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On Saturday, Feb. 22, the Nicholasville Police Department (NPD) held its annual awards banquet. 

This banquet comes at a difficult time for the department, as they had just recently laid Officer Anthony Ruggiero to rest. 

At the City Commission meeting after the banquet, Commissioner Patty Teater congratulated Chief Michael Fleming for “a wonderful awards banquet. I really enjoyed it.”

Commissioner Bethany Brown added, “Kudos again, as Patty said about the awards banquet. The general consensus that I kept getting when I was talking to different officers is how good morale and camaraderie are at the Police Department, especially with the events of the last couple of weeks. It means a lot that they’re a stout family and leaned on each other.”

On that note, the NPD will also be holding a prayer service in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the death of Officer Burke Rhoads at 11 a.m. on Tuesday, March 11. The memorial will be held at the Fallen Soldier Memorial in front of the police department.

“We are always glad to recognize members of the agency who have distinguished themselves in a variety of ways,” read a post on Facebook by the NPD. The post also included the complete list of awards for NPD employees. 

The honorees are as follows:

• Officer of the Year – Officer Joshua Childers
• Supervisor of the Year – Sergeant Colby Warren
• Distinguished Service Medal – Officer Joshua Childers and Officer Paul Zhurbich
• Rookie of the Year – Officer Kaitlyn Lloyd
• Chief’s Award – Officer Paul Zhurbich
• Governor’s Impaired Driving Enforcement Award – Officer Shawn Norman
• Civilian Employee of the Year – Mark Stewart

The following were recognized as having been named Field Training Officers:

• Officer Corey Boston
• Detective Chase Bowman
• Officer Spencer Goodwin
• Officer Parker Harris
• Sergeant Zachary Lawson
• Officer Ryan Wilkerson
• Officer Paul Zhurbich

Also, there were recognitions for physical fitness, as well as a specific standard that was met by the members of our Special Response Team, all of whom received the Fit for Duty Award:

• Officer Lukas Atterbury
• Officer Jeremy Balltrip
• Officer Corey Boston
• Officer Joshua Childers
• Officer Braddock Clark
• Chief Michael Fleming

Officer Parker Harris

Officer Joseph Horton

Lieutenant Kyle Lamb

Sergeant Mathew Rue

Officer Lucas Shelton

Officer Kevin Soriano

Officer Christopher Tune

Officer Ryan Wilkerson