ELLISVILLE - The Ellisville Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday night unanimously to approve several personnel matters.
Ellisville Mayor Lynn Buckhaults and the Board of Aldermen handled several items involving the Ellisville Fire Department and the Ellisville Police Department.
With little discussion, the board agreed to approve Ellisville Fire Chief Jake Williams' recommendations that the city makes some personnel changes in the Ellisville Fire Department.
In the city's Fire Department, Fire Chief Williams recommended that the city approve the filling of three positions.
Williams recommended the promotion of Andrew Jordan to Battalion Chief and promote Dean Pierce and Joshua Roberson to lieutenants' position.
The fire chief said the battalion chief position was left vacant when Fire Chief John Polson was named fire chief in September 2019. Polson later resigned. He said the lieutenants' positions became vacant after some firefighters left the department.
However, Williams told the board this week that the men recommended for the promotions had been performing the duties in those positions for a while without pay, and he wanted to go ahead and give them the promotions.
The fire chief also recommended that the city remove three people from part-time firefighter's status and hire three other persons for those positions.
He recommended the removal of Ernest Allen, Alex Lininger, and Lance Spiers from part-time fighters' status while recommending the hiring of Dalton Murphy, Caleb Alexander, and Forrest Cawley as part-time firefighters upon submission of required documents.
Earlier this month, the board of aldermen approved the resignation of Nicolas Hocanson from full-time status to be effective Aug. 31, 2020. They also approved him to go back to part-time status with the department.
Earlier this month, Ellisville Police Chief Bruce Russell recommended that the city approve two resignations in the Ellisville Police Department's personnel.
Following a brief discussion, the board of aldermen approved the resignation of Patrol Officer Samuel Denny Graham effective on Oct. 1 and approved the resignation of EPD employee Wanda Thrash effective immediately.
Russell said the two resignations left the department with three personnel slots open, one of them being a person on administrative leave.
The board also approved following the city's policy and going through the WINN Job Center in Laurel and opening up a police officer application to begin the process of hiring two new employees.
Russell said this week's recommendation is to approve the hiring of Jordan Reed as a full-time certified police officer to fill one of those positions.
Russell said Reed, who worked with the Hattiesburg Police Department, is a resident of Moselle.
Also, the board handled several property matters during public hearings at this week's meeting.
City officials conducted hearings for Calvin Trudeau at 413 Camp Street.
During the board's meeting on Sept. 1, a resident complained about the resident's conditions on Camp Street.
City officials said they are investigating the matter.
In other business, the board agreed to approve a quote to cut three trees in the city for a total of $1,200, to nunc pro tunc approve a memorandum of understanding between the city and Jones County which allowed some prisoners to do some work in the city near the interstate; and to modify a lease agreement with a person leasing the Old Fire Station to allow for some air conditioners to be installed.