Community Corner
This is a Story About A Legendary Local Highway Man
Not a "Highway Man" who rode a horse wearing a mask and holding a pistol to rob travelers. That all ended in the 19th Century.
My “Highway Man” is a person who maintains the Orangetown roads we drive on.
His name is Jim [not James] Dean and he has been a “Highway Man” in the town of Orangetown for 62 years, maybe a County or State record ?
Jim was living in the post WW II Camp Shanks veterans housing in Orangetown [His dad was a veteran] in 1952 when he started started working “Part Time” while attending school until 1959, when he went “Full Time” in the Orangetown Highway Department.
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By 1970 Jim was a Foreman, by 1982 the Assistant General Foreman, by 1986 the General Foreman. He climbed the ladder the hard way and earned the promotions via his performance.
In 1997 Jim ran in a General Election and won to become the Orangetown Highway Superintendent. He never lost an election after that based on his performance. Performance is the key word here. Jim lives by his 5 “Ps” - “Prior Planning Prevents Poor Performance”. I am told from reliable sources that he taught this to his 3 Daughters and 13 Grandchildren and he is planning to do the same to his 9 Great-Grandchildren.
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When I asked him to share his story of the history of taking care of the roads which carry a lot more faster cars and bigger trucks than when he started, he told me this analog or parallelism.
Winters always held the greatest challenges to a highway man with freezing rain, snow and ice. As a young man he became a “Hand Bomber”. It was their job to shovel a mixture of coal cinders from the back of a truck on the roads. Then they shoveled salt and sand. Then just salt. Then liquid salt water, which could pre-treat the roads. This was a mega “Break-Though”. He introduced it to the New York Metro Area and was recognized as a pioneer on the entire Coast.
But he didn’t stop. Next came liquid asphalt made from tar pitch and finally an emulsion made from petroleum. The parallelism was about change and progress for the better.
Jim is blessed by enjoying a long career he is passionate about and devoted to and Orangetown is blessed having Jim Dean.
