Employee Award Winners
Unveiled
in Academy Award-Style Ceremony

By Amy Stanley, Community Relations Intern, Municipal Information
The City’s version of the Hollywood’s Academy Awards show, the
annual Employee Awards Ceremony, was held on Feb. 28 in the Bosque
Theatre, Waco Convention Center.
The ceremony included theme music, a red carpet and special celebrity
appearances by Jessica Simpson and Tony Romo (a.k.a. Kelly Holecek
and Bryan Gray), and Gladys Knight and the Pips (a.k.a Trish Ervin,
Adrian Floyd, Nelson Washington and Steve Nickerson).
Presenter Paris Hilton (a.k.a Crystal Jones) arrived still wearing
her jail suit, along with Joan Rivers (a.k.a. Karen Clark) fresh
from a visit to her plastic surgeon.
Some highlights included the theme song chosen to introduce
City Manager Larry Groth, which referred to him as the candy man,
and a special saxophone performance by Nelson Washington.
Other memorable moments included guest presenter Mayor Virginia
DuPuy and a special performance by Sul Ross Elementary School
students who sang “We Appreciate You” to the nominees. Sul Ross,
is City Hall’s Waco ISD Partner in Education. The real Academy
Awards held on Feb. 24 couldn’t compete with the City of Waco’s
ceremony!
The winners were selected from a pool of 25 nominations involving
more than 250 employees. The nominations were based on the actions
of the city employees during the 2006-07 fiscal year.
This year’s winners are as follows:
Customer Service (less than 75 employees):
Cheryl Creek, Risk Management. Creek was nominated for maintaining
the Employee Health’s extensive case load in spite of the fact
she was the only nurse on duty for one-third of the year. She
saw an average of 34 patients per day and as many as 86 in one
day!
Customer Service (more than 75 employees):
Officer Sofie Martinez, Police Department. Martinez was nominated
for her work coordinating multiple police programs including the
Police Cadets, Police Explorers, National Night Out and Red Ribbon
week.
Teamwork (less than 75 employees):
Finance/Housing/Information Technology Team (Rusty Hill, Vicki Halfmann,
Cindy Lathwood, Johna Walker, Sandra Degrate, and Kathie Morgan).
These employees worked together to modify the H.T.E. Loan Module
for the housing loan program.
When Housing & Community Development Services began offering
their programs in 2000, they were receiving averaging 40 loans
per year.
By 2005, they were now processing 300 loans per year. Because
of loan servicing software and the City’s accounting system were
not compatible, employees were entering the same data twice.
These employees worked together to update the HTE system to resolve
this issue.
Teamwork (more than 75 employees):
Street Services Team 1 (Kenneth Fickel, David Boen, Flavio Perales,
Richard Smith, Thomas Alexander, Roberto Hernandez, George Rivera,
Lou Teakell, Alex Avila, Saul Mendez and Ezequiel Santibanez).
These employees worked together over two months to repair 140
feet of the lined creek bed in Waco Creek at 5900 Franklin Ave.
The damage was caused by the unusually heavy rainfall Waco experienced
in spring of 2007.
Lifetime Achievement:
Charles Ferguson, Utility Services; and Margaret Scott, Public
Health District.
Mayor Virginia DuPuy presented the awards for Lifetime Achievement
to Ferguson and Scott.
Ferguson was nominated for his work overseeing the Lake Waco
pool rise, the new Lake Brazos Dam, and improvement to the Mt.
Carmel water treatment plant. The total cost of these projects
exceeds $80 million.
Scott, was nominated for 34 years of dedicated service to the
Public Health District as the vital statistics registrar. She
has been praised by her peers for her willingness to go above
and beyond to help customers and staff. Congratulations to this
year’s winners!
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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.
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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 4 with polka legends Brave
Combo and the latin-funk ensemble Grupo Fantasma.
Both bands are recognized internationally for their dynamic live
performances. The concerts will continue with a Cinco de Mayo flavor
on Friday, May 2 and the Friday, June 6 show will feature a couple
of Texas music legends.
The concert series concludes on July 4 with a lineup of blues legends
and the H-E-B Fireworks Extravaganza.
The Brazos Nights concerts are free and will begin at 7:30 p.m.
at Indian Spring Park, next to the Suspension Bridge. Concessions
will be available.
For more information and a complete schedule, call 750-5781 or
visit www.waco-texas.com.
City Staff Spotlight
New Employees
The Public Health District welcomes Barnette Hawthorne,
registered nurse.
Street Services welcomes Donald Chasteen, equipment operator.
Finance welcomes Pedro Delgado, accounting technician.
Fleet Services welcomes Lorenzo Garcia, part time service
technician.
Promotions/Transfers
Officer Gary Harrison, Police Department, was promoted to
the rank of Sergeant as of Feb. 3, 2008.
The Waco Fire Department announces the following promotions:
Captain Don Yeager was promoted to Assistant Fire Chief
for the “A” shift as of Feb. 3, 2008.
Captain Christopher Pechacek was promoted to Assistant
Fire Chief for the “B” shift as of Dec. 13, 2007.
Captain Patrick Kerwin was promoted to Assistant Fire Chief
for the “C” shift as of Dec. 11, 2007.
Brian Ross, Parks and Recreation, has transferred to Street
Services as a service provider.
Congratulations
Street Services selected Richard Smith as their employee
of the month for January.
Lunchtime Hike
Stretch your legs and join the Park Rangers for lunch time walks
through Cameron Park from noon to 1 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
The walks start from the Jacob’s Ladder parking lot and last 35-40
minutes, so you can work it into your lunch hour! Call 750-8057
for information.
City Employees Place At Regional
Equipment Rodeo

The Parks and Recreation Department had a strong showing at the
Regional Equipment Rodeo contest held in Austin on Feb. 21 with
three employees advancing to the state contest.
Ralph Rivera (1st mowing; 2nd truck and trailer), Ben Zilka (2nd
truck and trailer), and Shane Meeks (1st nail driving) will travel
to San Angelo on March 27 to compete for the state title. Also placing
at the contest were Jerry Vaughn (3rd backpack blower), Eddie McAdams
(2nd irrigation) and Alfonzo Ramos (2nd irrigation).
Other regional competitors included Kevin Scott (backhoe) and
Aaron Byrd/Nate Moore/Johnathan Scott (tug-of-war) Organized by
the Texas Parks and Recreation Society, the rodeo included skill
events such as mowing, truck and trailer, nail driving, backhoe,
irrigation, backpack blowing and tug-of-war.
The Parks and Recreation Department first held an in-house contest
at the start of February to determine who would compete at the regionals.
This is the second year for Waco to compete in the equipment rodeo.
Kids’ Computer Class
A monthly hands-on computer class for 3rd – 7th graders is held
this semester at the East Waco Library, 901 Elm. This month’s class
will be held on Thursday, March 13 from 4 p.m. to 5 p.m. The topic
is Internet Web sites. Please call 750-5956 to register for this
free activity.
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