The 47th annual Smithville Fiddlers Jamboree and Crafts Festival is coming Friday and Saturday, July 6 & 7 and the Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce invites all county businesses to again use their changeable signs or marquees to post welcome greetings for our Jamboree visitors.

“This marks the 18th year for the Chamber’s “Project Welcome Mat”, said Suzanne Williams, Executive Director of the Chamber. “With thousands of visitors coming into town, every effort should be made by the local merchants to show our guests that we appreciate them and welcome their business.

The program has been successful over the past years with many businesses participating. Let’s keep on showing folks how friendly the DeKalb County / Smithville area can be!,” she continued.

All businesses may participate in “Project Welcome Mat.” The wording may be only a simple “Welcome to the Jamboree” or as elaborate as you choose. There will be recognition awards in 3 categories: “Best Worded,” “Most Original” and the “People’s Choice Award.” Plaques will be presented to winners along with media recognition.

If your business would like to participate in the contest, email the Chamber at swilliams@dekalbcountychamber.org or call 615-597-4163. Wording should be in place no later than Friday, June 15, 2018.

County Mayor Tim Stribling signed a proclamation Thursday, May 31 to officially designate June as Dairy Month in DeKalb County.

Jenna Cantrell, the 4-H June Dairy Month chairperson, along with other 4-H members witnessed the signing and enjoyed some ice cream in celebration with Mayor Stribling.

The proclamation reads:

WHEREAS dairy farmers have contributed to the development and well-being of DeKalb County since the earliest formation of DeKalb County.

WHEREAS, the dairy industry is a major industry in Tennessee, a significant contribution to the economy.

WHEREAS, milk and dairy foods provide health benefits and valuable nutrients; and

WHEREAS, real milk and dairy foods are superiors to their imitations in quality, values, and taste; and

WHEREAS, the 81st celebration of June Dairy Month, highlighting the dairy industry, will occur during 2018;

Now, therefore, be it resolved by Tim Stribling, mayor of DeKalb County, that June 2018 is designated to the celebration of June Dairy Month, and I call upon all the government agencies and the people of DeKalb County in order to observe the month with appropriate programs and activities.

DeKalb County 4-H has many activities planned for the public including participating in Get Outdoors Day at Floating Mill on June 9th, the summer reading program at Justin Potter library, and a special event at Evins Park beside the Square on the evening of June 30th. They will be announcing more information soon. Be sure to “Like” DeKalb County 4-H June Dairy Month Adventures on Facebook to keep up with where the 4-H Dairy Crew will be headed next! You may also call 615-597-4945 for more information.

Photo Caption: DeKalb County Mayor Tim Stribling signs a proclamation to declare that June is Dairy Month. Front: Jenna Cantrell, Elizabeth Seber, Tim Stribling, & Ansley Cantrell. Back: Laura Magness, Colby Barnes, and Luke Magness.

Teachers will get a pay raise in the coming months but the increase will not be as large as they had hoped.

During a meeting Thursday night, the budget committee of the county commission voted to reject the proposed 2018-19 budget for schools which included a request for a $2,400 local increase in pay for each teacher and certified personnel and a $1,500 increase for non-certified support staff. The only pay raise teachers can count on now is a $600 increase the state will be funding.

In his meeting with the budget committee Monday night, May 21 Director of Schools Patrick Cripps tried to make the case for giving teachers more money saying DeKalb County is not keeping pace with other counties in the rate of pay for teachers and they (teachers) are getting harder to come by.

Members of the budget committee want the school board to spend no more local money in the new budget than it has this past year. The committee is concerned that the county cannot afford to pay for all the proposed new spending requested by the school board without digging too deeply into the school system’s fund balance.

The Board of Education will now be forced to revisit its proposed budget and make cuts or revisions. In addition to the proposed pay raises, the school board had requested new spending for other needs but that too might have to be eliminated unless the board can re-work its budget to fund them with the money it already has coming to the district.

The Board of Education wanted more money to purchase Chrome Books for the 3rd through 5th grades at a cost of $240,000. Students from the 6th grade through high school already have Chrome Books. Extra funds ($20,000) would be included to repair and replace existing Chrome Books.

At the May 21 meeting, Cripps said $215,000 is needed to buy new textbooks. “This is a big change in our budget. This year is science adoption and that is K-12. We have to get new books for every student. The average book is $150,” he said.

New funding ($25,000) was also requested to implement a Dyslexia Program to help children at the elementary school grade level in reading. “The state is really pushing for testing of dyslexia and they are going to start holding us accountable for identifying our students that may have this issue. That program would be in K-2. It will help with reading and identify struggles kids may have,” said Director Cripps.

The proposed budget included $10,000 in new spending for meeting mandates of state evaluation and testing.

“The state mandates that we have a Response to Intervention (RTI) to see where students skills are as far as remediation in math, English, and reading and what we need to do to meet those students needs. With that you have to buy materials to test them. A universal screener. That costs $12 for each student per test in grades K-8 and that’s three times (per month). We check them throughout the month in between those three times to see the progress they are making,” Director Cripps said.

Due to the increasing demands of technology, the board wanted to make a current half time computer tech position full time ($16,000 in new money) which would give the school system three techs.

One new bus is usually purchased each year. The board wanted to buy two new school buses this year. That would be an extra expense to the system of $100,000.

Extra funds were also included for employee matching benefits and $2,500 to help schools cover their phone bills. “We have added $500 per school to assist with phone charges at the schools since they have to pay for their own phone bills,” said Director Cripps.

The proposed new spending for schools in this budget came to more than $1.7 million dollars over expenditures budgeted this past year and possibly could have been as much as $2.2 million if spent on a recurring basis without any increases in state BEP funding.

The budget committee is also trying to hold the line on spending in the general fund next year as well.

Except for pay raises already approved earlier this year for county employees and anything mandated by the state, the budget committee is recommending that no new spending be included in the general fund for the 2018-19 budget.

Requests from the Assessor of Property and County Clerk for an additional full time employee for their offices based on need were denied by the budget committee along with a request for more local funding for the Recovery Court and a proposed $5,000 increase in salary for the EMS director.

In order to close out the current fiscal year June 30 the county expects to go into its fund balance by from $600,000 to $900,000 to balance. By this time next year, the county might have to take as much as $1.3 million from its cash reserves to balance the books.

The budget committee is hopeful that more revenue will be generated in the ambulance service next year to offset the expenditures and the county’s subsidy of the EMS operation. In the last couple of years the county had contracted with another company to do the patient billing and collection for the ambulance service but saw receipts decline. The county is ending that agreement and will once again do the patient billing in-house at the ambulance service hoping to improve collections.

The budget committee will meet again Monday evening at the courthouse to review proposed budgets of other departments. Still to be considered are budgets for the local highway department, solid waste department, requests for charitable contributions, and others.

When the budget committee finishes its work, it will make a recommendation to the entire county commission for passage of the consolidated budgets for the 2018-19 fiscal year. Members of the committee say they do not plan to recommend any local property tax increase this year.