Page 8 - Mississippi 811 Magazine 2018 Issue 3

AS a general rule— that S
I 5}/Malina Harlcunk
Sfaffwrltel
s a general rule—that's the footsteps of l-ontotoc EPA's current damage prevention coordinator. once
preventable!" became a general manager chuck Howell who a quarter we would host meetings to
theme for walter chittom held the safety coordinator position educate on the importance of calling
as he worked tirelessly to directly before him. ’’He made it easy before you dig."
prevent unnecessary accidents. walter for me. He was already focused on .
. ,, walter realized that even in a small

recently retired from l-ontotoc EPA 81!. ‘ V rk P ‘ I m V _

after 33 years of devoted service to his ,, , . °‘“ ". ' ° "“ ° °" "9 ‘“?"“’ "°"“

Like 1 said, we had always been subdivisions where everything was
community He enioyed the people, the .
_ _ . . . involved since l had been there we put underground- water, electncal, phone,
customer service and being a vital part . ,,
. . a tremendous emphasis on overhead gas, intemet. You cannot dig safely
of the community by helping to provide , .
_ . power lines and then extended that in these areas without a number. l

"‘ “Em” “" “"2 “I” “"“'d *’““"d‘ attention to the underground lines as feel like getting the accreditation was
whenl flrsl contacted walter about well in the couple of instances where a very important part of my career.

the possibility of interviewing him for people hit lines early on, l just thought, when you go through accreditation-
Mississippi 311, l caught him caring for 'There's no sense in this. That's the employees have to buy into the B11
his mother after her knee replacement preventaliler And through the 811 system as well. one man can't do it all
surgery. After visiting with lwas passionate about LhaI—
him, l realized that this one little mistake and you can
seemed to be a life mission hit a waterline and disrupt
for walter. caring for others a service, and a whole lot of
through service lives can be affected it is all
walter chittom has served _ fig Y“ ‘“S‘ ”"
his community through ’

his work at Ponlotuc EPA On his last day before

since 1979 when he started embarking on his retirement,
as a meter reader He was % . he told his co—wozke!s, "You
eventually transferred 9:1 . I don't have to remember me,
to a line crew where 2 -' _ but don't ever forget what we
he did a variety of ,obs __‘ . ‘ got started " Accreditation
including right-of-way, pole , I and being a member of 811
inspections and service V, _ , was very much a part of it
truck. when the position ‘ 4 = 3 ‘'1 wish everybody would
came open for safety and ‘ ‘I I , realize the importance of this.
environmental director in one of the things I'm most
November of 1993, walter r— ; pleased with was getting
liecame Pontuloc Ems first the county supervisors on
full-time safety coordinator. 5 “gm WE could and did mm ‘hm lioard— they realize the importance of

, ‘V: ' . ,, P it. Yuu'v£ got to make that call before

walter s philosophy as the safety and things from happening 0“ di ,,

environmental director was short and . Y 5'

. . As walter focused on developing the , .
sweet and straight to the point cai-ing mm , m mm Edmmm Wm kg Just because walter s long season with
for people through safety. "I wanted ‘H U’ 3 ' . ’ V‘ _ Pontotoc EPA has come to a close, dDn’t

e enioyed developing new programs ,,
everyone to go home every clay--iust . think he is slowing down. Fur now we
, to improve the quality of Pomnloc . .
like they came to work. That s why E1,“ Mme w mm such as the are keeping our grandchildren. l think
lcame to work every day." Keeping ’ ‘V 5 ’ ’ I my wife and I will do some traveling
. Monday Moming safety Meeting and
people safe through prevennon is a ‘he Amedmmn Sam, Pmgmm “My once we get these grandchildren
code he has lived and worked by and _ _. . grown up a little bit. But keeping the
. . greatest desire was for us to achieve the . . .
l\filsSl.~‘alpp| 811 has been a vital part of Accreditation Sam), [,wgmm_ one of gmndklds—thnl i-ight there is worth the
I at. . . rzllremenl."
the requirements of our accreditation

"I can't really remember a time with the was to have the one call number on upon thanking walter for his time,
company that we weren't a member of every ticket, and it was one of the best he responded. "Anything l can do to
Mississippi 311," said walter, having things we could do to ensure we didn't promote safety. I'll never retire from
adopted 811 membership before it was cause any damage. if there was no that part of it " His warm, caring

a legal requirement. walter followed in number, the job didn't go out we also response was, lbelieve, typical of his

always tried to work with our local lifetime of service devoted to keeping
people safe. .
o. MlsslsslPDl51l 2015, issue: