Police/Fire business dominate Middleton Board meeting

After 31 years of service to the city, Middleton Police Chief Lynn Webb’s retirement was effective November 23. A retirement dinner was held that evening at the Community Center. At the board of alderman meeting a motion was made and passed to present Chief Webb with a gift certificate to purchase a deer rifle in appreciation for his service.
Mayor Cox and the Board will serve jointly as interim Chiefs at this time. Matthew Maness was promoted to Lieutenant and will basically handle supervising daily activities of the department. Maness presented the department’s monthly report to the board.
Maness reported two officers had completed Narcotic Certification November 4. He requested the board approve Richie Webb for Narcotics Investigator training in Meridian, Miss. Upon successful completion of the course, the board would consider adding “narcotics investigator” to Webb’s job title and an appropriate monetary evaluation. A motion to this effect was made and passed.
Maness reported Arness Bowden completed the Tennessee Incident Based Reporting System (TIBRS) training. The City of Middleton is now a member of the program. A requirement of this program is high speed internet service with backup. The board reviewed this prerequisite and agreed to Bowden’s recommendation to purchase external backup equipment from Walmart.
In other action, the board also voted to declare two police vehicles as surplus and accept bids for their sale. Minimum bid requirements for each vehicle were set. The inventory list of police department equipment was reviewed. A hard copy will be kept at City Hall on a monthly basis.
Bids for fire department turnout gear were opened on November 16. Mid-south Emergency was low bidder at $18,017. Chief Seever reported three bids were received. One of these was not considered for failure to follow bid requirements. A motion was made and approved to accept the low bid.

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