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Brett W. Todd - page 10

Brett W. Todd has 923 articles published.

Brett W. Todd is the managing editor of Clinton County Today. Clinton County Today is a community-focused website to provide individuals of Clinton County Indiana and surrounding areas with information impacting their lives. Clinton County Today is a service of Progressive Partners of Indiana, LLC where Brett W. Todd is its managing member.

Culver’s To Begin Demolition of Former King of Pancake House

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Culver's To Begin Demolition of Former King of Pancake House
Culver's will begin demolition of the former King of Pancake House located at 2301 E. Wabash St on August 29. (Photo: Brett W. Todd)

FRANKFORT, Ind. – Culver’s, a privately owned and operated American casual fast food restaurant chain that operates primarily in the Midwest, will begin demolition of the former King of Pancake House located at 2301 E. Wabash St on August 29 according to a Frankfort Building Services post August 24.

“Culver’s has made it to the finish line finally,” said Don Stock, Director of Planning & Housing Initiatives for the City of Frankfort at a Frankfort Board of Works meeting in July. “We had a lot of MS4 issues that we had to get resolved with water going into the holding facility in the backside and then it’s actually owned by another private entity.”

According to Stock the demolition was to begin sooner; however, Culver’s had a challenge to overcome first.

“The challenge that they had was getting Mr. Pancake to be completed and move on. They finally got that done, which then allowed the sale of the property,” said Stock in August.

According to the Culver’s website, they are a “family-favorite restaurant known for their local ButterBurgers, Fresh Frozen Custard & Wisconsin Cheese Curds.”

Frankfort Dog Park Name Selected, Celebration Planned

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Frankfort Dog Park Name Selected, Celebration Planned
Frankfort Parks Superintendent Bart Kraning announces name of new dog park and invites the public and their dogs to a special celebration Saturday, September 10th at 11am held at Dorner Park home of the Mary Jane McMahon Dog Park.

FRANKFORT, Ind. – The residents of Frankfort will soon have a dog park located at Dorner Park thanks to donations from the George Dorner Family Fund. The community and their dogs are invited to a special celebration on Saturday, September 10th at 11 am at the dog park when local FFA students will install dog agility equipment inside the fenced park.

The Frankfort Parks Department announced Tuesday, August 23, the dog park has an official name – The Mary Jane McMahon Dog Park; named after the first female mayor elected in Frankfort who served two-terms from January 1976 until December 1983. She passed away in July 2014.

Frankfort Parks Superintendent Bart Kraning described the dog space as huge during a recent presentation he gave to the Board of Works and spoke of great ideas that came from a meeting with Nancy Elsie.

“I met with Nancy Elsie, she had some really good ideas that we have to implement,” said Kraning. “One of them being a key fob system to access the park. And once I did research a lot of parks are doing that.”

“My suggestion would be they come to the park purchase like a $5 deposit or something… then they get that key fob, they register their animal with the city and then they can key fob into the park facility.”

“Another thing that she had was, uh, once you enter the dog park, there should be a, a second doorway so then you have two doors. That eliminates pets from escaping; it cuts down on them escaping drastically… Cause the dog park is 300 feet long. So I mean, it’s huge.”

In addition to agility equipment in the park, the plan calls for park and the area surrounding to have benches installed, shade trees planted, signage and mulch spread.

Completion of the park is scheduled for Spring of 2023.

Frankfort Police Department Announce Retired K9 Care Program

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Frankfort Police Department Announce Retired K9 Care Program
The Frankfort Police Department received approval to begin a retired K9 care program on August 22, 2022. In the photo is retired K9 Otto. (Photo provided: FPD)

FRANKFORT, Ind. – The Frankfort Board of Works and Public Safety approved the Frankfort Police Department’s request to provide care to retired FPD K9s at its meeting held Monday, August 22. The program allows for funding to the police officer who adopts the K9 upon retirement. Currently, FPD K9 handlers adopt the K9 with full responsibility of expenses related to the K9. Funding will allow for reimbursement of up to $1,000 to come from the FPD budget or the K9 donation account.

