A temporary pause in new spending!

April 30, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

A temporary pause!

Except for county employee step increases and the state mandated pay raises for county officials, the budget committee Tuesday night voted to put a temporary “freeze” on new (extra) spending requests for the 2025-26 fiscal year pending a resolution of the jail construction issue.

Budget committee member Tony Luna made the motion.

“The elephant in the room is this jail project that we have going on. I would like to make a motion to freeze all pay raises and freeze the budget on everything except the step raises and the mandatory raises until we get past this jail construction (issue). Once we get past this jail construction (issue) then we will know what real money we have to spend. Until then I just don’t see how we can go any further,” said Commissioner Luna.

Budget committee member Tony (Cully) Culwell seconded the motion, and it was approved on a voice vote. Members of the budget committee in attendance were Sabrina Farler, Glynn Merriman, Mathias Anderson, Daniel Cripps, Tony Luna, and Tony (Cully) Culwell. Chairman Jeff Barnes was absent.

The budget committee also voted to keep part time pay for the 2025-26 fiscal year at the current level of $12.00 per hour across the board for all county part time personnel on a motion made by Culwell.

During the meeting, the budget committee began the process as scheduled of approving revenues and expenditures in several departments and categories of the overall budget including for the county commission, board of equalization, beer board, county mayor, county attorney, register of deeds, planning, county buildings, other general administration, property assessor, county trustee, county clerk, circuit court clerk, general session court, and drug court. In some cases, action was taken to temporarily table budget requests where department heads had asked for additional staff or pay raises for part time employees. Action will be taken on other department requests in later budget meetings

After the meeting, Commissioner Luna further explained his intent behind the motion on the freeze in proposed new spending. “The reason is we just don’t know what our budget is. I think everybody deserves a raise but how can we divvy out raises to everyone when we don’t even know what our budget is until we get the jail situation taken care of. I really wanted to get past the jail and hopefully get everybody what they are asking for. Everybody deserves what they are asking for but we’ll have to cut back some I’m sure but we have to get past this jail situation, so we know what’s left,” said Luna.

April 29, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

Back to the drawing board!

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission voted to ask Treanor Architects and Bell Construction to come up with cost estimates to build a new jail complex at the current site on the public square as well as on a generic green space location. The commission also wants to know what the jail footprint and cost would look like if the county were able to purchase the additional half acre lot adjoining the jail on the east side.

Fifth district commissioner and Jail Committee Chairman Larry Green made the initial motion which was approved on an 11-2 vote. Commissioners Tony Luna and Glen Merriman voted against it.

“I make a motion that Treanor Architects and Bell Construction be asked to evaluate our current jail to find out what can be done to upgrade to Tennessee Corrections Institute (TCI) standards, how many beds we would pick up, what the cost of the upgrade would be, and what we would build next to the current facility on the land we own and the cost to give us the number (beds) TCI is requiring. These would strictly be estimates. We will not know any final costs on anything we do until we actually have architect drawings, and we send them out for bids. These are only estimates to help us make the decisions we need to make. This is doing our due diligence about what the cost estimates would be for downtown versus someplace else,” said Green.

Third District Commissioner Tony Luna echoed a concern raised during the public comment period by Ken Fennell, a downtown business owner with over 30 years construction experience about potential remediation costs if asbestos or other environment issues were discovered at the current jail location.

“This cost would not include what the cost would be if they find asbestos or lead pipes. That would not be included in that estimate. I would love to get an idea of what it would cost if they do find asbestos to remediate that,” said Commissioner Luna.

After Commissioner Green’s motion was adopted, Second District Commissioner Sabrina Farler, in a subsequent motion, asked for cost estimates to include the half acre lot next to the existing jail if it could be purchased by the county. Her motion was adopted on an 11 to 2 vote. Commissioners Larry Green and Glynn Merriman voted against it.

Commissioner Farler then made yet another motion seeking estimates for development of a one level jail complex on a generic green space. This motion was adopted 12-1. Only Commissioner Glynn Merriman voted against it.

Before the votes, Sixth District Commissioner Andy Pack asked for more than just the one option. “I would like to see the cost at the current location versus the possibility of the cost at a different location. I would just like to see comparisons and not just a cost for downtown by itself,” he said.

“Are they going to give us an estimate on how many beds they can feasibly fit on the current property and the property next to it that has been offered for sale,” asked Seventh District Commissioner Mathias Anderson.

“Yes” answered Commissioner Green.

“I think probably at the same time they (architects) are doing this (evaluating existing jail location) they could also determine what it would cost to build on a green space. One thing that would affect it is how many beds are we going to build,” said Commissioner Green. “We have never reached a decision about how many beds we are going to build. TCI has never really come back and said you need x number of beds. We know what the (CTAS) study (for future growth) said last year which was for 270 beds. We said there was no way we could afford 270 beds. Then they said you need 240 beds right now. We said we can’t afford 240. We talked about 190 beds and that was a compromise. They (Treanor and Bell) did give us prices on 150, 190, and 220 beds. We have those estimates but that was all in three- and four-story buildings downtown. It would probably be a different cost estimate if you were going to take those down to one level and build it on a green space,” said Commissioner Green.

