News

For more than five decades, the present-day DeKalb County Courthouse has served as home to the court system, offices of local public officials, the election commission, veteran services and for meetings and other purposes.

Built in 1970 through the federal model cities program, the courthouse has served the county well and remains an active place, especially on days when court is in session, but it has also often become an uncomfortable environment due to a faulty chiller boiler heating and cooling system which causes portions of the building to be too hot in the summer and too cold during winter.

Its been a periodic problem for several years and the county has spent significant time and money trying to fix it. But now the 55-year-old system has completely failed and needs immediate attention at a time when replacement parts for it are no longer easy to come by.

During Monday night’s regular monthly County Commission meeting, County Mayor Matt Adcock said a temporary fix is the only option right now, but he plans to ask the commission to fund a completely new HVAC system in the new 2025-26 budget this summer.

“The boiler system is completely shot,” said County Mayor Adcock. “The boiler system is so old they have to make parts for it to work. They are trying to expedite it to get it here just to get the system up and running. Thinking about the future, I have asked a couple of different companies that’s come out. I have talked to them about doing a whole new heating and cooling system in the courthouse and completely get rid of the boiler,” said Adcock.

“I am probably going to ask for approximately $400,000 at budget time in capital projects to completely overhaul the entire system to remove the boiler, chiller, blower, and put in modern HVAC on all three floors with split units and thermostats. The cost to get it back up and running isn’t as significant as the permanent fix. The boiler works off the water pipes going up to the wall units that blows heat. The water from the boiler goes up but the pipes are so corroded between the wall units and the boiler that the hot water can’t get up there to blow hot air. You can touch the piping below the floor and its scalding hot and you touch the piping above and its ice cold. There is a lot of corrosion buildup in the lines so that the water can’t properly get throughout the courthouse to heat and cool. That’s the reason we are going to talk about doing an overall overhaul. I’m not quite sure what the cost will be yet. We will have to get an engineer to see how this project will be done and determine the cost because the courthouse has really thick marble and concrete. I’ve been told it would be anywhere from a quarter of a million dollars to half a million dollars to completely overhaul everything,” said County Mayor Adcock.

The 2024-25 DCHS Tiger basketball season came to a close Saturday night at Tullahoma in the opening round of the Region 4 AAA tournament with the Wildcats beating the Tigers 61 to 34.

DeKalb County concludes the season at 10-22.

Tullahoma led 20 to 3 after the 1st period, 37 to 13 at halftime, and 52 to 22 after the 3rd period before going on to win 61 to 34.

For DeKalb County, Dallas Kirby scored 12, Jon Hendrix and Jordan Parker each with 5, Elliot Barnes 4 and David Wheeler and Chase Young each with 3.

The county owned Pine Creek Saddle Club property may soon be up for sale.

During Monday night’s regular monthly meeting, the county commission voted to approve a recommendation from the Revenue Research Committee to sell the Pine Creek Saddle Club property on Four Seasons Road after an appraisal has been conducted. However, the commission tabled the committee’s recommendation to also sell property behind the Smithville City Police Department.

By selling certain unused county owned properties, Committee Chairman Larry Green said the county could take revenue from the sales and apply it to other county needs.

Meanwhile, the commission Monday night also approved the revenue committee’s recommendation for the county to look into the possibility of establishing a building permit system through which the county could collect fees on inspections of new construction rather than the state. Final action by the commission is pending a more detailed plan to come later.

According to committee chairman Green builders currently obtain their permits online through the state and the state gets all the revenue from them. The idea is for the permits to be issued by the county and for the county to get the fees.

“It (permit issuance) will still be online with a copy going to the building inspector who will issue the permit and a copy goes to the tax assessor. It’s the same building codes they use now. Its just who gets the revenue from the permits, the state or county. “We would eventually need a local building inspector,” said Green.

The committee’s hope is that sufficient revenue would be raised through such a local permit program to not only fund the building inspector position but for other county needs.

The DeKalb County Tigers will meet the Tullahoma Wildcats in the first round of the Region 4 AAA basketball tournament Saturday night, March 1 at Tullahoma. The game tips off at 7 p.m. and WJLE will have LIVE coverage with the Voice of the Tigers John Pryor.

