SILER CITY — Mayor Chip Price swore in new Siler City Town Clerk Kimberly Pickard at the town’s board of commissioners’ meeting Monday.
Pickard was surrounded by her family members, who held onto the Bible that Pickard was sworn in on.
“I am thankful for this opportunity,” she said. “I look forward to serving Siler City.”
Pickard served as the county’s facilities coordinator before becoming Siler City’s town clerk after Jenifer Johnson was promoted to the budget manager position that was reclassified from the financial analyst position in the town’s finance department. Pickard’s first day was Monday, and she will be present at every commissioner meeting from now on.
The board also met two of the police department’s four new hires during Monday’s meeting. Erica Vargas and Israel Foxx were brought into the Siler City Police Department, filling vacancies that’ve been unfilled since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Vargas is the first recruit to go through the recruitment program Police Chief Mike Wagner created with Town Manager Hank Raper to bring more officers into town. She was sworn in as an officer on Feb. 1.
Foxx comes to Siler City from the Chatham County Sheriff’s Department, where he worked in corrections in the county jail.
“He knows everyone in town,” Wagner told the board on Monday. “He’s doing his field training right now, so we anticipate having him fully released sometime by early March or earlier.”
Raper said there were other police department hires going through the training to become officers, which will help with the shortage the department has faced over the last two years.
“We’re making some inroads when it comes to our recruiting,” Raper said. “Our police departments are starting to move in the right direction.”
Other business:
• Commissioners unanimously approved the town’s Strategic Plan, which has been in the works since late last year. No discussion was held on the item.
Reporter Taylor Heeden can be reached at theeden@chathamnr.com.