Sandoval County Sheriff Office presented with award from Army National Guard

Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office was awarded by Employer Support of The Guard and Reserve for its work to support Army National Guard service members at the Aug. 9 Sandoval County Commission meeting.

William Griego, who served in the New Mexico Army National Guard from 1986-2019 before retiring as a command sergeant major, and Lena Bates, volunteer support technician with ESGR, were on hand at the Aug. 9 meeting to present the ESGR Award to the sheriff’s office.

“Sandoval County is such a great supporter of our reserve units,” Griego said. “I’m proud to present on behalf of my respective state charities what we call the Above and Beyond Award.”

Griego said the ESPR program has been around since 1972 to work with reserve units, their families and their employers.

The Above and Beyond Award recognizes an employer that not only supports reserve components but goes an extra mile to make sure employees who are reserves are able to get time off from work when they are deployed.

“It’s kind of a prestigious award where, yeah, as supervisors, they did what they needed to do support reserve units,” Griego said. “This here is going above and beyond to the Sandoval County Sheriff’s Office, where they went a little bit above supporting our reserve components and just let them on for the weekend, and this and that.”

Deputy Chief Allen Mills was on hand at the meeting, along with several other deputies, to accept the award. Mills said this past year the SCSO increased military leave time from 120 hours to 240 hours.

“The sheriff’s office in the county supports those who serve and who have served in the military and their families,” Mills said. “This honor that we’re receiving today’s reinforces the dedication, support and long-term commitment of the sheriff’s office, the county in general and the citizens of the county, all who I know support the military.”