The Tigers are 10-21 overall while the Wildcats are 26-4. It’s the first region tournament appearance for the Tigers since 2013. DC finished 4th in the district tournament. Tullahoma is the top seed from its district entering the region tournament.

After finishing the regular district season at 1-9 the Tigers upended White County in the 1st round of the district tournament and lost close but winnable games against Stone Memorial and Livingston Academy.

Tiger Coach Joey Agee said his team may be playing its best basketball now.

“We are pleased with the way they played in the district tournament. The game against Stone Memorial ended up being 10 points (57-47 final) but it was really a five- or six-point game. We had to start fouling at the end. If we had made a few baskets here or there we might have been in the championship game. In the game with Livingston Academy, we had three opportunities near the end but the shots just didn’t go down although they battled back. We were down by eight points with two minutes to go but we got after them on defense and they (Wildcats) missed some free throws which was good for us. I think we hit three 3-point shots in three possessions in a row which got us back in the game. We tied it up but ended up getting beat by two (51-49). Our effort was great and our defense was pretty good. If we are patient on offense we are a lot better offensively. Sometimes we get a little dribble happy or a little crazy with the ball and turn it over but that has been much better lately and I think you can see the results of that,” said Coach Agee.

Speaking with John Pryor on Tiger Talk, Coach Agee sizes up DeKalb County’s next opponent in Tullahoma.

“Nobody is really picking us to win against Tullahoma so we are basically in the same situation going into the region as we were the district tournament. We have to prove people wrong. When you play in our district you are playing in a lot of tough atmospheres especially White County, Upperman, and Livingston Academy. All those places are pretty rowdy. It shouldn’t be any different at Tullahoma. Of course, it will be a home game for them (Tullahoma) but we have been in that situation before. One of their players, Xavier Ferrell handles the ball well, shoots the mid-range well, and shoots the three point well from what we have seen. He’s the guy who really controls everything for them but they have some other good players too. They have a big 6-foot, 8-inch kid on the inside who creates a lot of problems offensively and defensively. He is back there protecting the rim. We have to move the ball and be patient on offense. Its going to take all of us to win,” said Coach Agee.

Listen for Tiger Talk Saturday, March 1 starting at 6:45 p.m. featuring John Pryor interviewing Tiger Coach Joey Agee and Tiger players and All-District Tournament team members Dallas Kirby and Jon Hendrix followed by the game at 7 p.m. on WJLE AM 1480/ FM 101.7 and on the LIVE stream at www.wjle.com.

Smithville Elementary has recognized its Students of the Month for February. These students were selected for their outstanding character, academics, and other traits that make them an all-around excellent student. Selected as Students of the Month for February are:

PreK – Hadley Ralph, Ethan Meighan
Kindergarten – Jahlia Cantrell, Allie Snow
1st Grade – Dalilah Velazquez, Blakelyn Cripps
2nd Grade – Jesus Garcia, Jacob Garcia Sanchez

Sixth graders at DeKalb Middle School graduated from the D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program in a ceremony Friday.

D.A.R.E. is a DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department-led series of classroom lessons that teaches sixth graders in DeKalb County how to resist peer pressure and live productive drug and violence-free lives.

Joseph Carroll of the DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department is the D.A.R.E Officer instructor for the sixth-grade classes at DeKalb Middle School.

The 10-week course identifies fundamental, basic skills and developmental processes needed for healthy development including: Self-awareness and management, Responsible decision making, Understanding others, Relationship and communication skills, and Handling responsibilities and challenges.

D.A.R.E. believes that if you can teach youth to make safe and responsible decisions, it will guide them to healthy choices, not only about drugs, but across all parts of their lives. As they grow to be responsible citizens, they will lead healthier and more productive drug-free lives.

As part of the course, students prepared essays on what they have learned from D.A.R.E. and the overall essay winner at DeKalb Middle School was Jackson Longmire, while second place went to Nevaeh Knight and Sophia Pina received third place. Each student was given baskets of prizes.

Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin presented awards to students in an art contest held in conjunction with the D.A.R.E. program.

