Pikeville police chief retiring
By Dennis Hill
Published in News on January 7, 2014 1:46 PM
PIKEVILLE -- Pikeville Police Chief Paschal Tucker announced his retirement Monday night at a meeting of the Town Board.
Tucker, 55, who has served as chief for five years, said his last day would be in mid February.
Already retired from the Air Force after 28 years of service, Tucker said he has enjoyed working for the town but is ready to give up his badge.
The Town Board thanked Tucker for his service and instructed Town Administrator Blake Proctor to begin advertising for the position.
In other business, the board elected Todd Anderson as the new mayor pro tem. Anderson will act as mayor whenever the new mayor, Glenn Hartman, is unable to attend a meeting.
The board also discussed changing the town's form of government from a board and town administrator to a board and town manager. The latter structure would give Proctor more authority to make decisions.
Proctor said being town manager would be more efficient but emphasized that he was not pushing for the change. No action was taken.
The board also tabled a proposal to change the day and time of its meetings after board members were unable to come to an agreement on when they could get together.
The board currently meets on the first Monday of the month, at 7 p.m.
Proctor told board members that the date is not the best for having monthly financial records prepared for presentation and that it would be better to have the meeting a week or so later in the month.
But every time a day of the week was brought up, a board member had a conflict.
Proctor suggested each board member come up with a list of dates and times when he could meet and that the board would work from the list to see agreement could be reached that way.
Hartman said he understood that the reason the board is meeting on the first Monday night now is that in the past, previous boards were unable to agree on another night and that state law requires that if board members cannot agree on a particular day of the month, that the board will meet on the first Monday of the month.
Hartman noted that he is giving up a fire department meeting to meet on Mondays and said that other board members should consider giving up something if necessary to accommodate town business.
"I feel others can sacrifice, too," he said.