January 11, 2020
By: Dwayne Page
Smithville Volunteer Firefighter and Deputy Chief Hoyte Hale received the “Robert Eller Highest Attendance Award” Friday night during an appreciation dinner for city firefighters at the New Life Connection Center.
The award was presented to Hale by Smithville Fire Chief Charlie Parker. This is the sixth straight year Hale has earned this award named in honor of the late Robert Eller, who served the Smithville Fire Department as a member and assistant chief for 64 years until his death in 2009.
“He was an icon with the Smithville Fire Department and we (firefighters) were his family. Until the time he got sick and his death, Eller was at just about every call, every meeting, and every training that we had so we wanted to pay homage to him by naming this award after him for the firefighter who made the most calls, trainings, workings throughout the year,” said Chief Parker.
Out of the 140 incident calls, 56 training responses, and 10 workings during 2019, Hale, a 35 year veteran of the department, attended a total of 173. This includes calls, incidents, trainings, and workings.
Other firefighters with high attendance responses to their credit were Lieutenant Donnie Cantrell with 157, Lieutenant Danny Poss with 152, Dillon Hicks 140, and Jeff Prisock with 126 calls.
The firefighter awarded for putting in the most training hours including LIVE Burn and Rookie School during 2019 was Jeff Prisock at 204 hours. Others with top training hours were Dillon Hicks 189 hours, Deputy Chief Hoyte Hale 119, Lieutenant Danny Poss 109, and Lieutenant Donnie Cantrell with 94 hours.
Chief Parker commended the award winners and all members of the department for the work they do for the city as volunteers.
“I want to express my appreciation to each and everyone of the volunteers whether you are a one year or 40 year member you are what makes this fire department work. You are the ones who get up in the middle of the night. You are the ones who leave work. You miss family time to get the job done for the City of Smithville,” said Chief Parker.
Members of the department and their years of service are as follows:
Jeff Prisock-1 year, Brent Keenan-1 year, Shannon Smith-1 year, Andrew Cooper-Rookie 1 year, Kayla Williams-Photographer/Auxiliary 1 year, Brenda Soto-Rookie 2 years, Dillon Hicks-Rookie 2 years, Caleb London-3 years, Ryan Herron: 4 years, Seth Wright-4 years, Kim Johnson-4 years, Bradley Johnson- 6 years, Dalton Roberts-6 years, C.J. Tramel- 6 years, Shawn Jacobs- Auxiliary 7 years, Becky Atnip- 7 years, Cory Killian-9 years, Glen Lattimore-12 years, Stephanee Wright-14 years, Gary Johnson-15 years, James Randall Hunt-15 years, Wallace Caldwell- Chaplain 16 years, Lieutenant Kevin Adcock- 21 years, William (Wink) Brown-22 years, Greg Bess-Photographer/Auxiliary 25 years, Lieutenant John Poss-30 years, Captain Jeff Wright-35 years, Deputy Chief Hoyte Hale-35 years, Lieutenant Donnie Cantrell-40 years, Lieutenant Danny Poss-40 years, and Chief Charlie Parker-40 years.