East Ridge may be getting close to getting a new city manager as well as a new police chief and a new fire chief.
The East Ridge City Council has called a special meeting for 7 p.m. on Tuesday to discuss the city manager position.
City manager finalists are Larry Ables, Hamilton County magistrate; Andrew Hyatt, city manager for Fairview, Tn.; and Andrew Ellard, acting director of the Department of Federal and State Progress in Hattiesburg, Miss.
The council interviewed them once, then called them back for a second round of interviews.
All three have the qualification listed as a requirement in the city charter - a bachelor's degree in public administration. Many other would-be contenders had a master's degree in public administration, but not a bachelor's degree.
Freida Wheeler has been serving as interim city manager since the prior interim city manager, Eddie Phillips, recently retired.
Mr. Phillips also was public safety administrator and was over police and fire.
After his departure, the council passed a reorganization plan that set up separate police and fire chiefs.
Ms. Wheeler last week asked current members of the police and fire departments who were interested in serving as fire and police chiefs to submit their applications.
She said she wanted to first see if the jobs could be filled from within. She said, if not, it could be opened up to outside contenders.
There is no requirement that the chiefs live in East Ridge, she said.
Deputy Police Chief Steve Mize has been supervising the police department and Deputy Fire Chief Mike Flynn has been over the fire department since Mr. Phillips left.
The application period closed Monday afternoon.
Here are the applicants:
Police Chief:
Steve Mize
Tim Mullinax
J.R. Reed
Terry Prescott
Kevin Brooks
Tim Spires
Fire Chief:
Mike Williams