Students in Janet Woodward’s second grade class at Smithville Elementary School have learned the names of all the U.S. Presidents in the order in which they served.
The children recited the President’s names for WJLE Wednesday morning in their classroom.
Janet Woodward’s 2nd Grade Class at Smithville Elementary School from dwayne page on Vimeo.
Members of the class pictured in the video are as follows: (Back row left to right) Edilma Gonzalez, Noah Terry, Cory Roberson, Matthew Cowan, Johnathon Brock, Saxon Bain, Ambria Cooper, and Patrick Cline. (Front row left to right) Carly Vance, Holden Hendrix, Leah Davis, Dylan Judkins, Sydney Turner, Josef Osment, Presley Agee, Hannah Willingham, and Aaron Godinez
In addition to the video presentation here, you can listen to the children each morning May 23-27 following the 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. morning local news on WJLE FM 101.7.

The DeKalb County Fire Department expresses it sincere appreciation to the DeKalb County High School’s General Metals Class for modifying the water tanks on the Blue Springs, Belk, and Temperance Hall fire trucks.
The modification was needed to allow more efficient water shuttle operations by the fire department. Each tank modification took about a week and, with the cooperation of Mr. Todd Cantrell and the DCHS General Metals Class, the department saved about $5,000 in expenses that would have had to been paid out the county fire department’s budget.
The DeKalb County Fire Department provided a pizza lunch for the class on May 5 as a token of the department’s appreciation. Picture above is the DCHS General Metals Class.

Is the City of Smithville overcharging city water customers for sewer?
Local resident Waniford Cantrell believes so.
When the aldermen adopted the budget last year, they increased water and sewer rates. City customers are now paying $5.00 for the first one thousand gallons of usage plus $5.00 for each additional thousand gallons
Sewer rates also increased to $5.00 for the first thousand plus $5.00 for each additional one thousand gallons of usage
For example, if your monthly water bill is ten dollars then your sewer bill would be ten dollars making your total monthly bill twenty dollars.
Waniford Cantrell Accuses City of Overcharging for Sewer Services from dwayne page on Vimeo.
Cantrell, who addressed the mayor and aldermen Monday night, said he has been checking his own bill and has obtained bills from friends and neighbors and has discovered that in every case, sewer charges are higher than water charges by $3.62. Cantrell insists that, according to the budget, sewer charges should be equal to the water fees and no more.
Cantrell said the city should not only correct the billing to make this right, but it should give a rebate to the 2,300 water and sewer customers who he believes have been over billed since the budget was enacted last year.
Mayor Taft Hendrixson challenged Cantrell on his assumption saying that he doesn’t believe the city is overcharging for sewer services. The mayor said the city is required by state law to charge everyone a fair user flat rate fee of $3.62 over and above regular city rates, which does put monthly fees for sewer higher than water charges. However, according to Mayor Hendrixson this flat rate user fee for sewer is nothing new. It has been budgeted and charged to customers for several years.
Cantrell pointed out that no such fee is spelled out in the budget and that if it wasn’t included in the spending plan, it should not be passed on to water and sewer customers.

As the opening day of the swimming season approaches, the Smithville Mayor and Aldermen and the tenant of the golf course/swimming pool are at odds on how many lifeguards are needed at the city swimming pool and whether the city should pay their wages during private pool parties.
Last year three lifeguards were on duty at the pool under a previous tenant but Tony Poss, the tenant now, said Monday night during the city council meeting that three is not enough. He is asking for the city to fund at least four lifeguards at the pool this summer, and possibly as many as five. Poss said lifeguards would be needed not just during regular pool hours but during private pool parties at night. “We’re going to request that we have five lifeguards there at all times on each shift or a minimum of four to keep that pool safe. Three, we don’t feel is enough. We’re looking at rotating these four or five lifeguards during the day and have three new fresh ones coming on at night (during pool parties). In my opinion we can’t operate this pool with three lifeguards. We can but it is not safe. We need a minimum of four,” said Poss.
Mayor Taft Hendrixson asked Poss “Do you know yet what your state requirements are (on lifeguards)?
Poss replied “No”.
Mayor Hendrixson answered “Well in my opinion that will determine how many you’ve gotta have”.
