Dr. Caleb Cantrell Again Appointed Medical Examiner

April 25, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County has filled the position of Medical Examiner with a familiar face.

During Thursday night’s workshop, County Mayor Matt Adcock informed the county commission that he has again appointed Dr. Caleb Cantrell as the medical examiner subject to approval of the commission. Dr. Cantrell had been named to the position last summer but didn’t serve amid the controversial suspension of former medical examiner Dr. Denise Dingle by the county mayor which the commission did not uphold. Months after she was returned to the position, Dr. Dingle resigned just as a new county policy went into effect regarding how the medical examiner and medical death investigator were to be paid per death call.

After the departure of Dr. Dingle, Dr. Cantrell was again approached but resisted taking the job due to policy concerns and no other local physicians have been willing to accept the role. Dr. Adele Lewis of Nashville, the State Medical Examiner has filled the void in recent weeks but has informed County Mayor Adcock that she will no longer continue doing the work for the county after April 30.

With a proposed revision in the medical examiner policy on the agenda for Monday night’s monthly county commission meeting, County Mayor Adcock said Dr. Cantrell has again decided to accept the offer.

Under the existing policy which went into effect February 1, “$200 will be paid to the Medical Examiner per decedent. The $200 will be $100 for the Medical Examiner and $100 for the Medical Investigator. 911 will notify the Medical Examiner. The Medical Examiner will be responsible for contacting a Medical Investigator on each body. The Medical Examiner will be responsible for paying the Medical Investigator within 30 days of receiving the money from the county. A DeKalb County employee (EMS) can be the Medical Investigator as long as they are not on the DeKalb County clock during the investigation”.

“Dr. Cantrell had been concerned about having to pay1099 employees, having an accountant, and issuing tax statements, etc. He said I’m not a tax person. I am a doctor. He said it was already an inconvenience to be the medical examiner, and he doesn’t really want to do it. He said the only reason he would do it is to serve the community,” said County Mayor Adcock.

If approved by the commission Monday night, the new policy states that “The DeKalb County Medical Examiner will be paid $100 per decedent and the Medical Death Investigators will be paid an hourly rate based off their ambulance service salary. Medical Death Investigators must be approved by the Medical Examiner, EMS Director, and the County Mayor before they can participate in the position of Medical Death Investigator. The minimum amount of hours to be paid to a Medical Death Investigator should be four hours”.

“This new policy is to get us back in line with the state so we will be paying the medical examiner $100 per decedent and pay the medical death investigators at an hourly rate based on their ambulance service salary. That was the opinion of the comptroller’s office who said we could not pay an hourly employee a flat rate. They said if you are paid hourly at one (county) job you have to be compensated at the same wage for the other (county) job. It also states that the medical death investigators must be approved by the Medical Examiner, EMS Director and myself as County Mayor. Of course, they (medical death investigators) would be working under the medical examiner doctor’s license, and their salaries would be coming out of the EMS budget,” said County Mayor Adcock.

“I am hoping we can find a way to compensate these medical death investigator employees at a flat rate,” County Mayor Adcock continued. “I am working with the Tennessee Comptroller’s Office on how we can legally do that to keep employees from double dipping,” he said.

Meanwhile, the county commission is expected Monday night to approve the appointment of First District Commissioner Daniel Cripps to replace fellow First District Commissioner Tom Chandler as a member of the budget committee. Although Chandler is not stepping down from the commission he is relinquishing his budget committee assignment due to a recent illness.

The commission is also expected to correct a typographical error in a personnel policy regarding vacation time. The mistake in the policy states that full time county employees with five years of consecutive service are to get 10 days of vacation when in fact the policy should read three consecutive years for 10 vacation days. Meanwhile, County Mayor Adcock is asking the commission to add a provision to the policy to give full time county employees with 20 years of consecutive service 20 days of vacation time. The current policy also provides for 5 days of vacation for one year of service for full time employees and 15 days’ vacation for full time county employees with 10 years of consecutive service.

Commissioner Larry Green gave a report Thursday night on a legal consultation he, County Mayor Adcock, and County Attorney Hilton Conger had in Nashville recently with members of a law firm on where the county stands regarding enforcement of the County Powers Act adopted by the county commission last October.

