Steve Repasy of the Midway Fire Station was named the "2012 County Firefighter of the Year" for the second consecutive year Saturday night at the DeKalb County Volunteer Fire Department's annual awards banquet at the DeKalb County Complex.
Fire Chief Donny Green, who presided over the ceremony, said Repasy met all the department's criteria in earning this award.
"Steve was nominated this year and the evaluation of his nomination considered his fire call, training attendance, and community service participation,” Green said.
“The fire calls and training attendance stand for themselves. He excelled in both of those. As far as his community service, Steve has been very instrumental in helping DeKalb County reorganize the Red Cross chapter that had became fairly inactive in the recent years. Steve is also an active member of the Smithville Lions Club.”
Green said Repasy was an invaluable asset to the department, whether helping maintain equipment or organizing public events.
“Within our department he has made himself available for countless hours of running errands, performing routine maintenance tasks and helping organize and implement our fire prevention/safety programs in DeKalb County schools and other civic organizations.” Green continued.
“The donation of his time and skill has saved DeKalb County a lot of money because we would normally have to pay for these services. These are things we look at which are above and beyond the normal training and fire response duties. The DeKalb County Fire Department attempts to recognize firefighters who reflect a positive image of our department in the community and Steve has and certainly continues to do this, as can be seen by him being selected for DeKalb County Fire Department’s ‘Firefighter of the Year’ for two years in a row.”
Captain Brad Mullinax was presented  the "Officer of the Year" award for 2012 at the banquet.
Green said the same three elements for selecting “Firefighter of the Year,” training attendance, incident response attendance and community service, are used select the “Officer of the Year.”
“One of Brad’s most noted contributions during 2012 was his direction and guidance in converting the entire county’s emergency communications frequencies to the FCC-mandated narrow-band spectrum,” Green said.
“This was a huge undertaking, as he had to coordinate this effort with all county and city law enforcement, medical, rescue, and fire agencies. The entire operation took months of planning and coordinating and went very smoothly. In addition, Brad has worked with numerous agencies and community groups assisting them with CPR certification and re-certification. Brad’s work, both inside the department and outside the department, is an example of the community involvement that we like to see in our members. It speaks well of the community involvement of our department and that’s why he is being recognized as our 2012 DeKalb County Fire Department “Officer of the Year,” said Green.
The "Rookie" award for 2012 went to Kristie Johnson of the Main Station.
Green said this award is exclusively based on hours of training, and goes to a firefighter that completed his/her basic recruit training during 2012.
Green said his department feels that the most important thing that can be done for new recruits is to give them basic training and reinforce the importance of training.
Consequently, training is the sole criteria that used in the “Rookie of the Year” selection.
“For 2012, Kristie had 161 hours of training, which is a significant amount,“ Green told the crowd.
“Included in that 161 hours was the 64-hour Basic Firefighter Training. In addition to her Basic Recruit training, she has done extra training to improve her fire fighting abilities. We certainly want to recognize that, because Kristie has done a good job, as have all these other new recruits that have come along this year,” said Green.
Johnson was unable to attend the banquet because of a death in her family.
Thirteen firefighters were recognized and presented pins for their years of service.
Kelly Cantrell (Belk Station), Kyle Casper (Main Station), Donnie Johnson (Liberty Station), Kenny Maynard (Cookeville Highway Station), Shawn Puckett (Midway Station), and Chris Wyke (Main Station) were honored for five years of service.
Jimmy Martin (Main Station), Billy Parker (Johnson’s Chapel Station), James Pennington (Lieutenant), and Daniel Summers (Belk Station) were honored for 10 years of service.
Ronald Merriman (Keltonburg Station) received an award for 15 years of service.
Wayne Adcock (Blue Springs Station) was recognized for 20 years of service.
Hugh Washer (Cookeville Highway Station) was given a service award for 35 years with the department.
Ronald Merriman of the Keltonburg Station was presented an Honorary Lifetime Membership award.
Green said that Merriman has devoted 15 years to the Department, and during those years has served as a lieutenant and station commander.
Merriman has also played key roles in organizing several fundraisers for his station that allowed them to buy much needed fire equipment.
Cash awards were presented to 53 members of the department.
The awards were funded through a federal Safer Grant, which Green said is meant to help retain and recruit firefighters.
"In 2010 we were awarded a Safer Grant from the federal government that is a non-matching local grant and does not require any local funding, it's 100 percent federal, to help us recruit and retain firefighters,” the chief said.
“One of the things we've done is to provide these training-award incentives for firefighters, such as length of service awards, firefighter of the year, rookie of the year, and for firefighters who made 100 percent of their monthly training, or at least 75 percent of their monthly training. We've made those awards and we hope that's a tool we can use to help encourage our firefighters to stay on board and continue being involved with training in our department," Green concluded.
Firefighters who made 100 percent of their monthly training each received $400 (or a prorated amount if they have been active for less than the full year) and those who made 75 percent of their monthly training took home $200 (or a prorated amount if they have been active for less than the full year) each.
David Agee, Jay Cantrell, Kelly Cantrell, Andrew Colwell, Jeremy Colwell, Billy Crymes, Nelson Davis, Bill Fowler, Donny Green, Shane Hickman, Bradley Johnson, Darrell Johnson, Donnie Johnson, Dustin Johnson, Jerry Wayne Johnson, Kristie Johnson, Gary King, Dick Kinsey, Vert Komorkoski, Ronald Merriman, Bob Myracle, Jeremy Neal, Andy Pack, Billy Parker, Shawn Puckett, Brandon Pyles, Steve Repasy, Jason Rice, Hunter Stanfield, Tony Thomas, Calvin Tramel, Brian Williams, and Jeff Williams  were all recognized as completing 100 percent of their training.
Awards for completing at least 75 percent of their training in 2012 were Lee Ansell, Jacob Bond, Anthony Boyd, Kyle Casper, Gelasio “Marco” Chacon, Kim Cox, Stephen Daniels, Anthony Johnson, Michael Lawrence, Kenny Maynard, Bradley Mullinax, Danny Parker, Robert Patrick, Tim Pedigo, James Pennington, Jeff Rankhorn, Eric Snow, Robin Summers, Hugh Washer, and Chris Wyke.
Also recognized were four firefighters who have been promoted in the department.
Firefighter David Agee was promoted to lieutenant and Lieutenant Anthony Boyd, Lieutenant Brad Mullinax, and Lieutenant Michael Lawrence were promoted to the rank of captain.
These promotions came after each candidate successfully completed an intensive series of leadership training and practical skills testing.
“I want DeKalb County to know what a fine group of dedicated and capable leaders we have leading the DeKalb County Fire Department,” Green said. “This group takes pride in leading by example, and we are looking forward to having more officer promotions during the course of this year.”