Workers Provided Traffic Control at Vaccination Sites, Transported Medical Equipment
(October 20, 2021) – Governor Larry Hogan awarded citations to 32 Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration (MDOT SHA) employees for their commitment to the health and safety of Marylanders, and for their outstanding customer service during the COVID-19 pandemic. The awards were presented at today’s meeting of the Maryland Board of Public Works in Annapolis.
Staff from multiple SHA district offices and maintenance shops provided traffic control plans and daily support to guide tens of thousands of Maryland residents to the state’s 11 mass vaccination sites and multiple testing facilities. This included deploying portable display message signs, cones and barrels as well as manufacturing approximately 300 directional signs.
Additionally, a team from three of MDOT SHA’s District 4 maintenance shops transported 65 much needed hospital beds and hospital equipment from a temporary warehouse in Baltimore County to MedStar St. Mary’s Hospital in Leonardtown. The six-truck caravan was part of a statewide effort to ensure that Maryland had the hospital facilities and equipment to respond to the pandemic.
“I’m honored to work alongside such dedicated men and women in our maintenance shops who went beyond their essential highway operations duties to keep Marylanders healthy and safe in some unexpected but critical ways during the pandemic,” said MDOT SHA Administrator Tim Smith.
“Our crews and support staff at SHA and across all of MDOT have been frontline workers during the COVID-19 emergency, providing services to ensure health care workers and critical responders could get to their jobs with the tools they need,” MDOT Secretary Greg Slater said. “The workers honored today are deserving of recognition for their outstanding efforts, and are among the thousands of men and women of MDOT who performed their duties during the pandemic to keep Maryland’s economy running and advance our transportation network and our critical supply chain.”
The following MDOT SHA managers were awarded Governor citations at Wednesday’s meeting and accepted them on behalf of the many employees at their facilities who were instrumental in the successful role MDOT SHA had in keeping Marylanders safe during the COVID-19 pandemic:
Darion Branham, Josh Stonesifer, Neil Gobrecht, Paul Stout, Rodney “Butch” Glenn, Sidney Proctor, Andre Futrell, Anthony “Tony” Sinclair, Ashley Farmer, Charles “CJ” Hynson, Ernie Johnson, James “Ponch” Bolado, Keith Thomas, Philip Burch, Rick Shagouge, Troy Sisco, William “Billy” McGinty, Alan Price, Asbury Jones, Brian Gneitling, Dan Porter, Eric Minnich, Harold “Tom” Jones, Jason Bratten, Jason Niederer, Jim Jones, Kenny Karlheim, Rick Cosner, Rueben Buckle, Tim Smith and Tony Turner.
Also honored was Dave Seman, Director of the Office of Fleet, Facilities and Administrative Services at MDOT Headquarters in Hanover.
“Throughout the pandemic, those recognized today and their staff never shifted their focus from the citizens of Maryland,” said Andre Futrell, MDOT SHA Deputy Administrator for District Operations. “From getting Marylanders safely to vaccine clinics and testing sites to delivering medical equipment to hospitals, they demonstrated their dedication to public service and to the recovery and reopening of the State of Maryland.”