County Budget Committee Gets More Budget Requests

April 18, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

The Budget Committee of the DeKalb County Commission heard Tuesday night from department heads of the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad, 911 Emergency Communications District, County Fire Department, and Library Director who made their budget requests for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

Although he was not in attendance, 911 Director Brad Mullinax put in a request for an additional $11,500 to support salary increases for three 911 dispatchers. He has made the same request of the City of Smithville, and he is seeking another $7,000 from the Town of Alexandria.

The county currently funds three dispatcher positions at $160,000 per year. If the budget request is approved the cost to the county would go to $171,500. The City of Smithville also funds three dispatchers at $160, 000 and is being asked to up its funding by $11,500 more. Alexandria funds half a dispatch position at $28,000 and will be requested to increase the amount by $7,000 to $35,000. The 911 board funds another three and a half dispatcher positions.

Dusty Johnson, Captain of the Smithville-DeKalb County Rescue Squad requested an additional $8,500 to purchase one used portable radio.

The Rescue Squad, made up of volunteers, is a non-profit organization and not an entity of county government. It receives an annual contribution from the county for its services which includes searching for drowning victims, cave/rope rescues and searches for missing persons, etc. This year’s request is for a total of $51,321 including the purchase of the radio.

Library Director Kathy Hendrixson requested a one dollar increase in the hourly pay for part time staff which comes to an additional $3,800. The rate will go from $12 to $13 per hour. This along with the step raises already scheduled for full time staff in the budget would put the library’s total budget at $248,167 for the year.

County Fire Donny Green has not asked for any significant increase in the fire department budget.

“Everything is pretty much static in our budget requests this year. There are a few things I increased line items on like parts and repairs just because of increased costs. Its not anything significant. I have a couple of line items in my budget that is tied to raises. I would like for those items to be adjusted regarding part time personnel (one shared position) and related expenses for social security, and unemployment contingent on what you (budget committee and county commission) do for other general fund pay raises. The other line item increases in my budget are very minimal because of costs going up but I had a couple of line items that went down,” said Chief Green.

Meanwhile the $25,000 budgeted amount for property tax relief has been increased to $34,000 to due to an increase in applicants for the program.

The budget committee took no action on any request Tuesday night. The next meeting of the committee will be Tuesday, April 22 at 6 p.m. in the downstairs courtroom of the courthouse.

April 17, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

A 12th grader has been awarded “Student of the Month” for March at DeKalb County High School.

18-year-old Katya Hennessee, daughter of Brad and Renee Hennessee, was surprised to learn Tuesday that she had been named the recipient of the honor which included a certificate and a gift card for a meal at El Rancho Mexican Restaurant.

“I’m very honored and thankful,” said Hennessee.

Katya and her younger siblings 17-year-old Valya and 14-year-old Pasha, natives of Ukraine, were adopted by the Hennessee’s several years ago. “We went through an organization called Bridges of Faith and they bring over Ukranian kids to America to be with families here,” said Katya.

A member of the FFA club, Katya said she was also a football manager for three years. Her interest in agriculture came about because of her grandfather who has about 250 head of cattle.

After graduation, Katya said she plans to attend the Tennessee College of Applied Technology in McMinnville and study cosmetology.

Asked if she keeps up with the situation in her native Ukraine, Katya said she was so young when she left that it’s hard to comprehend now. “It’s hard to comprehend sometimes because I have been here for almost nine years, but I still remember most things because I was the oldest kid in the family. It was like, wow I came from something and look at it now,” she said.

April 17, 2025
By: Dwayne Page

The proposed budget for the Smithville Fire Department would be larger if all funding requests are met by the city as proposed by Fire Chief Charlie Parker.

(View Fire Chief Charlie Parker’s 2025-26 Budget Request below)

https://wjle.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com/20250409122301295.pdf

In addition to renewing a request for the city to purchase a new $1.2 million fire engine to replace a 2001 model, Chief Parker met with the mayor and aldermen Monday night in a budget workshop to review with them his funding requests for the 2025-26 fiscal year ranging from salaries to payment to volunteers, repairs and maintenance, adding new hydrants, purchasing loose equipment including hoses, nozzles, air packs, ladders, fans, etc. (especially if a new fire truck is ordered) and capital outlay expenditures, etc.

