14 Alexander employees receive awards at annual dinner

CORRECTION: Fire Department Captain Braden Hawkins's first name has been corrected to Robert.

At the Third Annual City of Alexander Mayor’s Awards Dinner 14 employees were either recognized for their work ethic during the past year or were publicly recognized for being promoted to a higher rank. Awards were handed out to staff of the fire, police and streets/park departments along with one member of the city hall staff and the mayor’s Employee of the Year award. The awards dinner was held Friday, October 5 at the First Baptist Church in Alexander.

Mayor Paul Mitchell

“[I] want to to tell each and every one of the city employees how much I appreciate each and everything that you do for the citizens of Alexander and the city,” Mayor Paul Mitchell said during his opening comments. “In the last three years and ten months we’ve come a long way and the credit goes to the employees that work here, that carry it out, myself and the council members that supply the needed funds to do what we need to do.”

One major change Mitchell noted is the retention of police officers. During this past year the city council has been able to add benefits including health insurance, dental, vision, and a retirement plan for all city employees. Mitchell said now instead of individuals joining the Alexander Police Department, getting their state training and experience, then moving on to a better situation in another city they are wanting to come here already trained.

“It (benefits) makes it a lot easier on our department heads to hire professional people,” he said.

Fire Department Awards

In his opening remarks Fire Chief Mark “Gator” Ridgeway, commenting on the city as a whole, said after being with the department for 12 years and through, “Several mayors and police chiefs this is the best crew we’ve had in a long time.” He continued by saying, “You can tell by the employees we have now and what’s being done in the city.”

Ridgeway then asked all of the firefighters present to come to the front of the hall. With the nine that were present plus the two firefighters who weren’t at the dinner, “We have 109 years of experience,” Ridgeway said.

“I’m very proud of who I have and the guys working for me,” he continued. “This is the first time in the history of the City of Alexander we have all of the firefighters that are employed by the city and the volunteers,” except one volunteer, “that are firefighter one and two.”

The first award was a 
certificate recognizing 
Firefighter John Acosta 
as the “Selfie King.” 
Ridgeway said he is also 
a recent graduate of the 
Arkansas Fire Academy.

Next, Firefighter Brad 
Noblett was presented 
with a certificate in 
recognition of his 
promotion to captain. Friend
Ridgeway said Noblett

has been with the department on the payroll since 2015 and was a cadet at the time.

“Plus he’s my stepson, son,” 
Ridgeway added. “He’s 
graduated rookie school 
this year, driver ops. 
Done everything 
we’ve asked him to 
do, and some we haven’t.”

Captain Braden Robert Hawkins received a certificate in recognition of his, “Valuable contributions” and “Dedication.” Ridgeway said 
he started with the department in 2010.

“The year I was gone in ‘14 he left right after me,” Ridgeway said. “When I come [sic] back he wanted to come back.”

Hawkins was promoted to the rank of captain in 2017.

Next up was Firefighter 
Jeffery Caple. He was 
also recognized with a 
certificate for his, 
“Valuable contributions” 
and “Dedication” to the 
Alexander Fire Department. 
He’s been with the department 
for three years.

Firefighter Jody Rounsaville 
was selected as Firefighter of 
the Year. Reading from the 
certificate Ridgeway said, 
“In recognition of your 
outstanding service in the 
Alexander Fire Department, 
Firefighter of the Year.”

“We’ve got a good group,” 
Ridgeway said. “They do a 
tremendous job day and 
night. We work 24 hours on, 48 hours off.”

Ridgeway then presented 
Mayor Mitchell with a 
Bass Pro gift card. “I want 
to thank you for your 
cooperation and support 
of the fire department and 
the city.”

After receiving the gift card Mitchell commented on Ridgeway’s recent achievement of getting the fire department’s ISO rating down to a two.

“That lowers your homeowner’s insurance for fire protection,” Mitchell said. “He’s actually working on trying to get down to that one.”

The nearest city rated ISO-1 is Little Rock.

Police Department Awards

Assistant Police Chief Richard Harper had the assignment of announcing the names of the recipients of two department awards; one a Service Commendation for Supervisor of the Year and, the other, Police Department Employee of the Year. Presenting the awards to the recipients was Police Chief Robert Burnett.

“First I'd like to thank all the family members and citizens that come out to support our police officers every day,” Harper said. “This police work is a low-paying job and kind of a dream that we all chase that wouldn't be possible without the family members supporting us.”

Harper said he and Chief Burnett had a difficult time selecting, “Employee of the Year.” There were many potential candidates.

“All of our officers did some amazing things that most of the citizens don't know about and some of their families probably don't know about,” Harper said. He then gave some examples.

“I watched officer Cain Maxheimer pull a woman out of a vehicle that was on fire and then (the vehicle) became fully engulfed after that,” Harper explained. “I watched him drag her across a field and start first aid.”

