MAYVILLE — Chautauqua County Executive PJ Wendel and the COVID-19 Response Team recently announced the 14th week of COVID-19 Hero nominations 97-106. Nominations are recognized in a video posted weekdays on the Chautauqua County Government Facebook page, and each nominee receives a personal note from the County Executive’s Office.

“We’ve now recognized over 100 stories of people in Chautauqua County doing their part to serve others in a time of need,” said County Executive PJ Wendel. “I want to again personally thank our week fourteen nominees: Tammy DeVlieger, Sarah Johnson, Kyle Barthel, Westley Johnson, Ken Morris, Chautauqua County Board of Elections, Jodelle Shaw, Dr. Josh Liddell and the CLCS Community, Dr. Vivien Redeye, and Nancy Morey. These individuals have risen to the challenge of helping others during a global pandemic, and are truly our COVID-19 Heroes.”

Tammy DeVlieger works at Heritage where she goes above and beyond the call of duty. She has an open door policy for her staff, even with the rules changing all the time. She makes sure her staff are ok, and that they have what they need to take care of the residents. She tries very hard to make them feel appreciated and always takes the time to listen. Her staff has said they could not ask for, nor want to go through the pandemic with any other administrator.

Sarah Johnson is an administrative assistant at Heritage and goes above and beyond every day. Not only is she busy in the office, she doesn’t think twice about helping out on the floor with resident needs. She always has a smile on her face, not that the residents can see her smile because of the masks but they can see her smile in her eyes. Sarah always goes the extra mile for her staff and residents.

Kyle Barthel works for the Town of Hanover Highway and is chief of the Forestville Volunteer Fire Department where he has shown tremendous leadership during this pandemic. From keeping members informed of the constant changes to responding to calls as an EMT and Chief. While also working full time for the town he has also taken care of his wife and daughter. The Forestville community is safer due to his selfless dedication.

Deputy Westley Johnson from the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office is an important person in the lives of students and the Silver Creek Central School District community as the School Resource Officer, but now so more than ever. He has done countless home visits to check on the well-being of students who may have become “disconnected” from the school system during the pandemic and to drop off learning materials and meals to those without transportation. He greets the students daily upon arrival and always with a smile to be a friendly and familiar face assisting in the COVID screening procedures. He assists school administration in health and safety protocols, assists the district in loss prevention and technology misuse, and continues to be a liaison between the school and law enforcement.

Ken Morris is the Chief Operating Officer at Brooks Memorial Hospital and oversees the many unsung heroes in hospital support services such as materials management (PPE), emergency preparedness, pharmacy, plant operations, environmental and nutritional services, who tirelessly give all they have to support quality care in our community despite facing tremendous difficulty. Ken has coordinated the vaccine effort and played a key role early in the pandemic with the Incident Command Team. In the face of uncertainty, he’s shown grace, compassion, empathy, optimism, and gratitude. Despite being actively engaged in the fight against COVID-19, Ken remains an upbeat, consistent rock of strength and serves as role model for all at Brooks-TLC.

The Chautauqua County Board of Elections team successfully held an election on November 3, 2020 unlike any other election. From the staff of the Board of Elections working tirelessly for three straight months to the poll workers during Early Voting and Election Day, the BOE successfully allowed voters to safely and successfully cast their ballot. While the staff are usually a behind the scenes group, most people do not realize the normal wear and tear of the biggest election of the 4 year cycle, let alone during a pandemic. Voters were safe and staff were able to keep up with the changing rules related to voting and cleaning.

Jodelle Shaw is a volunteer EMT and EMS Captain with Ellington Volunteer Fire Department. She has worked diligently to keep their members safe from COVID-19 by securing the needed PPE from local vendors, online sources or thru OES. She then made sure the PPE was available on the ambulance ready to be utilized. She also insured EMT’s had a personal supply with us for use when arriving on scene of an emergency.

Dr. Josh Liddell and the Chautauqua Lake School community, including the school administration, the entire staff, parents, and students at Chautauqua Lake Central School have taken all the measures necessary took to open and remain open, in person, all grades pre- k -12, all year. They have communicated with parents and families any time there were positive cases in the school community, and mitigated any major issues through their dedication and diligence.

Dr. Vivien Redeye works as a hospitalist for Family Health Medical Services at Brooks-TLC Health System in Dunkirk. She has been working tirelessly on the frontlines since the start of COVID-19 caring for our community. In addition to her work as a Hospitalist, Dr. Redeye is also an Army Reserve physician. She was mobilized to provide care for COVID-19 patients at Harlingen Medical Center in South Texas as part of the Department of Defense assistance to the FEMA response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nancy Morey is the RN discharge planner at Brooks Memorial Hospital and has been instrumental in helping to safely discharge patients. Sometimes this had to be done strategically to be able to accommodate more admissions during the height of COVID-19 hospitalizations. Her diligence ensured patients were safely discharged in a timely manner so people in need of urgent care would have a bed open.