City employees help coworker in time of need

By Jeff Pope

Saturday, June 13, 2009 | midnight

Time is on Ruby Perkins’ side thanks to her coworkers.

City employees are rushing forward to donate their paid time off to Perkins, who has been away from her job as police dispatcher since her daughter was severely injured in a car wreck on April 11.

A day after the City Council approved the time-swap plan on June 9, employees had donated 86 hours to Perkins’ leave bank, City Manager Vicki Mayes said.

Brianne Perkins, 21, was hit by a car in Utah over Easter weekend after she and her fiance, Eric Nay, had stopped to help an elderly couple who had been in a crash on an icy road.

As Perkins was retrieving a blanket from her car, a Nissan Xterra slid out of control and hit her, then her car, according to the Utah Highway Patrol.

She broke five vertebrae in her neck, suffered fractures in her back and internal injuries, said her father, Jim Perkins, a retired Clark County Fire Department paramedic.

Brianne Perkins is rehabilitating in a hospital in Colorado and is showing signs of improvement, he said.

“She’s doing very well. She’ll get her halo off July 7 and she’s started to get some movement in her shoulders,” he said.

Ruby Perkins may ultimately end her employment with the city so she can care for her daughter, but for now she wants to stay with the city, Mayes said.