La Follette Fire Fighters Andrew Carroll (left) and Gage Jones finish hanging a veterans banner as Assistant Chief Keith Fraley looks up. La Follette is preparing for next week’s Veterans Memorial ceremony.

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF) – At Tuesday afternoon’s mayor and council meeting, the LaFollette Police Department was approved to pay academy tuition for new police recruits. At last week’s workshop, Mayor Cliff Jennings suggested paying the tuition in an attempt to fill open positions within the department. He suggested that the police department look at the upcoming high school graduates.  Once trained, the officers would have to stay with the department for five years.

The purchase of emergency sirens was approved. Two bids were received for the sirens, and the council approved the lower bid from Federal Signal Corporation at a cost of $97,702.40. A bid for renovation of the E911 center was approved from Creative Structures for $649,495. Three budget resolutions were approved beginning with Resolution 2024-07 amending the original Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) budget for the E911 renovation, Resolution 2024-08 and Resolution 2024-09 both amending the 2023-24 budget. The council approved opening a money market account at Citizens Bank.

Sixteen portable radios from the fire department were declared as surplus. The council approved donating the radios to the White Oak Volunteer Fire Department.

Tuesday afternoon, the council approved the termination of police administrative assistant Megan Brooke McCloud. At last week’s workshop, City Administrator Stan Foust explained to the council it was a situation where they didn’t have a choice. It was a new employee who didn’t meet the criteria for the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and used up all the time they had accrued. The city was not able to accommodate the accommodation needed by the employee. He reported that the employee was eligible for rehire and was a good employee while at the city.

LaFollette Fire Fighter Josh Etters begins decorating city hall for next Wednesday’s Veteran’s Memorial ceremony.

Foust announced that the Veteran’s Memorial ceremony would be Wed., May 15, at 2 pm, at city hall. He also announced that a rodeo will be held May 24 and 25 on the 18.5 acres of land the city owns next to Bojangles. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED – 05/08/2024-6AM-PHOTOS COURTESY OF WLAF’S CHARLIE HUTSON)

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