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Cache City Council appoints new police chief

CACHE, Okla. – The city of Cache has a new police chief.  John Varva has been working as acting police chief for about a month, but the city council officially appointed Varva at Monday night's meeting.

Varva's hiring comes less than two months after the city fired the former Police Chief Patrick Holloway.  The community says after months of turmoil between city hall and the police department, they hope their city can now move forward.

Varva served as the Cache Police Chief from 2000 to 2008.  He left his position back then to pursue other interests.  But, he is back now and says he wants to do everything he can to keep the Cache community safe.  And the residents 7News spoke with say they want the same thing.

"It's still mixed emotions.  I mean, yeah, they got rid of the old one, but I don't think they got rid of the problem," said Cache resident, Donald Carrow.

"Well, so far it seems like he is doing a good job.  But in situations like this I think time will tell," said Cache resident, Karma Gordon.

These residents say several people in the community had lost confidence in the police department.  That is something Varva says he hopes to change.

"Our goal is just to evaluate all the services that we provide to the community.  Take a look at all of those and see what we can improve, so that we can offer the best services that we can," said Varva.

Varva admits there are challenges that come with running a smaller police department, but he says he will be able to handle them.

"We have to provide the same services that any other larger department would.  It's just a challenge every day, with being a small department, and not having a lot of officers to make sure that we can cover all those things that the community requires from their police department," said Varva.

Varva says he wants the community to know he understands their concerns, but he says he wants them to know he is there to protect them.

"We have an open policy here.  If the community member wants to come in here and discuss anything with me, I am always available to talk to them and listen to the things that they have to say," said Varva.

"My hope for Cache is that it becomes a safer place for everybody to live and the community, nobody has to worry about any problems coming up," said Gordon.

"Cache needs to come together as a community and put a stop to problems that we have here.  I mean it's the people here that have got to do something about it," said Carrow.

Varva says it felt good to be appointed police chief again.  He says he is thankful to serve as the Police Chief of Cache.

The city council also appointed a new city council member.  His name is Joe Brady, and he is filling the seat of former city council member Danny Avra, who resigned in December after news surfaced that he had been convicted of a felony for failing to pay child support back in 1996.  That made him ineligible to serve on the council.