Meanwhile Mayor Hendrixson and city attorney Vester Parsley, Jr. argued that the city should not be paying for lifeguards after hours, because private pool parties are privately booked and not generally open to the public. “Pool parties are not open to the public. If you have a party over there at night, your family can’t go swim during somebody else’s pool party. Whatever you (Poss) charge (for pool parties) should be figured into your charges on that (for lifeguards). Taxpayers shouldn’t be paying for private party lifeguards,” said Mayor Hendrixson
City attorney Parsley agreed saying “I assume pool parties ought to pay for themselves”.
Poss claims nothing in his lease with the city calls for him to hire his own lifeguards during pool parties. He said that’s the city’s responsibility. “Our impression was that in the contract we have with the city, you guys agreed to pay all lifeguards wages. There were no stipulations about if we had a pool party. When we set our fees on that (pool parties) we were under the assumption that you all were going to pay for the wages”. Poss said several pool parties have already been booked at $100 for members and $200 for non-members. “We’ve done sold memberships based on golf and the pool. We can’t go back on that now. That wouldn’t be fair,” said Poss.
The actual lease states as follows: “The tenant (Poss) shall be responsible for the operation of the Smithville Swimming Pool, to include the hiring of certified lifeguards, however the landlord (City) shall pay their salaries during all hours of operation.”
Still, Mayor Hendrixson insists it’s not right nor legal for city taxpayers to fund the cost of providing lifeguards during private pool parties. “We have figured approximately twelve thousand dollars for three lifeguards at seven hours a day for nine weeks and it’s going to run with benefits, FICA about twelve or thirteen thousand dollars. They will be our employees and we’re going to pay for them, but I don’t think we can take taxpayer’s money and pay for these private parties,” said Mayor Hendrixson.
As for the number of lifeguards the city will pay for, Poss and city officials will check with the state to determine the minimum number of lifeguards required per number of swimmers at a given time.
Meanwhile, the aldermen voted 3 to 0 to pay lifeguards minimum wage this summer. Aldermen Steve White and W.J. (Dub) White abstained from voting since Steve’s daughter who is also W.J.’s granddaughter has worked at the pool as a lifeguard.
The pool is expected to be open by Memorial Day.

The DeKalb Utility District has resurrected a proposal to build its own water treatment plant off Holmes Creek Road in the Yolanda Hills Drive area and Smithville Mayor Taft Hendrixson and members of the city council are not happy about it.
If the DUD goes through with it’s plans, the City of Smithville stands to eventually lose it’s largest water customer and over a half million dollars in sales each year. That could mean increases in water rates to city customers as well as those served by DUD, according to Mayor Taft Hendrixson.
In 2004, officials of the DeKalb Utility District entered into a ten year agreement with the City of Smithville to purchase water at $1.60 per thousand gallons with a five cent escalator increase per thousand gallons each year of the ten year contract. The DUD currently pays $1.95 cents per thousand gallons. The contract is scheduled to expire in 2014. By law, the city must sell the DUD water at no less than cost. According to this year’s budget, actual sales to “other districts” (DUD) for the year ending June 30th, 2009 was $541,286.
In order to build this proposed $10 million water plant, the DUD needs financial assistance and is seeking help through USDA Rural Development’s loan/grant program. The aldermen, apparently in an effort to derail DUD’s funding for this project, voted Monday night to send a letter, written by Mayor Hendrixson, to the USDA stating the city’s opposition.
In the letter to Bobby M. Goode, State Director of USDA Rural Development, Mayor Hendrixson wrote on behalf of the City of Smithville ” It has come to our attention that the DeKalb Utility District has a pending pre-application with your agency to fund a water treatment plant and raw water intake which reportedly involves over $10 million. Smithville currently furnishes DUD water at a rate of $1.95 per thousand gallons under a contract through 2014. We have furnished DUD with water at reasonable rates since its inception and we desire to continue to do so,” wrote Mayor Hendrixson.
The letter goes on to state that “If your agency approves this funding and the facilities are built, the results will be disastrous for Smithville, DeKalb County, and the customers of the DUD.”
