Washam looking forward to camping, fishing in retirement

By: 
Steve Chapman

Joe Washam

Longtime Miller public works director set to retire after 43 years of service
 
Starting Monday, Nov. 1, Joe Washam is going to have a lot of free time on his hands. That is when Washam, the public works director for the city of Miller, is set to retire after 43 years on the job.
Over the course of his career, Washam said, very little has actually changed about what he does. One change he has seen is in the number of people he supervises. Today, he works with a two-man crew, but when he started, he was on his own.
“I was the only one,” he said. “I was by myself. I took care of the water and the wastewater and the streets and just whatever. (Now) we’ve got more help, and we’ve got a lot more equipment. We didn’t have hardly anything when I started over 40 years ago.”
Washam said one of his greatest challenges as public works director has been seeing to it that all of the city’s utilities function correctly.
“(The hardest part of the job is) keeping everything going sometimes,” he said. “(Somedays), everything works pretty well, and then it can all quit at one time.”
As such, Washam has had to prioritize his tasks, meaning that some of them may be put off for extended periods of time.
“You’ll start something and you might not get to finish (because) something else comes up,” he said. "You can finally finish after you’ve (tried to get to it) two or three times later.”
Sometimes, there are safety hazards. Washam recounted one time when a mistake on the job almost cost him his life.
“We had an incident when we had a (pump) motor lock up … and accidentally released the clutch on it,” he said, “and it hit me across the forehead.”
Washam walked away with 13 stitches; he said it could have been much worse.
“I (am) lucky, I guess, to still be here,” he said. “I’ll … never forget that.”
Despite the challenges and hazards, Washam said he’s enjoyed his job, particularly because it’s never been boring.
“It’s not a lot of repetition; everything’s different,” he said. “It’s kind of nice not doing the same thing all of the time. You never know what you’re going to get into. It changes sometimes, from hour to hour, sometimes (in) 30 minutes.”
In his retirement, Washam said he is looking forward to doing the activities he enjoys.
“I wanted to retire when I could still do some camping and fishing,” he said. “Don’t want to wait too long, or you can’t do it.”
While he plans on enjoying some leisure time, Washam hasn’t ruled out going back to work.
“Maybe (I’ll) come back to the city part-time,” he said. “I don’t know. But that’s down the road.”
After Washam steps down, Danny Collier, a member of the city’s maintenance department, will take over as Miller’s public works director.

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Lawrence County Record

312 S. Hickory St.
Mt. Vernon, MO, 65712
www.lawrencecountyrecord.com

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