Smithville Holds First Meeting, Starting New Terms
by Chris Tramel
The City of Smithville held their first meeting of the Mayor and Board of Aldermen last Thursday, with newly elected and re-elected members. The Oath of Office was conducted by Municipal Judge Gayla Hendrix, who swore in Mayor Josh Miller and Aldermen Beth Chandler to another term, and newly elected Alderman Don Crook. All will serve four-year terms. Aldermen, Shawn Jacobs, Danny Washer, and Jessica Higgins will be up for re-election in 2024.
During the meeting, Mayor Miller made appointments to various city boards, with the approval of the aldermen. Those appointments are as follows:
Planning Commission: Dwain Snow, Meshia Johnson, and Caleb Gash as citizen members, along with Alderman Crook who will replace Mayor Miller as the city’s official representative. Gash will also join Snow and Alderman Jessica Higgins as members of the Board of Zoning Appeals.
Vice Mayor and Commissioner of Streets and Safety - Alderman Danny Washer
Water and Sewer Commissioner - Alderman Beth Chandler
Finance Commissioner - Alderman Jessica Higgins
Police and Fire Commissioner - Alderman Shawn Jacobs
Sanitation Commissioner - Alderman Don Crook
Beer Board - Citizen Members Annette Greek and Steve Hays
Smithville Electric System Board: Mayor Josh Miller (city representative) and Jason Murphy (citizen member)
Smithville Airport Committee - Debbie Hitchcock (citizen member)
911 Board - Alderman Beth Chandler as city representative
City Judge - Gayla Hendrix reappointed to a four-year term
Mayor Miller took time to remember the late Wade Smith, who served as a citizen member of the Planning Commission for several years. Smith passed away on August 27.
In other business, Smithville added a third full-time paid firefighter to the Smithville Volunteer Fire Department. Aldermen voted to hire Glenn Lattimore through the recommendation of Fire Chief Charlie Parker. Lattimore has served as a volunteer firefighter for 14 years. His salary was set at $35,131, plus benefits.
“We went through the interview process last month,” Chief Parker said at the meeting. “All six of our officers and Alderman Shawn Jacobs, who is the city’s fire department commissioner, sat in on the interview. We tried to take applications in house first. We had two applications, and we interviewed those two firefighters from our department. Both did an outstanding job, but through scoring and everything else, we selected Mr. Glenn Lattimore to be our new hire this year. Glen has been with us for 14 years as a volunteer for the department and he has done very well so far, and we have discussed with him moving forward what the new position will entail, and he is looking forward to doing that. He will start September 12.”
Chief Parker was the first full-time city firefighter, hired in 2012. In 2020, Dalton Roberts was added as the second city paid firefighter.
Members of the department ranging in years of service from one year to 42 years are Cole Wright, Tyler Cantrell, Dakota Nokes, Kim Johnson, Seth Wright, Dalton Roberts, Becky Atnip, Cory Killian, Glen Lattimore, Stephanee Wright, Gary Johnson, Lieutenant John Poss, Captain Jeff Wright, Deputy Chief Hoyte Hale, Lieutenant Donnie Cantrell, Lieutenant Danny Poss, Chief Charlie Parker, Wink Brown, Randall Hunt, Bradley Johnson, Dillon Hicks, C.J. Tramel, Kayla Johnson, Jeff Prisock, and Andrew Cooper.
