BELL COUNTY, Texas — The Bell County Sheriff’s Department is unable to hold its annual awards banquet to highlight the outstanding performance of staff and to recognize those who have gone above and beyond in their approach to day to day work at the Sheriff’s Department, according to Lieutenant Bob Reinhard.
Sheriff Eddy Lange made the decision to cancel this year’s banquet due to coronavirus and social distancing guidelines but does not want the staff to go without public recognition.
Below is a summary of the award’s received by our staff for jobs well done throughout the year:
- 14 Police Commendations
- 6 Life-Saving Awards
- 20 employees with over 5 years of service
- 7 employees with over 10 years of service
- 5 employees with over 15 years of service
- 3 employees with over 20 years of service
- 2 employees with over 25 years of service
- 4 employees with over 30 years of service
Each year Lange asks for recommendations from command staff. Through those recommendations, he chooses one deputy and one jailer who has demonstrated outstanding performance, above and beyond their peers, and each is awarded the Bell County Sheriff’s Award.
This year, the Bell County Sheriff’s Award for outstanding Deputy was awarded to Deputy Christina Penn, and for outstanding Jailer, the Sheriff’s award went to Correctional Officer Anthony Hinds.
Ten members of the department retired since the last banquet and Lange has shown his appreciation to each of our retirees by recognizing them for their dedication and hard work.
When Lange took office, one of the first things he did was to create the Bell County Sheriff’s Department Memorial Foundation. One of the priorities of the Foundation is to reward Scholarships to higher education to Bell County First Responders and their families.
This year, Lange was excited to announce that The Bell County Memorial Foundation was able to award $11,500.00 to 18 scholarship recipients.
The department would also like to thank Bell County Commissioner Bill Schuman and Bell County Commissioner Russell Schneider for their continued support of both the Bell County Sheriff’s Department Memorial Foundation and the education of first responders and their families.
Each year, both Commissioner Schuman and Schneider donate to the scholarship initiative. This year they continued their commitment, and the department was able to award a $1,100.00 Bell County Commissioner Schuman Scholarship to one recipient and awarded a $1,000.00 Bell County Commissioner Schneider Scholarship to another.
"I would again like to thank all our award recipients for their hard work, dedication and a job well done. We look forward to next year’s banquet and ask the citizens of Bell County to continue to show their support to all our staff for all their hard work that continually goes on throughout each day of the year. Great job to one and all," Lange said.
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