Cochran Leaders Postpone Creating New Public Safety Director
COCHRAN, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) – The City of Cochran is postponing its plan to consolidate the police and fire chief positions into one public safety director.
City Manager Ray Gibson tells 41NBC the idea is put on hold for now. He says there has been a lot of negative feedback coming from the public during the process and city council decided to not pursue the merger for now.
He says the city will create an advisory panel made up of community leaders, stakeholders, and citizens. It will discuss and offer input on the pros and cons of creating the new position as well as make a recommendation on what is most effective for the city. He hopes to have the process worked out by July.
For now, Police Chief Key McGuire and Fire Chief Glenn Lord will keep their respective jobs. On his Facebook page, Chief McGuire wrote:
I met with the City Manager today. We will speak more on this later, but for now, the removal of the Chief positions has been canceled. Chief Lord and I will remain Chiefs. Thanks again for the support, and lets channel this support to the entire city and county and all keep an active participation in the activities of our homes. Love, and support of our neighbors, like this is what make Cochran/Bleckley such an awesome place to live and raise a family.
This comes after they were given their two weeks notice last week when the city decided to create a public safety director to manage both departments.
Stay with 41NBC for updates on this story.
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