Public Works Has Large Crew

Public Works Director Mike Walsh is no stranger to hard work. Prior to his taking over as the Director of Jasper County’s Public Works Department, one of the county’s largest departments with 23 employees, Mike owned and operated his own company, Walsh Construction for many years.

He’s been with the Public Works Department pushing three years. With his construction company busier than ever, Covid hit and employees and materials became harder and harder to find, making it nearly impossible to keep pace with the work demand. He closed down his company, left self employment and took on the job at Public Works.

Mike is also no stranger to Jasper County. His mother’s family, the Tyler’s, has been in Jasper County since 1809. His family has lived on the same homestead, the one Mike and his family currently live on, since the 1830’s. “It’s home. I’ve always liked it. I like our county. I do,” he shared.

An alumni of Jasper County High School, Mike has been married 22 years to his wife Angela, the Jasper County Tax Commissioner. He and Angela have two children, daughter Laura and son Tyler. And as of a week ago, he has a new title, grandfather, with the birth of his daughter’s and her husband Alex Clements brand new baby girl.

Public Works is responsible, with the exception of state highways, for all of the roads and bridges in Jasper County, including cutting the grass on the road right of ways. He and his crew have approximately 300 miles of paved roads and right of ways and an estimated 274 miles of dirt roads. With each road having two lanes and two sides of right of ways on each mile of road that’s 1,200 miles of caretaking required for paved roads and another almost 1,100 miles of dirt roads and roadways. That doesn’t include the bridges or the landfill.

The landfill, open two days a week, is staffed on weekends by about six members of his crew.

His crew that already works 40 hours a week doing the road and bridge work is part of the staff for the landfill on the days it is open. With a $45 per ton dump fee, Mike estimates the average cost for most residents to use the dump rounds out to be about $8 to $10 a pick up truck and trailer load.

He calls himself fortunate to have the crew members he works with at public works, some of whom have been with the department since 1989, including the Pope brothers, a set of three that includes Ralph, Wendell and Kenneth. With respective start dates of 1989, 1991 and 2014, Mike, shaking his head in admiration, said that if given the chance he believed the Pope brothers would work seven days a week.

The list of dedicated public works employees is long, including team member Johnny Sands, known by everyone as Mighty Mouse, who at 75 years old drives one of the public works dump trucks.

And there’s Mike’s right hand, Lakeysha Jordan, who’s been with the county since 2002 and at the public works department for the last 12 of those years.

“If I need something done, it’s done in five minutes,” Mike said describing the help Lakeysha provides, and as Mike explained, he couldn’t do his job without her.

There’s supervisor Pete Standifer and Head Supervisor Eric Gude. Eric, a 16 year employee with the department who was also born and raised in Monticello is a family man with three grown children, one granddaughter with another granddaughter on the way.

Eric, a Jasper County Hurricane, has a team mindset, one he says he learned from his time playing high school football.

He described the feeling that as a team member he has a sense responsibility that is bigger than himself, sharing that teams have a responsibility to each other and the larger group, or in his case at work his crew and the larger Jasper County community. It is a belief that has carried him throughout his life.

With a background in clearing and grading and an operator of heavy equipment, Eric incorporates what he knows and learns and applies it to his work.

“I love my county. I try to make a difference,” he told me.

Road repair and paving is the biggest job for public works. Even with his dedicated crew of 23, Mike stated they struggle to keep up with the work. This year’s tornado and flood has the department working each day trying to catch up with their work load of needed road repairs, grading and paving.

“The tornado has put us behind and then in March we had a flood. We are behind on work orders,” Mike readily admitted.

The advent of growth in the county, the congestion at Turtle Cove now and the many new folks moving into the county also keep the department busy. Keeping up with the work needed for dirt roads keeps his crew the busiest and is one of the hardest things for Mike and his crew to keep up with. “Dirt roads are light duty roads,” Mike explained.

With all the people moving in (especially those from urban areas who have never lived on a dirt road) people buy homes on dirt roads and the roads were never designed to keep pace with the now busy traffic that the roads experience daily. There’s also the added issue that even though people buy homes knowingly on dirt roads, many have never lived on a dirt road and once they move in and experience life living on dirt roads, they want their roads paved.

Weather is always a factor in road and bridge work, even without the added tornado and flood, especially for paving tasks that require different temperatures depending on the type of task.

“Each repair is different. It’s like a puzzle,” Mike said. This summer’s heat hasn’t helped and though the crews operating the big equipment are kept cool in their air conditioned cabs, those on the ground are out in the unbearable heat that’s been occurring. The road crews work is already dangerous enough with drivers not slowing down and not being mindful of those working on the roads and the heat isn’t helping.

With a $400,000 GradAll machine, three motor graders, three dump trucks, assorted pick up trucks, a road patching machine and two brush cutters and blowers to blow debris, the department moved to a much larger and new building about three years ago. Located across from the original public works buildings, believed to be one of the oldest that was still in use by Jasper county, public works does now have the space it needs to store and work on all of its equipment.

Resurfacing and paving decisions are made by the Jasper County Board of Commissioners (BOC). Keeping up with the demand and prioritizing roads might not occur at the pace some county residents hope for, Mike is quick to add that the BOC has been generous and good to public works in making their work as easy as possible in their efforts to take care of Jasper County’s roads, right of ways and bridges. Online and in person work orders from residents comprises a good majority of their work and with the exception of emergencies, they try to fulfill work orders on a first come first serve basis. Jasper County is a big county geographically and with little to no industry, there’s not much of a tax base, leaving grants that are available for paving to help offset road paving costs.

Replacing decking on wooden bridges, patching pot holes, scraping dirt roads and replacing sign and barricades that get run over or stolen keeps public works busy. Add resurfacing and paving and regular road maintenance (not including the repaving) and public works has their work cut out for them. “We are going to do whatever it takes to get it done,” Mike assured, “my guys are multi-talented and hard workers.”

When Mike’s not at work he likes to spend his days hunting and fishing and taking care of his beef cows. He grew up baling hay and still enjoys doing that. He’ll be spending time with his new grand daughter, too. “I like the rural community,” he said, “I used to know everyone who lived around me.”

Jasper County Public Works is open Monday-Friday 7:00am-5:30pm and is located at 199 Mack Tillman Road, Monticello, Ga. They can be reached via phone at 706.468.4910. Work orders can be mailed in or placed online through the Jasper County, Ga website.