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On Dec. 20 those people were in attendance at the city's voting
session, where they were introduced by their aldermen and given a
gift of the official 2010 city of Lincoln and Main Street Lincoln
Christmas ornament by Mayor Keith Snyder. The ornament honors the
100th anniversary of the Lincoln Woman's Club.
Those who were honored were:
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Ward 1 -- Steve
Siltman, representing the Logan County Paramedic Association.
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Ward 2 -- Chuck
Conzo.
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Ward 3 -- Bruce
Huskins.
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Ward 5 -- Judy Awe.
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Mayor's Choice -- Glenn Shelton and
Andy Anderson.
While all of these people are very well deserving of the honor
and highly valued by the city of Lincoln, the proverbial "icing on
the cake" may very well have been the stunned expression on the face
of Bill Gossett on Tuesday night when he was named as the Ward 4
honoree of the year.
At the December meeting Alderman Buzz Busby was not able to
attend and there was no Ward 4 honoree at the meeting. Snyder
expressed that he thought it would be a good idea to wait to name
that person until both Busby and the honoree could be present.
Ward 4 Alderman Tom O'Donohue agreed, saying that in making their
selection, Busby was very enthused about their final choice.
O'Donohue said he, too, wanted to wait until Busby could be present
to make the introduction.
Tuesday night, before the council got down to the business of
creating a voting agenda for next week, Busby was called on to name
the Ward 4 honoree.
He began by saying: "This individual is probably older than dirt.
He is a constant gentleman and patriot. He is a World War II
veteran, a member of the Air Corps as a navigator and readily admits
to having a soapbox."
As Busby offered a summary of Gossett's involvement in the
community, he noted that he and wife Jean worked side by side at the
family dry-cleaning business, Gossett's Cleaners, which served the
Lincoln community for 75 years.
He acknowledged that Gossett has always had a keen interest in
education in the community and is a past president of the West
Lincoln-Broadwell school board, the District 27 board and is
currently on the board of trustees at Lincoln College. In addition
he offers tutoring to students at Washington-Monroe School.
"He loves his community and has been active in both business and
civic organizations," Busby said. "Bill is past president of the
Lincoln/Logan Chamber of Commerce, Rotary, post commander of the
Knights Templar, a member of the Masons, American Legion, a Courier
Citizen of the Month ... . Bill loves his church (Trinity) and has
always been active in it."
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When Busby finished, O'Donohue spoke briefly: "What impresses me
about Bill is that now that he is officially retired, he is probably
more active than he ever was."
O'Donohue went on to note that in addition to volunteering at
Washington-Monroe School, Gossett also volunteers at the Logan
Correctional Center and does two radio programs for WLCN in Atlanta.
When Busby and O'Donohue finished, Snyder spoke to Gossett,
saying that it was his understanding that Gossett was in attendance
at the meeting under false pretenses, to which Gossett replied,
"Yes, I was; you talk about sandbagging."
As Gossett good-naturedly pointed fingers at who might have
misled him, the story didn't fully come out, but it appeared that he
had come to the meeting thinking he was offering support to some
special recognition for Busby.
When the presentation was over, Snyder said that if the Gossetts
wished to leave, the aldermen would not be offended, but Gossett
said he felt like he needed to just take a seat for a while after
such a surprise.
Later in the evening, as the meeting adjourned, he spoke up once
again, saying that in his shock, he didn't feel like he had properly
thanked the city of Lincoln for the recognition, and before he left
the building he wanted to express that appreciation to everyone.
"In 87 years, this is the biggest 'gotcha' I've ever had,"
Gossett said.
[By NILA SMITH]
Past related article
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