Longtime highway vets retire

By COURTNEY LAMDIN | Staff Writer
courtney@miltonindependent.com

If Howard Beaupre could plow snow 365 days a year, he would.

“I just like plowing snow,” Beaupre said. “I just like getting out there and trying to make the road safe for the school buses.”

Plowing snow is what Beaupre and his co-worker Bob Smith will miss most, now that they’ve retired after 30-plus years in Milton’s Highway Department.

Sitting at the highway garage on Thursday, June 2, Beaupre’s penultimate day of work, he and Smith reminisced about their combined 66 years of service to the town.

Back in the day, there were many more dirt roads and much less traffic. There was no town manager and no such thing as a purchase order. Beaupre didn’t even fill out an application to be hired.

One thing that didn’t change was Beaupre’s plow route. He drove the same one for his entire 31 years on the highway crew – the east side of town, including Lake and Bear Trap roads. He knows them “pretty close” to by heart, he said.

 Smith plowed the village area for just over a decade but moved snow on every Milton road in his 35 years; he doesn’t have a favorite route, he said.

“Doesn’t matter where it is, you’re still plowing snow,” Smith said.

The task may seem simple, but the job isn’t easy: Plow drivers face not only the elements but also unhappy customers if homeowners’ lawns get torn up or mailboxes knocked over.

Highway foreman David Antone said Smith’s village route is the most difficult due to high traffic and residences; this lends itself to more complaints.

“He took it in stride and did the best job he could,” Antone wrote in an emailed response.

Antone recognized both Smith and Beaupre as workers who always gave a little more. He remembered all the times Beaupre sent flowers and sympathy cards to people who had experienced a loss. And the times he came into work in the middle of the night.

Antone could count on Smith to know a resident on every road and lend them a hand, like the stranded school bus he shoveled out of the snow. Antone wouldn’t have heard of this act if not for someone sending a letter to the town, he said.

Milton resident Mary Noble was also a recipient of Beaupre and Smith’s charity.

Noble, a Hibbard Road resident for more years than Beaupre and Smith worked for the town, said the pair helped clear downed trees after a wind storm knocked down her 250-year-old barn three years ago.

“They stayed here the rest of the day and chipped all the debris they could and left a big pile of mulch,” Noble said. “They didn’t have to do that, but they did.”

Noble brings the entire highway crew homemade sticky buns, whoopee pies and other treats for keeping her hard-to-maintain road in shape, she said.

“They’re just good guys,” Noble said of Beaupre and Smith. “They looked after us so well. I’ll just miss their faces.”

Smith, who has been on medical leave since March for hip surgery, plans to spend his retirement hunting and working at Al’s French Frys and at his own concession stand that he brings to homes for auction.

Beaupre looks forward to working in his sugarwoods and fishing at the Floating Bridge in Brookfield. Still, if he could do his 31 years all over again, he would.

“But sometimes when it’s time to go, it’s time to go,” Beaupre said. “I think it’s going to be fun.”

“Once we get used to it,” Smith said.