Public works employee worked at East Butler for 50 years
EAST BUTLER — On Jan. 13, 1974, a public works employee at the borough gave the keys to a snow plow to councilman Kenneth Crispin, who then asked his younger brother, 28-year-old Chuck Crispin, to plow the roads in the borough.
Chuck Crispin went on to be the first full-time employee of the borough, and worked for East Butler in some capacity until his retirement, ending 50 years to the day of his first time driving a borough plow.
“I have been here since that day,” Crispin said Friday, Jan. 26. “They have been really good to me all this time.”
Crispin worked at Pullman Standard before working for East Butler, but, as someone who was born in a house in East Butler, Crispin said working for the borough was second nature to him.
He became a full-time employee in 1978. Journals Crispin kept document the people he worked with in the department, the members of East Butler council and even equipment the borough owned.
Over the years, Crispin worked alongside 63 other employees who came in and out of the borough over his tenure. Even when he “semi-retired” in 2008, borough administrators asked Crispin to stay on part-time because of his know-how.
“I was going to work two days a week, but we couldn’t keep up so I went to three days a week,” Crispin said. “Something like this, you’ve got to be dedicated, because you’ve got to get up at 4:30 to see if it’s snowing. If it wasn’t snowing, you went back to bed.”
He said the work has become a little easier over the years, thanks to his co-workers and new technology.
“When I first started, you had 80-pound bags of salt you had to pull onto the truck,” Crispin said. “Now you just get the bag, load up the salt and it takes you about 15 to 20 minutes.”
In addition to his regular work on streets in East Butler, Crispin said he worked to build the borough’s Brandon Park in the 1980s. He joked that he hoped in retirement borough council would rename the park “Crispin Park” in his honor.
East Butler Mayor Shawn Nagy said he has known Crispin for 25 to 30 years, even before his own service on council. He said Crispin had always been an easy person to work with, and someone who would even take the initiative to complete work before council asked him to, like replacing street lights or salting roads.
“We didn't have to give him a list of anything, we just let him go and he would do it,” Nagy said. “Everything he's done for us in the borough was amazing, no one had to tell him what to do.”
East Butler Council Member Tracie Williams said council helped plan a retirement party for Crispin, which took place on his 50-year anniversary with the borough — also his retirement date — on Jan. 13.
“On a personal level, Chuck will be very missed. Everybody in the borough knows Chuck,” Williams said. “He was very dedicated, took the job very seriously.”
Crispin’s self-described “semi-retirement” didn’t mean he stopped working, because he started his own company, Crispin’s Backhoe Service, in 2008 when he went part-time with the borough. Crispin said he once worked 21 days in a row between the borough and his company since its founding.
Now that he’s removed the “semi” aspect from his retirement, Crispin said he may find himself sleeping in a little more these days, even though he is still working for his own company.
Crispin has been married nearly 60 years and has two children, and he said he may spend more time with his family in retirement.
He said he likes to stay busy, and will always be available to East Butler administrators if he is needed.
“Having your own business is nicer because if you don’t want to do it tomorrow you could tell them you’ll be there the next day,” Crispin said. “I like to stay busy.”
