Growing up, Andy Perkinson watched his daddy work tobacco. By watching, and working, he developed a strong work ethic. But he also listened to his father, who told him to find a job that had some benefits and some retirement.
“I listened to him,” Perkinson told John C. Rose on Monday’s TownTalk. “I’m grateful that I did.”
Perkinson, who turns 51 next month, recently retired from a career with the City of Henderson.
He started out in 1993 as a maintenance worker. But when he officially retired on Jan. 1, held the position of public works director.
“The city was good to me,” Perkinson said, but added that he felt he also was good to the city. “Whatever I did, I did it with my whole heart,” he said.
City employees are responsible for everything from maintaining city cemeteries to fixing broken water mains, with lots of other things in between.
All the city’s department heads have great responsibilities, he said, it’s the public works director that responds to calls for service from everywhere.
A city’s public works director has got “everybody to worry about – police, fire, recreation,” Perkinson said.
The utilities and public works groups were combined under previous city manager Frank Frazier, which Perkinson said was a way to get employees cross-trained so they could multi-task or fill in where needed.
Whether dealing with a water main break or other problem that is going to result in an interruption of service, Perkinson said often the actual repair was the easy part.
“The repair isn’t the hard part,” he said. “It’s getting to it.”
Placing a call to 811 is a critical step to knowing where all the other utility lines are located. Having the right inventory in the warehouse is another key component to timely restoration of the service.
“If we didn’t have it in the warehouse and couldn’t fix it, it means people would be without service for an extended time,” Perkinson said.
Handling administrative tasks as public works director probably wasn’t tops on Perkinson’s list of things to do, but he did them, and credited the city staff for incredible support while he was learning the role.
Mayor Eddie Ellington reflected on Perkinson’s time with the city.
“I tell you, we already miss him,” Ellington said in a recent interview with WIZS News. “Andy was a guy (who) would delegate, but he would also get his hands dirty,” the mayor said.
Ellington said he happened to stop by the site of a city repair crew and asked where Perkinson was. “He pops up out of the ditch and says ‘I’m right here,’” Ellington said with a chuckle.
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