SOUTH POINT – Ohio Highway Patrolman Chris Smith and highway patrol dispatcher Mark Duncan recently won honors for their service to the police agency.

Sunday, February 25, 2001

SOUTH POINT – Ohio Highway Patrolman Chris Smith and highway patrol dispatcher Mark Duncan recently won honors for their service to the police agency.

Smith, a trooper for almost nine years, won the 2000 Trooper of the Year designation for his post in South Point and for District 9 which encompasses a ten county region.

Smith, a 1989 graduate of Ironton St. Joe, currently resides in South Point with his wife Tracy; and his 3 year old daughter, Lexi and six month old son, Drew.

Smith attended the academy in January 1992, graduating in June of that year. Smith said he was first assigned to a post in Defiance and after 10 months a position opened in Lawrence County, so he requested a transfer back to his home community. Smith joined the Lawrence County post Feb. 22, 1994. Smith worked at the post as a cadet-dispatcher while he waited to attended the academy.

Smith is no stranger to the annual award. He has been selected from his post in 1995, 1998 and was selected for the division honor in 1998.

"It is a great honor to be selected post Trooper of the Year because that honor is selected by my peers," Smith said of his recent accomplishment. "It’s always a goal of mine to win the District Trooper of the Year award, it is a great honor."

Duncan, a seven-year veteran as a dispatcher in South Point, was recently named the post Dispatcher of the Year.

Duncan also resides in South Point with his wife, Jamie. His father, Tom, was an OHP trooper.

This is the third time he has won the award, winning in 1996 and 1997.

Regarding his award, Duncan said, "I think it is an honor to be selected because it is awarded by how your fellow workers see you and the job that you do."