JOHN COFFELTEditor

The City of Manchester has recently made several personnel changes to fill assistant director positions from within the departments.

Mayor Joey Hobbs told The Times on Thursday, Oct. 10 that Manchester Fire and Rescue Capt. Mark Reed was recently promoted to assistant chief.

“Mark’s been with us probably 30 years,” Hobbs said.

Firefighter Tyler Hickerson will be the interim MFD training officer. Reed had been serving as captain and training officer.

“This really left us on training and things that have to get done,” Hobbs said.

Hobbs said one of the items discussed during routine directors meeting is who serves as the number two person in a department in the event the director cannot fulfill their roles.

Many of these positions have been budgeted for years but have remained unfilled. One dark position left unfilled was the Street Department assistant director.

Former Office Manger Kristina Moore as assistant director after an application process and interviews were performed.

Moore has been with the city for 24 years, Hobbs said.

“I don’t know why we haven’t been filling these positions,” Hobbs said. “But I’m all about filling them. It makes us better. These departments can’t hire the people who moves things along on the street level if they don’t hire these administrative positions.”

Hobbs said that additional positions would be announced in the coming weeks.

John has been with the Manchester Times since May 2011. John has won Tennessee Press Association awards for Best News Photo and placed in numerous other categories. John is a 1994 graduate of Tullahoma High School, a graduate of Motlow State Community College and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English from Middle Tennessee State University. He lives in Tullahoma, enjoys painting, dancing and exploring the outdoors.