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March 5, 2009 Issue

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Awards Ceremony Celebrates
Outstanding Employees

One of the more comical moments was when Paris Hilton (Crystal Jones) and Britney Spears (Kelly Holecek) appeared as presenters with Chief Brent Stroman serving as their probation officer.


While Hollywood stars walked the red carpet in style on Feb. 22 for the Academy Awards, City of Waco employees had their own recognition ceremony on Feb. 26 complete with celebrity appearances.

Some of the big names attending the Employee Awards ceremony included look-a-like hosts of TV shows such as “The View,” “American Idol,” and contestants from “Dancing with the Stars.”

A total of six awards were presented in the areas of teamwork, customer service, community service and lifetime achievement.

This year’s winners are as follows:

Customer Service (more than 75 employees): Officer Steven Dieterich, Waco Police Department.

Officer Dieterich was nominated for implementing the “Tippin Ain’t Snitchin” campaign in his role as the director of Waco Crime Stoppers. The campaign has received national attention through Crime Stoppers USA.

Customer Service (less than 75 employees): Teri Holtkamp, Housing & Community Development.

Holtkamp is the Homelessness Administrator for the City of Waco. She has also been referred to as “Waco’s angel for the homeless.”

Holtkamp has been overseeing the implementation of Waco’s 10-year plan to end chronic homelessness. She received the Kathy Reid award from the Texas Homeless Network in September of 2008 in recognition of her efforts.

Teamwork (more than 75 employees): David Dokupil, Larry Blare, Jeremy Hendrick, all of Traffic Services; and John Branch, Information Technology.

They worked together to replace expensive hard wire cable interconnecting the city’s traffic signals with inexpensive radio units at each signal controller.

Teamwork (more than 75 employees): Mark Randolph, Scott Mattlage and Troy Shaw, all of Municipal Information.

They were nominated for their work to keep the analog channel for WCCC-TV in operation while shooting, operating and editing new programs for the HD channel, which was launched in December. WCCC has been recognized by the National Cable Access Guild as one of the top government channels in the nation.

Community Service: Nora Schell, Water Utilities.

Schell continues to encourage community leaders and organization to learn and do more for the environment in her role as program coordinator at the Lake Waco Wetlands. She worked with Baylor University and its Center for Reservoir and Aquatic Sciences Center in applying for a six-year grant to enhance Waco Independent School District students’ science and math skills through educational programs at the wetlands. She is also working with Baylor faculty to develop a summer camp at the wetlands for inner-city youth with hands-on activities.

Lifetime Achievement: Joe Mayfield, City Manager’s Office.

Mayfield retired as Assistant City Manager on Jan. 31, 2009. During his 35-year career with the City of Waco, he was involved in a number of massive construction programs including downtown projects funding by TIF funds, capital improvement projects, and the highly successful program during the 1980s to improve Waco streets.

His expertise in engineering was enhanced by his strong ethics, sincere honesty and ability to work with others. Mayor Virginia DuPuy presented the Lifetime Achievement Award to Mayfield during the awards ceremony.

To begin the ceremony, the nominees were serenaded with a song performed by students from Sul Ross Elementary School, City Hall’s school partner in the Partner in Education program.

Some of the highlights of the ceremony included an appearance by Britney Spears (Kelly Holecek) and Paris Hilton (Crystal Jones). Police Chief Brent Stroman played the role of Britney’s probation officer, and Paris presented City Manager Larry Groth with a T-shirt proclaiming him as her new best friend.

The staff from Human Resources were joined by Gaynell Benson of Purchasing in a skit portraying the hosts from the TV show “The View.” Their hot topic of discussion was the delay in renovations of the HR offices.

In other celebrity appearances, Esmeralda Hudson and Jeff Wall played the roles of Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell from the TV show “American Idol”; City Secretary Patricia Ervin, City Attorney Leah Hayes, and Assistant City Manager George Johnson, Jr. appeared as contestants from “Dancing with the Stars”; and Liz Taylor, Mandy Spikes and Sandy Lane, all from the Waco Convention & Visitors Bureau posed as the Best Actress nominees from this year’s Academy Awards.

Just like the Academy Awards, all of the winners gave acceptance speeches, thanking their fellow co-workers and adding a little humor here and there.

One of the most memorable moments was when the guys from WCCC-TV were announced as winners and had to leave their cameras behind. They pointed out they have final editing power to determine what will appear in the final program, which will air on WCCC next week. Congratulations to this year’s winners!

If you'd like to submit information for the City Talk Newsletter, you can send an email to: marlenen@ci.waco.tx.us
or call 750-5638.


New Employee Orientation
for February

Front Row: Gwen Parks, Public Health District; and Cammie Abbott, Engineering Services.

Second Row: Jeffrey Burgers, Solid Waste Services; Randell Reed, Solid Waste Services; and Juan Lopez, Inspections Services.

Back Row: Margarito Perez, Solid Waste Services; William Calcote, Public Health District; and Justin Branch, Cameron Park Zoo.

Front Row: Valerie Ross, Cameron Park Zoo; and Judith Feliciano, Police Department.

Second Row: David McAdams, Water Utility Services; Tim Schmidt, Water Utility Services; and John Fredrich, Solid Waste Services.

Third Row: Jason Holder, Water Utility Services; Stan Price, Water Utility Services; Harold Holmes, Cameron Park Zoo; and Eddie Crosby, Solid Waste Services.

Fourth Row: Bryan Hamrick, Solid Waste Services; and Andrew Pustejovsky, Facilities.

