Cathcart’s trusty wrench keeps city vehicles running

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

City mechanic Paul Cathcart works under the hood of a police car at the city garage. (Amy Satterwhite photo)

Paul Cathcart never knows what the day may bring him.

As one of the mechanics for the city’s Department of Vehicle Maintenance, Cathcart might be doing an oil change one minute or a full blown engine overhaul the next.

“We’ll figure out what’s wrong with the one we’ve been working on, then the next one that comes in, it’s sometimes worse than that, or it might not be as bad,” he said of daily activities.

Cathcart and three other mechanics are responsible for more than 200 vehicles driven by city employees – from the fire and garbage trucks to the police cars to the average city truck. Additionally, the garage mechanics do repairs on lawnmowers or other equipment if the problems can’t be handled at the department level.

“We service and maintain or do any repairs for anything the city’s got,” Cathcart said.

A city mechanic for the past 10 years, Cathcart said he was recruited right out of the local vocational school by his supervisor, Junior Nunley, and hasn’t looked back since.

A typical day could include working on roughly five vehicles, with oil changes the most frequent work duties. The best part about his job, he added, is meeting all the various people who work for the city, while the worst is working on the garbage trucks.

“You get to know them while they’re waiting on us to fix their cars, and I like seeing the newer vehicles and seeing what’s on them,” he said.

“The garbage trucks – sometimes there is stuff inside the beds that we’ve got to work on and getting in there and having all that stuff dripping on you or crawling underneath them, that’s not very nice.”

Nunley said Cathcart is a first-rate employee who is part of an overall top-notch crew. He was recently named Employee of the Quarter by the McMinnville Board of Mayor and Aldermen.

“They get paid to do a good job, but we have as good a crew as there is,” Nunley said. “They work good together and don’t care to work overtime.”

And, a perk is, somebody who needs his or her vehicle repaired or serviced isn’t likely to get overly bossy.

“If we don’t fix it, they’ve got to come back here. There might be some who bad mouth us,” Cathcart added with a smile, “but not too many.”