Last weekend, local police officers, firefighters and EMS personnel gathered for the annual First Responder awards, presented by the local Park City Elks chapter.
This year, the awards ceremony and picnic was held in City Park on Saturday afternoon.
The top honor for a Park City Police officer went to Clint Parker. Police Chief Wade Carpenter said they hired Parker away from Tooele County three years ago, much to Tooele’s regret. He said Parker has done an above-average job in several areas.
“During Sundance we have an issue with taxis. All of you that are here are aware of that, we have some 800 taxis and Ubers in the city. He’s over the enforcement piece of that as well as the transportation. He’s the one that’s really the boots on the ground, creating those relationships of trust with the transit and taxis. In addition to that one of his stretch goals this year is he’s working with the National Ability Center he’s put together an active shooter protocol, as well as other safety protocols to deal with that. He took that on on his own that was his idea. He’s working with the other officers in the department I can’t say enough about him. He does a great deal to build relationships with our community.”
The Firefighter of the Year was Wes Staples. Presenting the honor, Battalion Chief Steve Zwirn said that Staples was a popular choice in the department.
“I talked to the other battalion chiefs, the other chief officers within Park City Fire and it was unanimous. This guy is there for us all of the time. If you have a problem, he fixes it. He is just a wonderful human being, he’s one of the reasons I love coming to work every day. Wes, congratulations and keep doing the same.”
The person selected as Sheriff’s Deputy of the Year was Lt. Nick Wilkinson.
The Utah Highway Patrol also picked their Trooper of the Year—Joshua T. Anderson. The presenter, Sgt. Steve Matthews said the honoree has logged a decade of service in Summit County.
“Corporal Anderson’s been with the highway patrol for ten years. All of his time has been up here in Summit County. He was recently promoted from trooper to corporal and he oversees all of the training of all of our new troopers in this area. One of the reasons we promoted him to that position was because of his professionalism and dedication to the job and the good work that he does for the highway patrol. He’s had many high-profile cases that he’s dealt with in the last year or two he’s completed those investigations very well and it’s resulted in a lot of successful prosecutions of people that we don’t want to be on our streets anymore.”
Finally, the EMT of the Year honor went to John “JT” Adkins.
