OCR Text |
Show W. Bountiful 1 first town marshal would prefer talk to ticketittg By MARY JOLLEY West Bountiful's first town marshal mar-shal was Franklin D. Hatch. He served from 1950 until he retired in 1 1966. He saw many changes take , place in the 16 years he was West Bountiful's marshal. Mr. Hatch still remembers the counsel meeting when he was first . appointed marshal. He had served more than four years as a security guard at Hill Air Force Base during World War II and for that reason was considered the person most qualified for the job. At the time of his appointment he was given a badge and also authorized autho-rized to put a red light on his own car to help him enforce the law. When he was first appointed in 1950, he was paid only $30 per month. Later, he recalls, when the pay was raised to $100 a month everyone in town wanted his job. Then when the salary was raised to $300 a month he told the city that if they would make it $350, he would furnish his own car. At that time he also had to pay for his own gasoline for the car. Mr. Hatch also remembers that the first gun they gave him would not fire when the trigger was squeezed. Later, however, the city furnished him with a gun that was in better shape. Mr. Hatch earned the reputation of being a great town marshal because be-cause he always talked to the boys first and helped them whenever he i Miiiiisii-1 ( . 1 A . Ci L FRANK HATCH could rather than issuing a ticket. Perhaps because of his caring attitude, there was very little crime in West Bountiful during the time Franklin was town marshal. He does remember the times around Halloween when the teenagers pulled pul-led pranks like waxing windows, and tipping over outhouses, even while they were in use. One year the kids also put a wagon on top of the school by breaking the wagon down and lifting it up piece by piece to the top of the school where they reassembled it. After his retirement, Mr. Hatch served four years as a West Bountiful Bounti-ful councilman. When Mr. Hatch retired as town marshal after 16 years of service, Darrell Mcllrath became town marshal. He was followed fol-lowed by Leonard "Danny" Treadway. He was replaced by Steve Leishmann who was followed fol-lowed by Irvin "Bud" Layton. When Mr. Layton became public pub-lic works superintendent, West Bountiful contracted with the Davis County Sheriffs Office until the city could find someone who they could certify as a police officer. offic-er. In 1973 Jack D. Hanham, who had served as a police officer in California, was appointed police chief and served for seven years. In June, 1980 Wayne Jeppson was appointed as chief of police. Chief Jeppson has handled incidents ranging from the first West Bountiful Bounti-ful homicide in 1981 to finding lost children and checking out livestock lives-tock complaints. |