January 28, 2025
By: Dwayne Page
The election commission will soon have a new home.
The county commission, during its regular monthly meeting Monday night, voted to relocate the election commission headquarters from the first floor of the courthouse to the unused office space at the county complex. A budget amendment in the amount of $110,000 was also adopted. The money will be appropriated from the fund balance of the capital projects fund. The commission had previously considered taking the money from the general fund balance but Commissioner Larry Green said capital projects is a better alternative.
“The general fund balance should be used for year to year expenses. This (relocating the election commission office) is not a year to year expense,” said Green.
Bids will be accepted to make proposed election commission office renovations at the new location along with the purchase of new office furniture, and setup of the IT network, etc. It could take months before the move is complete but election officials want to have the headquarters relocated in plenty of time before the start of the 2026 election cycle.
The reasons behind the move of the election commission office to the county complex are to tighten security at the courthouse while providing more office and storage space for the election commission. Even though the county complex has been in operation for 12 years, this particular location, originally intended for use by the county mayor’s office was never finished and remains unused.
This issue was on the agenda in December but it was postponed after some members of the county commission questioned whether the county might be acting too hastily without considering other factors. There was a discussion at one point about possibly relocating the election commission to the vacant arcade room and history room at the county complex. Others suggested making the history room, where the county commission holds monthly workshop meetings, an actual history room which is what the new county Historian Freddy Curtis has suggested.
Since the December meeting, the county commission has discovered that the arcade room and the history room, in particular, are frequently used by senior citizens and other groups.
Jan Thomas, speaking on behalf of the senior citizens Monday night, asked that the history room continue to be used by seniors and others.
“The history room is used every day by the DeKalb County Senior Citizens,” said Thomas.” We play volleyball three days a week and on Tuesdays we have a cardio upper body strengthening drumming class. On Thursdays we have a Tai Chi and yoga class. The age range that we are currently serving is from age 62 to 99. Today we have over 30 people come to play volleyball. In addition to the activities that I mentioned, the following uses of the history room have happened in the last 12 months: weddings, bridal showers, baby showers, birthday parties, receptions, meetings of the DeKalb Telephone Cooperative, and even the county commission has met there on Thursday nights. The DeKalb County Board of Education has held teacher in-services. Our DeKalb County Senior Citizens are very active in supporting our veterans. The history room has also been used from time to time as an auxiliary lunch area where we have fed the band and chorus on Veterans Day,” Thomas explained.
“I understand that Mr. Curtis is wanting to honor the history of DeKalb County,” Thomas continued. “When I spoke before the public works committee on January 16 I had the suggestion of the following: Cannon County many years ago formed a Cannon County Historical Society. From there they were able to purchase display cases in which they held the treasured items from families in Cannon County. It is my personal opinion that Mr. Curtis would benefit greatly if he would allow a DeKalb County Historical Society be formed to support him and that it be looked into that display cases be placed in the hallway where the current county offices are starting near Mr. Poss (County Clerk Office) and Mr. Seber (Register of Deeds Office) and down the direction toward Mr. Sean Driver (Trustee’s Office) and Mr. Shannon Cantrell’s Office (Assessor of Property). If you have ever been to the DeKalb County Fair in Alexandria you know that many families are very comfortable bringing their precious family items because they are locked in display cases,” said Thomas.
The arcade room and history room will not be used by the election commission