In relaying another instance Harper said, “I know that officer Wharton lifted a motorcycle wreck off a man and applied a tourniquet to his leg in an effort to save his life and he got a complaint for his trouble on that.”

“And in (an) odd twist of fate,” Harper continued, “He (Wharton) was at the fire department performing CPR trying to save another man's life when that same guy complained on [sic] him.” “But he's out there fighting the good fight.”

Citing another example Harper said, “Officer Hill has worked as many as three sexual assault cases at once, and one of them had three separate victims.” “That puts a lot of stress and strain on someone.”

“I know sergeant McKeever, I can't, I couldn't count up how many fugitives burglars and otherwise bad guys that we've had him sit up on,” Harper explained. “He's patiently waited for, stopped and arrested, and put in jail, on all of our warrants that we've ... got [sic].”

Recognizing the auxiliary officers Harper said, “I don't want to leave out our auxiliary officers that worked more than a thousand hours this year so that we can send our full-time officers to school. So that we can let our full-time officers be home with their family more. So, I appreciate that.”

Explaining the criteria for selecting “Supervisor of the Year” Harper said, “You couldn't look at just what amazing things they did. You had to look at and see who did the most for their fellow officer, who did the most for the community, who did the most to build the department up.”

"Sergeant Nicholas Johnson 
has become like the backbone 
of our police department," Harper continued. "He manages the code enforcement and yet 
he still has time to lend his valuable experience and advice to each and every one of us at the police department. I can't think of one officer in the department that he hasn't sat down with and helped with a personal or professional problem. For that reason he's our Supervisor of the Year."

“Rob (Chief Burnett) runs the police department but Nick is one of those people that makes the police department run,” Harper said. “So thank you for me, (you) make my job a lot easier.”

Moving on to the next award Assistant Police Chief Richard Harper said, “We have another officer that's done some great things for our citizens, but moreover he's done great things for his fellow officers. Every single officer, including myself and Rob (Chief Burnett), has approached this young man and asked him to cover a shift, or cover something for us, so we could either go to a school or be at home with our families. And, he's always been there for us. He's made himself invaluable to this police department.”

“Right now he's in the police academy and ... I'm having to tell him to say no to people because he's coming in and covering weekends for people,” Harper continued.

With a rousing round of applause from the audience Assistant Chief Harper introduced Officer Nick Salyers as, “Officer of the Year.” As noted under the photo the plaque says “Employee of the Year.”

The next two awards were on the personal level for Harper. “Lastly,” he said, “I just want to talk about officer stress. The stress that all the officers go through and any policeman will tell you that the stress they go through on the street is ever constant and it's hard, but it's not the most difficult stress that police officers deal with. The most difficult stress they deal with is the peer pressure from other officers, or the pressure from higher up, from their superiors.”

“I've been a police officer for 21 years,” Harper continued. “I've seen that stress take more lives than the other kind of stress. And, in that time I've worked for four mayors and eight police chiefs and I can tell you that I have never, I've never worked for anyone as supportive as these two men (Chief Burnett and Mayor Mitchell).”

“Not long ago I started at this police department,” Harper continued. “I worked for six months and was unexpectedly and involuntarily deployed to the East Africa. That one year turned into 14 or 15 months. That whole time I knew that my job was secure and that I was appreciated.”

In explaining the two matching wooden cases to Burnett and Mitchell Harper said, “These flags were flown over Camp Lomonnier in East Africa in support of several combat missions against a lot of really bad people. So, thank you for making sure that my family was safe and secure back here, while I was over there.”

“We can't do, as a city, the things that we need ... done without the support of JoAn Churchill and our

office employees,” Mayor Paul Mitchell said before moving on to presenting the Employee of the Year award. “They attend to all the day-to-day parts of work (to) make sure we have the funding to do what we need to do; to get all our bills paid, make sure that we can continue doing what we're doing. So, the office personnel is paramount in what we're able to do. So, we've got good talented people doing those jobs and I'd like to give JoAn a thumbs up for everything she does for the city and taxpayers of Alexander each and every day.”

The approximate 75 employees and family members attending the awards dinner gave her a round of applause.

Employee of the Year

Moving on to the Employee of the Year award Mitchell said, “I had some discussions with some of the department heads and who should receive that honor this year and I'd like to ask David Durham,” … to “Come on up.”

Durham is the superintendent of the Alexander Streets and Parks Department.

“We tried to keep it a secret,” Mitchell said. “I don't know if it worked or not.”

“It worked,” Durham replied.

Durham was hired about two years ago. He previously worked for the Saline County Highway Department.

“This man here has done wonders for our city,” Mitchell said. He began listing some of those improvements starting with the city park.

“He's helped carry that (park improvements) out,” Mitchell said. “(Durham) rented equipment, ... buried water lines, done all kinds of menial work.”