“Before I was elected to this job, I was a court reporter and part of that was to travel around to different court houses in the state of Tennessee but the one that stood out was Wilson County because outside their courtroom they had some art from D.A.R.E. students displayed there so I thought that was a good idea. A few years ago, I reached out to our SRO officers and asked as part of D.A.R.E. can we include an art contest. This year I have done a first, second, and third place and an honorable mention and the art from these award winners will be displayed in my office at the courthouse for all your family to see,” said Martin.

Winners of the art contest were first place Ava Gillis, second place Sidney Rigsby, third place McKenzie Hendrixson, and honorable mention Miller Williams.

In addition to recognizing DeKalb Middle School Principal Teresa Jones, Assistant Principal Josh Agee, Director of Schools Patrick Cripps, and the Board of Education, Sheriff Patrick Ray welcomed special guests Register of Deeds Daniel Seber, Circuit Court Clerk Susan Martin, Road Supervisor Danny Hale, members of the DeKalb Prevention Coalition and Coordinated School Health, DCHS SRO Jasmine Garza, DMS SRO and D.A.R.E. Officer Joseph Carroll, and Sheriff’s Department Detectives Chris Russell and Jacob Parker.

Mailbox vandalism is about to land one adult and five juveniles in trouble with the law.

Sheriff Patrick Ray issued the following statement about the investigation. “My detectives today (Thursday 2-27-25) interviewed 5 juveniles and 1 adult about destroying mailboxes across the northern and southern parts of DeKalb County. We have had written and some verbal reports of mailboxes getting vandalized on Cookeville Highway, Old Bildad Road, Blue Springs Road, Ike Adcock Road, Keltonburg Road, Antioch Road, Green Hill Road, and Short Mountain Road all in DeKalb County,” he said.

“I am asking the public, if you live outside the City limits of Smithville and you are seeking any financial restitution for damages to your mailbox that has been vandalized, you will need to contact dispatch at 615-215-3000 and let a deputy respond to your location and see the damage or evidence of the damage. All damages to the mailboxes must have been vandalized between the dates of Monday February 17, 2025 and Thursday February 27, 2025. Your report must be turned into the Sheriff’s Department by Wednesday March 5. Charges then will be brought forth on these individuals,” said Sheriff Ray.

“If you are a resident of Smithville, you will need to report your vandalism of your mailbox to the Smithville Police Department. The Smithville Police Department will be taking charges on your reports,” added Sheriff Ray.

Its been 19 months since the county was forced to cut the certifiable bed capacity of the DeKalb County Jail in half from 102 to 52 and since that time many prisoners have been relocated to other jails. And while the county continues to ponder where to build a new jail, the costs to the county of sending these inmates off to other places continues to rise.

During a jail committee meeting Tuesday night, Sheriff Patrick Ray updated members of the county commission on where these prisoners are going and how much it is costing to keep them there. Expenditures in this report are from July 1, 2024 to February 25, 2025.

According to Sheriff Ray the county is already over budget in the line items for inmate housing and medical/dental costs with still four months left in the 2024-25 fiscal year. The total expenditures just for housing inmates out of the county to date (February 25, 2025) was $213,865.

“We are still housing as of today (February 25) 18 inmates in other counties including Robertson, Smith, Cannon, Putnam, and Bedford. Some of them are females and some are sex offenders. Others are inmates that cannot go into the regular prisoner population because of trouble they have or have had that required that they be moved. Some have a very aggravated charge that keep them from being housed with other inmates,” said Sheriff Ray.

“There has always been $65,000 each year that has been appropriated to the jail to spend on maintenance and alarm fees that we do monthly. Our central heat and air bills are paid out of that money along with interpreter services. Back in December you (county commission) added $100,000 to that fund putting the total for the year at $165,000,” said Sheriff Ray.

“As of today (Tuesday, February 25) we are at $213,865 for inmate housing. If you compare that number to where we were in December the last time I gave you a report on that ($129,304) we have spent $84,560 in just two months on inmate housing along with some ankle monitors with the probation service that gets paid out of that”.

“The expenditures of our everyday maintenance and other things we do also comes out of that money and to date (Tuesday, February 25), we have paid $7,825. Last December it was $3,086 which means we have spent $4, 738 in two months including a total of $3,153 which was for an inmate transportation service. Part of that was used to extradite a prisoner from California to DeKalb County. The D.A.’s office wrote a letter to have the prisoner extradited back”.

