News

Kiwanis Club honors law enforcement personnel

State Highway Patrol Trooper Taylor Frizzell, parking enforcement administrator Alexa Putnam of the Hendersonville police department, sheriff’s office budget administrator Anita Pace and Fletcher Patrol Officer Sydney Interlicchia received the Morris Kaplan Caring & Sharing Award from the Hendersonville Kiwanis Club on Thursday, May 9. The fifth winner, Laurel Park Patrol Officer Mathew Murray, was unable to attend.

By Bill Moss, Published: May 14, 2024

Anita Pace, an administrator at the sheriff’s office, is so efficient and committed to her job that she is “bureaucracy’s worst nightmare.”

When drivers “sent over the edge” by a $25 parking ticket march into Hendersonville’s police department, Alexa Putnam “is the first person that they have to deal with.”

All Fletcher patrol officer Sydney Interlicchia did was save a man’s life who was suffering from what medical professionals later described as the type of heart attack that’s nearly always fatal. In her regular duty on patrol, she leads the team in DWI arrests.

Having answered a call at the home of a resident with mental health issues, Laurel Park Officer Mathew Murray treated the case with compassion. He visited again and again, checking on family members, “making them feel important.”

Although State Highway Patrol Trooper Taylor Frizzell looks “big and scary,” his heart is big, too, and he is the kind of co-worker who will do anything for friends in need.

The Hendersonville Kiwanis Club honored the five law enforcement professionals last week with its annual Morris Kaplan Caring & Sharing Award. Kaplan, who joined the Kiwanis Club in 1955 and remained a member until his death at age 97 in 2007, came up with the award to recognize law enforcement personnel who do more than their oath requires for their fellow workers, the public and community.

“We don’t participate in the selection in any way,” awards presenter Doug Dunlap said. “The selection is made by the officers’ peers.”

Here are the honorees and description of their service on- and off-duty by their superiors:

• Anita Pace: Anita was married to Deputy Shane Thomas, an officer who died on Dec. 28, 2012, 3½ years after his mounted patrol horse reared and fell on top of him, breaking his neck and leaving him paralyzed from the neck down. “We’d been friends for life,” Sheriff Lowell Griffin said of Thomas. “In the years between that injury that he sustained and his passing, Anita was his caregiver 24/7-365. It’s not like you can walk away and take a day off. So she has been part of the sheriff’s office family for a long, long time.” When he became sheriff in 2018, Griffin hired Pace as budget administrator. She is also the concealed-carry permit manager. “Whether it’s county, city, state — there is a bureaucracy that really inhibits any type of progress in government, right? Well, I’m gonna tell you something: This is bureaucracy’s worst nightmare,” Griffin said. “Anita is a mover and a shaker.” In addition, she is certified in Critical Incident Stress Management support. “When that critical incident occurs, Anita is the first one there to check on them to see what kind of help that they need, and not only for all the deputies with Henderson County,” the sheriff said. “She’s been called to different places across the state to help them navigate issues that some of their officers face.” Anita and her husband, Chris, have four children.
• Alexa Putnam: When Blair Myhand arrived in Hendersonville as chief of police, the city was not active in National Night Out, a community outreach program for kids and families. “It was important that we get a program up and going and so we built it over the last couple of years,” Myhand said. “Alexa is really the reason why our program is as robust as it is now.” Four years after starting in the records division, Putnam now holds the unenviable job of parking enforcement administrator. “A $25 parking ticket will send people over the edge, and Alexa is the first person that they have to deal with, and usually the people that she deals with are worse than the ones that law enforcement deals with because they’re really, really angry over this $25 ticket,” Myhand said. “She’s always professional and she does her job.” Alexa and her husband, HPD officer Dustin Putnam, have a son and daughter.
• Sydney Interlicchia: Patrol officer Interlicchia and her partner responded to a call reporting that a man was suffering from a severe heart attack at Bill Moore Park. “He wasn’t breathing and he didn’t have a pulse and she and her teammate got busy and basically were responsible for saving that individual’s life,” Fletcher Chief Dan Terry said. “Some of the staff in the hospital were referring to that type of heart attack as a widow-maker and said that type of heart attack — rarely does anybody survive. They credited Sydney and her teammate in the action they took providing CPR and rendering medical aid. … Sydney also leads our department in driving while impaired arrests. In the last four months, she’s gotten 10 driving while impaired arrests already and for Fletcher being a small department and all the other responsibilities she has, that’s quite a lot.” Sydney also enjoys scuba diving, hiking, camping, running with her dog and riding a motorcycle.
• Mathew Murray: An officer for two years, Murray has a way of thinking outside the box on policing, Laurel Park Chief Bobbie Trotter said. “We had a family that had some mental health issues, and they were in crisis and Mathew was really good about sitting down with this family, giving them insight on that kind of thing. But what I also knew is that Mathew went by there when we didn’t have a call for service, and he would just sit with the individual, talk with them, make them feel comfortable, make them feel important. The other thing is, he is youthful and therefore he’s my personal IT guy.”
• Taylor Frizzell: Frizzell’s “dad was one of my youth football coaches when I was little kid so we’ve been connected for a long time,” his supervisor, First Sgt. Justin Owens, said. “I told him on his first day, even though he’s big and scary looking, he’s got a good heart. I told him people are gonna judge you as soon as you get out of the car but as long as you communicate with people, that’s going to go a long way.” A field training officer for several years, Frizzell leads by example. “He’s good at training our new troopers,” Owens said. “He’s a youth football coach, he’s involved in church, and I know that he’s a really big family man.” Taylor and his wife, Kyndle, have a daughter, Ainsley.

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