The current pandemic forced Whitfield County to change the way it honored its employees this year. Teamwork was the name of the game Wednesday morning as Whitfield County staff joined forces with the Oakwood Café to operate like a well-oiled machine, providing hundreds of boxed lunches of turkey and dressing with all the fixings that were picked up by representatives from each department outside the Mack Gaston Community Center and then taken back to each office.
photo by Mitch Talley
Commissioner Harold Brooker (left) presents a plaque of appreciation to Gary Brown, Buildings & Grounds director, who recently retired after 35 years of service to Whitfield County.
photo by Mitch Talley
Clerk of Superior Court Melica Kendrick (left) was honored during the 2020 Employee Recognition Luncheon for 30 years of service to the county. She is retiring at the end of the year and received a plaque from Commission Chairman Lynn Laughter.
photo by Mitch Talley
Outgoing Commissioner Harold Brooker (left) accepts a plaque from Commissioner Barry Robbins recognizing his service to Whitfield County that dates back nearly half a century. In all, Comm. Brooker has served as a commissioner for 24 years, beginning in 1971.
photo by Mitch Talley
Commission Chairman Lynn Laughter, who will be ending two terms on the board at the end of 2020, receives a plaque from Commissioner Greg Jones, in appreciation of her eight years of service to Whitfield County.
photo by Mitch Talley
Maria Pack, a crime scene technician with the Sheriff’s Office, was named Whitfield County Employee of the Year during the 2020 Employee Recognition Luncheon, held virtually on Dec. 9 with the use of the teleconferencing software Zoom.
photo by Valeria Molina
As fellow Commissioners Barry Robbins (from left), Greg Jones and Harold Brooker look on, Chairman Lynn Laughter reads from a plaque of appreciation to be presented to the family of Commissioner Roger Crossen, who passed away Nov. 17.
photo by Mitch Talley
How do you safely honor hundreds of dedicated employees in the midst of a pandemic? In Whitfield County’s case, the answer proved to be a good ol’ dose of perseverance, washed down with a spoonful of high-tech ingenuity.
Normally held at Edwards Park Community Center, the 2020 Whitfield County Employee Recognition Luncheon used Zoom – the popular videoconferencing app that connects others face-to-face virtually – to bring workers together electronically from the various departments around the county.
“This will be my last Christmas luncheon with the county,” outgoing Commission Chairman Lynn Laughter said during the Dec. 9 program, “and it has been an absolute honor serving with you employees of Whitfield County. As I’ve said many times, I think we have the best employees that I’ve ever worked with anywhere, so thank you all so much for all you do for the county and I trust that you will keep everything going when I’m gone.”
This year’s group of retirees was among the many employees honored, representing a whopping total of 317 years of service to the county, led by Russell Wilson’s 40 years with the Fire Department, Gary Brown’s 35 years with Buildings & Grounds, Danny Headrick’s 35 years with the Sheriff’s Office, Brenda Hoffmeyer’s 34 years with the District Attorney’s Office, Timothy Suits’ 30 years with the Fire Department, and Melica Kendrick’s 30 years with the Clerk of Superior Court.
Other retirees honored during the luncheon were Wayne Mathis, 27 years with the Sheriff’s Office; Dwayne Tinsley, 21 years with Public Works; Rebecca Vance, 21 years with the Tax Commissioner’s Office; Betty Alton, 21 years with Clerk of Superior Court; Linda Montieth, 13 years with Clerk of Superior Court; and Sharon Chambers, 10 years with the Tax Commissioner’s Office.
That 317 years of county service rises to 349 years with the addition of Commissioners Laughter (eight years) and Harold Brooker (24 years), who received plaques in appreciation of their service.
“It’s been a pleasure, my pleasure, to work with the county,” Mr. Brooker said. “I remember in ’71 when I came on, the budget was $4 million. We were in debt in March, had to borrow money, and I said when I was in office that I would try my best to get us in the black, and we did. I also kept my promise to get everybody out of the dust (and get all the county roads paved).”
A prominent presence at the meeting, despite his recent passing from COVID-19, was Commissioner Roger Crossen, who was remembered for his many years of dedicated service to the residents of Whitfield County, first as recreation director and then as commissioner.
Comm. Laughter read the words engraved on a plaque of appreciation to be presented to Comm. Crossen’s family: “The Board of Commissioners and the staff of Whitfield County express our deepest appreciation for Roger Crossen’s lifelong dedication to improving the quality of life for all of the county’s citizens. We are grateful for Roger’s years of dedicated service to Whitfield County, both as the director of the recreation department and later as an invaluable member of the Board of Commissioners. Roger’s unabiding optimism, dedicated preparation, and constant good humor defined his lifetime of service. His legacy will live on through generations of youth that he unselfishly mentored for over 35 years. On behalf of a grateful county, this recognition is presented on this ninth day of December, 2020. He embodied the best of us.”
The county also honored Maria Pack as Employee of the Year for her outstanding work at the Sheriff’s Office.
A graduate of Murray County High School, Ms. Pack came to the Sheriff’s Office in 2004 , where she began her career in the correctional center as an admin tech. She has since served as a detention officer, immigration detention officer, and her current position as crime scene technician with the Criminal Investigations Division, where she processes crime scenes and maintains the property and evidence section at the Sheriff’s Office.
Ms. Pack was cited for mastering her duties and working to help others in her unit to do the same.
