s meeting of the budget committee as one of the top three most immediate needs of the fire department with the backing of the county’s Health, Education, and Public Welfare Committee which recently met with Chief Green and voted to join him in making the recommendation for this action.

For the last several years the county commission has set aside seed money for future construction of a fire hall at Wolf Creek and that fund has grown to $150,000. Green said adding another $100,000 would just about be enough to build the facility.

‘We started out a few years ago setting aside $25,000. We put back another $25,000 the second year. We later sold some surplus equipment, and I took $50,000 out of that surplus equipment (sales) and put it in that (seed money) fund. We have added to the fund since then and are now up to $150,000. I am asking this year for an additional $100,000 to go into that fund to give us a total of $250,000. Based on estimates, that is what a two-bay station will cost us at the Wolf Creek station. Even that would not give us a fancy building. It would be a wood frame building similar to like what we built at Liberty except this one would be two bays instead of three bays,” said Chief Green.

The proposed location for the safety building is on property owned by the US Army Corps of Engineers under a partnership agreement still in the making between the county and the corps which would permit the county to build this public safety building on a site near Center Hill Dam at the county’s expense, but the Corps would have ownership of the building and bear the cost of utilities going forward. Under terms of the agreement, Green said the Corps wants the facility to be called a public safety building and not a fire hall so that other agencies could make use of it including the TWRA, THP, Sheriff’s Department, and Rescue Squad etc.

The building at this site would be centrally located in the Wolf Creek area to serve communities on both sides of Center Hill Dam.

In the event the budget committee does not put back the additional $100,000 in seed money for the Wolf Creek project this year, Chief Green said he and the County’s Health, Education, and Public Welfare Committee are recommending that the funds be set aside for the future development of a district fire station model.

“This model provides for a district station in each of our three fire districts in the county,” said Chief Green. “A district station is one that has a fire engine, tanker, and a brush truck similar to what we have at Liberty. Now that we have the one at Liberty, I would eventually like to have one at Keltonburg and at the Midway station where we already have land and are operating out of buildings that are already way too small. Those were original buildings that were built in 1975 under the Model Cities Grant Program. Back then they were operating with homemade two-ton trucks that were much shorter and smaller than the fire trucks you see today.  At some of our firehalls like Short Mountain, to get in the station you have to raise the bay door because you can’t walk between the bay door and the fire engine. That’s how tight it is. We literally have to cram it (fire truck) in there,” said Chief Green.

Meanwhile, Chief Green, along with the County’s Health, Education, and Public Welfare Committee, are asking that the budget committee allocate $640,000 for 75 new county fire department portable radios under the new Tennessee Advanced Communications Network (TACN) system should the county’s regional application for funding through the FEMA Assistance to Firefighter Grant not be approved.

“Our department agreed that we would forego the original local funding allocation for the portable radios, even though it was done for ambulance service and sheriff’s department radios. We (fire department) agreed to hold off on our radios at the time in order to apply for a FEMA grant. That application has been filed and we will know probably in early August or September whether we get funded for that. In our previous discussions, the county commission agreed that if we didn’t get funded under the grant we would come back and revisit funding the radios locally for the fire department. That is 75 portable radios for $640,000. Those radios are $8,500 each. The state contract has taken care of the ambulance service and sheriff’s department and their radios are already ordered and we would be under the same contract. I hope we get the grant. 911 Director Brad Mullinax and I worked hard putting all that together. If we get funded that’s great but if we don’t the reality is we will have to buy the radios or we will be the only department out there without communication abilities,” said Chief Green.

The budget committee has not yet acted on Chief Green’s request.

April 26, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

Should the county’s hotel/motel tax be increased for marketing DeKalb County to promote local tourism?

During Thursday night’s meeting, third district county commissioner Tony Luna asked the budget committee to consider recommending to the full county commission action to increase the current 5% hotel/motel tax to 8%. Since the 5% tax was established for DeKalb County through a Private Act by the Tennessee General Assembly in 1995, the county commission would have to ask the state legislature to amend the private act in order to increase the tax to 8%. It would be next year before the state could make the change since the general assembly has concluded business this year.

The county projected the local hotel/motel tax this year to generate at least $210,000 but Commissioner Luna said the county has already taken in more than $232,000 with still two more months remaining in the 2023-24 fiscal year. The money derived from the hotel/motel tax goes to the county general fund.

With DeKalb County tourism growing, Commissioner Luna said it only makes since to increase the hotel/motel tax to promote local tourism because it’s the tourists who pay the tax and more tourists means more sales tax revenue to help fund schools and other local needs.

“In 1995 we (county commission) passed a private act establishing a hotel/motel tax and its at 5%. It’s never been raised,” said Commissioner Luna. “The budget estimate for this year was $210,000 but so far we’re already at $232,000 which tells us that we are really growing in this county and even in the last five years it (collections) shows the growth we have gotten out of this from just the tourists coming in,” Luna explained.

“If we raise that tax to 8% it will generate between $75,000 to $125,000 depending on how many people come here. I would like to see that 3% go toward marketing of our area including Smithville, Center Hill Lake, and DeKalb County as a whole. That will bring more people in who will stay in these short-term rentals and if we ever get a hotel or motel we will generate more funds from that. These folks (tourists) are going to come in and spend money here which goes on our local option sales tax, part of which is for schools and other projects we are trying to fund. Its almost like free money,” Luna continued.

“The last time you rented a place and went on a vacation, did you check and see what your (hotel/motel) tax was? Nobody does. They pay that fee,” said Luna. “Another good thing is that nobody local is going to pay it. Only visitors coming in,” he said.

“I would like for you (budget committee) to look it over. I would like to see it be earmarked just for the marketing of this area because it will pay us back in dividends on the back end. Suzanne Williams (Chamber Director) applies for grants all the time and she has gotten $450,000 in grants so far this year but there are some grants she doesn’t apply for because they are matching grants and these are funds we could use toward that. We might turn $10,000 into $100,000. If you look at this area, Center Hill Lake is the number one search (by tourists) and the Jamboree is second, but the Jamboree is only for one weekend. We have 51 other weekends that we could do something and that’s why I would like to see this happen,” said Luna.

The budget committee has not yet acted on Commissioner Luna’s request.

April 26, 2024
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County’s local option sales tax collections for March, 2024 were up compared to February and better than March 2023’s numbers.

According to the Tennessee Department of Revenue, DeKalb County collected $145,744 in local option sales taxes in March, 2024, an increase from $138,326 in February, 2024 and above collections of $141,411 in March, 2023.

Smithville’s collections for March were $371,116, an increase from $359,089 in February and up from $361,475 in March, 2023.

Alexandria’s local option sales tax collections stood at $26,942, down from $30,420 in February, and below collections of $30,847 in March 2023.

Dowelltown’s collections for March were $3,524, under February’s collections of $4,428, but better than $3,136 brought in for March, 2023.

Collections in Liberty stood at $14,130 in March, up from $9,948 in February, and better than $10,905 taken in for March, 2023.

Net collections for the county and cities combined for March were $561,458 up from $542,212 in February, and above collections of $547,776 in March, 2023.

March collections reflect activity for the previous month.

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