News Talk 94.1/AM 1600 Where The Upper Cumberland Talks
The city of Baxter will lean on services from MTAS to fill the Baxter Police Chief position.
Baxter Mayor John Martin said MTAS will recruit and interview candidates before ranking each one. He said that list will be handed over to Baxter City Council for further interviews and an eventual selection. Martin said he would like the position filled “yesterday” after the sudden resignation of Danny Holmes.
“Everyone’s picking up the slack,” Martin said. “But we’ve got two lieutenants that’s really in charge at this time, and we’ve appointed one person that has to report to the post if there’s anything that comes up that needs to be reported. So, all of that’s taken care of.”
Martin said Holmes’ retirement came as a surprise, and he left big shoes to fill. He said he and Holmes talk daily and have maintained a close friendship since his resignation last week. Martin said going forward, he hopes the department benefits from the broader range of applicants MTAS can reach.
“I believe in promoting within if we have people that are qualified,” Martin said. “We don’t know what could come from the outside. It might be someone that has credentials as a chief, you know, that has experience. And also, it all will be evaluated individually.”
Martin said he asked Chief Holmes to stay, but believes he is happy in his new role with Power of Putnam. He said he believes Holmes had planned to join Power of Putnam after retiring, but the move may have come sooner than either had anticipated.
“The chief, I think, is very happy where he’s at,” Martin said. “It’s not like where he was. He’s been in law enforcement 46 years, he worked for the city for 13 years, we all had a good relationship and just hated to see him go.”
He said the department is fortunate to have officers very familiar with daily operations. He said employees have been doing a lot of the department’s paperwork and routine-oriented tasks for years. Martin said a patrol officer interviewed last week and is scheduled to begin with the department on May 1, a much-needed lift for a group that just lost its chief.
