FPS Awards Celebrate a Difficult Year

Director Bob Schulz doesn't look like a guy who would get choked up very easily. But he had a moment at the close of Wednesday night's departmental awards ceremony.

After handing out more than 30 awards to officers and civilians, Schulz recalled a night in October, when two of three officers on duty were out of the city. The remaining officer was called out around 9:45 p.m. to help an elderly woman who had suffered a cardiac arrest. Knowing the department was short-handed, Schulz joined officer Scott Herrmann and Commander Frank Demers at the scene.

When their efforts to revive the woman were not successful, Schulz had to tell the husband that his wife of many years was gone. When he got home that evening and his own wife asked where he'd been, Schulz said he told her he'd forgotten what a terrible job it is to deliver that kind of news.

Then he stopped, took a moment to compose himself.

"To all you guys out there who do this day and day out, thank you for the work you do," he said.

There was something deeply touching about that moment, because 2010 was a tough year for the Farmington Public Safety Department. Of course, they dealt with the worst effects of the economy, risking their lives every day. (I'm working on a real eye-opening story about the individual awards.) They also experienced a top-level transition as former Director Chuck Nebus left and Schulz took his place.

But last year, officers also sacrificed on a different level: They took a pay cut and opted for reduced benefits, rather than see any layoffs. 

Look at that again: The people who risk their lives every day on our behalf volunteered to take a pay cut last year.

I thought about that as one officer accepted an award while holding his little girl in his arms, as the year-end highlights DVD flashed photographs of smiling children on their first day of school and babies born in 2010.

I'm still thinking about it.