During public works week, two long-time Spartanburg employees reflect, look toward future
While some people inherit the family business, Tim Atkins and Johnny Ravan's family business is local public works.
Atkins, 50, has served 29 years with the City of Spartanburg’s Environmental Services, while Ravan, 69, will hit the 50-year mark with Spartanburg County Roads and Bridges in July. The men were among the public works employees celebrated during National Public Works Week.
Both men recall fond memories of their jobs and are looking forward to their roles in upcoming local government initiatives.
Each shares family ties to public works. Ravan’s father was an elected county supervisor, who then performed the same tasks as the current public works director.
“I’ve loved it. I love being outside, I love the people I work with,” Ravan said of his long career, which has gone from dredging sand from riverbeds in the freezing cold to leading the Roads and Bridges department.
Atkins began his career with the city in 1995 riding on the back of trash trucks. From there, he obtained his commercial driver’s license and worked his way up into management. After 10 years as an environmental services coordinator, he became environmental services manager at the beginning of the year, overseeing waste and recycling efforts in the city.
As the third generation of Atkins men to work in the city of Spartanburg, the career path felt natural. Freshly married when he started shortly before his 21st birthday, Atkins said the job as a garbage collector “molded” him.
As “far as I can remember back, I've been running around the city since I was a little kid,” Atkins said.
Witnesses to growth
The men have witnessed the Spartanburg area’s growth.
Ravan described the roads when he first joined the department as being in “terrible” shape. He said he’s proud of gradual improvements to the road infrastructure.
The county's latest efforts are the “county safety action plan” and improvements of the road network funded by the penny sales tax. Ravan’s department is “right in the middle of all that,” he said. After a given project is built, Roads and Bridges’ job is to maintain it.
Collections for the tax began May 1, and a construction bid was recently awarded for the first projects. Pre-construction meetings will happen next week. In light of these efforts, earlier this year, the county approved nine new positions within the public works department focused on transportation.
More: Roads update: County requests federal funds for corridor improvement; bridge deemed unsafe
Ravan began with the county roads crew so long ago that he can recall working alongside “the chain gang.” He then moved to the bridge crew and became a supervisor before a back injury prompted his move to office management.
“I've always enjoyed it, I've always tried to give 100%,” Ravan said. “Because, you know, when I go home at night, I like to look back and say, ‘I’ve done that...I had a part in that.’”
He isn’t alone, as Atkins also sees his department needing to match the pace of development in the area.
“More subdivisions mean more garbage cans need to be ordered, more garbage has to be collected and taken to the landfills, and (we’re) trying to plan for future needs,” Atkins said.
Atkins said technological advancements are a tremendous help. About 2010, the city switched to automatic side-loading trucks that can lift rolling trash bins from the roadside.
He is proudest of the recycling program, which has also been aided by the automated trucks. From the program’s inception in 1993 until the mid-2010s, the process was painstaking. City employees collected the recycling in smaller tote bins and manually sorted the recyclables.
Give feedback through new app
Technology has also helped with citizen feedback and communication, an area that has seen another advancement in recent months — the revival of a citizen feedback app.
“The people are our key asset to getting the job done,” Atkins said. “The biggest thing is communication. We don't know the issues unless they talk to us.”
The app, “MySpartanburg,” is free on the App Store and Google Play store and can be downloaded. City spokesperson Christopher George said the app is geofenced so feedback can only be submitted when within city limits. However, it is not limited to city residents since many people commute in for work.
"(The app) lets you track the request, which is kind of neat,” George said. “Because if you call in and say, ‘Hey, there’s a missing stop sign’ you don’t get any indication that the issue’s been fixed. But with this, you do.”
Part of Ravan’s love for the job is the people. Now in management, Ravan enjoys the more frequent citizen engagement that comes with the job. But he remains fond of his days with the bridge crew.
“In the wintertime we’d go up to the river and we dredge sand with the drag line, and I loved that, it would be freezing,” Ravan said. “Ice freezing on the cables while you’re digging sand. And you'd sit there and build a big fire and have your lunch out there.”
Atkins said he appreciates the recognition the city is giving public works employees.
“I think it's great because it’s not just the county and the state guys, but you know, all the workers out there on the road, don't get enough recognition,” Ravan said.
He doesn’t plan to retire immediately, which might be good news for the many future public works projects.
“Spartanburg County’s grown a lot in the last 25 years," Ravan said, "and it ain’t slowing down.”
Chalmers Rogland covers public safety for the Spartanburg Herald-Journal, Greenville News and USA Today Network. Reach him via email at crogland@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: Veteran public works employees recognized for service to Spartanburg
