By Sara StrongA positive attitude and a philosophy of fairness earned Rock County Deputy Greg Lingen the honor of Rock County Employee of the Year.He was nominated by fellow deputy, Evan Verbrugge, who said it was an easy nomination to make.Verbrugge wrote in his nomination letter, "Law enforcement is an occupation where you deal with negativity all the time, whether it is dealing with a domestic situation, victim of a crime, ambulance call, a traffic citation or crash. Dealing in the negative begins to wear on you and you can become hard toward others. Working with Greg is like a breath of fresh air."Lingen said he was surprised by the recognition, even though he enjoys his job. "I guess the best part of it is just being around the people," he said.Lingen has been with the Rock County Sheriff’s Department for six years, and before that, he worked in Pipestone.A Ruthton native, Lingen didn’t pursue law enforcement work right out of high school. He worked at an elevator for eight years, and was asked to train to be manager. "I thought that if I was going to go to college, it should be for something that I really like, and this was always a sort of dream of mine," Lingen said.Even though it’s difficult to get him to talk about his strong points, Lingen did acknowledge that he’s good at making light of dark situations and respecting others in all circumstances."I believe that everybody is worth the time to listen to them, even if nobody else wants to deal with them," Lingen said.Verbrugge said, "I look forward to working with him because it makes working much more enjoyable. … Greg does what he needs to do and he is always looking out for you when you are not looking. He will always back you up if it is possible, and he cares about what he is doing."The Rock County Board of Commissioners votes on the nominees. Chairman Bob Jarchow said, "We have a good place to work, and I think we can be thankful for that. .. .We could give more than one award each year because we have so many good employees."Past winners of the award include Elaine Vanden Berg, Pam Nelson and Al Hartz. Other nominees this year were Gary VandenBerg, building maintenance, and Jennifer Schmidt, Family Services.