According to Chief Shoemaker, “K9s work the same hours as our handlers and are sometimes the first to go into dangerous incidents. After years of extensive training and long work hours, they deserve our continued support.”

FPD K9s spend anywhere from five to eight years on the job and handlers develop a life-long bond with their K9 partner. The program will ensure that the handler can provide extensive veterinary care and not have to worry about the cost.

While the program is limited to $1,000, it will help with some of the costs. “Last year retired K9 Otto needed emergency veterinary services,” stated Chief Shoemaker. “The total bill for that trip was just under $1,000.”

The program will be reviewed, over time, to potentially increase the funding for our retired K9 officers.

“This is just a start as we begin this new program,” said Mayor Judy Sheets. “Our K9s have worked very hard to find illegal drugs and help track missing people or suspects.”

If you are interested in donating to this program, please reach out to Chief Shoemaker via his email, sshoemaker284@frankfort-in.gov.

Frankfort Police Announce New Hire and Promotion

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Frankfort Police Announce New Hire and Promotion

FRANKFORT, Ind. – Frankfort Chief of Police Scott Shoemaker announced a promotion and a new hire to the force at the Monday night Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.

The BOW approved the hiring of Ethan Cunningham to replace Mike Cesare who is retiring on October 3. Cunningham is a graduate of Tipton Schools and has been a Corrections Officer the past two years with the Clinton County Sheriff’s Office. He was sworn in by Mayor Judy Sheets with his family and friends in attendance. Cunningham will start September 5.

Photo of Ethan Cunningham after being sworn in by Frankfort Mayor Judy Sheets as a Frankfort Police Officer
Ethan Cunningham, third from the left, stands with Frankfort Police Chief Scott Shoemaker, Frankfort Mayor Judy Sheets, and Deputy Chief Cesar Munoz after being sworn in as a police officer at the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting August, 22, 2022. (Photo: Brett W. Todd)

“I’m so excited to have him on the department,” said Sheets. “He’s a great guy. He has been a corrections officer at the Clinton county Sheriff’s office and he looks forward to coming to our department.”

The promotion was of Officer Brett Dale to the rank of Sergeant. Dale is a field training officer, a certified general instructor, STOPS instructor and a member of the SWAT team. Dale has been a police officer for the past ten years, joining FPD on May 26,2020. He was unanimously selected by the promotion committee and the promotion was effective August 8, 2022.

Sergeant Brett Dale stands with family after being promoted to Sergeant
Sergeant Brett Dale (center) of the Frankfort Police Department stands with family after being promoted to the rank of Sergeant at the Frankfort Board of Public Works and Safety August 22, 2022. (Photo: Brett W. Todd)

“I think [he’s] very deserving of the promotion,” said Sheets.

Commissioners Delay Making ‘Controversial’ Nepotism Decision

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Commissioners Delay Making 'Controversial' Nepotism Decision
The Clinton County Commissioners decided to table making a "controversial" decision on a revised county nepotism ordinance. Commissioners in photo from left-to-right, Bert Weaver, Josh Uitts, and Jordan Brewer. (Photo: Brett W. Todd

CLINTON COUNTY, Ind. – With a room full of onlookers at the Clinton County Commissioners meeting, held this morning, anticipating a decision on a revised county nepotism ordinance, the three Commissioners unanimously decided to do nothing and tabled the final reading for a future date.

“I think there’s a lot of things to consider with it,” said Commissioners President Jordan Brewer after the meeting. “There’s more than one variable. And so at this point, it seems like our best option is to kind of leave it out there and on the table and, we’ll address it when the time is more right.”

Brewer was asked how the residents of Clinton County might react to a revised nepotism ordinance.

“That’s a good question. I mean, I think there obviously was some people that showed up today to speak and there was probably more that would have spoken [had] we not tabled at first, I suppose.”

“But at the same time, there’s, there’s people that call me and call the other commissioners all the time about things. And so, you know, it’s just hearing all the different input before we make a decision that could be impactful.”

When asked what has he heard from residents on this issue, Brewer said it was mixed.

