One of those positive things is naming the club's pick for Public Safety Employee of the Year; this year there were some very worthy nominees.

Included in the nominations were Susan Monroe of the 911 Call Center, Newton County Fire Battalion Chief Brian Masey, Deputy Investigator Jason Griffin of the Newton County Sherriff's Department and Covington Fire Department Captain Tony Smith.

Smith received the honor this year because of his efforts in facilitating the construction of a community fire safety training center and involvement in volunteer endeavors.

We salute our local Rotary for giving this award to honor our public safety officials as well as Captain Smith for his service.

We are fortunate in Covington and Newton County to have a group of public safety officials who are always first rate state and national rankings and first class in character.