By Krystal J. Carman
January 7, 2009 — CHELSEA—There’s an old sheriff — rather chief — in town.
After fielding applications for two months, the Chelsea Board of Trustees decided Monday to appoint one of their own as chief of police.
Jeremy Housman, who has been interim chief since September, was promoted and given the official title of chief of police at Monday’s special meeting. Housman has been an officer with the Chelsea Police Department and since former chief Dustin Chadwell was demoted in September, Housman has been serving in that capacity. The board set Housman’s salary at $26,000.
In the first round of taking applications in October, none of the applications came from within the department and only six applications were received. Therefore, the board decided to field applications for one more month in an effort to provide more choices for the position.
Housman was interviewed by the board at Monday’s meeting before they reached a decision.
“After a very long debate by this board, we have decided to make an offer to Jeremy Housman for the position of chief,” Mayor Norman Wooten said after an executive session.
Housman will be on a six month probationary period with a review and possible increase in salary at the end of the six months.
