SPANISH FORT, Ala. — Joe Buschell is a busy, busy man, but the maintenance supervisor for the Five Rivers Delta Resource Center admits he took a little time out recently to attend a Montgomery Biscuits baseball game.

Of course, Buschell was invited to the game to throw out the first pitch as part of his being named State Employee of the Year, but it’s not the sort of thing he would broadcast unless asked.

“I had no idea it had gone that far until they told me. I was just honored to win the recognition within our division,” he said.

Buschell said Five Rivers Manager Hank Burch and Assistant Manager Shonda Borden nominated him internally for the award.

However, the Lands Division director of the Alabama Department of Conservation kicked the nomination to the state level, and he remains a little sheepish talking about the honor.

“It’s just nice to be recognized for the work you do, but for that recognition to come from so high up really makes you feel good,” Buschell said, adding it was nice to spend the evening in Montgomery among members of the department of conservation and “kind of rub elbows with everybody up there.”

“For them to notice what I’m doing really says a lot about the state,” said Buschell, who joined Five Rivers in March 2008.

Since that time, Borden said Buschell has been instrumental in completing the facility’s “Just One Tree” exhibit as well as Loretta’s one-of-a-kind “possuminium” and a pine snake enclosure in the Apalachee Exhibit Hall.

“In addition to the physical projects he has completed, Joe has been a tireless ambassador for the facility,” Borden said.

Buschell, who is in the midst of relocating Five Rivers’ gift shop operations from the exhibit hall to the facility’s orientation center near the park’s entrance, said he is particularly excited about the space the shift is going to create to expand offerings for area children.

Most notably, he is currently working on a hexagon-shaped, three-dimensional display detailing replicas of Alabama’s six poisonous snakes in their natural habitats. The display will also feature an audio visual component so visitors can access the information even when a staff member is not available to answer questions.

“We’re really working to integrate a lot of interactive components to the displays,” he said.

In addition, once the gift shop is relocated, Buschell said plans call to convert the space into a hands-on space for children, but that plan will take a little time.

“We’ve got all kinds of things we want to do, and we’ve drawn up plans for them, and I just have to find the time to systematically work through them,” he said.