During the annual Town Deliberative Session, a number of awards were given out, including the Volunteer of the Year Award and the Citizen of the Year Award.
“The Citizen of the Year is actually a couple, it’s Stephen and Julie Lee,” Town Council Chair, John Farrell, said.
It was explained by Farrell, that for many years, the Lees have been involved with Concert on the Common, a weekly event during the summer that puts on free concerts.
“This particular award is going out to folks who had a vision over 20 years ago to bring entertainment to the Common,” Farrell said.
Farrell explained that they were part of the original group of people who “came up with this idea, went out and got sponsorships and started bringing…what is now an overwhelmingly successful program,” noting that some nights they have 800 to 900 “people around the Common to enjoy entertainment here in town.”
He said that without their efforts and leadership “this just wouldn’t happen.”
Volunteer of the Year
For the Volunteer of the Year award, Recreation Director, Art Psaledas, presented the award.
“The Volunteer of the Year is a gem of a person,” Psaledas said.
He said he wanted to give a couple of examples of what “Kevin Foley has done,” the recipient of the award.
One of the examples he pointed to is building three pavilions at the West Road facility.
“He designed and was the clerk of the works for their concession stand. He basically will help anybody, anytime,” Psaledas said.
Psaledas told a story about how two years ago they had a leak in a three inch water pipe used to irrigate the fields. He said they dug it up, found the leak, and thought it wouldn’t be too hard to fix.
“It was a little more complicated than that, so we fell to our usual defense mechanism of, we looked at each other and said ‘it’s time to call Kevin,” Psaledas said.
Psaledas said Foley went there that day, got the parts, and fixed it for $30, something that would’ve cost a couple thousand dollars.
“He’s done that over and over again,” Psaledas said.
Psaledas stated that all that Foley ever wants is not accolades, but instead, to just be thanked at the end.
“We’ve thanked him a thousand times,” Psaledas said.