People

Chase Sons has been selected as the new police chief for Tullahoma after having served as the city’s interim chief since November. Sons was serving as acting lieutenant before his appointment to interim chief. Sons has spent 16 years in law enforcement with 13 of those spent with the Tullahoma...

Chad McDonald has been appointed the first ever assistant director of Leisure Services for Cookeville. McDonald has been with Cookeville’s Leisure Services for 28 years, first starting as a part-time employee and then quickly becoming the cultural arts coordinator. Since 2000, he has served as the...

Jessica Cooper has been named the new director of public utilities for the city of Maryville following the retirement of Baron Swafford. Cooper began her career with Maryville as a co-op student and then started full-time as an assistant environmental engineer in 2006. She was promoted to water and...

Andrew Ellard has been selected as the new city manager for Morristown following the retirement of longtime City Manager Tony Cox. Ellard has been with the city since 2021 as its assistant manager. Prior to joining the staff in Morristown, he served as a city manager in Eagleville and held several...

Max Winitz has been selected as the new public information officer for the Franklin Police Department, becoming the first PIO for the department who isn’t a sworn officer in the department. Winitz spent more than two years as the media relations coordinator for Blood Assurance before coming to...

Eric Ault has been selected as the new personnel director for the city of Oak Ridge. Ault has been with the city since February 2020 when he was hired as a process improvement specialist in the city’s electric department. He was then promoted to assistant to the city manager, a role he has served in...

Kevin Haynes, fire prevention officer with the Johnson City Fire Department, has received a designation of fire investigation technician from the International Association of Arson Investigators (IAAI). Haynes’ designation was the result of passing an exam following 44 hours of training as well as...

Jim Jones has been named the sixth police chief for the city of Hendersonville. Jones has been serving as the city’s assistant police chief and will take over the department following the retirement of Chief Mickey Miller at the end of March. Jones is a 38-year veteran of the Hendersonville Police...

Brian Rose has been selected as the new city planner for Gallatin. Rose holds a bachelor’s degree in urban planning and master’s degree in urban planning and environmental engineering both from Arizona State University in Tempe. He also spent several years studying architecture. He was employed in...

Jeff Lewis, chief of the Dickson Police Department, has retired after more than 35 years of service to the city. During his tenure with the city, Lewis served not only in the police department but also as interim director of the city’s Parks and Recreation Department and interim director of the city...

Local elected officials and state economic leaders recently participated in the inaugural “West Tennessee Ford Fly-In” to Detroit/Dearborn. 

Southwest Tennessee Development District Executive Director Joe Barker planned the fly-in as an opportunity to thank Ford Motor Company’s leadership for the...

Jeff Story, a driver/engineer with the Johnson City Fire Department, recently achieved managing officer (MO) status through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) U.S. Fire Administration/National Fire Academy. Story completed the two-year program and a capstone project focusing on...