“She has been tasked with all types of jobs and extra duties, yet never complains,” Comm. Laughter read while announcing Ms. Pack’s selection. “She also assists detectives with search warrants and the patrol division with calls for service. She is always quick to volunteer her expertise and her assistance. She always completes her work quickly and efficiently and normally has the work done before her supervisors have to ask. She is the textbook definition of self-motivation and self-starter. She is always on time and is rarely absent. Normally, she has to be reminded to take vacation days off because she is constantly focused on getting her job done. Admittedly, the most difficult thing about supervising Maria is actually slowing her down.”
With co-workers looking on, Ms. Pack was shown via Zoom accepting the award from Sheriff Scott Chitwood, who praised her as “an outstanding employee, an outstanding individual.”
“Everybody here loves her,” the sheriff said. “Maria does work that is just above and beyond, goes a hundred miles an hour every single day, so very deserving.”
Receiving special awards upon their retirement were Clerk of Superior Court Melica Kendrick, 30 years, and Gary Brown, Buildings & Grounds director, 35 years.
Other service awards were presented to the following:
40 Years
Russell Wilson, Fire Department.
35 Years
Gary Brown, Buildings & Grounds; George E. Tate, Correctional Center; Richard Rogers, Public Works; and Danny Headrick, Sheriff’s Office.
30 Years
Mary Hammontree, Board of Elections; Melica Kendrick, Clerk of Superior Court; Steven Fields, Correctional Center; Jean Price-Garland, Engineering; Joey Craig and Carl Desmond, Public Works; and Timothy Suits, Fire Department.
25 Years
Chuck Fetzer, Buildings & Grounds; Jennell Hill, Clerk of Superior Court; Lee Miles and Susan Franklin, District Attorney’s Office; Cathy Taylor, Inspections; Rosemary Shiretzki and Paul Woods, Sheriff’s Office; Victoria Hawkins, Tax Commissioner’s Office; Russell Barefoot and Kerry Robinson, Fire Department; and James Moore and Emmanuel Swinney, Public Works.
20 Years
Barbara Bramlett, David Lynch, Tenille Czerneski, and Melissa Callahan, Correctional Center; Ronald Kirby, Clay Pangle, Adrian Gomez, Jesse Stewart, Carlton Burnette, and Rickey Holmes, Sheriff’s Office; Eloise Dockery, Tax Commissioner’s Office; Sharon Ratcliff, 911; Harold West, Fire Department; Olan Patterson, Public Works; and Jeffery Cochran, Recreation Department.
15 Years
Durad Martin, David Pickett, Joseph Holtzclaw, Christopher Cline, and Kerrie Cooper, Correctional Center; Jennifer Richardson, Drug Court; Justin Brown and Shannon Manis, Magistrate Court; Sonia Lofty, Public Defender; Michael B. Dial, Robert Townsend, Angie Lowery, and James Caraway, Sheriff’s Office; Shannon Chandler, Tax Assessors Office; Jackie Carlo, Human Resources; Martha Fitch, 911; Dennis Green and John Arnold, Fire Department; and Brent Clark, Public Works.
10 Years
Suzanne Thorne, Nathanael Styles, and Cameron Ward, Correctional Center; Angie Lance, Danielle Wise, and Kelly Snyder, District Attorney’s Office; Miryam Ramirez-Najera, Juvenile Court; Rosa Martinez-Melendrez, Magistrate Court; Juan Martinez and Brandon Dalton, Sheriff’s Office; Austin Ridley, Michael Blair, and Cody Ruddell, Fire Department; DeWayne Hunt, Public Works; Brian Chastain, Recreation Department; Jacob Bearden, MPO; Amanda McCoy, Public Defender; and Shannon Chambers, Tax Commissioner’s Office.
5 Years
Andrea Springfield, Board of Elections; Christopher Roberson, Benton Metcalf, Darren Howard, Ryan Robbs, Derek Craft, Talmage Floyd, Arlton Foster, Charles Heard, Chandler Rickett, Christopher Adams, Jason Boyd, Brandon Cloer, David Freiberg, Jamie Howard, Branden Pewitt, Brady Walters, Stephen Coker, Samuel Laney, James Manly, Cody Kendrick, Brett Miller, and G. Jack Townsend, Fire Department; Teresa Tucker, Glenda Parks, Valeria Molina, and Angela Justus, Human Resources; Cory Rosenberger and Christina Antalis, District Attorney’s Office; Angela Carlisle and Susan Tankersley, Buildings & Grounds; Marissa Vasquez, Mark Hammontree, Jennifer Cameron, Kayla Kovach, Tara Canchola, and Logan McDougle, Correctional Center; Karen Marroquin and Hamp Davis, Juvenile Court; Peyton Findley, Jeremy Dean, Edwin Buchanan, Vincent Schaub, Jackson Peden, Andrew Witt, and John Jones, Sheriff’s Office; Jerry Gibson, Tax Assessors Office; Joy Davenport, Tax Commissioner’s Office; Randall Goodwin, Coroner; Melanie Gallman and Angel Wigand, 911; James Thomas and Matthew Cline, Public Works; and Michelle Hawkins and Karen Hawkins, Whitfield Transit.
The employees enjoyed a turkey and dressing lunch catered by the Oakwood Café, with each department sending representatives to pick up the packaged meals at the Mack Gaston Community Center and taking them back to eat at their various locations around the county.
Special thanks was extended to the individuals “who worked so diligently” to put the virtual luncheon together, including Jennifer Jones of the Tax Assessor’s Office, Angie Amos and Maria Pack of the Sheriff’s Office, the Human Resources, Animal Shelter and Engineering teams, along with Rick Lovelady and the Information Technology department who coordinated the Zoom production.