Miller earns eighth Firefighter of the Year

DUNDEE (1/27/16)--Past Dundee Fire Chief Ray Miller was honored as the department's Firefighter of the Year for the eighth time during the annual awards banquet Friday, Jan. 22. More than 70 people attended the banquet, which was at the Dundee Fire Hall. This is also Miller's second consecutive Firefighter of the Year Award from the department.
"[Miller] drives quite a bit for the ambulance calls, makes more fire calls than anyone, and last year he had the top hours for meetings, department drills and total calls," Fire Chief Steve Warriner said. "That's just what we [have] on paper. The rest of it is a huge amount of time spent here on a lot of things. You look around this room and you see a lot of what he does, [including] trucks out in the ambulance building [and] trucks out in the truck bay."
Additional awards of the night went to members of the fire department and emergency squads. The awards included:
• Most Training Hours -- Harlan Nolt (209 hours).
• Fire Department Outstanding Service Award -- Alec Miller, Zach Sullivan and Tracey Miller.
• Special Service Award -- Loren Weaver and Dan Petersen.
• Community Service Award -- Steve Owens and Norva Wood.
• Emergency Squad Most Training Hours -- Donald Austin (64 hours).
• Emergency Squad Member of the Year --Ed Allen.
• Driver of the Year -- Alec Miller.
• Emergency Squad Outstanding Service Award -- Diane Warriner and Jeff Moore.
• Chief Special Award -- Chris Miller.
Several other awards were presented during the banquet, which included silver coins from D.B. Miles that went to Ed Allen and Tom Youngman. Harlan Nolt, Gerald Zimmerman and Lamar Sensenig were each presented with special awards for their work around the department. Jane Miller was honored for 50 years in the ladies auxiliary, while Stu Howell and Ron Percy were also recognized for 50 years of service in the department. Diane Warriner, Jim Moore and Jeff Moore all received gift cards for 100 or more runs during the year, while Ray Miller also received a gift card for perfect training attendance.
Miller's career highlights include serving seven terms as Dundee's fire chief, being named Firefighter of the Year eight times, Firefighter of the Year by the North Central Volunteer Firefighter's association in 1999 and was the inaugural recipient of the Roger Ribble Firefighter of the Year Award in Penn Yan in 1998.