60 miles of tar roads, 32 miles of gravel roads, 30 bridges, 35 miles of sidewalks, 645 culverts, 2,000 drainage structures and the piping to connect them all, maintenance of all road signs. Add to that: filling in potholes, the whole issue of drainage of heavy rains we’ve been getting, pothole repairs, laying new surfaces on existing roads, regrading dirt roads, painting traffic lines on streets and shall I add snowplowing, mudseason? I could go on. The town employs twelve guys to look after that worklist and more. Gary Corey is one of them, and he’s the first to say it takes every guy to pull this off.
Gary Corey still lives in the house where he grew up in Brattleboro. When he graduated from Brattleboro Union High School in 1981, he immediately started working for the fire department in town. In 1996 he shifted to the Utilities Department as a mechanic. Six years ago he shifted to work as a mechanic with the Wastewater Treatment System and about 1 and ½ years ago he transferred to the Highway Department where he works now. That’s deep knowledge of firefighting, mechanics in so many facets, utilities, water treatment and now highways. Gary pretty much knows what goes into keeping this town up to snuff.
Even during Covid, Gary was a stayer. He didn’t miss a day. “I guess I just keep going. Since I started working for the town in 1981, I’ve missed three days from illness. Every year I donate all my remaining sick days to a pool – as a lot of us do- and if a fellow-employee needs hours for an emergency, he’s got a pool to draw from.”
And Gary’s not looking for sympathy. That’s who he is. “….got to keep the flow going or the State doesn’t like it.” He’s also the “flagger trainer” who trains or OK’s any people who attend to traffic management if traffic is affected by work on or along roads or highways.
So what are some things that people in Brattleboro can do to make the work of the Highway Department easier during winter? Gary answered: “If snow is predicted overnight, PLEASE don’t park on the street. Period. Pay attention to ‘No Overnight Parking – late October to early April.’ Just pay attention to those two rules and you’ll make our lives a whole lot simpler in winter ad we can keep the roads clear for everyone. None of us had a day off in January and that was more about rain than anything.”
Gary told me that “All twelve guys on the highway department have their own section of roads as well as sidewalks in town. Mine is Williams up to Western Avenue, Front, Willow, Elm, Flat, Elliot, Green, Bullock, Whipple and Union, Hill, Highlawn, Crosby, Strand Avenue, Brandon and West. Then we go out to The Country.”
“And out there, there are two spots we need to especially watch out for: that steep part of Melchin off Hinesburg and what we call “Danny’s Knub” – a lot of trucks come backwards down that one.”
Six of the guys on the Highway Crew have their own assigned truck. Gary has his own. I climbed up into the driver’s seat. Now that is one truck that’s VERY different from my 2004 Toyota Tundra pickup. I sat up there 10’-12’ feet above the road and it seemed everywhere I looked in the cab was another knob: dump body, plow angle, contour levers, side plows and plow pins and in the middle of it all what Gary referred to as “The Brain” where he can set and reset all the settings.
I asked him to tell me what those four main levers were for, each connected to “The Brain”. He struggled to remember because the four are virtually hardwired to his own brain. He never had to explain any of this to someone who knows NOTHING about his world. I backed away from my question. And imagine Gary’s in his truck in a snowstorm. He’s been up for eighteen hours straight and has hours to go (and he hadn’t had a day off between mid-December and the end of January.) You don’t THINK about which lever to turn or push or pull. You just DO it.
But the plow truck is not the end of the story of the vehicles Gary can operate: two 12M3 Caterpillar graders, the 672 John Deere grader, two 544 John Deere loaders and a L70 Volvo loader, two 14-yard tandem trucks and five 7400 International seven-yard plow trucks (one of which is his), a John Deere 310 mowing machine, painting equipment for sinage painted right on the roads There’s the Yellowbird, the machine that sucks sand out of culverts, painting equipment for sinage painted right on the roads along with the maintenance of HUGE drainage systems to drain the town and all necessary equipment to keep in working order along with traffic signs, …..
And certain seasons? In SPRING: mudseason, sweep and clean up road edges, prep for summer projects; SUMMER: - major sidewalk repairs as well as prep work in preparation for 2025 restoration of Class 1 roads (Western Avenue, Canal and High, Putney Road, RTE 30, 142 south to Cersosimo’s plant…. FALL: prep work for winter, final grading of dirt roads…. And then there’s WINTER.
And what does Darren Pacheco want for his Department of Highways? “One happy family.” And Gary’s one in that family.
Before the end of the interview, I had to find out if Gary ever takes any time off. “Oh yaaah. My wife Gail and I have three kids: Josh is 32, Akyssa is 23 - both are married - and we have two granddaughters. Our son Ethan is 15. They all live in town. My parents built a camp out on Harriman Reservoir 63 years ago. Most of the immediate surround of the lake is owned by the power company so we’re back from the shore about 300 yards. We all go out there in the winter to ice fish, to swim in the summer. Sometimes we drive to Hampton Beach or pull our power boat down to The Connecticut River to go tubing.
This is one of a series of some 30 profiles of working people from southern Vermont and adjacent New Hampshire that I wrote and then published in the Brattleboro Reformer newspaper every Friday from Jan 1 - May 30. Do the same with your local newspaper.