HOULTON, Maine — Taking over for someone who spent 25 years on the job could be looked upon as a tough act to follow.
Fortunately Houlton’s new public works director, Chris Stewart, enjoys a good challenge.
Stewart has 12 years of experience in road construction and maintenance. Prior to joining the town, he worked at the Houlton Water Company. He replaced Leigh Stilwell, who retired in July after nearly 25 years with the town.
A native of Hodgdon, Stewart has spent much of his life in southern Aroostook County. He graduated from Hodgdon High School in 2002 and spent a couple of years in the workplace, trying to save money for his college education.
He enrolled in the University of Maine at Fort Kent and spent two years studying criminal justice.
“I basically ran out of money,” he said. “I worked the entire time I was up there, working summers with Steelstone in road construction.”
Although he only had a few more courses to take, he was offered a job at the Maine Department of Transportation in Houlton, which proved to be too good to pass up. He spent three years working with MDOT, helping build roads in the summertime and plowing in the winter.
“The pay was OK, but it wasn’t really satisfying for me,” he said. “I learned a great deal about roads during that time.”
A position at Houlton Water Company opened up and Stewart soon found himself working in the water treatment and sewer collection department. He spent five years in that position, which provided a good base of knowledge for Houlton’s many town roads.
“I had to know the roads, because that was part of the job,” he explained. “I learned a great deal about the infrastructure of the town, whether it was replacing water mains or building new lines. About 90 percent of the time I was in a backhoe, digging trenches and catch basins.
Most recently, he was one of the supervisors on the North Road sewer line construction project.
Stewart said as much as he enjoyed his time at HWC, a change was needed, so when the opportunity arose to join the town’s public works department he decided to go for it. Stewart added he feels that his time spent at HWC helped prepare him for his new role as the town’s public works director.
“There is a lot to it and I am learning every day,” he said.
The town’s public works department employs 10 full-time people, not including Stewart. He credits Bob Monfils, the assistant public works director, for being a tremendous asset during the transition.
“Bob has been just fantastic and really, the whole crew has been great,” he said. “From Day One, the morale has been great, the work is getting done and everyone is doing a good job with it.”
His abilities were put to the test the very first week on the job, as the first winter storm of the season dropped more than a foot of snow on the Shiretown. That storm presented a number of challenges because the department was not anticipating such a severe storm so early in the season.
“We really were not ready for that one,” he explained. “We had three breakdowns that happened and that created a whole new set of problems.”
His time plowing roads with MDOT has served as a good precursor for knowing when the right time is to send out the town plow trucks for clearing roads or dropping salt and sand.
“A lot of it is guess work when it comes to plowing,” he said. “I think I have a good grasp of that.”
Inspecting the department’s vehicles and equipment has been eye opening, but he feels the current town council is sympathetic to his plight.
“We have a lot of old equipment here that needs to be replaced,” he said. “That doesn’t mean we need brand new stuff, but we do need to upgrade. One of the plow trucks we are using is a 1986 truck. The alternator went in that truck during that first storm.”
Getting the town’s equipment up to more modern standards will be one of his primary goals, he said. To accomplish that mission, Stewart said he plans to monitor the state auctions in the hopes of finding some newer vehicles for the town.
