Costly Solution Needed to Replace Faulty Courthouse HVAC System
by: Dwayne PageMar 02, 2025
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.
Tiger Season Comes to a Close with Loss to Tullahoma in Region Tournament
by: Dwayne PageMar 02, 2025
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.
County Exploring Possible New Revenue Sources
by: Dwayne PageMar 02, 2025
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.