Newspaper Page Text
Page 6B
Reporter
November 2, 2022
Watts retires after 32 years with road dept.
It is the end of a distinguished era
in Monroe County with the retire
ment of longtime Road Superin
tendent Ira “Junior” Watts Jr.
Watts, who has worked for the
Monroe County Road Depart
ment for more than 32 years,
retired effective Oct. 17 after about
six years as county road super
intendent. About 50 of Watts’
co-workers celebrated his final day
with a luncheon, featuring sand
wiches, hors d’oeuvres and cake,
in the Monroe County Board of
Commissioners’ chamber. Com
mission Chairman Greg Tapley,
District Commissioners John
Ambrose and Eddie Rowland, and
County Manager Jim Hedges each
gave brief remarks thanking Watts
for his outstanding service.
Although Watts made his retire
ment decision about a year ago,
he said the reality of retirement
has really set in over the past few
weeks.
“The last couple of weeks I’ve lost
a lot of sleep thinking about, ‘How
am I not going to get up and go
to work?’ Watts said. “I know I’m
going to catch myself riding by and
checking on the guys quite often.”
It’s Watts’ relationship with his
road department staffers that he’s
going to miss most in his retire
ment.
“I’m just going to miss the ca
maraderie I had with my guys. I’m
going to miss that,” Watts said. “We
knew everything about everybody,
and you become a family. Every
body had everybody’s back. I’m
proud of that. Our teamwork is
second to none when it comes to
storms. It’s more so now than it’s
ever been.”
Watts, a Marshall, N.C. native,
was hired in 1990 by then-Monroe
County Road Superintendent
From left, Christy Watts, Junior Watts
Futch at Juniors retirement party.
Brack Goolsby as a right-of-way
tractor operator. From there, Watts
acquired his Commercial Driver’s
License (CDL) to become a truck
driver. He then serviced county
equipment for several years before
becoming a motor grader operator
and eventually lead man, which is
the second highest position in the
department. After road superin
tendent Cliff Howard had to retire
due to medical issues in early 2016,
Watts was promoted to interim
road superintendent. Watts then
had the interim tag permanently
removed by Commissioners in
January 2017, and he has served as
road superintendent ever since.
Watts credited Howard with
making him his right-hand man
and putting him in position for
success.
“I was proud to get my shot at it
(road superintendent) because he
(Howard) knew I could pull it off,
and I knew I could,” Watts said.
“It was a hard
road for a few
months, but ev
erything leveled
out and it went
good.”
Watts said his
versatility and
years of experi
ence allow him
to better relate to
his employees.
“Every job the
road depart
ment has to
offer, I’ve got
several years
of experience
in personally’
Watts said. “So
and Gary therefore, I
would never ask
my guys to do
something that I
haven’t done.”
Watts said his most memorable
work experiences usually involved
natural disasters like the infamous
Flood of 1994, which forced the
road department to repair every
cross drain in the entire county.
Just in the six years that Watts has
been road superintendent, the
county has seen numerous tor
nadoes and hurricanes that have
flooded or knocked down trees
on county roads. In September
2020, major flooding caused North
Rivoli Farms Drive to collapse,
creating a 20-foot-deep hole in the
ground and trapping at least eight
families inside their subdivision.
Watts’ road department crews
worked for more than 24 hours
straight to repair the damaged
road.
“I’ll miss the adrenaline of getting
out during floods, tornadoes, and
ice storms and getting roads back
open for public safety reasons,”
Watts said. “When you clean up
500 miles of road after a hurricane
comes through, that’s a sense of
accomplishment. And the group
of guys that I have put together
over the course of the last six years,
they are second to none as far as
I’m concerned. When it comes to
natural disasters, I wouldn’t want
to have a tornado without them.”
Some other key accomplish
ments under Watts’ leadership
were several Georgia Environ
mental Protection Division (EPD)
projects at the Monroe County
landfill in which road department
staffers lent their hands to perform
hard labor, like moving a vast
concrete pile to a designated site.
Had the county hired an outside
agency to perform those tasks, it
would have cost the county over
$1 million more than it did to rent
some heavy equipment and have
Watts’ crew do the jobs. Watts also
was influential in the passage of
the 2021 Transportation Special
Purpose Local Option Sales Tax
(TSPLOST) by providing numer
ous information sessions with local
citizens and civic clubs concerning
the penny tax.
Watts said his lone regret as road
superintendent is that right-of-way
and cost issues have prevented the
resurfacing of McCowan Road
under his watch, but that project is
still on the docket for the future.
Just over a month ago, Monroe
County County Manager Jim
Hedges announced that Watts’
successor would be former Grif
fin public works director Chris
Walker. Walker was given the title
of Monroe County Public Works
Director while Watts’ longtime
lead man, Gary Futch, was pro
moted to Public Works Operations
Manager.
Watts said he will help Walker in
any way he can and said he’s proud
of Futch’s continued success.
“I made Gary my lead man about
four years ago, and he’s done an
exceptionally good job,” Watts said.
