Newspaper Page Text
October 7, 2015
^Reporter
PAGE 7A
County says thanks to
retiring Emmett Smith
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Lyle Lastinger, Optometrist
478-994-0994
BY RICHARD DUMAS
news@mymcr. net
About 30 Monroe
County employees hon
ored retiring county main
tenance director Emmett
Smith with a party on
Sept. 24 for nearly 40
years of service.
Smith, who started
out as a laborer in the
maintenance depart
ment, worked his way
up to becoming depart
ment director in 1993
when former director
Johnny Gresham passed
away. Smith said when
he started work with the
county, the maintenance
department didn’t have
its own building. Instead,
it kept an office in the
downstairs of the old
Monroe County Hospital
building. The department
eventually moved into the
basement of the Monroe
County Library before
county road superinten
dent Sid Banks suggested
in the 1990s that the
county needed its own
maintenance shop.
Smith and Terry
Williams then teamed up
to build the shop, where
it still exists today along
with the county’s solid
waste department on
Montpelier Road.
Smith said there are
currently six persons in
the maintenance depart
ment who have labored
without complaint for
years.
“They needed more help.
They didn’t ask for more
help,” Smith said. “We’ve
got a good crew. They’re
capable of doing any
thing, I mean anything.
And they need to get
paid for what knowledge
they have too. I always
had a problem with that.
Because if you’ve got the
knowledge to do it, they
need to pay you no matter
where you’re at. Because
if not, you’re not going to
keep nobody here.”
Smith’s toughest task
over the years was reno
vating the Monroe County
Courthouse, originally
built in 1896, in the late
2000’s.
“The courthouse, that
was the awfulest job
I’ve ever tackled and
everybody brags about
it,” Smith said. “I don’t
know how to put it into
words. It’s just a beauti
ful place. Everybody talks
about, and like I say,
they still talk about. I get
approached sometimes
and they say, ‘Ain’t you
the one that worked on
the courthouse?’ I say,
Yeah, me and my main
tenance crew.’ I don’t take
the credit for myself. I
had the whole mainte
nance department in on
it, which it should be,
because they helped out.
Plus we had some outsid
ers come help us too on
Saturday and Sunday
from other departments.
Seven days a week for
almost three years, non
stop.”
Smith said he’s still
proud of the work the
maintenance department
did on the courthouse,
which included the messy
job of scrubbing old plas
ter off of the brick exterior
of the building and stain
ing the hardwood floors.
“That place is still beau
tiful,” Smith said of the
courthouse. “And it is. I
don’t believe that anyone
around here could have
done a better job than the
maintenance department
did on that courthouse.
I mean I haven’t heard
anybody say anything bad
about the courthouse and
the way it looks now.”
Smith said his favorite
part of his job has been
that it’s so different from
day to day. Building and
remodeling, particularly
carpentry work, is what
he enjoys most and he
said that working with
air conditioning units was
pretty much the only part
of the job for which he
needed outside assistance.
“I’m capable of doing
almost anything,” Smith
said.
But Smith said the
thing he will miss the
most about his job is not
the work itself but spend
ing time with the friends
he works alongside.
“Some of them are like
family to me.”
However, Smith said
he will remain active
in Monroe County and
might even pursue a
political career, possibly
as a county commissioner.
Smith said, “I think I
can move things forward
a little bit.”
Commissioners have
not yet decided whether
to replace Smith’s posi
tion permanently. Former
assistant maintenance
director Ray White was
appointed in August to
fill Smith’s position on an
interim basis. But Monroe
County commission chair
man Mike Bilderback
said Smith’s presence will
be missed.
“Emmett really had
a can-do attitude,”
Bilderback said. ‘You’d
call him up, and he’d
have five or six things he
was working on but he
never told me he couldn’t
do something. He always
told me he’d figure out
a way to make it hap
pen. So having worked
with Ray and Ray having
worked under him, I kind
of expect him to have that
same attitude. But like
I said, we had him on
speed dial. Maintenance
guy, he’s on the hotline.
And he never ever in all
the years I worked with
him, he never told me he
couldn’t do anything. He
would find a way to do it,
and that’s what I’m gonna
miss.”
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Monroe County saluted
its long time maintenance
supervisor Emmett Smith
upon his retirement on Sept.
24. At left Smith is shown
with his crew that spent
three years renovating the
courthouse. Next is Smith
when he became supervisor
in 1993, and at bottom at his
retirement party.
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