ICE STORM WARRIORS ATTEND APPRECIATION LUNCH
An Appreciation Lunch was held at the Washington County Expo Thursday for all of the city and county employees who served during the week of February 15-19, or Snowmageddon as it is now being called. The Ice Storm Warriors included not only the first responders; Brenham Fire and Police, Washington County Sheriffs, and EMS, but also numerous departments including dispatch, road and bridge, water and sewer, electric, IT, the county jail and many others. Nearly every department, city and county, had numerous employees report to work that week, even though they were experiencing multiple problems at home.
The Appreciation Lunch was the brainchild of Washington County Treasurer Peggy Kramer. She wanted to have some way to thank all of those who braved the cold weather and bad road conditions and reported to their jobs. All of the meal was paid for with private funds, and the Washington County Ladies Lions Club helped serve it.
Sponsors of the event were: Bank Of Brenham, Brannon Industrial Group, Brenham National Bank, Brenham Wholesale, Citizen’s State Bank, and Mike Byrd and Mike Hopkins Distributing.
I will assure you that Peggy did not intentionally leave out VFD’s. I appreciate her putting together an event to honor emergency workers. Everyone did a great job through a very challenging storm, and deserves to be recognized. As volunteers we do it because we love to serve our community. It is nice to be recognized, but I do not think most of us expect to be recognized. I spent 24 years as a volunteer firefighter in this county and would not trade my experience for anything. The people that need to be thanked the most are our spouses and families for tolerating all of the time we spend away from them serving our community!
@ Gary – Good excuse. Not sure who is buying it though. Most people in this town know that certain groups cater to other certain groups more than the rest of us. It was absolutely intentional. I doubt very seriously any of the firefighters, nurses, doctors and so on were even mentioned. But we all know the usuals were mentioned. Oh well, though. With all of the new people and businesses moving here, these little Brenham circles that have been running this town for however long now don’t have much longer.
I agree Casey and if your going to recognize citizens for doing what is expected of them as employees then make sure you include everyone as a whole that keep this community running day in and day out not just for a few days like the saved the world!
I expect some major changes in the city management coming very soon! Oh and if you hadn’t went by the new splash pad across fireman’s park I’d suggest you go take a look at the expansion that I’m sure Dane and Fisher will say it was donated money again! Fix the issues for the citizens before creating more issues during the next “Great Snow Ball Fight!” Just poor management of taxpayers money!!!
As a citizen of Washington County I am very proud of all of are volunteer fire departments. Thank you for the great job that yall do, just wish the county officials wouldn’t treat yall like second rate citizen’s.
Just more patting themselves on the back for the job they are PAID to do. LOTS of people had to do that during the ice storm. Anybody step up to specifically thank the CNAs and nurses at all the local nursing homes? How about the janitorial staff and the dietary staff of those facilities? NOPE, not a thing. Yet they showed up and they did their jobs because that’s what they are paid to do. County and city officials get a big kick out of acting like they are special but we all know…. they aren’t.
As a volunteer firefighter it’s very disappointing to know that myself and many other members of my department spent many 12 hour shifts at our station, away from our homes and families, to make sure that we could have a quick response to any emergency that may arise during the severe winter weather that occurred, just to be overlooked and forgotten about by the county officials who put this on. My department staffed our station the ENTIRE time the weather event was going on, twenty four hours a day. I also know that other departments across the county did the same thing. The county has a history of forgetting about the volunteers and this is just the most recent example. We don’t want or expect special treatment but it would be nice to be remembered and treated equally with the other first responders and county employees. Maybe one day they will realize that if you have a fire emergency outside the Brenham city limits, a volunteer department is who will show up and we will do our duty just like the paid guys. Remember the volunteers.
Very well stated…. Mrs Kramer is the “county treasurer”.. you would think she would have more inclusive seeing as how she is a county official… kiddos to all the volunteers fire departments for their selfless commitment to community safety at ALL times!
What about all of the Volunteer fire departments? I know there were people staffing their stations during the whole storm event. It’s disappointing that these people are celebrated and rewarded for doing what they are PAID to do.
Peggy is an old friend of mine and I know that she did this to show appreciation for the people that braved the cold weather and ice. the noon lady’s lions and her were trying to do something nice for these people and not including the fire department and maybe some others was not done intentionally .She should be thanked not criticized for her actions.Like the old saying goes damned if you do and damned if you don’t