“As of today (Tuesday, February 25) we are at $61,766 in the hole (over budget in this line item). That means at the next county commission meeting if you want to we will need to figure how much further we go in the hole or what it will take to get us through March and April.”

Sheriff Ray said costs of inmate medical and dental services also continue to soar.

“We have always been appropriated $100,000 in the line item for medical and dental services. For years we have been under budget in that category but this year we have already paid out $128, 073 and we have a negative balance of $28, 073 in that line item today. I have $192, 432 worth of outstanding medical bills. The company that we deal with for inmate medical does a reduction on the costs. Most of the time across the board we will have to pay 40% of that. They knock off the 60%. Hopefully we are actually at $76,973 but we have other outstanding medical costs that have not yet been billed and we have from today through June 30 (budget year) to go for (additional) medical costs,” said Sheriff Ray.

“When they (other counties) notify us that they have sent one of our inmates to the hospital we have no control over that. For example if we have an inmate get sick in Bedford County then we have to send correctional officers down there to sit with them as long as they are in the hospital and we are responsible for the bill. That drives up cost for overtime and it takes somebody (correctional officer) away from the jail. There is also fuel expense and other costs to take prisoners back and forth to court,” he said.

“A new law took effect July 1, 2024 in that when someone is charged with an aggravated crime of domestic abuse or aggravated assault a condition for bond is that they be on a GPS monitor that the inmates have to pay themselves. That’s probably a $400 set up fee that the inmate will have to pay before they are released. If they can’t pay that $400 then they will have to sit there (jail) until their case is done. We have been very fortunate in that a lot of people (inmates) on this new GPS system have come up with the $400 but if they stop paying it then we have to go pick them back up because they have to be monitored 24/7 with this monitoring service. I also heard another proposed new law is being considered in the state that if approved anyone charged with a highly aggravated offense would have no bond set. Those are things I am having to look at as far as housing inmates to determine how much our jail population grows or shrinks,” said Sheriff Ray.

The DeKalb Fire Department came to the rescue of a disabled person during a residential structure fire Wednesday.

Chief Donny Green issued the following statement:

“On Wednesday at approximately 10:55 a.m., the DeKalb County Fire Department was dispatched to a residential fire on Keltonburg Road with a disabled person still inside the home”.

“Firefighters quickly arrived on the scene and found the home filled with smoke and occupants and pets still inside. Firefighters, DeKalb County Emergency Medical Service (EMS) personnel, and DeKalb County Sheriff Department deputies safely removed the disabled occupant from the residence.”

“Firefighters quickly arrived and successfully extinguished the fire and ventilated the home. Fire damage was contained to the laundry room in the floor and wall behind the clothes dryer. It was determined the dryer vent was clogged causing excessive heat to ignite the lint in the vent”.

“EMS personnel evaluated the patient, and the patient refused medical transport. The Keltonburg, Belk, and Main Stations responded to the incident,” said Chief Green.

Where to build a new jail?

Members of the DeKalb County Jail Committee and the County Mayor met Tuesday night with Bob Bass, former Deputy Director of the Tennessee Corrections Institute, who now serves as a county correction partnership consultant.

During the meeting, Bass said he and Committee Chairman Larry Green and County Mayor Matt Adcock toured sites around town Tuesday that might be possible locations for a new jail.

Of the three properties he saw, Bass said the Peggy Hayes property, an undeveloped green site, located near Walmart would be the best choice. Others he looked at were sites on Bright Hill Road owned by Joe Rice and the Steve Colvert family property on Smith Road.

“One site jumped out at me but let me do a disclaimer here. The Tennessee Corrections Institute nor any agency in the state of Tennessee to my knowledge can tell a county commission where they are going to put a jail. You can use my expertise, and I can give you, my opinion. I will always pose questions about if (property) is good for the project but I will not tell you (location) where you are going to put the jail,” said Bass. “In this case the Hayes property checked all the boxes. The entire piece of property I think would be a good choice for the county in that it’s big enough for a one-story facility. It would accommodate parking, an exercise area, expansion and has availability of water, sewer and three phase electricity etc. It checks all the boxes without a negative spot anywhere,” said Bass.

