Appreciated Fairview Heights City Employees Recognized

by Randy Pierce

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Nine employees from various City of Fairview Heights departments were recognized with certificates of appreciation during a special luncheon held last month in the municipal complex Recreation Room as part of an event hosted by Mayor Mark Kupsky.

Explaining that he had asked the various department directors to identify those under their supervision who warranted special recognition, Kupsky first asked Gina Rader from finance to come forward.

Rader cited Jamie Saucier for her “hard work, dedication and commitment while representing the city,” adding, “Your professionalism, service and contributions help strengthen our organization and make a meaningful difference in our community.”

In expressing her sincere appreciation, Rader further thanked Saucier “for giving us paychecks twice a month.”

Angela Beaston, director of parks and recreation, explained it was difficult to single out specific individuals from a staff of 100 to 150 people, but the decision was to focus upon Nick Correale, “a great team player” who was not present and had been selected because of his attitude and the way he “helps us with everything. If he sees things that need to be fixed, either he fixes them or he makes sure that it gets done.”

On the recreation side of her two-faceted department, Beaston said Reagan Stowers, marketing assistant, “goes above and beyond,” having to send out “a million e-mails” so the necessary information is provided to her for preparation of the department’s magazine/newsletter and keeping the staff she works with on task.

Fairview Heights Public Library Director Jill Pifer cited Dama Hamilton, an employee who, since 2009, has worked in that setting for a longer time period than her boss. Hamilton is one who Pifer said is capable of finding anything in the library and “knows all the secrets.”

“She’s always the person we go to when we have weird questions,” Pifer said of Hamilton. “She is fantastic.”

Becoming the library’s principal cataloger, Hamilton, who started as a circulation clerk, according to Pifer, learned how to do this task which has an entirely different syntax and language requiring her to create records “that makes sense to you all in normal English.”

Pifer closed by describing Hamilton as an “all-around wonderful staff person who is just always indispensable.”

Kupsky next asked Chris Elliott from the information technology department to come forward, saying, “this group of people really control the city, They’re the ones that can turn things on and turn things off.”

“They work behind the scenes all hours, day or night, to keep us safe,” Kupsky continued. “And when you get those little weird e-mails, you go, ‘that’s weird,’ sometimes they’re testing you to see if you’re paying attention.”

Elliott, responding that employees all do very well in reporting phishing attempts, recognized Kylee Matthews because she has taken time beyond her daily responsibilities by working nights and weekends to finish a project that would have cost the city a substantial amount of money without her efforts.

“If any of you have been here long enough,” Elliott went on, “you might remember (how) infrastructure or internet used to drop semi-frequently. We no longer have these problems. Our security posture has improved substantially since Kylee started here.”

“Anything I throw at her,” he said, “she completes in a skillful and thoughtful way, so I wanted to make sure we recognized that in front of everyone because she really is tremendous.”

Director of Land Use and Development Dallas Alley chose to honor Randall Hall, referring to him as the “rock” of the department and city, who in two years has never had anyone complain about him, “which is saying something because land use is the home of complaints.”

Working well within the department and with the public, Hall, according to Alley, is “always there, very reliable, always can be counted on to be the level head to figure things out.”

Kupsky said he has heard residents comment positively about Hall, including how he does a “great job welcoming new people to the city” because one of his responsibilities is to provide occupancy permits to residents moving into Fairview Heights.

City Clerk Karen Kaufhold explained, with only one person on her staff, she has a problem opposite of what is faced by Beaston with many dozens of employees. Commenting that she feels “extremely lucky,” Kaufhold told of how Veronica Gabriel in the clerk’s office has, in a bit less than two years, mastered the task of responding to Illinois Freedom of Information Act requests related to a state law that entitles members of the public to be allowed to have access to a variety of information, documents and records kept on file by a local government unit like the City of Fairview Heights.

Along with devoting “hundreds of hours” handling such requests, Gabriel, as stated by Kaufhold, has also become very skilled at putting together meeting agendas, legislation for the city council, sometimes on short notice. and obtaining a notary license while also becoming active in the state and regional municipal clerks’ organizations, working toward earning her certification status.

Gabriel additionally is very helpful in other ways, getting involved in producing the food, like guacamole and pico de gallo, for the employee luncheon where all of this occurred, or, as mentioned by Kupsky, volunteering at last November’s first-ever “Winterfest,” earning much deserved high levels of appreciation from many.

Kaufhold remembered how when Gabriel was being interviewed for the job she now holds, she said, “I’m looking for a home for a very long time,” prompting the city clerk to remark, “I am so glad that she makes this her home.”

After saying there were so many people worthy of recognition, Public Works Director John Harty’s time to recognize one of his employees was dedicated to Pae Tolliver, supervisor of the city’s streets division.

Harty said that a few years ago when Danny Wolf, the previous individual in that position retired, the director’s reaction was, “What in the world are we going to do?” but it turned out that Tolliver was the answer.

Praised by Harty for being a hard worker and self-starter with great attention to detail, Tolliver does his work so well that the director says he never has “to worry about anything.”

Along with stating he appreciates being given a chance to prove himself, Tolliver, who started as an employee of the city back around the turn of the century/new millennium as an evening custodian/housekeeper and worked his way up to his current supervisory role, modestly stated, “As you already know, it wouldn’t be me without my crew.”

“All the other crews like vehicle maintenance, parks department, everybody,” Tolliver added, “we just all kind of work together, blend together and we do our thing. We stick together.”

“Even when we have problems,” Tolliver said, “we work it out. That’s all, I didn’t have a speech. I could have written a speech, but I didn’t know.”

The final honoree of the day as recognized by Kupsky, Heather Hinson, is, he said, someone who “always helps wherever they can,” having been employed in the police department, then land use and development before her involvement in human resources.

Hinson, Kupsky said, was another employee who spent considerable time at the Winterfest event including packing snow globes in the rain.

Presenting what he called the “above and beyond service award” to Hinson, Kupsky said she earned it through “exceptional dedication and commitment” in service to city employees, departments and the community, one example being how she organized the employee luncheon where these honors were bestowed.

According to Kupsky, Hinson’s “professionalism, teamwork and volunteer spirit exemplify the highest standards of public service and continue to make a lasting and meaningful difference.”

Kupsky closed out the awards luncheon by saying he wished it would be possible to give something to everyone for their contributions to the city and that there will be plans to continue with something similar in the future, commenting, “All of you are heroes and winners in my mind.”

“You make my job easy,” he said, “and I work to fight the battles and remove the roadblocks to make your jobs easy and I’ll continue to do that for the next 14 months then leave the city in a better place.”

This last statement concerns how Kupsky’s three four-year term limit as mayor will come to an end in the spring of 2027 when a successor will then take over that role.