“It’s a mixed bag. I think for those that maybe interact more directly, you, you do hear, similar to today [the] stance of the position and job that Ashley Kelly has done there as matron. From others, there’s a different point of view.”

“At the end of the day, we, we do represent the constituents. At times you have to, they elect us to make decisions on their behalf – and, you try and take everyone’s input in when you, when you do that – but, that’s not always the case and so I think just because this one is a little more controversial we just need to listen a little bit longer.”

Below is the audio the question and answer session with Commissioner Brewer answers after the meeting.

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Commissioner Jordan Brewer Discusses Tabling Nepotism Ordinance

The Commissioners meet again September 7 at 9 am in the Clinton County Courthouse.

Four-way Flashing Red Light at Intersection of Maish Rd and Washington Avenue Permanently Removed

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Four-way Flashing Red Light at Intersection of Maish Rd and Washington Avenue Permanently Removed
The four-way flashing red light overhead unit at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Maish Road was permanently removed Wednesday, August 17, 2022 after it struck for the third or fourth time according to the Frankfort Police Department. (Photo by Brett W. Todd)

FRANKFORT, Ind. – The four-way flashing red light at the intersection of Maish Rd and Washington Avenue was permanently removed Wednesday afternoon after the Frankfort Police Department described a semi trailer had made contact with the hanging light on Monday causing the unit to fall to the ground. FPD reports this is the third time that lighting unit has been damaged.

The Frankfort Board of Works and Public Safety gave the approval Wednesday after consulting with Frankfort Street Superintendent Jason Forsythe. Forsythe says he is aware the decision made is not popular.

“And I know people, people were disappointed in the decision I made, but, it’s probably not the first decision I’ve ever made that people were disappointed in,” said Forsythe when reached for comment. “It was never made to put anyone at risk. I believe the safety is still very strong there with, with the four-way stop.”

That intersection will see upgraded four-way stop signs in the coming weeks as the city has invested $6,000 to purchase 4 new flashing stop signs like others on Maish at Washington Drive, Wilshire, and Haven.

There is still a chance the flashing stop signs at Haven and Maish could be moved to Washington Ave as there is a five-week lead time for delivery.

FPD reports the city averages 400 crashes a year “with near zero fatalities each year.”

The interview with Forsythe can be found below.

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Jason Forsythe Explains Decision to Remove Four-Way Flashing Light

Clinton County Today:
Some people have asked about the decision-making that went on for taking that down and just like to maybe get your side and the city side of why that decision needed to be made.

Forsythe:
In the last year-and-a-half or so, we’ve had issues with that particular light, either being damaged by farm equipment, by semis, you know, by other acts unknown. We’ve had an accident there when, at one point in time where we had to obviously repair it.

But every time that occurs, we have to obviously get hold of City Light and Power to take care of that.

That’s not something my department team can take care of. We don’t have the equipment and I don’t like messing with electricity.

At the same point in time, it was just a becoming a headache every time we wanted to go down there to try to fix something and we continue to have to do it quite often.

So I brought that up [removing the red flashing lights] and in the last couple of days that it was hit again over the weekend, I believe by a piece of farm machinery with a with a hose rack on the top of it and it had to be looked at again and I thought, well, let’s look at what we want to do here.

Do we really want to continue to have that light there when there is already a four-way stop with, you know, four nice sized stop signs there at that location?

Back in ’17 and ’18 downtown Frankfort had stopped lights that are blinking red lights at Main and Clinton and Main and Washington.

And as we all know over the last year, for sure, Main and Clinton has taken more traffic than our city’s probably ever seen with no traffic accidents.

We haven’t had any traffic accidents at Main and Washington. I don’t know of any accidents at Maish and Washington Avenue.

And could you say it’s because of blinking light? Yeah, but I would lean more towards knowing that everyone knows that’s a four-way stop.

And, I sat there at that location for probably a good hour after I was told that it was taken down, I sat in the Encompass Credit Union lot and never once seen a near miss, a close call of any kind at that intersection.

So, we don’t have blinking lights at any other four-way stop in Frankfort.

And, I just felt like with all the problems that that light has been causing and really wasn’t aware of why it was there in the first place, I just felt like it was time to go ahead and take it down.

