Travis County Commssioners Court
June 29, 2004
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Item A3
Approve resolution honoring charles gildham on his retirement of the road maintenance division after 29 years of service to Travis County. Mr. Gildham is here. All right. I remember him during my young years when I was precinct 1 Commissioner. Did a little work with the road division out there. Reads whereas mr. Charles gildham as the radio operator signed to the satellite 1 is retiring on June 30th. 2004, that is tomorrow. Whereas he has served Travis County satellite services for 29 year, beginning his career with the coin as a maintenance worker for precinct one, he quickly honed and learned the construction skills an assumed the responsible position of a heavy equipment operator. Whereas the county consolidated all road maintenance activities in one department in 1988, he continued to work with the precinct 1 group serving with the reconstruction crew that serviced all four precincts. He's also worked on many other crews including the mowing and brush patch drainage, seal coat. He's served as a crew leader when asked on numerous occasions earning the distinction of department employee of the year in 1995. Whereas after working on these various crews, many employees of tnr have been cross trained by him where they were taught not only the fundamental rules of equipment and tools but where they were the constituents and customers because he knew most all of them personally and the varied history of each road way within precinct 1 because he had personally worked on each of them. Whereas mr. Gildham known to all as brother, the man with the key ring of at least 50 keys in his pocket t man with a lunch that you know contained beany weanies. [laughter].
>> which is the name for vienna sausage and cookies. The man with the smile who would address each coworker in the morning with a firm hand shake and at least 50 hearty good morning brother or sister. Whereas his retirement from Travis County will leave a void for his coworkers the county will not be able to replace his knowledge and broad smile. We know that he will now be able to do what he has always wanted. Raise cattle and horses on his ranch known by all as the leaning seat.
>> leaning seat.
>> and get some quality instruction plus a list of honey-dos from his real supervisor, his wife marcella, who is with us today? Good luck, mr. Charles gildham, be it resolved that we're the members of the Travis County Commissioner's court do hereby proclaim June 30th 2004 as charles gildham day in Travis County county Texas and encourage all residents to recognize and join his family and friends in this happy celebration of his retirement and I move approval. Is there a big going away party for you mr. Gildham.
>> we'll, we'll have that Friday. It will be Friday.
>> this Friday coming up.
>> the members of the Commissioner's court invited?
>> all the members are invited.
>> we leave on friendly terms. [laughter]
>> let's let some of the department people speak. You may want to have the last say today.
>> good morning, Commissioners, don wheeler, division director of road maintenance and fleet services. Charles have worked for me for 15 years of that 29 and as the proclamation read, you can see he's a very hard worker and he's going to be hard to replace. Replace him, yes, we will, but there's one thing that we will not be able to replace and at that is the fact that charles is the best ambassador this court has in the field. When it's dealing with the commitment of the constituents of Travis County. Because of his personality, not only the fact that he works hard, that he is a hard worker, but the fact that charles gildam is the person that he is, you will not meet a more gentle human being that mr. Gildham and for that he will be sorely missed by all.
>> charles is a quiet man, but i've known him to be a man of honesty and integrity, whenever i've had any dealings with him, he's always been straight, honest and straightforward and that I appreciate. I particularly appreciate his hard work for the constituents of Travis County. And I just want to say thank you too.
>> any -- you'll have another worker around the house.
>> it was a long time in coming, but, you know, good to have him home.
>> all right.
>> you've been a quiet man for 29 years at the county. You don't have to be quiet now. Have your say.
>> to the Commissioner, to the staff and to the staff that I worked with, and to my coworkers, I’m going to miss my staff and I’m going miss my coworkers because this environment that I worked around, worked around some good workers that work right along beside me, worked hard as I worked, and through all of us working together, you can make it if you work together. Together we -- together we stand, divided we fall. And if you stay together, you'll always stand. But we worked along there together and we -- and if we had some more times, you know, working, you know, had some hard times, difficulties each other, we learned how to work that out amongst ourself and go on. And that's what work is all about. Team work. Can't one person do all the work, but he sure carry his part of the load or the work.
>> I just want to say that I -- I want to, first of all, I’m going to stand up and give you a big applaud for being the guy you are. [ applause ]
>> it's not often that -- we get the calls of course from our constituents, we get them on a daily basis, hey, you know, come out and check this out and, both the county government is the only government that folks have closest to them out in the unincorporated areas of the county and we depend on y'all to go out and provide these services, so they actually see you and I guess don summed it up pretty good when he said "ambassador" because you really are, all of you in the tnr and the departments out among the public, you are the ambassadors of Travis County and it makes you feel good that you have been a part of this family. Haven't had a chance to know you, haven't been here for 29 years, of course, but the time i've been here i've heard a lot of great things about you and I’m really glad you were here to service Travis County in the capacity in which you served. Thank you very much for your service, sir.