When asked by members of the committee, County Mayor Adcock said the county once had the Hayes property (38 acres) appraised at $1,485,000. “Preliminarily we discussed about eight months to a year ago offering her (Hayes) $2 million for all of it (38 acres) and she rejected that offer,” he said.

A few members of the committee expressed concerns about putting a jail on the Hayes property with it being near a residential neighborhood.

Asked if the current jail location would be suitable for a rebuild or expansion, Bass said he would not recommend it.

“We have talked about this a lot and you have heard from Bell Construction, the architects and from our standpoint. If you start any construction on the facilities you have now you will have to submit those plans, and you’ll have to bring the building you have up to codes,” said Bass. “Currently your building does not meet codes. You would have to spend a lot of money just to get that facility to meet codes and you would probably not net any beds out of it. In fact, you would probably lose beds going from 51 now to around 30 beds. I just don’t see it and its going to be more expensive to build. As you heard from Rick Bruin of Bell Construction it was like $4.5 million to $5 million more to try doing something with that site. I haven’t been happy with that site all along,” said Bass. “I just don’t think its there and I don’t think you are going to be able to get future growth out of it. When you build these jails, you have to think about the future. You need to select a site that has availability to grow because it is going to grow. I wish crime would stop but we know its not going to,” Bass continued. “And even if the county could acquire an empty lot next to the jail (Kirby property), Bass said there would still be no room for future expansion. “It’s going to box you in and you are not going to have room to grow. Depending on how many beds you wanted I suspect that (new jail on current site) would be a stacked jail. That means more staff. If you build multi levels that’s staff on the first floor, staff on the second floor, third, and fourth floors. Its really staff intensive. You’d build a radius design with a central control where you can look out and see all the inmates. Its not a linear jail but its laid out linear. You would have a mezzanine. It’s a second story but its inside with a staircase going up to it. I don’t see that (being built) downtown. Not to mention its going to tie up traffic downtown. You’ll have to shut down a street. You don’t have a layout yard and the backside of that property slopes off so I don’t know how much of it you could actually use. I think you need to be looking at property that you can take care of in the future,” explained Bass.

Committee members also discussed an available site on Allen’s Ferry Road behind Bizzy Mart with the biggest drawback they said being that the property is not currently in the city limits and not served by sewer. The Smithville mayor and aldermen have said they would not consider annexing this site for a jail.

The Smithville Elementary School property was also discussed as an option but some committee members pointed out that the school board still owns the site and that even if the county could acquire it the property would not be available on which to build a jail, possibly for up to four years, until the new school is finished all while the county’s costs for housing and transporting inmates to other county jails continues to soar. Others mentioned that putting a jail on this site might also raise public concerns in that it too would be near homes and a child daycare facility.

Chairman Green asked Bass at what point the county needs to formally hire an architect and builder.

“That’s up to your discretion but before you start concept development they need to be in place. I have never been for designing a jail without a piece of property. I have worked with counties who have done that a couple of times and there are always issues. It’s the unforeseen. If you get the architect and builder in place they can help you find the unforeseen and you can avoid them. Sometimes things pop up with a million-dollar price tag. Whatever property you pick you have to do the geos, the economic development study as far as the ecology is concerned, core drilling, site evaluation, etc. All those things have to be done by law. They (architect and builder) can help you get that done. I think you need to execute the contract. In this case you have done a lot of hard work. Your master plan is practically done. The key things you are missing are the site and the cost but we can’t get to that cost figure without having a concept development and we can’t determine that by just looking at renderings.  A dormitory jail is a lot cheaper but that’s not how you set up prisoner classification. He (sheriff) needs two person cells so how many of those do we need,” asked Bass.

Committee member Tom Chandler made a motion that the real estate agent for the Hayes property be contacted to inquire about an updated price for the entire 38-acre site or at least an 18-acre section with an easement to Highway 70. Although the vote on Chandler’s motion was 7 to 6 in favor it failed to get the eight votes needed for passage.

Meanwhile Bass said he plans to take the county mayor and county commissioners together on trips to at least three other county jails for them to view recent jail projects.  “I have arranged for three jail tours at Smith County, Rhea County, and Monroe County. I picked these three because they are more recent to show you what is being done with new construction techniques,” said Bass.