And, we have purchased, or ordered, four of the blinking stop signs that you see on Maish and Wilshire [and] down by the Middle School as well and at Maish and Haven. And at one recently we just posted at the post office, we ordered four of those to be placed there, or we are possibly in talks of moving the one from Maish and Haven and Maish and Wilshire down to the Washington Avenue and Maish Road intersection until these four new ones come in and then will replace those.

But those are $1,500 a piece. So it was a $6,000 purchase the city’s made to, to upgrade that intersection, but at the same point in time, you know, that I just felt like it was time to remove that light.

And, and I’ve heard from many people and on Party Line today, after speaking with Kevin Keith, a lot of people didn’t even realize that it was even a light there and so I think people pay attention to stop signs.

But every intersection that has a stop sign, there’s a chance of having an accident.

But I just thought it was time, rather than sending City Light and Power down there, you know, three to four times, at least in the last year-and-a-half to repair something [it] was best just to remove it.

It was a city owned light, like I said, I don’t know who put it there, why the decision was made to put it there, but we made a decision to go ahead and remove it.

I think it was Saturday night or Sunday afternoon when I got the call from the police department that had been hit again. So we thought, you know, we just needed to act on it and try to get it taken care of.

And I know people, people were disappointed in the decision I made, but, it’s probably not the first decision I’ve ever made that people were disappointed in. It was never made to put anyone at risk.

I believe the safety is still very strong there with, with the four-way stop. And, and like I said, we are taking action in trying to purchase some, some additional blinking stop signs to put there.

And those things, not only maybe a little safer than an all stop sign, but they also look nicer. So, you know, it’ll be nice to have those, those there when those arrive.

And like I said, there’s about a five-week lead time on those from that purchase is what I was told this afternoon.

I’ve asked them to rush that as much as they can to get those put in and we’ll just see how it goes from here on out.

But that was, that was the whole reasoning behind removing the blinking light there.

County Council to Begin Budget Hearings, 10% Employee Pay Increase to Be Discussed

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County Council to Begin Budget Hearings, 10% Employee Pay Increase to Be Discussed

CLINTON COUNTY, Ind. – The county budget process begins tomorrow, Tuesday, when the Clinton County Council meet with individual department heads to review 2023 submitted budgets.

A process that happens yearly during this time and something Clinton County Council President Alan Dunn said he was optimistic about.

“I guess I’m going into it feeling pretty optimistic,” said Dunn to members of the council and public during the August 9 Council meeting after announcing the state provided property tax levy and income tax information.

After the meeting Dunn explained the process the state uses to determine what a county can collect and use to pay for services and his confidence of achieving a 10% pay increase for county employees.

What does the state provide in guidance to the County?

“So our revenues each year, we have a couple of numbers that we have to wait to hear from the state,” said Dunn.

“One of the things that’s maybe a little bit of a misnomer on county budgeting is that for the most part – we have no control over how much revenue we raise – it’s determined at the state level and then we merely collect it.”

“So we found out a month ago what our expected, uh, property tax levy was going to be for the year and that was a 5% increase year over year. What we found out here in the most recent couple of days was the income tax projections from the state and that was up 6.5% year over year.”

The growth did not come as a surprise to Dunn

“So that’s reflective. I think that’s not surprising. We’ve had very good wage growth locally here at the industrial park. We’ve all seen the signs for the starting wages going up; we’re very low unemployment. So we expected to see a strong number on that income tax growth.”

“But to see it finally on paper was really a relief and gives us some, I think, some wiggle room as we go into the budget [hearings].”

Dunn explains that not all growth property tax payers goes directly to the County immediately

“So on the property tax side the levee growth for one year is based on a six year rolling average of income tax growth.”

“So it’s kind of a cross. They use an income income tax measure to determine a property tax levy growth, but that’s how they do it, and so that’s why that number is a little bit lower than on the income tax number, that’s up 6.5%.”

“It just looks at the most recent years collections, it looks at the current unemployment numbers it tries to make a projection on where we’re going to be for the next year, more of a faster response time than say on that property tax side.”

