Kennett hosts appreciation dinner for employees following recent ice storm efforts

Guests, including, from left, Cindy Tutor, Scott Tutor, Esther Gaddis, Harry Gaddis, Scott Brown, and Patricia Brown enjoy the appreciation dinner hosted for the employees by the City of Kennett. Staff photo by Joshua Payne

Following the dinner, the administrators of the city's departments gave speeches in recognition of work in their departments during the disaster.

Chief of Police Barry Tate began his speech by noting that his department's biggest job was to organize individuals trying to obtain gasoline.

"This was a trying experience trying to keep order at the gas stations," Tate said. "The individuals, who were turned away, hated us at the time."

He added that the one thing he was most proud of from the department was the fact that the city saw no looting or burglary during the disaster.

"We had not one single incident in those three weeks," Tate said. "I think it was the hard work of our guys going through the neighborhoods and bringing light to the dark areas. It is good to know we made a difference and the work these guys did made my job easy."

Street Commissioner Randy Carter said that the street department's initial job was to clear the streets of the limbs and debris so emergency vehicles and other vehicles could pass through.

"It took four days for our guys to get across the city and get the streets path cleared of debris," Carter said. "Our effort is still going on down at the compost with all of the debris we are still collecting."

Carter noted that he felt as if the work was a team effort between the street, fire, and police departments.

"I want to thank the city employees for the job that they did," Carter said.

Fire Chief John Mallott informed the employees that the mayor really supported the emergency management team.

"He made sure that we had the men and the ability to do the work," Mallott said.

Mallott added that all questions on the aid the city would receive from facilities within Kennett was answered in about two minutes after the disaster. He continued by saying that his job during the ice storm was to delegate and come up with ideas.

"It is not us who were doing the work, we just made the decisions, it was you people working on the streets that got the job done," Mallott said. "Everyone worked long hours on end and nobody was griping wanting to go home."

City Clerk Brenda Privett informed the other departments that her team worked on helping the emergency management, answered telephones, passed messages, accounted for spending, processed purchase orders, and documented for FEMA expenses and reimbursement during the disaster.

"We are still documenting for FEMA reimbursement," Privett said.

She continued by thanking everyone in her office for their work during the event.

Mayor Roger Wheeler, Sr., thanked all of the sponsors for their support of the event and ended the speeches by telling city employees, "Out of all of this, I could not pick out one individual as my hero, because all of you are my hero."

Sponsors for the event were Baker Farm & Hardware; Baker Implement Company; Baker, Welman, Brown Insurance; Bazzell & Wilder; Dalton, Treasure & Mowrer; Dr. David Jain; Dr. Steve Pu; Dr. Thomas Kelley; Glen Sain; Mitchell Pharmacy; Pelts, McMullan & Edgington; Riggs Supply/Dolph Riggs; Robertson, Scherer & Collins; Schilp Dodge; Senath State Bank; Southern Missouri Bank & Trust; Teko Pharmacy; and Unico Bank.