Chamber’s “Project Welcome Mat” Winners – 2021

June 18, 2021
By:

The Smithville-DeKalb County Chamber of Commerce has announced the winners of the 2021 “Project Welcome Mat” in time for the 50th Annual Fiddler’s Jamboree and Crafts Festival July 2 & 3.

This year’s winners are as follows:

*People’s Choice – Tennessee Credit: “50 Years Strong, Covid Be Gone, Let’s Fiddle, Clap, and Clog All Weekend Long”

*Most Original – Wilson Bank and Trust” Half a Century Old, Fond Memories Told, Music, Crafts, and Food In a Jamboree Mood”

*Best Worded- Liberty State Bank: “50 Years of Crafts Abound, Fiddlin Sounds and Dancin All Around”

*Most Creative – Middle Tennessee Natural Gas:” Put on Your Shorts, Grab Your Shades, Going to be Huge 5 Decades”

Project Welcome Mat Honorable Mentions include: The Office of the Circuit Court Clerk; Creations by Donna; Love-Cantrell Funeral Home; RealSource, LLC; and Webb’s Pharmacy, Gifts & Soda Fountain & Advanced Urgent Care.

“We want to thank all the businesses for posting signs to welcome Jamboree visitors. We had twelve entries this year! It is very important to make sure that our guests know how appreciated and important they are to us,” said Chamber Director Suzanne Williams.

June 18, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Should the DeKalb County Ambulance Service expand the hours of its day truck ambulance operation?

The answer is yes according to EMS Director Hoyte Hale and he met with the budget committee of the county commission Wednesday night to formally make that request.

DeKalb EMS currently operates with two 24 hour trucks (ambulances) seven days a week along with a day truck ambulance Monday through Friday each week from 7 a.m. until 5 p.m. Hale wants to expand the use of the day truck operation to 12 hours a day, seven days a week to meet the increasing demands.

“Due to an increase in the population, lake related activities and transfers on weekends, the call volume has drastically increased. A day truck ambulance would be of benefit such as reducing safety risks to other crew members due to fatigue, greater county coverage and response time, employee retention, less wear on current ambulances and increased revenue due to transfers,” said Director Hale.

“Currently, during weekends the county has coverage provided by two ambulances. When hospital transfers occur, there is only one ambulance remaining to provide county wide coverage. During these times of single ambulance coverage, other calls occur and leave the county uncovered requiring these calls to wait for mutual aid (ambulances coming from other counties) to arrive. Within the last year, there has been 3,744 responses, 2,782 transports with a total of 175 out of county transfers on the weekends. A Saint Thomas EMS unit has transferred 90 of these calls due to a (DeKalb County) ambulance being out of the county on a transfer, resulting in lost revenue to the county,” Director Hale continued.

To adequately staff the expanded day truck service, Director Hale is asking the county to fund three more full time paramedics or AEMTS, EMTS to work Mondays through Sundays on 12 hour shifts. One of the two day truck crews would work two days on and then be off for three days while the other crew would work three days on and be off for two days.

Meanwhile, Director Hale plans to make application for an Assistance to Firefighters Grant to purchase three mechanical Lucas Chest Compression devices which can deliver automatic chest compression with minimal risk of interruptions during patient transport. If approved the county would have to fund a 5% grant match of about $3,125.

Director Hale is also asking that the county find money to purchase and install the Stryker loading systems on four ambulances at a cost of $25,000 each through either state or federal grant funding or local capital projects monies.

“What that would allow us to do is when we pull up on a call and get out, the cot would automatically come out and lower down and when we get the patient, place him on the cot and begin to load him on the ambulance the system would lift the cot with the patient and place it into the ambulance without the staff having to do any heavy lifting preventing any possible back injuries,” said Director Hale.

Hale’s requests further include funding for a newer four wheel drive EMS SUV with an equipment package.

“An SUV would be of benefit for response to 911 calls providing the space for necessary equipment in case of mass casualties, the capabilities to reach destinations with difficult access as well as use in traveling to trainings for continuing education. The current EMS vehicle is a 2006 Ford Crown Victoria with approximately 160,000 miles which does not have adequate space for the equipment needed and requires constant maintenance,” said Director Hale.

Price options for an SUV range from $26,634 to $35,457 according to three proposals quoted by Director Hale.

The budget committee has not yet acted on the EMS requests.

June 18, 2021
By: Dwayne Page

Almost a million dollars.

That’s how much extra local property tax revenue Road Supervisor Danny Hale is asking of the county to help him repair deteriorating roads.

Hale appeared before the County Budget Committee Thursday night to make his case for an increase in the local property tax rate of 16 cents to help shore up the road department budget which equates to an increase of $991,520 under the new certified property tax rate calculation. The certified tax rate is $1.7308 per $100 of assessed value. If approved the rate would increase, based on Hale’s request alone by 16 cents to an overall rate of $1.8908 per $100 of assessed value.

Although the road department is primarily funded by allocations from state sources such as gasoline and motor fuel tax, state aid program, and the petroleum special tax, it also benefits from a local mineral severance tax and the county currently kicks in four cents of the local property tax rate which, according to the 2020-21 budget comes to about $190,000 a year.

Still, Hale said that is not near enough to do the work needed.

Breaking it down by month, Hale explained that his department receives an average of $173,502 in state revenue and $16,143 in county tax funds for a total of $189,645 while the cost to operate is $112,859 per month which covers everything but paving, chipping, and buying equipment. According to Hale that leaves him only $76,786 per month to service 513 miles of roads in DeKalb County or $149 per mile in which to tar and chip or pave.

“Eighty five percent of our roads need to be redone (re-chipped). That’s a reality. Our roads are all to pieces. Its costs us $32,000 to $35,000 per mile to chip a road and $110,000 to $180,000 per mile to pave,” said Road Supervisor Hale.

Even if the county grants his request, Hale said that would still only allow him to service 32 to 35 road miles per year.

“This year alone we have had three disasters. We had an ice storm and we worked night and day cleaning up the roads but before we finished that we had a flood and we’re still working to clean up from that today and then we had a tornado come through. To accomplish anything we are going to have to put some money into our roads and I am asking for help” added Hale.

The budget committee has not yet acted on Road Supervisor Hale’s request.