POY Nominee: Ed Wagoner — Remaining ‘pretty cool under fire’

In her nominating letter, Erin Dean, one of Weston County commissioner Ed Wagoner’s daughters, said that ever since he moved to Newcastle in the 1990s, he has been going “above and beyond” to help the community. For instance, she wrote, Wagoner joined the Newcastle Volunteer Fire Department “as soon as” he moved to the community, and he rose through the ranks to become the chief.

Wagoner told the News Letter Journal that he moved from northwest Kansas in April 1992 with three young children and became involved in the fire department by fall 1992. By 2001, he and his wife had welcomed a fourth child, and each of their children graduated from Newcastle High School. As a public servant, however, he’s spent many hours away from his family.

“I’ve always told my kids, ‘You will never get more out of a community than you put in. If you don’t put nothing in, you’re getting nothing back,’” he said.

Wagoner said he tells people who want to start complaining and whining that they need to focus on being part of the solution. He doesn’t respond to people who have attacked him on social media because he doesn’t want to “stoop to that level.”

“I tell people, I go to a meeting, spray myself down with Teflon so the bullshit slides off,” he said, barely holding back laughter.

He said several times he “wants to get discouraged,” but he figures that “if it’s worth fighting for, fight for it.”

Leonard Nack, who was part of the Newcastle Volunteer Fire Department while Wagoner was fire chief, said that Wagoner “is pretty cool under fire.”

“He handles situations really well,” Nack said regarding Wagoner’s days as fire chief. “He’s a solid leader, but in a gentle, quiet sort of way, and gets the job done.”

Wagoner said he found working for the fire department tough but rewarding because of the ability to help people in crisis.

“You can make the best of a bad situation for people,” he said.

One of the tougher challenges of being a firefighter is being awakened in the middle of the night by a false alarm, because the uniquely high level of adrenaline makes it impossible to go back to sleep, he said.

“You might as well go back to work because you’re not going back to sleep,” he said.

But the worst part of the job is recovering the body of a family friend from a car wreck.

“And it’s happened,” he said. “It’s part of the job. When you sign on, you don’t know.”

Donny Munger, who was also on the fire department when Wagoner was, said Wagoner was part of the reason he decided to transfer to Newcastle when his company, KN Energy, offered him jobs in a few different cities. Munger met Wagoner at a training for the company, and they “hit it off” pretty well. Wagoner was the service technician for KN at the time.

“I knew I’d have a good partner to work with,” Munger said.

According to Munger, Wagoner is smart, witty and easy to get along with.

“He’d do anything for you,” Munger said.

Tom Mullen, a former publisher of the News Letter Journal, said that Wagoner’s level of customer service when he was one of two local people who serviced natural gas issues impressed him. On the Friday before a holiday weekend, Mullen had just received a new gas grill, and it arrived with propane nozzles when he wanted natural gas, so it wouldn’t work. He called Wagoner around 5:15 p.m., not expecting he would answer.

Not only did Wagoner answer, he was “very happy” to hear from him, according to Mullen. Wagoner came over to Mullen’s house after 6 p.m., with a baby in a sling. Mullen said he believes Wagoner’s child was less than a month old.

“He’s just happy to be doing his job and helping people out when they need help, especially on a weekend when he was sure I wanted to barbecue,” Mullen said. “I was just like marveled. He got the job done in like 20 minutes or something, and he’s got this baby while he’s doing this, and I’m just like, ‘This is just like one of the best guys in the world.’”

Wagoner served on the city council and became mayor while raising his children and working at the gas company.

“He never hesitated to jump out of bed in the middle of the night in the dead of winter to help someone in need,” his daughter wrote. “Whether it was to make a fire call or help someone get their heat back up and going. When a person needed help, he was always there.”

When Wagoner started his own business, and was working long hours in the oil field, he would still help anyone who asked for assistance with their furnaces, moving furniture or working on their vehicles.

“One of the most important things I have learned is how to give without wanting anything in return,” Dean wrote.

Dean’s letter said that Wagoner has always played an active role in his family’s activities too. When it came to his children’s sports and activities, “he was there to support them in any way that he could.”

Bob Hartley, who was the city engineer for Newcastle when Wagoner was mayor, has worked with Wagoner on the Solid Waste District board, which is a volunteer board. After years of planning, permitting and other logistics hurdles to fulfill all current standards, the board was able to facilitate opening a new landfill for Weston County this year off of U.S. Highway 85, about 4 miles south of the 4-way stop in Newcastle.

Wagoner said it was a team effort that he can’t take credit for, and he believes the biggest share of the credit for the landfill should go to Weston County residents who approved the three-mill levy to fund it.

Hartley said he views Wagoner as a good friend and an asset to Weston County. The volume of service Wagoner has provided to the community, mostly without pay, stands out, according to Hartley.

“He’s always had one thought in mind: that’s the community and the citizens,” Hartley said. “He’s worked hard for the citizens of Newcastle.”

Hartley said Wagoner has made a lot of effort on behalf of the county and county commissioners on the state level and in the Legislature.

In November, Wagoner was re-elected to serve a third term as county commissioner, and he’s Weston County’s representative on the Wyoming County Commissioners Association’s board.

Weston County legal assistant Brooke De La Rosa said Wagoner advocates for Weston County by obtaining state money for projects such as the Black Thunder Bridge. De La Rosa said she’s worked with Wagoner since 2017, and he’s been like a father figure to most people who know him.

“He’s always one of the commissioners that I think a lot of employees feel like they can go to when they have problems or concerns, and he’s always open to listening and doing anything to help,” De La Rosa said.

Wagoner currently works as a transloader for Wyoming Refining Co., which is owned by Houston-based Par Pacific.

Looking back over his career in Newcastle, Wagoner said it’s been “a very rewarding ride.”