County advised to make decision on jail issue before passage of new budget

April 23, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

As the county commission ponders which direction to go with a jail project, it will also soon be confronted with what to do with the 51-cent property tax increase for debt service adopted last year. Once a tax rate is established by the commission, it must remain in place for a year until passage of the following budget. The new fiscal year begins July 1, 2025.

The county’s current tax rate is $2.51 per $100 of assessed value , up from $2.00 the previous year and all of the increase (51 cents) was added to debt service in anticipation of funding proposed construction of a judicial center/jail project through the issuance of bonds not to exceed $65 million but that effort failed at the polls during a public referendum last November. Although the bond issue did not move forward the property tax increase still remains in place for another jail construction project yet to be approved.

During Tuesday night’s budget committee meeting, County Mayor Matt Adcock said the county needs to make a decision on the jail issue before passage of the 2025-26 budget.

“Once you pass your budget you cannot change your tax rate (during the year) and you cannot change where your money goes. Once you pass 51 cents in debt service its just stuck there,” said County Mayor Adcock. “We have just accumulated about $3.4 million in our debt service. They (county commission) really need to make a decision on the jail before we pass this budget because we can’t keep the 51 cents in debt service if we are not paying it toward some kind of debt. We would either have to take it out and put it in the general fund, capital projects, or wherever you want that 51 cents to go. This (budget) committee will decide that. But you will not know how much to put in debt service to pay for a jail if they (commission) don’t decide what they want to build or where they want to put it or whatever they are going to do. We need to know what we are building before this budget passes,” said County Mayor Adcock.

If the county is to eventually build a new jail to meet state certification standards, a site has to be selected, either at the current location or somewhere else.

During a three-hour meeting Monday night, April 7 the jail committee of the county commission met to discuss several options for land purchase and costs and to again explain to the public why a new jail is needed. During the public comment period later in the meeting, the committee took questions from a large group of residents who turned out to give their opinions and, in some cases to express their frustrations.

Sixteen people took to the podium to speak, and their concerns ranged from outright opposition to building a new jail especially in their neighborhoods to keeping construction costs to a minimum if a new jail is built.

April 23, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

Fixing the heating and cooling system at the courthouse.

During Tuesday night’s county budget committee meeting, County Mayor Matt Adcock requested $600,000 from the capital projects fund in the 2025-26 budget for a long-term solution to a long-standing problem.

For now, County Mayor Adcock said the courthouse heating and cooling units have been temporarily repaired. But instead of replacing the 55-year-old chiller boiler system, he said an HVAC engineer has taken a look and determined that the existing one can be fixed.

“I asked Lee Company to give us an estimate,” said County Mayor Adcock. “They came and got this system running again. We had no heat and cooling for a while. The gentleman from Lee Company came down, looked at it, and said I know exactly what your problem is and I think I can get it fixed (temporarily) by the end of the week. On Thursday he showed up, spent some time down there that morning, got it running, and its been running ever since. However, it is not a permanent solution. We still have the same issues we have had for the last 15 or 20 years with the system not operating correctly,” explained Adcock.

“To get a more permanent solution an HVAC engineer came and looked at the boiler chiller system and gave us a rough estimate of approximately $550,000 for the mechanical and controls components and he listed the scope of work and things that need to be replaced. He said the system we have here works but its just old and needs to be upgraded. He said we have a great system and that Tennessee Tech runs on the same system with a boiler and chiller. It runs hot and cold water through the system. He said the pipes are corroded and the fans are shot and that it has not been maintained since it was built. He is talking about gutting out what we have and replacing it with new parts. He said it would be cheaper to stick with the same boiler system that we have than to switch to an HVAC or split units. I know how people might perceive this but its only an estimate. This doesn’t mean we will go with Lee Company. This project has to be competitively bid out. We have a private act that anything over $10,000 has to be bid out but Lee Company is coming and doing another estimate. They will have somebody to help me with the drawings and schematics, but it hasn’t been bid out yet. We don’t know what the total cost will be. It might be less than $550,000 or it might be more and that’s why I am asking for $600,000 in the budget but hopefully it will be less than that,” said County Mayor Adcock.

For more than five decades, the present-day DeKalb County Courthouse has served as home to the court system, offices of local public officials, the election commission, veteran services and for meetings and other purposes.

Built in 1970 through the federal model cities program, the courthouse has served the county well and remains an active place, especially on days when court is in session, but it has also often become an uncomfortable environment due to a faulty chiller boiler heating and cooling system which causes portions of the building to be too hot in the summer and too cold during winter.

