Police and fire report rising calls and overtime; board approves firefighter hire

The Board of Public Works and Safety approved one candidate to fill a fire-department vacancy and received monthly reports from police and fire officials detailing calls, overtime and hiring efforts.

Chief Jones introduced Gavin Jones, a 21-year-old Fayette County resident who passed testing and was recommended to fill a vacancy at the Conyers Fire Department; the board approved his appointment and wished him well as he prepares to begin training. “He... did really well in all his testing,” Chief Jones said when presenting the candidate.

Chief Scott presented the police department’s April report, citing roughly 754 calls for service, $14,000 in overtime and multiple categories of calls including domestic incidents and juvenile problems. Scott reported drug seizures of 24 grams of marijuana, 13 grams of fentanyl and 35.5 grams of methamphetamine and said officers recovered three firearms.

Fire-department leaders reported $18,348.40 in overtime for April and described a robust hiring pipeline: 45 applicants, 38 agility-test participants, 20 passed agility and 11 passed the written test, with five candidates selected for interviews. The fire chief and board discussed retention measures, including exploring multi-year training/repayment contracts and recent insurance changes intended to reduce turnover by making local pay more competitive.

Board members did not record formal objections to the appointment or the reports; staff said they will continue recruitment efforts and consider contract and pay strategies to reduce overtime caused by vacancies.