>> well, since I worked with you nine years, I know all of these good things to be true and we certainly will miss you and your hard work and dedication. We deeply appreciate, we want to make sure we have your phone number in case there are volunteer opportunities.
>> it's written down.
>> and we watt to wish you well in future endeavors.
>> and I want to add my thanks as well. You are the folks who are out there in front and you're the ones, we found out a few years ago, you're the ones who make us look good. When people compliment us about the condition of the roads or the parks or the sides, the right of way on roads, y'all are the ones that make us look good, and I think we need to keep trying to pay you for what you're worth, and certainly I think we can keep working and I certainly want us to keep working on that, because we appreciate you very much, and so it's always a loss when we lose a work horse like you are, and, you know, I was told some time ago by someone with real experience that there's two kinds of people. One is show horses and one is -- or the other is the work horses, and so we know that we need to pay people what they're worth, so thanks very much.
>> we know working with the court was easy. [laughter]. Mr. Wheeler, it must have been a challenge. You hung in there.
>> yeah.
>> anything further? Anything from coworkers?
>> yeah.
>> have a seat, tell us your name, be happy to get your comments.
>> thank you very much, Commissioner.
>> thank you.
>> my name is personal daniels, I work in precinct 1. This is kind of a happy moment and a sad moment for all of us in precinct 1. It's a happy moment for charles. I work with charles about 7, 8 years. Hard worker. Always got along. Always did what he was told to do. I worked under him, I worked for him. He taught me a lot while I was there. And I appreciate working with you. I know i'll see you down the line somewhere, you'll be coming back, but i'll always see you. On the sad moment I would like to say this on behalf of precinct 1: charles' immediate supervisor was his supervisor for more than fifteen years or sixteen years of his time, mr. Curtis mills, I guess y'all noticed that his mother passed away, he couldn't make it to be here, so we want to say on behalf of curtis and his family, our prayers go out to him. I know charles the same thing. This is kind of a [inaudible] for us. Charles had something else for you on Friday, I think. Now appreciate it.
>> thank you.
>> thank you very much.
>> thank you.
>> charles, I don't -- I don't know you, but it says enough when a piece of paper says 29 years. I will tell you that it is a tribute to a person to stay anywhere for 29 years, much less the kind of work that I know takes all of you all to do. I mean I -- I can only imagine that you're every bit as great as all your coworkers think that you are, and I think that it has been verified, you know, by Travis County and the 29 years that you have given this community and this community and you know, you are the example that all of us would like to see in a community, and so even though I don't know you, I know you must be a great guy, and I appreciate the time that you gave Travis County and you probably set a great example for a lot of people, so god bless you an good luck with whatever you still want to do because you still look like a young man to me. You got good genes. [laughter]
>> the thing I would like to add is sometimes we take it for granted that there's a whole lot of folks, and charles being one of them, that have been through a lot of changes in this organization. We take it for granted that the organization that we have today is the way that it's been those entire 29 years that you've been with us and that is not true. You were here for the creation of the old pitd department which turned into what we now know as transportation and natural resources, changing its whole mission and focus. You above through leadership changes. You went through the precinct based road system to now a unit road system. When there were no standards for how roads are maintained in each precinct, to having this court say, yes, there will be consistency and there will be standards, and we've met all of those standards and you and every one of those coworkers out to be very proud to be part of this organization in terms of growing the transportation annal resources division that we have got today. I appreciate your service. 29 years say as whole lot. Thank you.
>> you have an opportunity to change your mine, mr. Gildham. [laughter].
>> all in favor? That passes by unanimous vote.
>> you heard what we told mr. Williams about the rolex watch and the wal-mart gift certificate? Congratulations to you. You don't want the rest of the court to come to the party on Friday, just give me a call.
>> you take care of yourself and stay busy. All right. You stay plenty busy. I know your wife has a lot for you to do. Take care of yourself.
>> thank you so much for your service, sir.
>> thank you.
>> thank you.
>> appreciate y'all coming down and seeing mr. Gildham off. Transportation department
Last Modified: Wednesday, June 30, 2004 9:28 AM