Ricky Harris of the State Fire Marshall’s Office back in July through an email advised the Cannon County Commissioners that the State did not recognize Faye Morse as being the County Fire Chief due to lack of certification. Also it was indicated in the email that Cannon County Volunteer Fire Departments were not recognized by the state as being valid as they too did not turn in their certification papers. The commissioners brought the issue up in their August meeting last Tuesday and followed up with calls to make sure the email was accurate. As of Thursday morning, the commission was told that the fire departments nor fire chief was indeed not recognized by the state, so an emergency meeting had to be called to deal with the issue. The only item of the agenda was to appoint/affirm a county fire chief as recommended by Mike Gannon and the meeting was set for last night. In between Thursday and last night the County Executive’s office produced paperwork to show that the Volunteer Fire Departments were recognized by the state after turning in certification papers and paying a $50 fee back in February. Further research by the State Fire Marshall’s office also confirmed by a certificate issued to Faye Morse did recognize her as the County Fire Chief. The certificate comes up for renewal in 2015. Mr. Harris in his email back in July stated that Morse did not complete continuing education hours as required by the state. Ms. Morse contended that since she was appointed Fire Chief in 1995, she was grandfathered in and the only people that had to meet the education requirement were those that were appointed since the 2008 year. After being questioned Thursday afternoon, Ricky Harris sent an email to the County Executive’s Office clearing the confusion up and stating that the original paperwork had been filed wrong and as a result Cannon County’s Volunteer Fire Department is indeed recognized by the State of Tennessee and Faye Morse is recognized by the State as the County Fire Chief. That email did not satisfy a handful of County Commissioners who have now stated that after researching minutes of past County Commission meetings, they could not find a record of a fire chief being appointed by a previous county executive or approved by a previous county commission. According to state code a fire chief has to be appointed by a county executive and that appointment must be approved by the county commission. A suggestion was made to obtain an opinion from the State Attorney General to determine if Morse is in fact the County’s Fire Chief
