A group of brave Perry men were selected to receive a prestigious local honor. 

The Perry Rotary Club announced members of the Perry Fire Department, including Joel Eiteman, Andy Modlin, Israel Baltazar and Bobby Harlan have been named the Civil Servant of the Year for 2021. These firemen along with Assistant Fire Chief Brian Eiteman were also recently honored with the Sullivan Brothers’ Award for Valor by Governor Kim Reynolds. 

They were selected in recognition of their bravery in saving the life of a man in a burning home in Perry in the spring of 2020 who may not have survived without their actions in pulling him to safety. Brian Eiteman explains why he nominated the men for the Rotary award.

“That’s kind of the definition of a civil servant is to put your life in jeopardy for another and that’s what they did. So, it was kind of a no-brainer for me.”

Brian explains he was a part of the incident that occurred back in 2020 but since he has already been a recipient of the Rotary Civil Servant of the Year Award he wanted to nominate others he felt worthy of the honor as well. 

The award will be presented to the four men at the February 7th Perry City Council meeting.