The mayor and aldermen have not yet acted on Chief Parker’s requests. Another workshop will be held to prioritize all city needs and potentially scale down some budget requests prior to first reading adoption of the city budget for the 2025-26 fiscal year.

The city is being asked by Chief Parker to purchase a Pierce Custom Enforcer PUC Pumper currently priced at $1,248,449 with a prepayment discount of $130, 143 making the city’s actual cost $1,118,305. Delivery of the new fire truck would be within 37-38 months of order date. The cost would be only for the truck itself, and not the hoses and other apparatus to equip it.

“The Smithville Fire Department strives to adhere to as many recommendations, policies, and best practices of the National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) and the Insurance Service Organization (ISO) as we possibly can. We do this for the safety of our firefighters as well as our citizens and to help reduce liability to the city,” said Chief Parker.

“In my opinion any vehicle 25 years old should be considered an antique. An apparatus over 25 years will get little ISO credit, and it is considered an antique. It can still be utilized as a reserve pumper, but it is supposed to be brought up to the newer safety standards as mandated by Fire Apparatus Manufacturing Association (FAMA) and the NFPA,”” he said.

“The cost of loose equipment needed for the new truck is somewhere between $150,000 to $200,000 and this is not included in the price of the new truck,” Chief Parker continued.

“Most of the equipment in question came with the purchase of Engine 2 in 2001, and a lot of that equipment has a 10–15-year lifespan like the hoses, air packs, and other equipment and some of it just wears out after 25 years. Since we are already at the 25 year mark a lot of this equipment is already past the suggested life span or just wearing out,” said Chief Parker.

“I pulled the equipment off the cost of the truck to try to lower the price and to spread the equipment cost out over the next 4 years. Also, some of the equipment is already out of date by several years, so even if we do not purchase a truck this year, we still need to replace some of the equipment,” he added.

Meanwhile, Chief Parker wants to add three more paid fulltime firefighter positions to the current staff of four (including himself) in order to help provide around the clock service.

“I would like to ask the city council to fund three more firefighter positions. This would give us enough personnel to staff two firefighters 24 hours per day 7 days a week. Right now, we’re getting 8 hours a day”.

“I would also like to be able to hire some of the volunteers as part time personnel to fill in when the regular crew is out on vacation or is out sick”.

“Having full time personnel helps us provide better and quicker response to our customers, faster knock down of the fire, lessen the severity of the fire, and provide quicker response on vehicle wrecks. It would also help the ISO rating,” said Chief Parker.

“Our response time during the daytime to just about any part of the city is between 3 & 4 minutes. After hours that time increases to 10 to 15 minutes. This is due to volunteers having to respond to the fire hall to get equipment,” he said.

As for payment to fulltime firefighters, Chief Parker is asking the city to extend the period for them to receive step increases.

“I would respectfully ask for the annual step raises to be extended out to at least 8 years to help us on recruiting and retention of good firefighters”.

Payment to volunteers would be increased by $10,000 to $75,000 under Chief Parker’s proposal and the current longevity/retention bonuses would be adjusted.

“Currently we pay firefighters with 10 years of service an annual longevity/retention bonus of $500. I would like to change this to recognize 5-10 years of service with $250; 10-15 years of service with $500; and go to $750 for those with over 15 years of service”.

“With our current volunteers that would add approximately $4,000 total and I think it will help some with recruiting and retention of good members,” said Chief Parker.

The city plans to use some remaining funds in the current budget to repair and add new hydrants. Chief Parker is asking that more funds be allocated for this purpose in the 2025-26 fiscal year.

“Our ISO rating of 5/5x is based on having working fire hydrants every 1,000 feet apart throughout the city limits. We have identified several areas that do not meet this. There are some areas that do not have any hydrants and some that are 3,000 feet or more apart. These are some of the areas we have identified in need of attention and are currently working to make better: Pack Circle, White Oak Drive, Foster Road, Miller Road, South College, East Broad, and West Broad Street. We currently have a plan to flow, test, and record every hydrant this spring to follow the ISO recommendations and keep our hydrants in good working order,” said Chief Parker.

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