CHANDLER — Three women described as “one person” for their work in the community were named the Chandler Brownsboro Area Chamber of Commerce’s Citizen of the Year Feb. 11 during its annual awards banquet.

“It’s unusual,” Chairman Dennis Mack said. “If more than one person is selected, it’s usually a husband and wife.”

But the number of nominations for Rosie Bussman, Martha Copeland and Dorothy McHam, and their contributions, were significant enough to warrant choosing all of them for the honor, Mack said.

“These three ladies are involved in just about every civic organization and church in this community. If someone is sick, they go and help out. If you see one of them, you’ll see the other two. It’s like they’re all one person.”

The women’s nominations were among a list of more than 45 submitted to chamber officials in December and January. Committee members met for more than two hours on Jan. 28 to review nominees for citizen of the year, firefi ghter of the year, police officer of the year, teacher of the year, and business of the year.

Here are the other award recipients:

Keep Brownsboro Beautiful Business of the Year

“KBB has done so much in just a short time to invigorate that community,” Mack said. “They’re really working on Brownsboro City Park and are bringing life back into different (events) there. That’s why they were selected.

Keep Brownsboro Beautiful, in its second year, is seeking $100,000 in donations to purchase playground equipment for the park.

Last December, after publicly asking for donations to buy materials for a new nativity scene, enough money was raised to display the new nativity on State Highway 31 by Christmas. The cost was $1,300.

A board for City Park was formed last October. KBB’s meetings are scheduled on the first Thursday of each month, at 7 p.m., at the Brownsboro Community Center.

Ted Mitchell

Teacher of the Year

After receiving nominations from every campus in the Brownsboro Independent School District, the chamber picked Mitchell, a math teacher at Brownsboro Junior High School.

“He was chosen because of his longtime involvement, great rapport with his students, and his ability to make math interesting.”

His nomination form described Mitchell as “a leader on campus” who is “a great teacher.”

Mack said Mitchell has been an educator for 36 years, and was also named teacher of the year at the junior high.

Tom Rushing

Fireman of the Year

The assistant chief for the Chandler Volunteer Fire Department was selected, Mack said, for his grant work and for “going the extra mile.”

“You don’t have to ask him to do things. He just gets them done.”

Rushing is vice president of Teletouch Communication’s two-way division. He helped upgrade radio equipment that improved safety for firefighters and police officers responding to calls in and around Chandler.

A Department of Homeland Security grant financed the purchase of digital radios and portable hand-held radios and the installation of a repeater atop a water tower on Farm-to-Market Road 315.

Before the upgrade, “dead zones” in Henderson County prevented publicsafety agencies from communicating with each other, and police officers working away from their patrol units could only talk on handheld radios using private channels.

Adam Estes

Police Officer

of the Year

A traffic stop in 2008 led to the arrests and eventual convictions of three people who burglarized numerous vehicles in Chandler, Mack said. It was the offi cer’s vigilance the morning the vehicle was stopped for a broken tail light that compelled the chamber to name him police officer of the year.

“Several years ago, we had a rash of burglaries, and they went on and on,” Mack said. “We finally started getting some tips on the kind of vehicle seen in the area of these burglaries, and around 1 or 2 in the morning, Estes located a vehicle that matched that description.”

Estes reportedly noticed radio equipment in the backseat of the car that appeared to have been ripped out of other vehicles. The suspects were arrested, and more than 30 cases of auto and other burglaries were cleared by investigators, Mack said.

More than 100 people attended the Feb. 11 banquet in Chandler.