HomeMy WebLinkAboutCustomer Service Story ~1960 Jig
A long time ago when I was about ten and growing up at 614 Welsh Ave, I
(WO learned how the City Staff worked. The utility power lines that fed our house
went right by my bedroom, The Northers would blow and they would swing in the
wind. I first learned about harmonic motion when I noticed the poles were too
far apart and the lines would dance in such a way they would nearly short!
So, one day, when I saw a. man climbing down off the pole that had the power
and phone lines on it at the hack of the house, I asked him. "Who do you work
for ?" He paused, coming down the pole, then grinned at me and said, "Why, I'm
with the City Utility department; I work for you!"
So I said, "Well, then let me show you why I'm afraid while I'm in my bedroom
when the Northers blow!" He stood on the ground while I swung on the guy wire
t.hat anchored the pole at the hack of the house. Eventually the dancing wires
got out of synchronization in harmonic motion and .. they shorted and arced!
A short while later the utility service was removed from the side of the house
and moved where the power poles had just then gone down one side of the alley
out hack of the house. There was a. variance that had to he issued relative to
our extension of the garage as a work room for Dad and I, of three feet, as
this happened. Others have noted that this simple three foot variance took
three trips to the Planning and Zoning group and the signatures of all the
neighbors for many homes around us before it was finalized, Notice is notice.
From this I learned about both variances, nearly 50 years ago in the College
Park Subdivision, and what one has to do to get them, properly. I learned
something valuable also about how a. good city employee handles things. A man
much smarter than I will ever he told, me, in effect, "I'm a proud employee of
the City of College Station Utility Department; I'll help all of us here,
while I take care of you!"
I believe if the motto, "I'm a. proud employee of the City of College Station;
I work for the People of College Station ", were on every calling card, hack of
every employee's desk on the wall, posted upon the doorposts of every public
works building and upon the City's gates, I believe most of the fussing with
the people would stop.
Another man far smarter than I will ever he and a. far better writer said it
plainly. If EVERY City employee could he taught to live that motto and answer
t.o, "Whom do you work for ? ", that way, of City - Citizen trouble, mostly,
"The cares that infest the day..
would fold their tents like the Arabs..
and silently steal away."
Please consider implementing the position, officially, as policy, that "I am a.
proud employee of the City of College Station; I work for the People of this
Great. City.
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