People

Mark Becknal, deputy fire chief for the city of Goodlettsville, has retired after nearly 35 years in the fire service. Becknal has been with the Goodlettsville Fire Department for nearly a decade. Prior to his work in Goodlettsville, he served as a senior captain and EMT with the Houston Fire...

Elizabeth Doss has been hired as the first horticulturist for the town of Collierville. In the new role, Doss will help bring expanded plant species knowledge and creativity to the city’s grounds maintenance crew with a focus on beautification and working with the plant and flowerbeds around town...

Tony Massey, city manager for the city of Columbia, has received the Paul Harris Fellow Award from the Columbia Breakfast Rotary. The award is in recognition of Massey’s outstanding commitment to humanitarian service and exemplary contributions to his local community and is named after Rotary...

Two longtime employees will be retiring while a new face will be coming to University of Tennessee’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service (UT-MTAS). 

Rex Barton and Brett Ward will be retiring from their roles at MTAS. 

Barton has been with MTAS since April 1995 as a police consultant. During his...

State Rep. Bill Beck, D-Nashville, died June 4, 2023, following a sudden heart attack at the age of 61. 

Beck had represented House District 51 in Nashville since 2014. A native of the Madison and Whites Creek neighborhoods of Nashville, Beck graduated from Belmont University where he earned a...

Kim Hadley has retired after serving 26 years as the city treasurer for Humboldt. Before coming to the city of Humboldt, Hadley also served for 10 years with the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) in the traffic engineering division. During his tenure as city treasurer, Humboldt has...

Steven Spano has been selected as the new police chief for Greeneville. Spano has been serving as interim chief since the retirement of Chief Tim Ward in April. Spano has been with the Greeneville Police Department since February 1994 when he was hired as an auxiliary officer. He worked for the...

Mary Prier, longtime city recorder for Ardmore, has announced her retirement after nearly 50 years with the city. A graduate of the Beech Hill School in Pulaski, Prier said she will spend time with her family in her retirement. She has served for 48 years with the city and a retirement ceremony was...

Audra Gerty has been selected as the new city recorder for Mountain City. Gerty comes to Mountain City from Carter County where she served as the deputy director of finance for two years. Prior to that, she served as the executive vice president and CFO of Dutchess County Regional Chamber of...

Jim Hagaman, mayor of Spring Hill, has been selected by Gov. Bill Lee to serve on the state of Tennessee’s Homeland Security Council. Hagaman has been mayor of Spring Hill since 2021 and served for 20 years in the U.S. Air Force, including roles as a protocol officer, courier, flight crew chief...

Bill Church has been named the new police chief of Johnson City after serving as the interim chief since February of this year. A 29-year veteran of the Johnson City Police Department, Church was serving as the department’s operations major when he was promoted to interim chief. He has also served...

Mark Johnson, city manager of Alcoa, has been selected for the 2023 International City Management Association’s (ICMA) Award for Career Excellence in Memory of Mark E. Keane, late ICMA director emeritus. Johnson is one of only 55 city managers to receive the award. He has 49 years in public service...