HS Realty names January top agents

HS Realty names

January top agents

Bob Pfautz, principal broker for Hot Springs Realty, announced the firm's top agents for the month of January.

The top selling agent was Nancy Chandler, executive broker, with $937,500 in closings. She has been a Realtor for the past 17 years, has a BS in Elementary Education and a B.A. in Accounting. Chandler and her husband, Don, are members of First Baptist Church and the Hot Springs Chapter of H.O.G. She has been active in the Hot Springs Board of Realtors and has achieved Awards of Excellence each year.

The top listing agent was Scott Garibay with $770,000 in new listings. A native of Hot Springs, he specializes in all types of commercial properties, but is also active in the residential markets. Garibay, is a native of Hot Springs and has been active in real estate sales and development for more than 25 years. Prior to his real estate career, he was a sales and marketing representative for a national corporation. Garibay and his wife, Angie, spend time with their son, Dillan, at their lake property retreat and attending and participating in auto shows around the state.

The top residential listing team was Team Thomason with $286,800 in new listings. Team Thomason's sales in 2014 earned them the Silver Award in Excellence and they have achieved an Award for Excellence ever since 2008. Wayne and Kelly Thomason are involved in the downtown and Park Avenue revitalization, as well as working closely with city officials trying to bring Hot Springs back to its glory. They are members of The Greater Hot Springs Chamber of Commerce, Park Avenue Community Association, Lake Hamilton FFA Alumni Association, SummerFest Uptown, Hot Springs Cruisers, National Park Corvette Club and several other committees in the community.

Hot Springs Realty, 4832 Central Ave., Suite C, is a full-service real estate company that handles residential, commercial, property management, as well as an auction services. All of the firm's 35 Realtors are members of the National Board of Realtors and the Hot Springs Board of Realtors. Realtors can be reached at 501-525-4178.

Oaklawn names racing,

gaming team members

Martha Breckling was named Racing Team Member of the Month for January at Oaklawn Park. She started at Oaklawn in April 2008 and worked in the maintenance department for the first two years of her tenure. In 2010, Breckling took a position in the purchasing department, where she has "made herself indispensable." She assists the purchasing manager in the task of keeping Oaklawn stocked and ready to serve the public. According to the press release, "Martha is known by all at Oaklawn for her kind heart and generous spirit. She is always the first to volunteer to help out wherever she is needed." She has been in charge of the Team Member Holiday Food Drive that benefits Jackson House the past four years, has volunteered to help the Spirit Squad with many of their projects and adds her creativity and hard work to the Team Member Picnic and Annual Awards Banquet.

Oaklawn's Gaming Team Member of the Month in January was Skyler Ragle. He started in surveillance in October 2006 and served there until 2010 when his mechanical and technological abilities made him a natural to transition over to the Gaming Technician Department. With the recent expansion, his workload expanded by leaps and bounds. Not only does he maintain games on a day-to-day basis, but he has been instrumental in getting the new table games installed and the new "electronic games of skill" up and ready to be put into service in time for the grand opening of the new expansion. His manager, David Graham, had this to say about Skyler, "He is a huge help to me tracking down parts I need to order, and always follows up on every request I have for him. He puts in a lot of hours, unselfishly, and has helped train the less experienced techs. He always makes himself available for whatever the department needs."

February's Racing Team Member of the Month is Nolan "Taco" Sanders. Taco, as he is known to everyone, began working at Oaklawn in 1976. He is the carpentry shop foreman, but ask anyone and they will say he is much more than that. With expert carpentry skills and a can-do spirit, there literally is not a room at Oaklawn that has not been touched in some way by Sanders and his shop. John Hopkins, plant superintendent, said, "Taco is one of Oaklawn's key Team Members and a jack of all trades. He has built things for every area at one time or another. This last year alone, he has built podiums, stands, tables and counters for many different areas of Oaklawn. He always does outstanding work on any project that he does. Most of Oaklawn's Team Members have firsthand knowledge of what an awesome job Taco has done for us all."

Chad Smith was named Gaming Team Member of the Month in February. He began working at Oaklawn in August 2008 as a surveillance technician. Smith received a B.S. in Management Information Systems from Arkansas State University in 2004 and was a natural fit for the expanding Information Technology Department. Since transferring to the IT Department in 2010, Smith's role has grown as the company has expanded. Today, he is assistant director of Information Technology and responsible for the daily assignments for all the programmers, analysts and technicians in a busy 10-person IT Department. Aside from his normal day-to-day duties, Smith played a major role in making sure all the technological pieces of the recent expansion fit together and ran smoothly. Ben VanWagner, director of Information Technology, said, "Chad Smith has done an excellent job getting the game room open. The entirety of the expansion is technology dependent. Surveillance, gaming, food and beverage, marketing, etc., and Chad has played a huge role in making sure all the pieces go together seamlessly."