News Progress

Chief Jim Waggoner holds Axon body cam.

•December 6, 2017•

Sullivan Police Chief Jim Waggoner looks at technology as a friend so it makes sense when he jumped at a free trial for officer body cameras.

“When I found out Axon had a free body cam program for one year, I applied immediately,” Chief Waggoner said. “By September they had supplied every officer with a body camera plus the department with the software to handle the audio and video storage.”

Axon, formerly the Taser company, is offering any police department that applies the chance to try out body cam technology free of charge for one year. At the end of the year the departments may purchase the complete system for an annual fee or just return the equipment with no charge.

“I like what new technology brings, and body cameras have helped us do better jobs as officers,” Waggoner said, noting footage is also a good learning tool for officers as well as keeping an accurate record of what happens during a stop. Read More

Photo submitted
Pictured is the Jefferson Theater.

•November 29, 2017•

By Ellen Ferrera
for the News Progress

After the Titus Opera House was consumed in fire, Irving Shuman built the Jefferson Theater on the corners of Jefferson and Hamilton streets. It was a two-story building, and the entire outside was covered in a white, pearlized brick that was the first of its kind in Sullivan.

As the new theater neared completion Shuman asked Mayor Johnson, County Judge Grider and Circuit Clerk Gaddis to act as judges in a naming contest for the new theater. The name Jefferson Theater was submitted by both Genevieve Lowe and Mrs. C. O. Patterson for three reasons: first, the building was located on Jefferson street, second, the name brought to mind the great figure of the American stage, Joseph Jefferson, who was famous for portraying Rip Van Winkle, and third, because Thomas Jefferson was “the greatest Democrat in the history of our nation and wrote the Declaration of Independence”. Read More