Brandon Donnell Appointed to Fill Third District Vacancy on County Commission
by: Dwayne PageJan 28, 2025
The third district has a new county commissioner.
During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission appointed Brandon Donnell to succeed Susannah Cripps as a member from the third district. Donnell was sworn into office by County Mayor Matt Adcock after the meeting. He will serve out Cripps’ term which expires August 31, 2026.
Six people had sought the appointment along with Donnell including Johnny Croom, Eden Nokes, Tim Perricone, Stuart Colwell, and Len Dickens.
The appointee had to get at least seven votes from the remaining 13-member commission in order to fill the vacancy. Donnell received 10 votes from the commission.
The names of Croom, Donnell, and Colwell were placed in nomination from the commission and the vote on each was taken in that order. Commissioners were allowed to vote for more than one candidate.
Croom, nominated by Commissioner Tony Luna, received five votes including from Luna, Larry Green, Beth Pafford, Myron Rhody, and Mathias Anderson.
Commissioner Tom Chandler nominated Donnell and his 10 votes came from Chandler, Larry Green, Greg Matthews, Andy Pack, Mathias Anderson, Glynn Merriman, Daniel Cripps, Jeff Barnes, Sabrina Farler, and Tony (Cully) Culwell.
Colwell was nominated by Commissioner Andy Pack and he received votes from Pack, Tony Luna, Larry Green, Myron Rhody, Mathias Anderson, and Tony (Cully) Culwell.
Donnell, a Smithville Police Department Detective, formally introduced himself to the county commission on Thursday night, as did the other five candidates, during a committee of the whole workshop meeting.
“I am a Christian and attend the Smithville First Freewill Baptist Church. I align myself with conservative values. I am a Republican and a lifelong resident of DeKalb County. I graduated high school here in 2005. I currently work at the Smithville Police Department as a detective. I have been with the department for 14 years. Before that I worked at the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department for a little over four years. I started working there when I was 19 years old. I have been serving the people of DeKalb County pretty much all of my adult life. My wife is Kaylah. We have been married over 18 years. She is an assistant manager at Wilson Bank & Trust in Smithville. She has worked there over 18 years. I have two children. My son Carson graduated high school last year. He is now a student at Tennessee Tech. My youngest son Collin is an eighth grader at DeKalb Middle School. My whole family lives here. I am going to retire here. I care deeply about this county. I want this county to thrive. I want my kids to graduate here, go off to college and get a good education, come back, start their families here, raise their kids here and be proud of DeKalb County just like I am. I don’t know everything there is to know about all the issues this county is facing but that’s the reason why I would like to serve, to learn more and do more for the betterment of this county,” said Donnell.
The 14-member county commission (two from each district) is made up of nine Republicans, Tom Chandler, Sabrina Farler, Brandon Donnell, Tony (Cully) Culwell, Greg Matthews, Larry Green, Glynn Merriman, Andy Pack, and Mathias Anderson; three Democrats, Jeff Barnes, Beth Pafford, and Myron Rhody; and two Independents, Tony Luna and Daniel Cripps.ere
StormReady! (View Video Here)
by: Dwayne PageJan 28, 2025
StormReady!
The National Weather Service has recognized DeKalb County for earning accreditation as a StormReady community.
Caleb Cravens, Nashville Incident Meteorologist of the NWS presented the county with a plaque in recognition of the accomplishment during Monday night’s monthly county commission meeting.
County Mayor Matt Adcock asked Commission Chairman Pro Temp Jeff Barnes, who is also a 911 Board member, to accept the award.
“I am here to present DeKalb County with an accreditation that we do with the National Weather Service called StormReady,” said Cravens.
“The National Weather Service is a government weather service agency. We fall under the Department of Commerce and NOAA. There are 122 offices across the US that are in charge of forecasting the weather for the US and issuing all of your watches, warnings, and advisories. When you are at home and you hear a tornado warning or a flood warning that is us issuing those,” explained Cravens. “ Our mission is that we provide weather, water, and climate data forecasts and warnings for the protection of life and property. We also work with local public officials and local emergency managers toward becoming more prepared for all weather extremes”.
“StormReady is a nationwide program that helps build a weather ready nation essentially focused on preparedness,” Cravens continued. “ It’s a grassroots effort across the US to help communities develop and plan to handle all types of weather from tornadoes to winter storms. Its voluntary. It is not required. Its completely up to each county, emergency managers, communities, and schools to participate. There is a standard set of guidelines, and they are not easy to maintain so being able to receive this accreditation is quite an accomplishment,” he said.
“Across the US there are around 3,500 StormReady communities. Before you can become a StormReady community you must have a 24-hour warning point with someone present at all times that can receive our warnings to alert the public. They also have to agree to promote the importance of public readiness through community outreach; have a formal hazardous weather plan; have multiple ways to receive, monitor, and send weather information; have an emergency operations plan and an emergency operations center; and they must also partner with the National Weather Service for safety and preparedness,” explained Cravens.
“DeKalb County has met all those requirements. We have been working with the county for the past several months to reach the ultimate goal of strengthening our relationship between the National Weather Service and the county itself to better prepare for hazardous weather to protect the community”.
“On behalf of the StormReady Advisory Board, I would like to congratulate DeKalb County for being certified as a StormReady community. The leadership and the progressive measures taken by the DeKalb Emergency Management Agency has really been outstanding through the whole process. They are really dedicated to preparedness and protecting this community. DeKalb EMA has put into place redundant methods of monitoring weather, receiving watches and warnings from the National Weather Service and disseminating severe weather warnings throughout the community. DeKalb EMA has also grown and strengthened its relationships with us through this process helping foster that relationship and that collaborative communication. They have dedicated themselves to participating in educational outreach programs and have written severe weather preparedness plans and conducted severe weather exercises. I want to say a special thank you to your Emergency Management Agency Director Charlie Parker. He played a key role in pushing this forward for the county. I also want to thank your 911 Director Brad Mullinax. He also played a key role. I congratulate you for your willingness and hard work in earning this accreditation,” said Cravens.
Rental Rates Going Up at Seven County Community Centers (View Video Here)
by: Dwayne PageJan 28, 2025
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.
« First ‹ Previous 1 8 98 106 107 108109 110 118 129 Next › Last »