Allen County safety services honored at awards ceremony

LIMA — Being a police officer, a firefighter or an emergency medical technician can often be a thankless job, with many in the public taking their work for granted. However, the Lima-Allen County Safe Community Coalition made a special effort to honor exemplary public safety workers during its award luncheon Wednesday at the Lima Fraternal Order of Police Lodge.

“These are the people who put themselves out there every single day, and they don’t think anything of it because it’s just part of their day,” said Evelyn Smith, project manager for the Allen County Regional Planning Commission. “When we call the police department, the sheriff’s department or the fire department, those folks are right there. They put themselves on the line and we take it for granted.”

During Wedensday’s luncheon, now in its 17th year, awards were distributed over multiple catagories, from fire safety to youth and school safety to traffic safety. Special recognition was given to retired Ohio State Highway Patrol Auxiliary Randy Schaefer, with three police officers, Dustin Brotherhood of the Lima Police Department, Sgt. Rob Kohli of the Shawnee Township Police Department, and Ohio State Highway Patrol Sgt. Shawn Cook receiving the Outsanding Service Award for their work in drug recognition.

“What a drug recognition expert does is evaluate drunk driving, normally, and determine the catagory of drugs they’re under and whether or not they’re impaired,” Kohli said. “Sometimes we discover it’s a medical impairment that’s the cause of this, and this prevents someone from being prosecuted for a medical issue.”

While Kohli was honored to receive the award, he reiterated that this is simply his job and he is not out for notoriety.

“I want people to not know I’m there,” he said. “I want to be able to clean things up and have things out of sight and out of mind for everyday citizens so they don’t have to worry about the things I have to deal with.”

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Craig Kelly | The Lima News Matthew Parker of the Lima Fire Department was honored with his dog, Jethro, a bomb-sniffing dog, during the Lima-Allen County Safe Community Coalition’s Safe Community Awards Thursday at the Lima FOP Hall.
http://www.limaohio.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2015/09/web1_SafeCommunityAwards1.jpgCraig Kelly | The Lima News Matthew Parker of the Lima Fire Department was honored with his dog, Jethro, a bomb-sniffing dog, during the Lima-Allen County Safe Community Coalition’s Safe Community Awards Thursday at the Lima FOP Hall.

By Craig Kelly

[email protected]

2015 Award Recipients:

Fire Safety Award

•Matthew Parker and his dog, Jethro

City of Lima Fire Department

Youth Safety Award

•Allen East SADD Team

Allen East High School

School Safety Award

•Board of Education

Elida Local School District

EMS Award

•Crystal Plumpe

Apollo Career Center

Traffic Safety Award

•Sgt. Curtis Hile

City of Lima Police Department

•Dan McCormick

Your Hometown Stations

Engineer Award

•Kirk Niemeyer and the City of Lima Engineer’s Division

Special Recognition

•Randy Schaefer

Ohio State Highway Patrol Auxillary (Retired)

Outstanding Service Award

•Officer Dustin Brotherwood

City of Lima Police Department

•Sgt. Rob Kohli

Shawnee Township Police Department

•Sgt. Shawn Cook

Ohio State Highway Patrol

Reach Craig Kelly at 567-242-0390 or on Twitter @Lima_CKelly.