“Smithville is completing a $2.8 million modernization of our water treatment plant which has a capacity of 4.0 million gallons per day; our source of supply is Center Hill Lake, however our intake is on the main channel which provides best quality water. Our water demand over the past year averaged less than 45% of capacity with peaks at slightly over half capacity which, of course, includes DUD,” wrote Mayor Hendrixson.
“If DUD builds a water treatment plant, their water rates to their customers will have to be increased considerably in order to pay their loan and fund depreciation as per state law and Smithville’s rates will have to be increased because we will require the same operating expertise at our treatment plant even with a slight reduction of labor. Our reduced cost of power and chemicals will not come close to covering the amortization, including depreciation, of the current improvements,” according to Mayor Hendrixson’s letter.
“As you can see, we have plenty of capacity to furnish DUD water for expansion, we are selling it at a reasonable rate, and we have no objection to their expansion. It would be a gross waste of available monies to fund another water treatment plant as well as a detriment to several thousand people,” concluded Mayor Hendrixson.
Last week, a “Notice of the Availability of an Environmental Assessment” was published in one of the local newspapers stating that “The USDA, Rural Utilities Service has received an application for financial assistance from the DeKalb Utility District. The proposed project consists of the construction of a new water treatment plant on approximately 30 acres of land, which the DUD owns, near Holmes Creek Road. The project also consists of a raw water intake near the location of the former Holmes Creek Marina on Center Hill Lake, three new pump stations, and necessary transmission lines to accommodate water distribution throughout the DeKalb Utility District’s service area.”
Jon Foutch, DUD manager, told WJLE Monday that the DeKalb Utility District is growing, adding more customers, and the utility wants its own water treatment plant in order to better control its future water supply expansion issues. Currently, the DUD purchases almost all of its water supply from the City of Smithville except for the Silver Point Community of DeKalb County. DUD buys water to serve that area from the City of Baxter at $6.50 per thousand gallons.
According to Foutch, another plant would increase the area’s water capacity which could be used as a selling point for possible industrial expansion and recruitment. Plus, he said the city and DUD could work together in times of crisis. “If something were to happen to the Smithville treatment plant or DUD’s plant we could lean on each other. All we would have to do is turn on a few valves since we’re already connected to each other. We could support each other,” said Foutch.
Foutch also stressed that officials of the DUD have no ill will toward city officials and are not taking this action because of any personal vendettas. “We’re not wanting to build a treatment plant because we are mad at the City of Smithville. We just feel it’s the best business decision for DUD,” said Foutch.
The DUD already has settled with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on a storage volume fee arrangement to draw up to two million gallons a day, once the plant is completed and in operation, according to Foutch. And should the DUD be unsuccessful in it’s efforts to secure USDA Rural Development Loan/Grant funds, the utility is prepared to proceed with the plans through other funding sources. “We have had an outside firm come in and look at our books and they have said this is feasible for us. So even if we don’t get the grant money, we can proceed with financing through another avenue,” said Foutch.
Foutch said Rural Development funding would be the best option for the DUD and it’s customers because the utility could potentially qualify for grant monies which would not have to be repaid. For example, on a $10 million project, Foutch speculated that the DUD could possibly obtain a $3 million grant along with a $7 million loan. However, without the grant funds, the DUD would be responsible for re-payment of the entire $10 million loan, through another funding agency.
If the financing can be worked out, Foutch said construction could begin as early as the end of 2012. DUD officials are hoping that the plant would be completed and ready for operation by 2014.
This is not the first time the DUD has seriously considered building its own water treatment plant. In January, 1999 the DUD was awarded a $1 million Rural Development Grant and a $2,380,000 loan. In addition to the money for the water plant, another $500,000 was made available to the project from a Community Development Block Grant for an elevated water storage tank which now stands at the top of Snow Hill. The tank was built to solve the problem of water pressure in some areas.
However when it came time to build the water plant, the DUD apparently discovered that the costs were much more than the available grant/loan funds. While DUD had sufficient local reserves to make up the difference and assurances from Rural Development for extra financial help if needed, the DUD decided instead to enter into negotiations with the City of Smithville for a new water rate. Some of the loan/grant funds were later used to make other improvements to the existing infrastructure.