County Budgeting More for Employee Health Insurance

June 17, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Due to rate hikes and mandates of the Affordable Care Act the county is budgeting an increase of $76,800 in the amount it pays toward health insurance for employees under its group plan.

The county budget committee last week voted to increase from $350 to $450 the amount the county pays to meet the federal mandate in covering 64 county employees enrolled in the plan. If approved by the county commission, the county would be spending next year $345,600, up from $268,800 this year.

County officials are expecting insurance costs to increase from 5% to 12% with the average increase for the basic plan to rise by 11.6%

“The county pays $350 per month for each employee who takes insurance. Sixty-four people have county insurance. We have to meet the Affordable Care Act. Under the law, the lowest paid full-time employee cannot pay more than 9.565% of their salary for insurance. We are going to have to do something to come in line with the Affordable Care Act. If the county went from paying $350 per employee to $450 per month for each employee, then that would satisfy the requirements,” said County Mayor Tim Stribling.

June 17, 2022
By:

The Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree & Crafts Festival is pleased to announce an exciting new opportunity in partnership with the iconic Grand Ole Opry in downtown Nashville, Tennessee. The Opry has agreed to invite the 2022 Grand Fiddle Off Champion to play a ‘fiddle tune’ for the Opry square dancers live performance during the selected show. (TBD)

“We are so very excited to establish this historic partnership with The Grand Ole Opry. This has been a goal of the Jamboree Board for many years, and we are so very grateful to Dan Rogers (Opry), Darrin Vincent (Dailey & Vincent) and Rob Ramsey (Board Member) for working together to make this a reality.” said Sam Stout, President & Coordinator of the Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree. “It will be very humbling to see the 2022 Grand Fiddle Off Champion performing on the Opry stage where so many talented professionals in the country music industry have stood. It is such an honor, as the Opry has been the home of country music for more than 95 years. This will bring a whole new level of competition for this year’s fiddle contestants.”

The Smithville Fiddlers’ Jamboree & Crafts Festival is celebrating their 51 years on July 1-2, 2022, on the courthouse square in downtown Smithville, Tennessee. The two-day event is home to the National Competition for Country Musician Beginners, while being named the ‘Official Jamboree & Crafts Festival of the State of Tennessee.’ The festival is free to the public, while musicians, singers and dancers can pay a nominal fee to compete in multiple bluegrass, gospel, and dance categories. All events are inclusive and handicap accessible.

About The Grand Ole Opry:
The Opry presents the best in country music live every week from Nashville, Tenn. The Opry can be heard from opry.com and wsmonline.com, Opry and WSM mobile apps, Sirius XM, and its flagship home, 650AM-WSM. The Grand Ole Opry is owned by Ryman Hospitality Properties (NYSE: RHP). For more information, visit opry.com.

June 16, 2022
By: Dwayne Page

Full and part time county employees may soon be getting a bonus for their service during the height of the pandemic from American Rescue Plan Act funds.

The budget committee last week voted to recommend to the county commission that full time employees each get a bonus of $2,500 and that part time staff each receive $1,250. In order to get the bonus, these employees must have worked for the county at any time during the fifteen-and-a-half-month period of March 13, 2020 to June 30, 2021 and they must still be employed by the county. No matter if a full time employee worked for the county during the entire period or only part of that time, he or she would get the full $2,500 bonus. The amount would not be prorated. Part Time EMS staff must have worked a minimum of 400 hours to get the part time bonus pay of $1,250. All other part timers must have put in at least 250 hours during the fifteen and a half month period. Twenty nine volunteer firefighters who met the criteria would get a bonus. Firefighters who made 75% training attendance would qualify for a $300 bonus and those with 100% training attendance would receive a $350 bonus for the period from March 13, 2020 to June 30, 2021. Two county funded employees and eight employed by the state at the DeKalb County Health Department would also be included in the ARP bonus plan.

The proposal to pay these bonuses using ARP money will be presented to the county commission for final approval.

The budget committee took this action after hearing from Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin who, speaking on behalf of herself and other county officials present, requested that some amount of ARP funding be given to their employees.

In addition to Circuit Court Clerk Martin, other county officials at that meeting in support were Trustee Sean Driver, County Clerk James L. “Jimmy” Poss, Clerk and Master Debra Malone, and Administer of Elections Dennis Stanley.

“When its time to allocate this ARP money I would like for you to seriously consider a bonus for employees. My employees are valuable to me. They keep us going,” said Martin.

At that meeting, Martin had not requested a pay raise for employees but expressed concerns about retaining staff during this time due to other places compensating their employees because of rising prices/ inflation.

Fourth district commissioner Dr. Scott Little, who voted for giving the bonuses, asked why Martin did not ask for more employee pay saying that a one time bonus would not address her worries about staff leaving for other jobs.

“Why not” (seek pay raise for employees), “ asked Commissioner Little. “What is the issue going to be next year? Have you solved anything?. We could give a one-time bonus but that doesn’t help you next year,” he said.

Trustee Sean Driver suggested to the committee that the bonus pay using ARP funds should have already been addressed.

“Before we ever talked about what to do with this (ARP) money, we ought to invest in people. That’s an investment. Good people. When we are competing with Hardees and McDonalds we are not investing in our people. That’s what we are missing for the whole county. If they are giving money we should have never thought about where to place it until we took care of people,” said Driver.