Its been a periodic problem for several years and the county has spent significant time and money trying to fix it. But recently the system completely failed and needed immediate attention at a time when replacement parts for it are no longer easy to come by.

April 23, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

The proposed Wolf Creek Public Safety building has not yet been developed but when it is the county will need a fire truck to serve that community.

During Tuesday night’s meeting, County Fire Chief Donny Green asked the budget committee to allocate from the county’s capital projects fund in the 2025-26 budget money to purchase either a new or used fire engine. But even if a newer fire engine is purchased, Wolf Creek would get a different truck already in the fleet.

“To be transparent the newest station doesn’t always get the newest fire truck. We put them in line of succession so it (newest truck) would go to the next one (station) that’s due to get a newer truck and then we shuffle them on down. That’s the way we have always done it and that’s the fairest way to do it,” said Chief Green.

With the support of the County’s Health, Education, and Public Welfare Committee, Chief Green laid out for the budget committee the two most immediate priority needs of the county fire department and a new or used fire truck is first on the list. Next, according to Chief Green is the need for allocating $250,000 in seed money previously committed for construction of a 2-bay public safety building on property of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Wolf Creek.

“We are in the process of negotiating an agreement with the Corps of Engineers for that building,” said Chief Green.

“Based on current quotes, $231,000 should fund the proposed construction of a 2-bay public safety building at Wolf Creek with the seed money that has previously been allocated. We request that the county roll the cumulative $250,000 in seed money from capital projects into the budget for this building,” said Chief Green.

“The following immediate funding requests for capital projects that will provide the most critical overall benefits to the communities we serve are as follows,” said Green.

“A new or used fire engine purchase to allow placement of an engine at the new Wolf Creek Station that is expected to be constructed within the next 12 months. Minimum allocation for a used fire engine is $250,000. Minimum allocation for a new/demo fire engine is $450,000. A decision to buy used or new is based on the following factors,” said Chief Green.

“Availability of a quality used fire engine-with long lead times on new fire engine orders, there is a sharp increase in demand for used fire apparatus. This impacts both price and availability”.

“We cannot obligate a hold on a used/demo fire engine unless funds are allocated. The demand is high for these fire engines and vendors will not put apparatus on hold without some form of obligation to purchase”

“Lead time on build of a new fire apparatus is at least 18 months,” he said.

Chief Green said he is not opposed to the county purchasing a used fire truck, rather than new. For example, the used fire truck the county purchased from the City of Smithville in 2018 is still in use today and “it has made us a really good fire engine,” said Chief Green.

With the City of Smithville considering the possibility of replacing a 2001 engine, Chief Green said the county fire department would be interested in eventually purchasing that city fire truck.

Meanwhile EMS Director Trent Phipps is asking the budget committee to fund the purchase of a new ambulance at $275,000 which if approved would not be expected to arrive for another two to three years.

“DeKalb EMS would like to secure the funds to purchase a new ambulance, “said Phipps. “With build times being approximately two years, it is important that we purchase the next ambulance as soon as possible. I am requesting $275,000 to purchase a new ambulance that meets the standards of the current fleet,” said Director Phipps.

Budget committee member Tony (Cully) Culwell asked if it would be cheaper to fund a chassis remount rather than buy a new ambulance.

“Money is tight. I would like a quote (on chassis remount). In some of the smaller counties, that is what they are doing. We can’t compete with the big cities. We have to look for ways to cut costs,” said Commissioner Culwell.

The county is expected to take delivery this summer on another ambulance which was authorized for purchase and ordered during the 2022-23 budget year but not yet paid for at $225,000. These two ambulance purchases ($225,000 for one on the way and $275,000 for a new ambulance) puts the total EMS local capital projects funding request at $500,000 for 2025-26.

Within the last few days, DeKalb EMS took delivery on yet another long-awaited ambulance which was mostly funded through a 2023 Community Development Block Grant. Two years ago, the county applied for this CDBG grant to purchase a new ambulance at that time equipped with a Stryker automatic loading system, Pro 2 ambulance cot, Stryker Stair Chair, Zoll heart monitor, and ventilator. The grant totaled $352,497 with a 16% grant match by the county of $67,142 plus a $27,481 budget amendment which was recently approved due to higher costs putting the local expenditure for this ambulance at $94,623.

Sheriff Patrick Ray also asked the budget committee to fund four new sheriff’s department patrol cars totaling $175,000. “I don’t yet know what the state bid will be for the vehicles, but we will fund the blue lights and emergency equipment for them out of the sheriff’s department maintenance budget,” said Sheriff Ray.

The budget committee has not yet acted on Tuesday night’s budget requests.

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