{"id":39025,"date":"2023-11-16T16:27:56","date_gmt":"2023-11-16T21:27:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=39025"},"modified":"2023-11-16T16:28:01","modified_gmt":"2023-11-16T21:28:01","slug":"polk-county-employee-to-be-honored-by-state-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2023\/11\/16\/polk-county-employee-to-be-honored-by-state-commission\/","title":{"rendered":"Polk County Employee to Be Honored By State Commission"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Polk County employee Burt McKee will be honored by the Florida Division of Emergency Management\/State Emergency Response Commission on Jan. 17, 2024, for his work protecting Polk\u2019s residents from hazardous materials. But don\u2019t try to tell McKee that receiving the Thomas Yatabe Award is an achievement he has earned alone, or that he deserves the credit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMy job is about relationships,\u201d said McKee, who has served as the county\u2019s Environmental Regulatory Coordinator since 2015 after a lengthy career as a Polk County firefighter. \u201cPartnerships are what make things work well. It\u2019s amazing to see what can happen when people come together to work as a team.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Thomas Yatabe Award recognizes outstanding contributions in hazardous materials planning or response. McKee will be recognized at the 2024 SERC Meeting\/2024 Hazmat Symposium. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKee ensures that hazardous material spills\/dump sites in Polk County are cleaned up safely, and he works to prevent incidents from occurring. His approach, whether he\u2019s interacting with large businesses addressing a significant chemical spill or homeowners dealing with paint cans dumped in a yard, is typically one of education and cooperation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe want industry and jobs in Polk County,\u201d McKee said. \u201cWe want people to enjoy their property. So, we\u2019d rather educate than punish to achieve compliance when we can.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKee is committed to keeping Polk County safe, and to saving residents money. In fact, he\u2019s been known to handle things himself. McKee once came upon 200 small used propane tanks dumped on a roadside. Rather than calling a contractor to handle the tanks \u2013 which would have cost the county money \u2013 McKee loaded the tanks onto his personal truck and transported them to the county\u2019s Household Hazardous Waste facility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McKee regularly works with government agencies at the state and local level, often visiting sites at the request of organizations like the Floria Department of Emergency Management. He also works with Polk County divisions such as a Code Enforcement and Emergency Management, and with local businesses and homeowners. His role is to facilitate the cleanup of hazardous materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis award is a recognition of the work Burt does for the people of Polk County and the State,\u201d said Polk County Deputy Manager Ryan Taylor. \u201cHe has a reputation as an expert, and this is just additional confirmation that Polk County has one of the best.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Polk County employee Burt McKee will be honored by the Florida Division of Emergency Management\/State Emergency Response Commission on Jan. 17, 2024, for his work protecting Polk\u2019s residents from hazardous… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[14],"tags":[6768],"class_list":["post-39025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-polk-county-employee-to-be-honored-by-state-commission"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}