With the new year comes new faces in local government.  A new city mayor was just elected, the county has a new sheriff and after January 31st – Crossville will have a new police chief, city judge and several other new city employees. Last fall City Manager David Rutherford proposed a plan to the Council on offering buy-out packages to qualified employees with the hopes ‘downsizing’ the City payroll and the Council approved it.  Several department heads will be leaving at the end of  January including veteran Police Chief David Beaty along with Assistant Police Chief Darrell Sherrill, both with 30 or more years of service. Police Chief Beaty is the longest serving police chief in Crossville’s history – 19 years.  Another veteran city police officer, Captain Chuck Anderson, will be retiring after 27 years.     City Judge Tom Bean recently left the City Court bench after 32 years.

Other department heads retiring include: Palace Theater Manger Terry Ashburn, Parks and Recreation Director Steve Hill, Fire Department Captain’s Rick Myers and Don Tabor and Human Resources Director Sandy Gruber.   Some of the employees were due to retire this year already, but many took the early retirement offering.  Most of the positions will be filled with new employees but a few will not.  As part of the ‘downsizing’ a few positions will be eliminated entirely or combined with another position. For example – it’s not certain yet that a new Palace Theater manager will be hired, at least not full time.  City Manger Rutherford is looking at using a mix of contracted and part-time labor to operate the theater.  And the City is not looking for a new Police Chief–but an ‘Interim Police Chief’ only.  Rutherford has stressed that an interim chief will be hired for a maximum of 18 months – and no more, in hopes of either getting someone who will prove to be the ideal choice for new Police Chief or find another.  The City is taking applications for some of the positions until December 31 through the Career Center in Crossville.