LT Frank Cote and R/LT Richard Christmas named Firefighters of the Year.
The text below was edited and taken from context of the original speech
written by Chief Mike Arena to the Belle Glade Chamber of Commerce:
These individuals are both exceptional individuals and they both have a
sincere commitment to the City of Belle Glade, to Palm Beach County, the
Glades area and the people who live and work here. We are very proud to
offer these two individuals as the 2007 Belle Glade Chamber of Commerce
firefighters of the year. We would like to recognize them together and then
share with you some of the contributions that have made to Fire Rescue and
the community.
Over 2 years ago Lt Frank Cote had a mission of bringing about a better way
to serve the Glades area specifically when people get injured on Lake
Okeechobee. He worked very closely with Chief Steve Rice and they were able
to secure a grant for a Rescue Airboat for Belle Glade. Lt Frank Cote spent
a tremendous amount of his personal time designing and specifying where
every thing needed to be on this airboat.
Frank is one of those people who continue to work until the job is done
right and he has been doing a tremendous job working with his new Palm Beach
County co-worker R/Lt Richard Christmas on developing the training program
for it. R/LT Christmas quickly came on board over a year ago and has become
an integral part of the airboat program.
This Rescue airboat is the first of its kind to Palm Beach County and it
probably would not have happened if it were not for the efforts of both
Lt Frank Cote and R/LT Rick Christmas. The airboat program was recently
featured on Channel 5 news and the efforts put forth by both Lt Cote and
R/LT Christmas were what made that very positive publicity possible.
The airboat was also featured on the evening news on Channel 12 because
these 2 individuals once again came together in rapid fashion to save a
drowning dog stuck in a weed invested waterway to assist Animal control
personnel and ultimately saving the dog. This was also a highly publicized
event which all resulted in very good press for Belle Glade and Fire Rescue.
When Richard Christmas found out that Belle Glade was merging with Palm Beach
County he immediately wanted to be part of making sure it was going to work
and it was going to work right for Belle Glade. He volunteered to transfer
out here and came to work to assist anyway he could.
The airboat is not the only thing which puts the two individuals ahead of
the pack so let me give you some other examples.
We recently had a large fire at the Okeelanta sugar mill resulting in many
firefighters staying out all night. When it was time to switch out crews
around 11pm, Lt Cote volunteered to stay out and work so others could go
and get some needed rest. He did not want to take no for an answer since he
knew there was a great deal of work to be done and he wanted to see it
through.
R/LT Richard Christmas made him self available 24/7 immediately after the
merger of Belle Glade Fire Department and Palm Beach County after October 1.
He responded out on his personal time each time we had a fire or major car
accident and was instrumental to the seamless transition between the
two departments.
LT Cote has been an ambassador for the Lake and its assets and took the
opportunity to showcase it by taking out various elected officials on tours
often utilizing his own personal time. He received a personal thank you
and commendation letter from Senator Aaronberg.
On Sunday March 11 at approximately 11pm in the evening we received a call
for assistance at the 20 Mile Bend boat ramp and there were no airboat
operators on duty a call was placed to R/LT Rick Christmas who quickly
responded from home and was able to rescue the stranded people.
I have had the opportunity to work several large incidents with these two
folks and they are true professional who will do whatever is necessary to
get the job done. It does not matter what time of the day it is.
It is the efforts of people such as Frank and Rick that made this happen.
Congratulations!
Organizational Chart
