SIDNEY — For Maplewood resident Jim Stewart, who has worked since he was 12 and is known as the hard working employee always willing to go the extra mile, retiring from Sidney’s Parks and Recreation department after 29 years with nothing on his daily agenda is a new concept, but welcomed.
“I’m just going to hop on my bike and not do anything for quiet a while,” Jim Stewart said in a relaxed manner.
“He’s going to work for me for a while,” said Jim’s wife, Julie Stewart, with a laugh. “I’ve got a (to do) list a mile long. I’m excited for him.”
Jim, who is originally from up state New York, and Julie, who is from the Sidney area, met when they both worked in Texas for a period of time. Julie said after their first child was born she convinced him move to Ohio, where they went on to raise their three children.
After moving to Ohio and working at a couple of “good” mechanical jobs here, the opportunity arose to work for the city of Sidney. In 1988 Jim was hired as a mechanic for the city but transferred to the parks and recreation department 10 years later for greater variety in his work. He retired last week from the city as a maintenance II technician.
Jim said he began his career with the city working on “every rolling piece of equipment” Sidney owned and ended it still doing mechanical work, but also “designing, fabricating and whatever the needs may be.”
“Jim can do everything. We rely on him a lot. He was a great asset,” said Parks and Recreations Director Duane Gaier. “He would work on equipment, build structures, get ball fields ready and pool maintenance; opening and closing it. He worked on things for the parks, such as getting mowers running again. When people were off, he would step up; help drag the (ball) fields, for example.”
Jim said he was always trying to reinvent the wheel for the most efficient and cost effective way of doing things at his job. He designed a mechanism, which attached to a tractor, to quickly spread salt over city sidewalks and public areas versus the previous method by hand. He also developed a quicker and more efficient way of painting lines on the ball fields by designing a bracket that mounted to a tractor. This reduced the painting work from a process lasting a couple of days to only a few hours.
Working for the parks and recreation department means more than grooming city parks, Jim explained. It also means keeping the city in operational order. He recalled working 16 hour days for at least a week during a terrible ice storm in 2005. He said the city was without power for several days. They used chainsaws to cut away fallen trees and clear streets for emergency vehicles. When you work for the city, he said, you are on call 24/7 and may be needed to handle the unexpected, especially from storms.
Facilities Maintenance Supervisor Jim Heuing said Jim’s experience will be missed, not just as an employee, but also as a friend.
“Jim never found a job too challenging. He actually entertains challenges,” Heuing said. “(Jim is) just a good guy all the way around. Very mechanically inclined. When something needs done, he could do it.”
Life after retirement will be much more relaxed for the Stewarts. Julie said until her retirement, when they will be able to travel some, Jim will enjoy more time on his Harley Davidson motorcycle, and time for the two of them and their grandchildren. The Stewarts also have a lake home in Michigan that they look forward to enjoying more.
“There is a lot of knowledge there. He’s been great to work with and we will pick his brain with a phone call every once in a while,” Gaier said.
“It really hit me about two days (before the last work day) … I was a little sad. I’m going to miss the people I worked beside for so many years. I wont miss the calls at 2 a.m. But I am going to miss the people I worked with, miss the camaraderie and the good people,” Jim said.
