Maine news, sports, weather | Kennebec Journal, Augusta, Maine

Director 'loved his job from day one'

Charest retiring after 42 years working for Augusta Public Works

By Keith Edwards kedwards@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- Other than his Navy service, and a summer on a survey crew for the state transportation department when he was fresh out of Cony High School, Augusta Public Works is the only place John Charest ever worked.

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Matt Jackson sweeps up around the newly installed granite sign at the public works facility on North Street in Augusta. Charest will be retiring soon from his long career working for the city.

Staff photo by Joe Phelan

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John Charest

Staff photo by Joe Phelan

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It's a job he loved.

And still loves, after 42 years.

If it weren't for his current battle against cancer, the 64-year-old would still be working for the city as director of public works.

"I loved this job from day one, I say that honestly," the affable Charest said recently in his office overlooking the Augusta Public Works complex off North Street. "If my health was better, I'd like to have stayed another two or three years. But I just can't physically do it anymore."

That may be because for Charest, being director means putting in the same long hours as his laborers and drivers during snowstorms and major projects.

"If the crew was here plowing, no matter how many hours, he was right here too, all through the night," said foreman Bug Cram, who's worked with Charest for some 32 years. "He worked with the belief if there was a crew here, a tired crew, he was going to be tired too. He's a great guy, with a strong work ethic. John has always instilled that. He's been a great leader."

Among the marathon work sessions was the ice storm of 1998, during which public works crews, and Charest, worked five straight days and nights without going home.

Charest, an Augusta native and resident, initially didn't want the director's job, preferring to remain out in the field as general foreman, rather than take the more office-oriented post.

His first city job, while in high school, was digging graves by hand. He later manned a garbage truck, among other things, before joining the Navy.

Charest both served in Vietnam and learned how to operate heavy equipment while in the Seabees. He left the Navy in 1969, on a Thursday, and was working as an equipment operator for Augusta Public Works the following Tuesday.

He's been there ever since.

He agreed to serve as interim director in 1982, when former director Elmer Degon retired. After a year as interim, Charest relented to pressure from Paul Poulin, then city manager, and agreed to assume the job he's had ever since.

"You won't find a person more dedicated to the city, or his work," said Lesley Jones, director of solid waste for the city, who's worked with him for 24 years and will take on the bulk of his responsibilities. "We don't know public works without John. He has been our rock, who we've depended on. It's going to be a big adjustment to do this without him. We always think 'What would John do?'"

Charest said the decision to retire was difficult, but making it felt like a weight was lifted from his shoulders.

Charest said it didn't bother him to not be involved in the first snowstorm of the season last week, though he did call Jones to see how the plowing was going, and came by the public works garage for a brief visit.

"I woke up and saw it was snowing," Charest said of the recent storm that brought out the plows. "I really thought it would bother me, but it didn't."

At least something of Charest, however, will always be outside the pubic works complex -- his name. In response to a petition begun by public works employees, the city is expected to name the public works complex after him. The City Council will consider formally naming the facility after Charest at their meeting Thursday.

The public works crew didn't wait for that vote, though, to go ahead and install the actual sign.

"John Charest Public Works Facility," is carved into a large slab of granite -- John's granite -- installed at the gate to the facility last week.

In his time as director, Charest was notorious for insisting any granite or other reusable stone dug up in a project be kept for future use. The stuff is stashed in large piles around the garage complex. His stash, unbeknownst to Charest, was raided for the slab that now bears his name.

"He was always big on, 'No, we're not getting rid of that, we'll use it for something," Cram said of the recycled stone. "We told him, 'John, we had to use some of your granite,' for the sign."

Dale Glidden, of Winthrop, former leader of the Augusta Water and Sanitary Districts for some 35 years, said the city won't realize how valuable Charest was until after his retirement. In his position, Glidden often worked with Charest on joint construction projects.

He praised Charest for always being ready to help in emergencies, and said workers loyal to a single employer for their entire career are a dying breed.

"There is no longer the allegiance between employer and employee; it's not like it used to be," Glidden said. "I think the days of people working as long as John and I did may be a thing of the past. He's been a great asset to the city for a lot of years."

Charest was one of a handful of city employees who traveled to Waveland, Miss., a Gulf Coast town 35 miles from New Orleans -- to help that community recover from Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"Lesley Jones sought me out and said 'I hope you're asking John to go," City Manager William Bridgeo said at a recent retiree recognition event. "I confess I hadn't yet thought to ask John, and I said 'Why do you say that?' 'Well because,' she said, 'he's the toughest, savviest, most resourceful person in the city, and you know if you get in a bad spot, you're going to want him there with you.'"

Charest's late father, Henry, worked for Augusta Public Works for more than 20 years, retiring as a foreman in 1982. Charest said his dad encouraged him to become director when he was offered the job.

"My dad was very talented when it came to construction work," Charest said. "He had a limited education, but he taught me an awful lot growing up. We talked about (taking the director's job) at length. He said 'Go for it. There is no doubt in my mind you can do it.'"

Cram, who said his own first job with the city was pushing a broom, said Charest working as a gravedigger and, later, a laborer and then equipment operator in public works before working his way up to director gave him a strong connection to the crews who worked for him.

Charest said he thinks about the hardest job in the city is working the back of a garbage truck and throwing some 25 tons of trash bags, per truck, per day, in the heat of summer and dead of winter. He knows because he's done it.

"One of the things I feel good about is I can relate to that," Charest said. "I've been on the back of a rubbish truck."

Charest said he plans to spend time with his grandchildren and visit family in Florida. He plans to remain in his home in Augusta -- but may go to Florida for the winter months.

Mayor Roger Katz said Charest is the epitome of a leader.

"I never met a single person who doesn't like and respect him, and his men would run through a wall for him," Katz said. "It's a big loss for the city."

Keith Edwards -- 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com