Monsebroten, Golden earn top VRFA honors
Published 4:42 pm Wednesday, March 23, 2016
For the Reporter
John Monsebroten was selected the Valley Regional Fire Authority’s Firefighter of the Year for 2015 and Fire Marshal Norm Golden was chosen Fire Officer of the Year at the VRFA awards banquet Feb. 26 at the Auburn Golf Course.
Peers choose and honor top employees at the annual program.
Monsebroten, who began his career with the VRFA in 2009, was promoted to deputy fire marshal in January after temporarily serving in the Fire Marshal’s Office on an investigation team that worked on a recent string of arsons in Auburn.
He has also been a longtime leader of the Toys for Kids drive that helped more than 1,200 families in December.
Golden (inset photo) began his career with the legacy Auburn Fire Department on Oct. 1, 1992, and was promoted to captain in 1999. He served as a shift fire investigator for several years, has been a certified fire inspector and spent a considerable portion of his fire service career involved with emergency medical services as a shift specialist.
Golden has earned a professional master of business administration degree and juris doctorate degree from Seattle University.
The VRFA also recognized two retirees from 2015. Records Specialist Sharon Naon began her career with the City of Auburn in 1985, moved to the Auburn Fire Department in 1990 and retired with 30 years of service from the VRFA last June. Assistant Fire Marshal Mike Lee retired last December after 36 years of working with the Auburn Fire Department and the VRFA. Lee began working as a firefighter and added fire investigation duties before moving into the Fire Marshal’s Office and ultimately the position of assistant fire marshal.
Recent promotions were recognized, including Deputy Fire Marshal Karen Stewart to assistant fire marshal and Accounting Specialist Angie Boyle to fiscal coordinator.
Professional Excellence Awards were bestowed upon Firefighter Jeff Drozdowski and Fiscal Coordinator Angie Boyle. Drozdowski’s supervisors and co-workers lauded him for his caring attitude, selflessness and willingness to go above and beyond to help community members. Boyle was recognized for filling a critical organization void created after a serious illness forced a VRFA office team member to leave the organization.
In addition to the awards given at the banquet, a Medal of Commendation and two Meritorious Unit Citations will be presented in recognition of two outstanding instances of team efforts. Capt. Gary Barker and Firefighters Tim Coleman, Lars Mickelson and Jeremiah Mushen will receive Meritorious Unit Citations for their exemplary work on April 9 during a challenging rope rescue.
In a second instance of team achievement, a Medal of Commendation will be awarded to Deputy Fire Marshal Josh Rogers for his exemplary work as the lead fire investigator for the VRFA during the arson spree in Auburn. Meritorious Unit Citations will be given to Retired Assistant Fire Marshal Mike Lee, Assistant Fire Marshal Karen Stewart, Deputy Fire Marshal Josh Rogers and Monsebroten in recognition of their efforts during the same investigations.