Spring Break Round Up

Wrangle your kids’ restless spirits and bring them to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum for Spring Break Round Up, part of the museum’s 40th anniversary celebration. The event will be held March 9-13 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day at the Texas Ranger Museum at the corner of University Parks Drive and I-35.

Your children will be entertained with daily crafts and activities while they learn about legendary Texas lawmen. This is a come and go all-day event with activities for elementary school-age children. An adult must accompany children.

Some of the activities include Old West Laser Target Game, Fingerprinting, Coloring Contest and Bandana Making. For more information, call the museum staff at 750-8631 or visit www.texasranger.org.

Spring Break Magic

Waco’s own Magic Man, Todd McKinney, will be featured at all four Waco-McLennan County Libraries during the week of Spring Break. See the schedule for the free programs below.

  • Tuesday, March 10 – East Waco Library, 901 Elm, at 10:30 a.m.
  • Wednesday, March 11 – Hoover Library, 1428 Wooded Acres, at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
  • Thursday, March 12 – Central Library, 1717 Austin, at 10:30 a.m.
  • Friday, March 13 – South Waco Library, 2737 S. 18th, at 10:30 a.m. For more information, call 750-5942.

City Staff Spotlight

Promotions/ Transfers

Scott Jukes, Water Utility Services, has transferred to Engineering Services as an inspector. Jukes is certified by the TCEQ as a Class C Water Distribution operator.

Retirement

Charles Williams, Engineering Services, has retired after 24 years and 6 months of service with the City of Waco.

Congratulations

Street Services selected Dennis Cook, Sr. as their employee of the month for December, and Brian Ross as their employee of the month for January.

Employee Race for the Cure Team

All City of Waco employees, their families and their friends are invited to join the City of Waco’s team for this year’s Komen Race for the Cure. This year’s race will be held Saturday, April 18 at Indian Spring Park.

Team members can choose to participate in the one mile or 5K run/walk, support their team members the day of the race, and/or make a donation to the cause.

The Komen Race for the Cure© raises significant funds and awareness for the fight to end breast cancer, celebrates breast cancer survivors, and honors those who have lost their battle with the disease.

Up to 75 percent of the net Race income stays in our community to fund breast health education, breast cancer screening and treatment projects. To register, go to www.komencentraltexas.org and join the City of Waco team. The first 10 people to contact the team captain will be given a discount code for free registration.

For more information, contact our Team Captain Crystal Smedley at 750-5481 or CrystalS@ci.waco.tx.us.

The good times and great music return to downtown starting in April at the City of Waco’s Brazos Nights concert series. The first free concert of the year will be Friday, April 3 featuring Texas artists Stoney Larue, Hayes Carll and Modern Day Drifters.

Stoney LaRue is one of the most popular singers in Texas. Playing close to 300 dates a year, he has headlined top festivals across the state and played at venues around the world. His music combines the rootsy, emotionally honest sound of country with the swagger of heartland rock and a dash of the moody undercurrents of the blues.

With the release of his 2008 album Trouble in Mind, Hayes Carll has received praise from the likes of SPIN, New York Times and Washington Post, and the Americana Music Association awarded him with the Song of the Year honors. Mixing folk, country, rock and great song-writing, Hayes Carll is now selling out clubs across the nation.

Modern Day Drifters is one of Waco’s most promising bands. The band’s music stems from the roots of soul and southern rock to the front porch of the country. The band was recently nominated for Gruene with Envy’s Texas New Artist of the Year.

Upcoming Brazos Nights concerts will include:

  • May 1: Cinco de Mayo Celebration with a performance from Waco’s blues trio Pride & Joy and music from La Ley 104.1 FM
  • June 5: Great Texas Blues and Soul with Ruthie Foster and Ray Wylie Hubbard
  • July 4: Fourth on the Brazos with the Fab 5, T-Bird and the Breaks, Waco Community Band and H-E-B Fireworks Extravaganza

Along with live music, Brazos Nights includes food and drink concessions, children’s arts and games and scenic views from the Suspension Bridge. The concerts, which begin in 1987, are organized by the City of Waco Parks and Recreation Department and supported by community businesses.

For information and a complete schedule, visit www.brazosnightswaco.com.

Lake Waco Cleanup Day

Keep Waco Beautiful, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the City of Waco are sponsoring the Lake Waco Environmental Cleanup Day on Saturday, April 4 from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. as part of Keep America Beautiful’s Great American Cleanup.

Volunteers should bring gloves and wear long pants and closed toe shoes. A hot dog lunch will be served at the pavilion following the cleanup. For more information, contact Keep Waco Beautiful at 750-5728.

Spring Break Camps

South Waco, Bledsoe-Miller, and Dewey recreation centers will offer Spring Break camps for kids ages 5 to 13 from 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. on March 9–13. Children will participate in various activities including recreational games and crafts.

Snacks will be provided, but campers must bring their own lunch. The registration fee is $40 per child. For more information or to register, contact the recreation centers at South Waco 750-8650, Bledsoe-Miller 750-8684, and Dewey 750-8677.

Easter Egg Hunts

The City of Waco Parks and Recreation Department will host three Easter egg hunts this April at neighborhood recreation centers

  • . April 4: Bledsoe-Miller, 300 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
  • April 11: South Waco, 2815 Speight, 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m.
  • April 11: Dewey, 925 N. Ninth St., 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.

For information, contact the City of Waco Parks and Recreation Department at 750-5980.

Beasts ‘N Blooms

Come get a jump on spring and attend the 5th Annual Beasts ‘N Blooms & Earth Day Too! Festival April 18 and 19. The hours are Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Admission is included with the Zoo’s regular admission rates which are $7 Adults (13+); $6 Seniors (60+); $5 Children (4-12 years) and free admission for children 3 and under.

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