“So I was a little concerned that the revenues, because of that linkage to a trend might not be adjusting as fast as inflation is ingesting our expenses, which are happening every day real time.”

“But, I think these numbers would give us enough to work with, and I think we’ll be okay.”

Dunn says it is very likely to achieve a 10% pay increase for county employees

“Based on what we know now, based on my early kind of preview of some of the major department budgets that I’ve seen – and I want to commend the departments. They’ve been in very constant contact with me and we’ve talked through a lot of things offline before they were even submitted. But, I think they’ve done a fantastic job of trying to limit exposure in areas where we can.”

“I still think it’s a very, very likely that we’ll hold strong and try to do that 10% for our employees. Which our goal was to cover inflation and still give them an actual raise. If inflation is between 8 and 9%, for us to do 10[percent] gives an actual cost of living and increases their real wage growth of a percent or two and that was our goal.”

Assessed property values are mandated by the state to be at market value, explains Dunn.

“I guess the thing about property tax bills, there’s two components to it. There’s the tax rate, but there’s also the assessed value rate. And, as we know, over years of litigation at the state level, we are required constitutionally to try to assess value at a market value.”

“So we track that every sale that happens in Clinton county is recorded. It goes into a pot, it creates a, what we call a trend factor that says the sales, the average sales price this year was ‘X’ percent higher than it was last year and that trend factor gets applied to everybody’s assessed value. So we’re trying to capture what’s happening in the market.”

“I think we’ve all heard about how on fire the housing market has been. So that means the value of all of our homes have gone up and that’s good if we want to go get a home equity loan, it’s not good when they want to assess it for taxes. But, that all happens kind of automatically and formulaically based on instructions we get from the state.”

“And then the budgets here, we are talking about a four or 5% overall increase on our budgets at a time when costs are going up much more than that. So I think we’re doing as much as we can to control the growth of the budget, but we still have to provide the services that the taxpayer expects.”

“So it’s a lot of moving parts that come down to one number on a person’s tax bill.”

The budget hearing begins at 8am August 16 in the Courthouse. The hearing is open to the public.

Sheriff Kelly Freezes Hiring, Awaits Nepotism Ordinance from Commissioners; $2 Million of Revenue Hangs In The Balance

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Sheriff Kelly Freezes Hiring, Awaits Nepotism Ordinance from Commissioners

CLINTON COUNTY, Ind. – Clinton County Sheriff Rich Kelly announced to members of the Clinton County Council on Tuesday he has placed a freeze on hiring new merit deputies and correctional officers pending the County Commissioners action on a planned revised nepotism ordinance that would remove his wife, Ashley Kelly, as jail matron.

“The pause has to be created due to the fact the funds that are gonna fund that possibly won’t be there in the future due to the fact that the nepotism policy in place [might change],” said Sheriff Kelly after the meeting.

The funding Sheriff Kelly mentions is money paid by the Federal Bureau of Prisons to the Clinton County Federal Inmate Housing Fund for the housing of federal inmates in addition to money received from the Indiana Department of Correction (IDC) for housing state inmates.

Federal inmates held in the Clinton County jail generate yearly revenue approaching $1.5 million plus an additional $500,000 received from the IDC. The IDC pays the county a yearly amount that breaks down to approximately $37.50 per inmate/per day, while the Federal program payment equates to $68 per inmate/per day plus reimbursement for medical and transport.

Every three years the agreement with the Federal Bureau of Prisons can be renegotiated – and is coming up for talks later in 2022. The State pays based on an average yearly population with an amount set on a yearly basis.

“Our responsibility to the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the US Marshals, US Attorney, [is] to be able to provide adequate staff and… an office manager – a person that takes care of that,” explained Sheriff Kelly. “If that person is removed, that’s not a job that I can just hire off the street. That is a job where I have to have 100% trust in the person that’s doing it.”

“The 100% availability at 24-hours a day [to take a] phone call from the US Marshals office or from the Federal Bureau of Prisons. And, that is not something that I take lightly.”

Clinton County Council President Alan Dunn was asked what potential impact the loss of the Federal inmate housing program would have on the county’s budget.

