C.O.P. Awards BanquetThursday night, March 3rd the Chelsea Citizen Observer Patrol celebrated its 6th anniversary with an award's banquet held at Liberty Baptist Church Fellowship Hall.
Some of the accomplishments this year were as follows:
- Received a new C.O.P office in City Hall.
- Obtained a 2nd patrol vehicle.
- Had 23 volunteers satisfactorily complete the Community Emergency Response Training (C.E.R.T.) program that was co-sponsored by Shelby County E.M.A. and the Chelsea Fire Department.
- Several volunteers trained on the proper use of the Automatic Defibulation Device (A.E.D.)
- Provided security for the Chelsea High School Graduation.
- Provided security for all Chelsea High School varsity football games.
- Provided security and traffic control on Halloween night.
- Provided security for the volunteers who participated in the Chelsea clean-up day in December.
- Provided security for the City of Chelsea Christmas Parade.
- The volunteers patrolled a total of 4,131 hours this year and a total of 17,733 hours since the group was founded.
Ms. IMOGENE ROBERTS and Mr. BRYAN WELDON received awards as Co-Volunteers of the year. They have both contributed numerous hours of patroling the roads of Chelsea and helping to make Chelsea a safer place to live and work.
Mr. RUSS THULEEN was named the C.O.P. Rookie of the year for his dedicated work in his first year of service. He has patroled over 250 hours in the last 12 months. Russ is responsible for placing the cities radar sign in the different sub-divisions.
Mrs. PAT McDANAL received a special award for her dedicated service and for keeping the records updated for the C.O.P. group.
Mr. TED HARPER and Mr. BILL WELDON received an award for information that they provided to the Shelby County Sheriff's Office on December 31, 2004 that led to the arrest of a suspect.
Mr. RICK GRIFFITH and Mr. BILL WELDON received an award for information that they provided to the Shelby County Sheriff's Office on February 27, 2005 that led to the arrest of a suspect.
Mr. PHIL WILLIAMS received recognition for leading the C.O.P. unit for the past 15 months.
Mrs. SALLIE WILLIAMS received an award for obtaining 1000 Hours of patrol time.
The following volunteers received recognition for perfect attendance of the C.O.P. training sessions: Mrs. JANE HARPER, Mrs. PAT McDANAL, Mr. DONALD SHIRLEY, Mr. RUSS THULEEN and Mr. BRYAN WELDON.
Five (5) year service awards were presented to Mrs. LOU GRIFFIN, Mr. BRYAN WELDON, Mr. CHARLIE WOODROW and Mrs. SALLIE WILLIAMS
Mr. EARL BONDS was recognized for completing Phase 1 and Phase 2 training.
Mrs. LOU GRIFFIN was recognized for recruiting Mr. Earl Bonds.
We were honored to have the following guests with us tonight:
Mayor Earl Niven and his wife, June.
Councilman Don King and his wife, Lori.
Councilman Col. John Ritchie and his wife, Terri.
Councilman Mike Denton and his wife, Randy.
Councilwoman Juanita Chanpion and her husband, Wayne
1 - Officer Skip Brown of the Delray Beach Police Department, Florida. Officer Brown is a major asset to the Chelsea C.O.P. unit. He was involved in the organization of the C.O.P.'s. Officer Brown oversees the C.O.P. unit in Delray Beach which has over 1200 volunteers.
2 - Cpl. George Brooks and four volunteers from the City of Montgomery Police Department, Alabama. They have a Volunteer in Police Serice (V.I.P.S.)unit that our C.O.P. unit assisted in organizing.
3 - Shelby County Sheriff Chris Curry, Chief Deputy John Samaniego, Captain Stan Chapman, Investigator Barry Studdard and Investigator Tim Billingsley.
4 - Lt. Mark Rikard, F/F Larry Jenkins and F/F Matthew Hill from the City of Chelsea Fire and Rescue.
5 - The keynote speaker was Major General Larry Northington, (Retired U.S.A.F.). He spoke on how the C.O.P. unit is a great asset to the city. Major General Northington then told the group about his day as it unfolded on September 11, 2001. He was in the Pentagon in Washington D.C. when the terrorist flew the passenger plane into the building. He spoke on how the citizens of the United States came together as one people and how the american Flag was flown everywhere. He encourages everyone to continue to support this great nation.
A special thank you to Mayor Earl Niven and his wife, June for providing a wonderful meal and for his continued support of the C.O.P. Unit.
We welcome new volunteers anytime. To learn more about the CHELSEA CITIZEN'S OBSERVER PATROL you may contact city hall at 678-8455 and leave your name and phone number, someone will return your call and asist you in becoming a valuable member of the unit.
Submitted by:
Don King, Chelsea City Council Place 1
The above information can be found online at http://nacop.org/chelsea/index.htm
Posted March 4, 2005
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