The Municipality of Cumberland honoured more than 30 long-time employees for their years of service to the municipality and the community during an employee appreciation dinner at the Dr. Carson & Marion Murray Community Centre in Springhill on Tuesday, Jan. 31, 2023.
“Every organization, it doesn’t matter if it’s small or big business or the Municipality of Cumberland with approximately 100 employees, is absolutely dependent on its employees,” Municipality of Cumberland County Mayor Murray Scott said. “They are the face of our organization; they do the work every day on behalf of the organization and the citizens.“I can’t say enough how appreciative we are of the great work these people do and we’re so fortunate they chose to work and live in Cumberland County and it’s something I heard all the time from our residents.”
Because of COVID-19 restrictions, the municipality hasn’t been able to hold a ceremony honouring employees for several years, so employees passing employment milestones during that time were honoured.
“These past few years have been challenging, to say the least,” Cumberland County CAO Greg Herrett said. “Our employees have worked through, first, the pandemic and then significant organizational change. Collectively, though, they have worked through these challenges and provided excellent municipal services to the residents of Cumberland County. Today’s event is about simply saying thank you for all of that.”
The ceremony saw 30 employees honoured for long service.
Honoured with a 40-year award was Betty Anne Paris (2021), while 35-year awards were presented to: Thomas Trenholm (2022) and Kevin Yorke (2019). Picking up 30-year awards were: Steve Varner (2020), Steve Ferguson (2021), Richard Dobson (2019) and Catherine Ward (2021), while 25-year awards were presented to: Shelley Eaton-Hoeg (2020) and Nelson Bezanson (2022). Chris Clarke (2020) and Fred Arsenault (2020) were honoured for 20 years of service. Fred Chapman (2020), Barry Melanson (2021), Evan Jardine (2022), Ronald Maine (2022), Kellie Seaman (2022), Andrew Thomas (2022), Michael Harrison (2022) and Melissa Siddall (2022) were honoured for 15 years of service.
Those honoured for 10 years of service included: Ralph Pettigrew (2020), Mandy Hunter (2021), Melanie Prendergast (2021), Marcella Chisholm (2022), John Parsons (2022), Steven Ripley (2022), Stephen Skidmore (2020), Chris Chapman (2022), Michael Gerrior (2022), Samantha Steward (2022) and David Buell (2022).
The municipality then presented a Queen Elizabeth II Platinum Jubilee Medal to seven employees including Steve Ferguson, Allie McCormick, Betty Anne Paris, John Parsons, Andrew Thomas, Steve Varner and Kellie Seaman.