“We will need to assess what the impact of this is to the downtown area not only after its built but while it’s being done,” said First District Commissioner Tom Chandler.

“To Tom’s point, building downtown you can’t bring materials in and stage them like you can if you are building out someplace where you have plenty of land to build it on. In that case you would have to build and bring materials in as you needed them. You couldn’t stage anything in advance,” said Green.

Treanor Architects and Bell Construction, who plan to meet with county officials as early as next week, will develop a plan at no cost to the county according to Green.

“If we have this cost comparison done by early June then we could all get back together (county commission) and have a discussion about where we want to go with it,” said Commissioner Green.

Commissioner Greg Matthews said if the county does not move forward with a plan anytime soon the budget committee should consider asking that the county reduce the 51-cent property tax hike for debt service set last summer.

April 29, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

The Smithville Merchants Alliance and the Friends of Historic Downtown Smithville are taking a stand against any effort by the county to build a new jail complex on the square at the existing location.

Three downtown business owners, Randy Caldwell, Bert Driver, and Ken Fennell, expressed their opposition during the public comments period of Monday night’s monthly county commission meeting.

“I haven’t been in before to speak because I understood the county was pursuing relocating the jail outside the downtown area. That is something I was very supportive of. Now, I have come to understand that there is some momentum to keep it downtown and I am here to speak as a business owner. I am vehemently against it,” said Caldwell.

“As a resident and investor in our downtown, I have invested a lot of money and a lot of time and effort there. And as someone who has specialized in land use policies, this is a bad use for our downtown. Its not the proper use. Our biggest constraint downtown is a majority of uses down there are municipal uses. Marketing strategists will tell you for a vibrant downtown to make a maximum use of it there needs to be retail restaurants, entertainment, and uses that generate revenue within the district. A jail is not an appropriate use for that,” explained Caldwell. “However, opportunity arises from constraints. You have opportunity to convert a valuable property asset to a land use that will generate sales revenue, activate the square, and also be compatible with long term vision for the square. You have opportunity to control the future by using an RFP (request for proposal) process. You have the ability to seek a development partner that can redevelop that piece of property to a higher and better use that will be more compatible with the land uses down there. I am asking for you to be bold for our community and downtown and be visionary. Locating outside downtown will allow the opportunity for downtown to be an economic driver and revenue generator. Our future and livelihood downtown depend on that. Making smart decisions based on long term solutions. Help us thrive and continue to contribute to the community as business owners down there,” said Caldwell.

“To the commission I would like to say that we, the friends of historic downtown Smithville and the merchant’s association stand united to oppose the county commission’s proposal to build a three-story jail detention center in our downtown area,” said Bert Driver.

“Since our establishment in 1838, Smithville has thrived as a vibrant community and the location represents some of the most valuable and irreplaceable real estate in the entire county. To that point, is a jail in downtown the highest and best use? Our historic downtown generates significant tax revenue that benefits both the city and the county,” Driver continued. “Time and again we have demonstrated Smithville leads the county in tax income which underscores our vital role in the community. Yet, despite our contributions we feel that our voices have been overlooked and to our dismay there has been very little engagement with the local business community from this body of government. The millions of dollars that have been invested to revitalize our downtown by private entities speaks volume about the commitment to this community. No doubt we are all committed to this community. We urge the county commission to reconsider and seek an alternative location that would effectively serve our needs now and in the future. This proposal is nothing more than a band aid solution. It will only lead to more problems and greater expenses down the road, tonight we are here as a unified voice to say let’s work together, find a solution with the property owners downtown, and redevelop what is the gem of the Upper Cumberland,” said Driver.

“As a business owner my wife and I don’t think having a jail downtown is a great idea,” said Ken Fennell.

“I have been in construction for over 30 years. I have done several billion dollars’ worth of work. I worked for one of the largest general contractors in the United States. I advise my clients very directly on retrofits and renovations because that first number you see is a bogey. It’s a best-case scenario. It’s probably not going to be that at the end of the day. You’ll be attracted to it like a moth to a flame but it’s not going to be that. Retrofitting and bringing something that is so old and antiquated up to federal and state codes takes a lot of money. It’s a demand on the infrastructure that is already crumbling in the city. What you don’t know isn’t going to be in those bid documents because the architect and engineers are not going to pick up everything so that contactor won’t either in that hard bid,” explained Fennell. “At the end of the day they are going to raise their hand up and ask for change orders and then they are going to say we are delaying the job because we found asbestos, lead, PCBs, or something in the ground we didn’t expect. All those things will start to cause delays. The project will likely not come in on time or under budget and you’ll be wondering how you got there making that decision. I just want to caution you. You have choices here. We need to make the right choice. The can has been kicked down the road too long. Think about what is right for the future. Bringing tourism will bring dollars to the city and the county. Inmates don’t,” said Fennell.

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