Parks & Recreation News
Tuesday, December 30, 2008TEAMWORK AWARD WINNERS ANNOUNCED
LAWRENCE –Lawrence Parks and Recreation Department held its annual Holiday Luncheon and Teamwork Recognition earlier this month. During the luncheon, the Tom Wilkerson Teamwork Awards were also presented.
The Tom Wilkerson Teamwork Award, established in 1999, has three categories: Category I and II are for an individual or group of employees who exemplify teamwork in both full-time and part-time capacities; the third is given to an outside agency or City department, individual or group who has assisted the department in obtaining success. The Category II award was added in 2004 to recognize part-time employees.
Nominations are taken from employees and then reviewed by a sub-committee of the Employee Satisfaction Committee. Recipients are then announced at the department’s annual holiday luncheon.
Crystal Miles, horticulture manager, John McDonald, Horticulture Division field supervisor, Curt Talken, horticulturist II, and Aaron Bertels, formally with the forestry division; Sharon Leggott, part-time instructor with the Special Populations Division and the Public Works Department, Street Division’s Tom Orzulak, street division manager, and field supervisors: Bryce Campbell, Dave Kraus and Bill Nye and their crews were the Category I, II and III recipients of the award respectively.
Miles, McDonald, Talken and Bertels worked on the department’s first Integrated Pest Management plan, which focuses on reducing the amount of pesticides used in city parks and other areas. Leggot was nominated for her assistance with the special populations programming helping those with disabilities. She also works full-time with the U.S.D. 497 in the Food Services Division. The Public Works, Street Division assisted Park District No. 3 with prepping and regrading the roads within Memorial Park Cemetery before the overlay was applied.
Other nominees included: Category I: the building and aquatics maintenance division consisting of: Lynn Applegate, facilities/aquatics maintenance supervisor; Rick Callahan, field supervisor; Craig Anderson, park and facility maintenance II; Mike Nunez, park and facility maintenance II; James Hopper, park and facility maintenance II; Steve Jacob, park and facility maintenance II and Bill Rogers, park and facility maintenance II. Heath Bowman, horticulturist II, Forestry Division; Rodney Croucher, field supervisor, horticulture division; John Schrum, park and facility maintenance II and Talken for their work on clean up Downtown after the national championship game. Frank Demby, Jr., park and facility maintenance II, District III, for his work and assistance in the cemeteries; Mark Graves, senior forester; McDonald and Miles for conducting a chainsaw safety training session. Jay Johnson, park and facility maintenance II, District 3, for his assistance with the Special Populations Division Integrated Spring Break Camp. Applegate, Paula Craig, administrative support III, Administrative Office; Jimmy Gibbs, aquatics manager; John Gress, facilities maintenance supervisor and Tim Laurent, facilities operations supervisor, for their work on overseeing, organizing, implementing and devising methods to make corrections and updated procedures in all Parks and Recreation facilities for the Kansas Department of Labor inspections. June Morton, administrative support III, Recreation Instruction Division, for here assistance with the Special Events Division’s programs and the support she provides in the Recreation Instruction Division.
Category II: nominees included: Nicole Heck, part-time fitness instructor for the Recreation Division; Brendon Kenney, instructor/lifeguard with the Aquatics Division.
Category III: The Breakfast Optimist Club for their support of youth programming offered through Parks and Recreation; the Green Yards and Community Coalition Group consisting of: Judy Billings, Lyn Chance, Chris Durflinger, Trent Flory, Cassandra Ford, Paul Groundwater, Mike Horiman, Mike Lang, Frank Male, Miles, Patricia Ogle, Ann Peuser, Bob Rhoton, Kathy Richardson, Jennifer Smith and Andrea Zuercher for their development of a brochure and web-based certification program for citizen education on water runoff. The Lawrence Douglas County Fire and Medical Department and their assistance in lifeguard training. Patrick Manning and McDonald’s of Lawrence for their support of Parks and Recreation programming. Robin Robertson, computer programmer with Information Systems Department, for assisting with reports to be used in the new evaluation process the city was using.
The Teamwork Award was renamed in 2002 to honor Tom Wilkerson who served as assistant director of the department until his retirement in October 2002.
Prepared by Roger Steinbrock, 785-832-3458
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