Cookeville City Council approved a contract with UCHRA Thursday night to provide social work assistance to Cookeville Police.
The pilot program will provide on-call service for police 24/7. The SAS program team will provide assistance with housing, mental health services, substance abuse, and other needs for people needing help.
“We need a service with social workers available on a 24/7 basis,” Council Member Charles Womack said. “This is a win-win. It helps the police and it helps the people who need the service.”
Council member Eric Walker called it an efficient way to help those in need and follow-up on progress. Mayor Ricky Shelton said any person or group trying to make the point that Cookeville does not care about those in need is misinformed.
The contract runs through January to test the program.
In other business, the City of Cookeville will move to the Microsoft 365 platform. Microsoft will no longer support Microsoft 10, which is used by most city employees. Computer Operations Manager Steve Corder said the move should provide better security, a need following recent security issues with local governments. The downside will be an annual subscription fee, totaling $50,000 for this year.
The council approved a contract with Gresham Smith and Partners to begin the engineering work on extending sewer service to Tennessee Avenue.
The city approved a second shade structure near the swings at Dogwood Park. Leisure Services Director Rick Woods said the structure will provide more shade in the older childrens’ play area. The $7,200 structure will be added to a previous upgrade to share at the Heart of the City playground.
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