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Lehigh chamber honors three

By Staff | Sep 4, 2013

Inke Baker­­

Two Lee County Sheriff’s Office employees continue to be congratulated today by their coworkers after they were recognized by the Greater Lehigh Acres Chamber of Commerce on Aug. 27 by Inke Baker, president and CEO of the chamber and Lt. Tim Short, assistant commander at the Lehigh substation.

A third person was honored because of her interest and work with the chamber.

The chamber met for the second time at The Hut restaurant on Gunnery Road, with a large turnout in one of its dining rooms.

Lt. Short, of the Lee County Sheriff’s Office in Lehigh, who accompanied the first two award winners to the front of the group said that Bravo District experiences an extremely high call volume on a consistent basis. He said the community service aide program was adopted by the sheriff’s office in an attempt to lighten the burden on deputy sheriffs in the area of non-emergency calls.

“At that time there was no way to know what a huge asset this program would turn out to be. As in any field, the success or failure of a particular program largely rests with people doing the actual work

MEL TOADVINE A Chamber Appreciation Award was given to Scott Kamener, general manager of The Hut restaurant. He was recognized along with The Hut’s owner, Tommy Lee cook, for the excellent service they provided for the chamber’s Celebrity Waiter Dinner.

“CSA Donna Sweedy and CSA Ronnie Wood have not only made this program a success in Lehigh, but have set the bar very high for the other CSAs that work throughout the county.

He said that combined so far this year, they have answered more than 1600 calls for service. These calls, he said, vary from assisting with scene security on homicides, completing crime reports, missing persons, processing crime scenes, and working countless crashes.

“These are only a fraction of their responsibilities. Their level of dedication and quality of work is unrivaled. Since November, Bravo leadership had the opportunity see firsthand how much they impact crime here, not only through their own accomplishments, but in freeing up hundreds of hours that deputy sheriffs are able to do proactive aggressive patrols.

The two were given a standing ovation by chamber members.

Later, the Member of the Month Award, which is sponsored by Coldwell Banker Preferred Properties on Homestead Rd. in Lehigh, was awarded to Trissy Taft-Landi.

MEL TOADVINE The Chamber Member of the Month award went to Trissy Taft-Landi. She is shown here received an award from Fred Elliott, president of Coldwell Banker Preferred Properties, which sponsors the award.

“She is one of our newest individual members of the chamber and was nominated for this award because of her simple but powerful description of the reason why she wanted to become a member,” president and CEO Baker said.

On Taft-Ladi’s membership application, she wrote:

“I am an individual who was a school teacher at Varsity Lakes Middle School in Lehigh. I want to support and participate in making Lehigh Acres the best it can be.”

“She’s an amazing young woman,” Baker said.

The award was presented by Fred Elliott, owner of Coldwell Banker Preferred Properties.

MEL TOADVINE Ronnie Wood, left, and Donna Sweedy receive awards from Lee County Sheriff’s Office Bravo Station Assistant Commander Lt. Tim Short for their excellent work in answering calls from the public.

Members were reminded of the big event coming up on Sept. 14 – The Expo – from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Lehigh Towne Centre at 25 Homestead Rd. in Unit 39, which was a former furniture store. Admittance to the Expo is free and several vendors will be hand to hand out information and gifts. Food will be available.