Community Corner

Nominate Milpitas' Citizen of the Year

The citizen of the year will be honored at a banquet on April 9 with the firefighter and police officer of the year; deadline to submit a nomination is Friday.

Know someone that deserves to be recognized this year for their exceptional work in Milpitas? Nominations are due the end of the week for the 2011 Milpitas Citizen of the Year. (The nomination form is on the right.)

This year's recipient will be joined by Police Officer of the Year and Firefighter of the Year at an awards banquet on April 9 at 6:30 p.m. at St. John's Parish, hosted by the Knights of Columbus Council 5796. The names are also engraved on plaques on the first floor of City Hall.

"You don't even have to live in Milpitas, as long as you contribute to the welfare of the city," said Lou Horyza, who has co-chaired the event with his wife, Peggy, for the last four years.

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About 80-120 individuals attend the banquet each year, depending on the popularity of the honorees, he said. "The more popular the person is, the more of a crowd they attract," he said.

The selection committee is made up of individuals outside of the Knights of Columbus, and in the past have included a director on the board of Oracle. The names are blacked out on the forms while they are being judged. 

Find out what's happening in Milpitaswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

To purchase tickets for the , contact Lou Horyza, 408-263-8779 or loupegh@aol.com.  

Below are the past recipients for police, fire and citizen since 1986. (Note: Police and fire are recognized for the previous year—for example, 2010 honorees are recognized in 2011.)

Year Police Fire Citizen (Knights of Columbus) Citizen (Chamber of Commerce) 2010 Mitch Timko Brian Bruce Wanda Olinger 2009 Steve Fox Yvonne Matagulay Barbara Gomes Bowman 2008 Tim Campbell Steve Moore Lonnie Knight 2007 Brian Hinkley Steve King Robert Burrill 2006 John Torrez Sean Simonson Jacqueline Mendizabal 2005 Kevin Moscuzza George Perez Syed Mohsin 2004 Dave Morris Douglas Richardson Marilyn Hay 2003 Henry Dekruff Steve King Louis Horyza 2002 Cindy Spalding all department Niranjan Gupta 2001 Dennis Kraft Don Yamashita Ray Maglalang 2000 Jim Geibig Ron Behke Gary Taylor 1999 Henry Kwong Rick Frawley Evelyn Chua 1998 Levine Visico Scott Brown Deepka Lalwani 1997 Paul Brilovich Arleen Mears Richard Faux 1996 Matthew Toffey Bill Yamada Patricia Dixon 1995 Steve Petrakovitz George A. Davis Jose Esteves Marsha Grilli 1994 Eric Emmanuele Reggie Sutton Russel Moffett Althea Polanski 1993 Sandra Marshall Dan Getreu Frank De Smidt Peter Galde* 1992 Matthew Toffey Ken Lawrence Peter "Primo" McHugh Ken Carroll 1991 Archie Labine Jim Palmer Sesha Reddy Denny Weisgerber 1990 Ruth Revallier G. Rohrbacher* Frank Garcia* Barbara Lee* 1989 Dennis Dong Ed Garcia ? Dan Youngs 1988 Jeff Geibig Bobby Dixon Leo Holland* Bob Olinger 1987 Greg Mack Scott Brown Margaret Scott Fifi Bradley* 1986 Dennis Graham George A. Davis Sal Cracolice* Robert McGuire

*deceased


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