Members of the Martin Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved a revision of the city’s employee insurance policy to benefit retiring police and fire department personnel, formalized its water and sewer rates, made committee appointments and discussed other important business during its regular monthly meeting Monday, December 8, 2008. Also, Martin Judge Langdon Unger swore in aldermen Danny Nanney and Randy Edwards, who were re-elected in the November 2008 municipal elections. Alderman Johnny Tuck, who was also re-elected, was unable to attend the meeting due to health problems and will be sworn in at a later date.

 

Insurance Ordinance

 

    Board members voted unanimously to approve a resolution to permit certain police and fire personnel to participate in the city’s employee health insurance program after their retirement. The resolution also establishes the criteria for this to occur.

    Martin Mayor Randy Brundige pointed out the mandatory retirement age for police and firefighters is age 60.

    The resolution states the change in policy is designed to provide competitive wages and benefits to employees of the police and fire departments, so as to attract and retain well-qualified personnel for these important departments.

    It also notes the board recognize that many firefighters and police officers qualify for retirement before reaching the age when they would qualify for participation in the federal Medicare program.

    The resolution also states many other Tennessee cities allow police officers and firefighters to continue their participation in the city employee health care programs after their retirement and until reaching age 65 when they qualify for Medicare.

    To qualify, employees must have been a full-time city employee for a minimum of 25 cumulative years, be at least 55 years old but no older than 65, and have been in the insurance program for at least 12 consecutive months immediately prior to the date of their retirement.

    The city recorder will be responsible for implementing the provisions of the resolution.

 

(Read the rest of this story in the December 10th print edition of the Dresden Enterprise.)

    Martin police arrested an employee at a local grocery store last week for allegedly stealing cash from his employer.

    William R. Irvan, 18, of 102 Moody Street in Martin is charged with two counts of theft of property, after he was allegedly caught stealing money from a Martin grocery store.

   According to a Martin police report, at approximately 9:22 p.m. Friday, December 5, 2008 Ptl. Andrew M. Rhodes was dispatched to E.W. James and Sons, located at 144 University Plaza, to investigate a reported theft.

   Store Security Coordinator Carl Bowman told Officer Rhodes he caught store employee William Irvan, stealing money from the Western Union teller inside the store. Bowman also informed Ptl. Rhodes the theft was captured on video camera.

   Ptl. Rhodes advised Irvan of his Miranda rights while inside the store. At that time, Irvan told the officer he took a total of approximately $1,750 in cash from the Western Union teller over the past week.

    The report states Irvan admitted that on November 11, he took $450 cash out of the Western Union teller and placed it in his coat pocket. He then walked into the bathroom, placed the cash in his billfold, and left the store at the end of his shift. The defendant advised Ptl. Rhodes he had spent all of the money he stole on this date.

    Irvan also admitted to Ptl. Rhodes that at approximately 7:45 p.m. on December 5, he took $ 1,300 cash out of the Western Union teller inside the store and placed the cash in his front coat pocket. The defendant stated he then walked into the front foyer of the store and placed the cash in the bottom of his right shoe. However, unknown to Irvan this incident was captured by one of the store’s security cameras. When Bowman confronted Irvan, he was able to recover the $1,300 cash from the defendant’s right shoe.

(Read the rest of this story in the December 10th print edition of the Dresden Enterprise.)

  

    Members of the Weakley County School Board reviewed the Weakley County Schools System’s report card recently issued by the Tennessee Department of Education, and approved the second and final reading of eight separate resolutions revising its policy manual, during their regular monthly meeting Thursday, December 4, 2008, at Martin Primary School.

 

State Report Card

 

    Director of Weakley County Schools Richard Barber said, “The grade card for Weakley County has been released. I’m sure all of our teachers and administrators at the central office have been looking at test results, and all of the things we do to plan for the year and map out what we need to do to meet these needs and challenges, as presented to us.”

    Assistant Director of Weakley County Schools Jeff Kelley gave board members a printout of the system profile of Weakley County Schools issued in the form of a report card by the Tennessee Department of Education. He then touched on some of the highlights revealed by the study, comparing the county school system’s educational status to the state average.

    “We’re pretty proud of this report card,” Kelley said. “It’s a good one.”

    Kelley noted the system funding for Weakley County schools amounts to $7,363 per pupil annually, compared to the state average of $8,345 per student. Of this amount, 23.3 percent of the funding for Weakley County students comes from local sources, 64.8 percent from state funding, and 11.8 percent from federal funding. The state average for these three categories of funding are 41.3 percent, 47.8 percent, and 10.9 percent, respectively.

    “For $1,000, less, we think that our teachers, our staff and schools are doing an excellent job, as far as getting the most bang for our buck, so to speak.

 

(Read the rest of this story in the December 10th print edition of the Dresden Enterprise.)