Rental Rates Going Up at Seven County Community Centers (View Video Here)

January 28, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

If you want to rent one of the seven community centers in DeKalb County going forward, you’ll have to pay more.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission voted to increase the daily rental rate from $50 to $100 at the Johnson Chapel, Belk, Keltonburg, Blue Springs, Midway, Snow Hill, and Temperance Hall Community Centers. The Cherry Hill Community Center is currently under lease. This does not apply to the rental rates at the county complex.

Community center rentals have declined in recent years and so has the condition of some of the centers. The decision by the county to increase the rate is intended to help recoup costs of utilities and upkeep of the centers.

The county received only $6,500 in rental fees from all seven community centers combined in 2024 (140 rentals) and most of that came from the Snow Hill Community Center, which is rented one day each week on weekends by a church group for worship services.

Commissioners have entertained the possibility of selling the centers but are not sure if they can because most of them were funded under the federal model cities program decades ago. Five of them are also used by the election commission as polling locations.

Before the vote to raise the fee, Commissioner Jeff Barnes asked why do that when there is not a demand for rentals now anyway.

“If some of them are not being rented, people may think they are paying too much at $50. I don’t see how $100 is going to make a big improvement in it,” said Commissioner Barnes.

Commissioner Tom Chandler said the county is losing money on the community centers.

“The big reason for doing this is that we have already spent a great deal of money on these community centers in the last year,” said Commissioner Chandler. “We still have a great deal of money to be spent on these community centers in order to bring them up to just basic repair. Even at $50 it is not even half of the estimated cost and at $100 it is still below the estimated expense that sets in front of us. We have eight community centers. One of them is Cherry Hill which we have leased out and we have seven others. Five of them are used as voting precincts. The elephant in the room is that they (community centers) are old. They are in much need of repair. If it wasn’t for the church that is using Snow Hill, collectively these are not getting very much usage. We probably need to be thinking about getting rid of them. Either leasing them out to someone or selling them. The one that might not have an encumbrance on it is Temperance Hall. The encumbrance on the others is that they were built under a federal program that we are probably way beyond the statute of limitations on needing to have it. I don’t understand why we would not at least try to help ourselves in keeping up the maintenance and repairs of these buildings. The alternative to me is to have five other places to have a voting precinct and try to lease or sell them. We have had lots of complaints about the community centers being in bad shape, not cleaned up, etc. To me this is just a stop gap taking this to $100 to help keep these things up but it’s a losing battle,” said Commissioner Chandler.

January 27, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

Monday night basketball!

The DCHS basketball teams will step outside the district as they travel to McMinnville tonight (Monday, January 27) to take on Warren County. The girls game tips off at 6 p.m. followed by the boys game. WJLE will have LIVE coverage of both.

DeKalb County will be looking to bounce back from losses at Stone Memorial Friday night, January 24. The Lady Tigers were defeated 70 to 56 and the Tigers fell to the Panthers 70 to 45.

In the girls game, DC trailed 17 to 15 after the 1st period, 31 to 28 at halftime, and 50 to 39 after the 3rd period before losing 70 to 56.

Chloe VanVranken scored 18, Allie Melton 15, Camille Barton 9, Brooklyn Fuson 8, and Avery Agee 6.

The Tigers found themselves behind 20 to 6 after the 1st period of the boys game. DC trailed 49 to 18 by halftime and were behind 74 to 35 after the 3rd period before losing to the Panthers 79 to 45.

Dallas Kirby scored 10, Elliot Barnes 9, Jon Hendrix 6, Seth Fuson, Chase Young, and Logan Duke each with 5, David Wheeler 3, and Jordan Parker 2.

The Lady Tigers drop to 5-17 and the Tigers are 8-14. Both teams are 0-5 in the district.

January 27, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

The county needs a school traffic officer to fill a vacancy.

Through a longstanding agreement, the City of Smithville, DeKalb County Government, and the DeKalb School District, share in the annual cost of paying two traffic control officers in the school zones mornings and afternoons (during the school year) at Northside Elementary School and at DeKalb Middle School/DCHS. The positions pay $20 per hour. The county makes the hires.

According to County Mayor Matt Adcock, the schedule is approximately an hour and half in the morning and an hour and a half in the afternoon during school traffic hours. It is approximately 25 hours every two weeks. Payment is received bi-weekly. “The county is looking to fill the position immediately. If someone is not hired we will have one school without an officer,” said County Mayor Adcock.

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