Livingston Focusing On Public Safety Over Next 12 Months

Livingston’s new budget looks to emphasize public safety in the city over the next 12 months.

Mayor Curtis Hayes said the city is growing and it is time to make sure citizens get proper fire and police protection. Hayes said raising the hourly wage for 10 patrol officers to $15.50 will be a key piece to community safety.

“You get in a situation where you invest quite a bit of money in a policeman but if your pay is not comparable to other departments across the state of Tennessee and in particular in neighboring counties,” Hayes said. “Then you’re subject to lose those employees.”

Hayes said following an MTAS study, it became apparent the city needs to add four full-time firemen, two of which are set to be hired this fiscal year. Hayes said a study will also be done to look at options for the public safety building moving forward.

“In the next twelve months or so we’ll be doing a study looking at options,” Hayes said. “Where we can either renovate the existing building and add on or simply buy some property and build a new public safety building.”

Hayes said that MTAS found an inadequate amount of full-time fire personnel in Livingston. He said that Livingston will have to grow its fire department to match the changing trend.

“We’ve always relied pretty heavy on four or five full-time firemen along with roughly 30 part-time volunteer firemen,” Hayes said. “But as we’ve seen, communities are kind of going away from that a little bit. As your community starts to grow and when you dial 911 or call your local fire department we want to be able to answer the call and have boots on the ground within minutes.”

Hayes said that $40,000 was put towards the patrol officer wage increases. He said all of these efforts are key to Livingston’s growth and quality of life in the city.