News Feature                                                            5/9/2008

The 31st Annual Civil Servant of the Year Awards Program

The 31st Annual Civil Servant of the Year Awards Program took place on Friday, May 9, 2008 at the Hilton Hotel in Bloomington, Minnesota. This year, MN NRCS had 4 employees recognized at the Civil Servant of the Year Program; Contessa Garcia, Administrative Coordinator, St. Paul, MN; Willis Goll, Agricultural Engineer, Rochester, MN; Marvin Kunkel, Civil Engineering Technician, Mora, MN; and Thomas Neuenfeldt, Soil Data Quality Specialist, St. Paul, MN. 

This recognition program offers an excellent opportunity for public recognition of Federal employees who have demonstrated outstanding performance on their job and/or within their community on a sustained basis.

Tessa Garcia is recognized for her expertise; working knowledge of Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) policies and procedures and execution of the agency’s day-to-day administrative operations. She routinely leads by example motivating others towards achieving specific admin goals in support of USDA and NRCS Management Initiatives. She provided invaluable guidance and assistance to management, fellow employees and external customers while performing her primary duties or collateral duties as the Freedom of Information Act Officer, Leave Donor Program Coordinator, and previously as the Hispanics Special Emphasis Program Manager. Tessa was instrumental in Minnesota’s selection to host the 2007 National Organization of Professional Hispanic NRCS Employees (NOPHNRCSE) Annual Training Conference held in Bloomington, MN, and she also served as the Co-Chair of the Local Arrangements Committee for the actual conference.

Willis Goll provides quality engineering assistance to solve natural resource concerns for rural and urban citizens of southeast Minnesota. On Sunday morning August 19, 2007, Willis answered the call to action from local Rochester officials to immediately inspect the integrity of the seven (7) NRCS designed and constructed flood control structures protecting the city. This request following the devastating August rain that caused wide-spread flooding damage in 5 counties. The NRCS dams that Willis helped design and construct all performed as designed and saved lives in Rochester; but the call to action on Sunday morning was only the beginning. Since that time Mr. Goll has been an instrumental part of the NRCS engineering team that stabilized eroded banks from the storm and saved 20 homes and businesses in Minnesota City and the City of Hokah from tumbling down these same eroded banks into the river or the flood plain below. “NRCS is the only local, state or federal agency that delivered what they said they would after the storm,” this according to the Mayor of Hokah where Willis served as the lead engineer for the Hokah efforts.

Marv Kunkel has served as the Civil Engineering Technician in Mora the past 12 years providing conservation engineering technical assistance to landowners in a 12 county area. He provides timely and economical designs of complex engineering water quality projects to farmers funded under the Farm Bill. Marv continues to improve professionally, including certification by the National Institute for Certification in Engineering Technologies. Marv provides excellent training to field office technicians. He was selected as instructor for a statewide conservation application training session of new employees. Marv serves as the engineering technician representative on the NRCS state GIS committee. Marv Kunkel is an outstanding member of the conservation team with his dedication to landowners, farmers, and co-workers on water and land stewardship. 

Tom Neuenfeldt's dedication and willingness to apply his skills and give extra effort this last year were instrumental in maintaining a high quality soils program in Minnesota and throughout the Region 10 Major Land Resource Area. Projecting a positive and helpful attitude combined with outstanding technical and communication skills, Tom provided direction to others, stressed accountability, identified training needs, embraced new technologies, and provided timely oversight to several soil survey projects. He represents the NRCS and his profession in a highly complimentary manner in his contacts with all internal and external customers. 

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