“He works with a small crew,” Mitchell continued. “Our street department, if you can really call it a street department three years ago it's really non-existent. When I was mayor and I come [sic] in we had two weed eaters and one running lawn mower. And, that was cutting all the grass throughout the city to parks.”

“David came in, saw the needs, assessed what we had, what we needed,” Mitchell said. “We have several weed eaters now, blowers and we've got [sic] three ... zero-turn (mowers). We've gotten a track hoe, we've gotten bigger larger tractor, with what they call a bat-wing mower; which is a bush hog that folds up on each end … street sweeper (and) dump truck”

“David has been locating this equipment that we need to be able to do the work that we need to be doing,” Mitchell continued.

On the day of the awards dinner, Friday October 5, the street department purchased a bucket truck, sometimes known as a cheery picker, from Federal Surplus.

“That's going to enable us to be able to get up in the trees and cut dead limbs that’s hanging over city

streets,” Mitchell explaining the potential uses of the bucket truck. “We certainly don't want things like that breaking off and going through somebody's windshield.”

Mitchell also mentioned the ability to hang Christmas decorations. “There's never been any here all the years I lived here.”

Mitchell emphasized now that the city has the equipment it needs there will be less jobs that, in the past, would have been contracted out. “It’s going to save us money,” he said.

“We all agreed that he was ... Employee of the Year, this year, for the City of Alexander because we have an actual working street department,” Mitchell said. “He's built it and he's still building and still working on it, there's more to come.”

Reading from the plaque Mitchell said, “Employee of the Year, Presented by Mayor Paul Mitchell, Awarded to David Durham, This fifth day of October, 2018.”

“Thank you David for everything you do,” he added.

“Thank you all very much,” Durham said. “I couldn't do what I do without a great city council. And, I really couldn't get accomplished what I do without my guys.”

“I've got four of us now,” he continued. “Two new guys that are working out pretty good, and I've got one guy that's kind of my right hand.”

Durham then proceeded to give special recognition to a long-time member of the street department. He asked Rod Chapman to come to the front.

Letter of Recognition

“I just wanted to give Rod just a little Letter of Recognition of appreciation of the job that he does for us in the city and the park,” Durham said. “He does a lot more. He's constantly watching. He sees stuff that nobody knows about. He stops in his own personal time and he'll pull limbs out of the road, pull a dog out of the road or what have you. Rod never hesitates to do it and I appreciate all he does for me and all he does for the city.”

The city council recently agreed to establish an employee position for the parks department. Chapman was allowed to transfer from the street department to parks. Until now the street department staff were the only ones available to maintain the park requiring them to track their time between streets and parks. With a dedicated park employee that will be less of a problem.

Award of Excellence

There was one more award to present. Although the person was not present City Hall Office Manager JoAn Churchill was asked by the mayor to proceed with the presentation.

“This is probably the last time you'll see me up here, Lord willing, I plan to retire one of these days,” Churchill said before proceeding with the award. “But I'll tell you what; these firemen, these policemen, these people in the office are like my own children and I love every one of you and I'm proud of every one of you. I've never worked with finer people and that includes the mayor.”

“My office staff,” she began. “There's two women, ... they do a great job. Jackie does accounts payable and she's an administrative assistant. Jaime (Myles) is our court clerk and she's the object of our,” presentation this evening.

“She's balanced the court accounts,” Churchill said in explaining the purpose of the award. “I believe, if I'm not mistaken, it’s the first time in history that it's been done.”

“When I came (here) five years ago the girls in the office told me that the bank account alone had, for the court, had not been looked at for six years and there's no way that that's ever gonna balance,” she continued. “But she did it.”

The plaque states, “City of Alexander, Award of Excellence, Presented by Joan [sic] Churchill, Awarded to Jaime Myles, This 5^th Day October 2018.” Included with the plaque is a copy of a letter from Virtual Justice.

The city uses their software to process court cases and track fine payments. Churchill stated that Virtual Justice, “Monitors everything she does.”

One of the results of Myles balancing the court accounts is the payment of overdue fines. The fine payments are divided between the police department, the general fund and the court fund; with the bulk going to the police department. That additional revenue has been useful in funding necessary improvements to the department.

Another copy of the letter will be sent to Arkansas Legislative Audit. The state annually audits the bookkeeping procedures of both municipal and county governmental bodies.

Churchill said the letter explains, “What she did, and it was an amazing accomplishment.”

“One of the things that I want to do before I leave is to have a good pure audit so that our report at the end of the year is what this community deserves,” Churchill said. “Every one of you are good at what you do and it's been an honor to work with everyone.”

The dinner was catered by Jordan’s Bar-B-Q and Catfish Catering. The menu consisted of chicken, catfish, fries, hush puppies, slaw, fried pies, and ice cream. Everyone went home stuffed.