“Well, that’s something we’ll get into a lot more next week as we read through the budget for the first time,” said Dunn. “I’m not sure it’s appropriate to talk about now. There’s a lot of other discussions going on between the Sheriff’s camp and the county leadership.”

“And so I think those talks need to play out and, and, you know, I think the Sheriff’s right, it could have an impact on the budget and it could have, it could be not just one direction either. So let’s, let’s see how those talks play out. Let’s see what the budget looks like next week as we get into it and see what we can, what we can figure out.”

The County Council will hold budget hearings on August 16 while the next County Commissioners meeting is set for August 22.

FPD Announce New Officer, Promotion and Retirement

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FPD Announce New Officer, Promotion and Retirement

FRANKFORT, Ind. – Frankfort Police Chief Scott Shoemaker presented to the Board of Public Works and Safety meeting on Monday personnel changes; a new officer, a promotion and a retirement all were approved by the BOW.

New Officer
Matt Henley was approved to replace Jim Skinner who retired on July 31st. Henley is a graduate of Rossville Schools and has previously been a Corrections Officer and Dispatcher in Clinton County. He was sworn in with his family and friends by Mayor Judy Sheets.

Promotion
Sergeant Chris Salaba was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant. Salaba is a field training officer, a certified general instructor, a crisis-hostage negotiator and certified in critical incident stress management as well as peer support. He was promoted to Sergeant in July 2020. He has been a very active officer on patrol as well as within the K9 unit. He was unanimously selected by the promotion committee. His promotion was effective Monday.

Retirement
Officer Michael Cesare has served the City of Frankfort for 28.5 years as a city police officer. Before that he was an Indiana State Trooper for four years. Officer Cesare has held many ranks, including Deputy Chief of Police. Officer Cesare will enjoy more family time and remains in the community serving with the Community Schools of Frankfort. His last official day with FPD is October 3, 2022.

Frankfort Police Announce Reorganization Plans

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Frankfort Police Announce Reorganization Plans

Frankfort, Ind. – The Frankfort Board of Public Works and Safety approved Police Chief Scott Shoemaker’s reorganization plans at its July 25 meeting.

Leading the changes was the announcement Mayor Judy Sheets promoted Captain Cesar Muñoz to become the next Deputy Chief of Police. Captain Muñoz has been a member of the Frankfort Police Department since 2012. He was promoted to Captain by Chief Shoemaker in July 2020. Caption Muñoz’s promotion was the result of the retirement of Deputy Chief Jim Skinner on July 31.

According to Mayor Sheets, “Captain Muñoz comes highly recommended by Chief Shoemaker and Deputy Chief Skinner as well as officers at FPD. He has been a very effective leader.” Indiana State law provides that a Deputy Chief of Police in a class three city be appointed by the mayor. His appointment became effective August 1, 2022.

Chief Shoemaker then announced he would streamline and unify the patrol division from two squads into a single division.

“We essentially have two patrol divisions with the two Captains of A and B squads,” stated Chief Shoemaker. “I will reduce the division to one single Patrol Captain to command the entire patrol division.”

A new division for the department was announced, Special Operations.

B Squad Patrol Captain Brady Sorrells is the other patrol captain and was promoted to lead Special Operations. This position will be third in line if the Chief of Police is incapacitated. Currently, Special Events, Traffic Unit, Narcotics Unit, School Resource Officer Unit, Code Enforcement Unit, Training, K-9, Drone, Community Outreach and Crisis Intervention and Peer Support Teams are all ran by different positions within the department. The aforementioned will be consolidated into Special Operations and commanded by Captain Sorrells. Sorrells has been a member of the Frankfort Police Department since 2012.

With the promotions of Muñoz and Sorrells, the new Captain of Patrol position was filled with the promotion of Lieutenant Evan Hall to the position. Hall was promoted to Lieutenant in July 2020. He will command the 24-member patrol division. By creating this position, Lieutenants will be removed from the command staff and focus all of their attention to their respective patrol shifts and response to calls for service in the city. Hall has been a member of the Frankfort Police Department since 2013.

All promotions became effective August 1, 2022.

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