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Please count me in among those many residents of Polk County who welcome the opportunity to recognize Benny Smith as one of the finest contributors to the quality of life we enjoy here.

I have known Benny more than 30 years, during some of which we were Polk County Commissioners together. Benny has always been an honest, hardworking, good citizen of the community and a friend to everyone he meets.

During his working career, Benny was a lineman for Duke, called out for extra duty, winter and summer, restoring power during every storm. The worse the storm, the longer hours he’d be out in it.

He and I worked together most closely during our commissioner years while Polk County worked its way through the planning, funding and building stages for the new high school, the Womack Building, the new library and the restoration of the historic courthouse.

Following that, Benny demonstrated his deep commitment to his community by devoting many hours each day and week for 20 years to the maintenance and upgrading of the Harmon Field facility. Thanks largely to Benny’s personal commitment to it, one can see the improvements in the baseball fields, the cabin and picnic facilities, the soccer fields, the tennis courts and the river banks!

Many thanks are owed to you, Benny, for all the good things you’ve done for Polk County!

 

Larry Poe

Columbus