“He’s great with people, he’s great
with the guys, and he’s good with
public relations.”
In the meantime, Watts will get
to relax a little after years of hard
work. He plans to spend more
time with wife Tammy, Monroe
County’s Deputy Tax Commis
sioner, and son Jacy, 19, who is
studying to become a computer
programmer, while continuing to
enjoy some of his favorite hobbies,
which include fishing, collecting
Native American arrowheads, and
restoring guns. Watts said he has
already received some part-time
job offers and will mull them over
in the coming months.
Monday’s party at the adminis
tration building was not the only
celebration held in Watts’ honor.
On Oct. 10, his road department
staffers hosted a cookout at the
road department office that was
attended by about 100 friends,
family, and co-workers. Chair
man Tapley even cooked about
two-dozen racks of ribs for the
function.
“I had a great time. It meant a lot
to me,” Watts said of the cookout.
“Not too many people have the
chairman of the Board of Com
missioners get up at 4:00 in the
morning for them.”
Monroe County Commissioners
designated Tuesday, Oct. 18 as “Ira
Watts Jr. Day” in Monroe County.
Article by Monroe County public
information officer Richard Dumas.
Justin Wachtel takes
13th at ACC meet
Former Mary Persons cross country star Justin Wachtel
placed 13th at ACC meet on Saturday, Oct. 28. Next up is
for Wachtel is the NCAA Regionals in Louisville.
Vein Specialists
OF THE SOUTHS
COMPREHENSIVE VEIN CARE
Forsyth man charged in High Falls assault
A Forsyth man was jailed on Oct.
26 after a woman claimed he as
saulted her at the High Falls
Hideaway. According to the
sheriff’s report, deputy Jason
O’Steen responded to 5047
High Falls Road where Jamie
LeCroy told him that her son,
31-year-old Samuel Edgar
LeCroy, had possibly assault
ed a woman on the premises. LeCroy
She added that he had mental
could smell
marijuana on him and noticed his
pupils were constricted.
LeCroy then became
increasingly annoyed and
borderline hostile exclaim
ing “Nothing happened! We
did some drugs together
and made out! If she says
anything else, she’s lying!”.
Believing LeCroy was being
untruthful, O’Steen
had him turn around and cuffed him.
The items on his person were given to
his mother and he was locked in the
patrol car.
The victim said she wanted to pros
ecute because she did not want this
to happen to anyone else. LeCroy was
taken to jail on the charges of sexual
battery and false imprisonment.
issues and should be in the
hospital.
O’Steen tried to speak with
the 24-year-old victim who
was crying, shaking, and
having trouble speaking. He
walked her away from the
crowd and she told him was
in the laundry room when
LeCroy came in wearing a
camouflage baseball cap and
blue shirt and started asking
her if she wanted to smoke
marijuana with him. When
she told him no, he grabbed
her and shoved her against the
wall in the laundry room. She
said that he shut the door and
tried to lock it while hold
ing her against it groping her
vagina, dry humping her and
kissing on her neck and chest.
She said she was able to fight
him off enough to get away
and run to a room.
While O’Steen was talking
to the woman LeCroy came
down the stairs but ran back
up them when he saw the
deputy. O’Steen quickly went
to him and asked if he was
Samuel LeCroy and LeCroy
became very irate shouting,
“This is bulls-! I ain’t done s—
!” He then asked, “Is this about
that girl?” O’Steen answered
that it might be and asked him
what happened. The deputy
NOW
HIRING!
OPEN POSITIONS
• Medical Assistant
• Patient Services Coordinator
APPLY NOW!
Send your resume
and cover letter to
winningteam@vssga.com
Dog ‘Rebel’ made him yell with bite
By Steve Reece
stevereece@gmail.com
A large black and white dog
named Rebel bit a 54-year-old man
who was walking on the sidewalk
in front of Mid State Appliance
Repair at 42 East Johnston Street on
Oct. 6. According to the incident
report, deputy Hannah Hile was
dispatched to Jonah’s on Johnston
at 26 East Johnston Street where
she met with Jeffery Michael Taylor
who told her he was on the sidewalk
walking westbound with Wendie
Dawn Ware when the dog’s owner,
Kathy Lynn Sharp, approached from
the opposite direction with Rebel
secured on a leash.
As the dog got closer to Taylor,
he started barking, pulling on his
leash, and showing his teeth. Taylor
and Ware scooted to the edge of the
sidewalk, nearly hugging the wall of
the business. Suddenly, Rebel lunged
at Taylor and bit down on his left
bicep. He stuck his left arm out to
push the dog off and Rebel bit his
left index finger. Taylor was bleeding
when Hile arrived, but Sharp had
already left with the aggressive dog.
Taylor gave the deputy a sticky
note with Sharp’s phone number she
had left with him. Hile called the
number and told her to return with
the dog which she did with Rebel in
a cage.
Sharp provided updated rabies
vaccinations and medical records
and Hile immediately contacted
Monroe County Animal Services.
Rebel was quarantined for 10 days.