Union City, Tenn.–The Union City City Council had a busy meeting Tuesday evening and among several agenda items, approved an application for a Community Development Block Grant of between $650,000 and $800,000. If awarded, it requires a 20% match and would be used in part to demolish old wooden playground equipment in Graham Park and replace it with more durable metal equipment.
Mayor Terry Hailey said, “We approved the fire department’s request to apply for a Tennessee Rescue Squad grant of $40,000. If successful, the money would be used to purchase Flood Water Rescue Equipment and Extrication Equitment. It’s a 100% grant meaning no city money required. We also accepted a PEP grant of $1,000 for Cyber Security. We actually spend about $60,000 a year on cyber security.”
Council heard a report from Fire Chief Karl Ullrich. Among other things, Chief Ullrich said that the Fire Department answered 2,362 calls last year. Residential fires were the leading cause of property loss. The two highest losses totaled over $500,000. Both of those fires were out in the County. Much time is devoted to firefighter training. The department also does many EMS calls, business walk-throughs, etc.
Police Chief Ben Yates talked about training, with each officer receiving 75 hours of training last year. The police department received over 12,500 calls for service last year, down from 15,045 the previous year. There was one criminal homicide last year, zero the year before. Total adults arrested last year was just over 1200, down from 1519 the year before.
Chief Yates spent time talking about the kind of officers that he looks for and their extensive training. He stressed the importance of the SRO’s in UC Schools. He talked about generational changes with social media and the like. He talked about Animal Control which received 347 calls last year and the great job that our department does with animal control.
Hailey said, “We thanked all our departments for the work they do, not the least of which was taking care of our roads during the past week. The Main roads were in pretty good shape rather quickly. All and all, we faired a lot better than lots of folks in the state. (I realize that residential streets are the last to get help, but considering the snow and ice that we had, it could have been a lot worse.) Maybe you got in some good family time which should always be a good thing. “