Bevel named ETCOG 2006 Regional Citizen of the Year

Courtesy Photo IN RECOGNITION -- Orville Bevel receives the ETCOG Citizen of the Year award from Chairman Mayor Carson Joines.

Marshall: The 74th Semi-Annual East Texas Council of Governments (ETCOG) Board of Directors meeting was hosted by Harrison County and the City of Marshall on Thursday, March 22, 2007. A number of significant items were presented.

Keynote speaker was Mr. Bill Rose, Chief Regional Forester with the Texas Forest Service.

Mr. Rose discussed the State's program for dealing with wildfires and the related involvement with local volunteer fire departments. Wildfire season is here and with the dry conditions existing across the State, it's anticipated that 2007 will produce substantial fires in Texas.

In addition to Mr. Rose's informative presentation, the March ETCOG Board of Directors meeting affords the organization an opportunity to recognize deserving individuals for special awards.

Seven years ago, the Executive Committee established an annual recognition awards program to honor the men and women, agencies, private companies and community organiza- tions that make a difference in the well being of the East Texas region and the ETCOG organization. Action was taken to establish six awards and I'm pleased that we're here today to recognize and honor the selected recipients of five of those awards. The Chairman's Special Award is presented at the September Board of Directors meeting.

Nominations for the five special awards we're recognizing today went out a number of months ago. A Special Selection Committee reviewed the nominations and made the selections.

Those awards are: Regional Citizen of the Year; Regional Corporate Citizen of the Year; Regional Statesman Award; Regional Committee Service Award and Employee of the Year Award.

Mr. Orville Bevel of Chandler was one of two recipients for the Citizen of the Year Award.

Prior to coming to Chandler and Henderson County, Mr. Bevel had a distinguished career in the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers and was employed in the private sector for a number of years working for nationally recognized corporations.

In 1997, he moved to Lake Palestine and immediately got involved in community and civic activities.

He is one of the founders of the Greater Lake Palestine Council. The organization represents property owners, small businesses in the Counties of Anderson, Cherokee, Henderson, Smith and Van Zandt and he has been president of the organization since 1998.

He's an active Board member of the Texas Neighborhoods Together organization that actively lobbies the Legislature on bills that affect property owners.

Mr. Bevel is an active volunteer for the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center in Athens.

He was chairman of the Henderson County Citizens Advisory Committee for Jail Expansion. Their recommendations were readily received by the Commissioners Court and the expansion of the jail is well underway.

His civic work and volunteerism in other areas particularly on transportation, environmental matters, and law enforcement is extensive.

The other Special Award recipients were: Ann Reeves of Pittsburg-Citizen of the Year Award; Regional Corporate Citizen of the Year, Chick-fil- A and Chuck King of Longview; Mark Taylor of Winnsboro the Regional Statesmanship Award; Brad Bunt of Longview the Regional Committee Service Award and Glynn Knight of White Oak the Employee of the Year Award.

In addition to the Special Awards an update on the ETCOG Administrative and Operational Budget for Fiscal Year 2007 was presented by Judy Durland, ETCOG Director of Finance.

Changes in the Workforce Development Program, Regional Development and Services activities, Criminal Justice and Public Safety Programs, Aging efforts and the Homeland Security Program occurred. Overall funding for ETCOG increased from $37,561,950 to $43,893,206.

ETCOG is a voluntary local government organization and a political subdivision of the State comprised of 14 counties in the East Texas region.

Membership in the organization comes from counties, cities, school districts and special purpose districts. ETCOG assists local governments in carrying out a variety of programs that benefit local governments and citizens in the 14 county region.