Another urban forester candidate has fallen

Timber! Another potential urban forester candidate has fallen. McMinnville officials won?t be interviewing John S. Baggett this Tuesday night.

Baggett informed the city he no longer wants to be considered for the position. Bagget said yes to Virginia and no to McMinnville, according to Mayor Royce Davenport.

?When I checked my messages today one of them was from Baggett,? said Davenport. ?He no longer wants to be considered for the position.?

Although he and his wife checked out the McMinnville area and loved what they saw, Baggett has chosen to stay with his current job as urban forester of Fairfax County, Va., because his current position gave him a pay raise.

Elected officials have decided to cancel the interview for that evening instead of inviting someone else to fill the spot.

?It shouldn?t take a year to hire an administrator or an urban forester,? said Alderman Billy Wood. ?With as many qualified people who live in Warren County why do we go running out of state when we have a decent-paying job to fill? We need to take care of our own first.?

As chairman of the Building and Grounds Committee, Wood would like to see Hank Patton get the urban forester job.

?I can?t for the life of me see any reason why Hank Patton should not be given the opportunity,? said Wood. ?The only qualification he didn?t meet was a certification. I say we hire him and give him some time to get the certification.?

As for which way the committee will go, Wood says he doesn?t know. He has decided to have his committee members meet Tuesday evening to discuss the situation. The time has been changed from 4:30 to 5:45 p.m.