COMMUNITY

Ruidoso village employees celebrated

Ruidoso Councilor Susan Lutterman, center, received an award for her volunteer work with Keep Ruidoso Beautiful from David Tetreault of Parks and Recreation and KRB committee chairman Reyna Flores. In back is Mayor Lynn Crawford.

In a quarterly recognition of outstanding employees, five individuals and one department were given awards during the Ruidoso Village Council meeting last week.

Councilor Susan Lutterman also received special recognition as “Keep Ruidoso Beautiful Events Volunteer.”

Lutterman served as chairman of the KRB committee for years and she is a former Ruidoso Municipal School Board member and chairman.

The first employee selected was Elaine Reynolds, named Administrative Employee of the Quarter. Village Manager Debi Lee, suffering the lingering effects of a cold, turned the awards over to department directors to hand out.

Reynolds, who works in the purchasing department, began work for the village in 2001, and is currently the Office Manager for the Ruidoso Fire Department. She always has a smile for everyone in any situation, Fire Chief Cody Thetford said.

Ruidoso Fire Chief Cody Thetford gave Elaine Reynolds her award as administrative employee of the quarter.

“She does so much, not just for our department but other village departments and the community,” he said.

“She is about all about customer service. She tries so hard to make sure she fixes a problem or gets you to the right place at the right time, whether it is a 911 issue or a simple call trying to contact someone in the village. She goes above and beyond to make sure she takes care of it, and she makes sure our people get what they need.”

Josh Long in the village street department received the public works award. He was hired in 2008, starting as a maintenance worker. He was promoted to a truck driver and heavy equipment operator and then to street foreman. Recently, Long was promoted to a supervisor position in the department and is the safety representative for the department.

Josh Long, at right, received the public works award from Street Department director Fred Payton and Village Manager Debi Lee.

“He does an excellent job interacting with the public and informing them of projects that will impact their property," said Department Director Fred Payton.

“He’s the main man and reason our hot plant has become a reliable piece of equipment. He gets out early in the morning in inclement weather to assess what we need to do.”

Mayor Lynn Crawford said the street crews “were really tested when we got that big snow” after Christmas.

“These are guys who often don’t get recognized because they are out at 2 a.m. or 3 a.m. shoveling that snow,” Lee added.

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Rex Hardin, who has received the public works award previously, also was recognized for “going the extra mile.”

General Services Director Jeff Kaplan said Hardin was hired in the Solid Waste Department in 2016 and immediately received praise from residents and businesses on his route.

General Services director Jeff Kaplan, left, couldn't stop praising Rex Hardin's excellence.

“When he was hired, I was impressed with his background and concerned why he would move to Ruidoso after working for (a company) in Texas and leave the big city,” Kaplan said. “He came to us as janitor at the school board and then applied at the village. His traditional work-oriented values reminded me of myself and how I wound up in Ruidoso.

“Rex typifies the rare individual who specializes in what he knows and not a claim to fame for who he knows. Rex gets the job done. He looked at his job description and realized it was a contract between him and his employer. In my 45 years of local government throughout the country, I have never an employee who skyrocketed to the level of (Hardin) in such a short time.”

MORE:Village employees of the quarter honored

Ruidoso dispatchers were honored bor the quarter by Village Manager Debi Lee, at left, and Police Chief Darren Hooker, at right.

The Public Safety Award went to the emergency dispatch crew, composed of Katy Simpson, Kelly Bullion, Kate Eisenberg, Victoria Hernandez-Acker, Debra Neal, Ty Marshall, Aaron Quintana and Miriam Alvillar-Garcia.

“These dispatchers go so far above and beyond promoting the Village in all situations including snow storms, fires, tourist traffic,” said Police Chief Darren Hooker. “These individuals answer the phone 24 hours, seven days a week and provide information representing the village to a large volume of callers. When they are overloaded with information or callers, they always manage to be professional and provide information. They are the foundation that support the public safety professionals in this community.”

Eric Annala received the Community Services Award.

Annala began his career in the Forestry Department in 2006, and has grown up with fuels management in the village, said department director Dick Cooke said.

“He has earned the reputation of being an ambassador for the department as he spends a lot of time educating landowners about the need for managing vegetation for fuels management for forest health," Cooke said.

Eric Annala, center, received his award from forestry director Dick Cooke and Village Manager Debi Lee.

Annala is called the “smoozer” by the staff, because of his people skills and ability to mitigate adversarial situations with landowners, especially when the program began and there was a lot of hostility between landowners and the crew, Cooke said.

Lee introduced the Water Distribution/Sewer Collection as department of the quarter.

“These are the guys who are out at 2 a.m. and 12 degrees in the water any time there is  a water leak or a pressure reduction valve has blown, so they are a great group of guys," said Deputy Manager Ron Sena.

Sena said the crew also ensure that fire hydrants are working and during the snow event, assisted the street department clearing parking lots.

“They are great at the repairs that they are called out to do in all types of weather. Rain, shine, snow, heat of the day, weekends, holidays and in the middle of the night when the Village is asleep, this department is out making sure water and sewer is flowing for the Village residents.

The stellar crew of water distribution and /sewer collection was recognized as the department of the quarter.

“This entire department is always just a phone call away. They assist the Fire Department in all structure fires to ensure that the village hydrants are being used efficiently and they are in good working order. They have stayed after fires to help haul thousands of feet of hose back to the station for cleaning and have also gotten the water tender to the calls. They are a great department.”

Distribution director Adam Sanchez introduced each department employee and said, “some of the things these guy do without even thinking when they’re out in the freezing cold.”

Earlier in the meeting, former fire chief Harlan Vincent with the Lincoln County Republican Party, honored Ruidoso first responders with a certificate of appreciation for their dedication to the protection of the village.

Crawford said he was “humbled” as mayor that the village has the “best firefighters in the world.”