County gives special recognition awards for highway workers
Group was recently recognized by Genesee Valley Branch of the American Public Works Association
Photos by Tom Rivers
ALBION – The Orleans County Legislature on Wednesday presented special recognition awards to highway workers in the county who were recognized on Jan. 30 by the Genesee Valley Branch of the American Public Works Association.
The top photo shows John Papponetti (left), Orleans County DPW superintendent, congratulating Steve Fuller, a lead motor equipment operator with the county for more than 30 years. County Legislator Fred Miller is in back.
Fuller heads the county’s paving program, working with local villages and towns to coordinate use of the county’s paver. Fuller has a role in about $3.5 million of paving work annually in the county.
He received the Douglas C. Zefting Public Service Employee Award from the Genesee Valley branch of the American Public Works Association. The award recognizes outstanding public service and achievement of an operational maintenance level employee of a public works agency of a political subdivision.
The Orleans County DPW and Town of Albion Highway Department were honored for the Public Works Project of the Year Award for Small Cities/Rural Communities. The two worked together to replace a culvert on Clarendon Road.
County Legislator Fred miller reads the special recognition award which was presented to John Papponetti and Wayne Krull (second from right), lead MEO, and Brian Ettinger, MEO.
This Town of Albion was awarded a grant through the 2016 BridgeNY Program with an overall project budget of $174,000 for design, construction, and construction oversight. The project was put out to bid as a precast concrete buried structure and wing wall system supported on precast concrete footings. The bids came in higher than budgeted and the town needed to find an alternative method for completing this project.
The construction of the new corrugated metal culvert pipe, approaches and guide rails were designed by Labella and constructed by the Orleans County Highway Department under their shared services agreement with the Town.
The project was completed $30,000 under budget.
The Genesee Valley Branch of the American Public Works Association recognized Ed Morgan, the Murray highway superintendent, as the Public Works Leader of the Year. Morgan, right, accepts his special recognition award from Fred Miller on behalf of the County Legislature.
Morgan has been the Murray highway superintendent the past 30 years. During that time, Morgan has helped facilitate the construction of more than 50 miles of waterlines to serve the residents of the community.
Morgan and the Highway Department also replaced the Highway Department flat roof with a new truss roof, built a large storage building and expanded the Town Hall to accommodate the expanding court system with accessibility for town residents and operational staff.
They also built a 1,200-ton salt storage building and installed a computerized fuel system to accommodate not only the town’s needs, but also service two fire departments.
The Highway Department also served as the lead agency in the construction of the Holley Industrial Park including, roads, water and sanitary. Morgan, as member of the Holley Sports Boosters, also was instrumental in building two complete soccer fields for the Holley Central School District. He has been inducted in Holley’s Sports Hall of Fame.
Morgan is active in the community with the Holley Rotary Club, past chairman of Orleans County Republican Party, trustee at St. Mary’s and St. mark’s Parish, commissioner for the Fancher-Hulberton-Murray Fire District, chairman of the board of directors for Orleans County Soil and Water Conservation Board, and Orleans County’s representative on the board for the Western Regional Off-Track Betting Corp.