Some members of the public have argued that three companies — the McMinnville Energy LLC cryptocurrency mining and the Jones Brothers and SRM quarries should be subject to the County Powers Act claiming they were not already “in operation” when the commission passed the local regulations.

“Their advice to us was to be patient and do nothing right now because the way the County Powers Act is written they (companies in question) have to do certain things before they can apply for a permit from us (county) and until they get those things done and go into operation we don’t have a case. They said you can’t get a cease and desist until they do something,” said Commissioner Green.

“Right now, they are not operating,” said County Mayor Adcock. “They are still in that period of trying to meet the prerequisites to be able to apply. Technically they are not violating anything because they are not in operation,” he said.

Last month, County Attorney Conger informed the county commission about a case involving similar issues which originated in Grundy County months ago and has now made it to the state supreme court. Oral arguments will be made before the state’s high court in May and Conger urges all to get online to listen.

“In Grundy County, Tinsley versus Grundy County was a lawsuit that was filed in Grundy County over these same issues. Its in the supreme court of Tennessee right now. On May 29th at 9 a.m. you can go online to the administrative office of the courts and listen to the oral arguments before the Tennessee Supreme Court and hear the arguments that are made pro and con over these issues that we are discussing here but the Supreme Court will not decide it then. That’s another factor. It was heard in the Court of Appeals in February 2024. Its just now going to be argued at the Supreme Court level in May, 2025 and they (Court) will take their own sweet time about rendering a decision. They don’t rule from the bench like judges in circuit court,” said Conger.

Green further described for the commission Thursday night what the Nashville attorneys had said during the consultation “When we got there, they had already looked at our County Powers Act, Grundy County vs Tinsley, all the oral arguments, the Chancery Court case and the Appellate Court and how they ruled. They were pretty up to date on it. This is what they specialize in. They said there might be a ruling from the state supreme court on that case within four to six months. Until then the County Powers Act is still up in the air depending on how they rule, ” Green explained.

April 25, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

DeKalb County’s local option sales tax collections for March 2025 were better than the previous month and much higher than March 2024 collections.

According to the Tennessee Department of Revenue, DeKalb County collected $179,966 in March 2025, up from $170,149 in February 2025 and better than the $145,744 taken in during March 2024.

Local option sales tax collections in March 2025 were down in three of the four towns in DeKalb County (Smithville, Dowelltown, and Liberty compared to February and underperformed in those same towns from March 2024 totals.

In Smithville, March 2025 collections were $367,824, down from $373,607 in February and below the March 2024 total of $371,116.

Alexandria’s collections increased from $32,025 in February to $32,698 in March and were up from $26,942 in March 2024.

Dowelltown brought in $3,322 in March 2025 compared to $3,658 in February and $3,524 in March 2024

Liberty’s dropped from $14,888 in February to $13,129 in March 2025 and came in under the total of $14,130 in March, 2024.

Net collections of local option sales taxes for the county and cities combined in March 2025 were $596,942, up from $594,329 in February and better than the $561,458 taken in during March 2024.

March 2025 sales tax collections reflect previous month activity.

April 25, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

This year, the National Day of Prayer celebrates 73 years of prayer for America!

“We acknowledge how blessed we are to live in a country where, by law, every year on the first Thursday of May, our President proclaims a day of prayer for our nation,” said local minister Isaac Gray.

“The National Day of Prayer observance was created in 1952 by a joint resolution of Congress and signed into law by President Truman,” said Gray. “Each year since then our president has called upon the citizens of our nation to pray, and in 1988 President Reagan established this day of prayer to be the First Thursday of May. The significance for us as a nation is that it enables us to recall and to teach the way in which our founders sought the wisdom of God when faced with critical challenges and decisions. It stands as a call for us to humbly come before God, seeking His guidance for our leaders and His grace upon us as a people”.

“Local pastors and churches would like to invite you to join with us, others from your community, and people from across our nation, as we plead for God’s mercy and guidance in our country,” Gray said.

Smithville will have a gathering on May 1, 6:30pm at Northside Elementary School gymnasium.

“We hope to see you there as we seek God together,” Gray concluded.

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