NCDOT Secretary Nick Tennyson (right) presents the NRVMA Turney Hernandez Award of Excellence to Roadside Environmental Engineer Ken Taffer.North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT) Roadside Environmental Engineer Ken Taffer has received national recognition for his work in roadside vegetation management in the department’s Triad region.
The National Roadside Vegetation Management Association (NRVMA) honored Taffer with its Turney Hernandez Award of Excellence for 2015. The award is the association’s highest honor and is presented to programs or individuals with “dedication and success in continuing to promote the ideals of vegetation management.”
“While the roadside unit has been my life’s work for the last 32 years with NCDOT, there’s no way I got to this point alone,” Taffer says. “I have a stellar team with high work ethic and they give their lives to serving the great state of North Carolina every day; I share the glory of this award with them.”
Three Turney Hernandez Awards of Excellence are given annually. Clyde Mason (retired), Indiana Department of Transportation, and Cliff Leffer, Cole County, Missouri, were the other recipients for 2015.
The non-profit NRVMA is “dedicated to providing expertise, solutions and networking opportunities to personnel involved in integrated roadside vegetation management.” More information on the association is available at www.nrvma.org.
