Tittsworth knows what it takes to fix the streets

By AMY SATTERWHITE / Staff Reporter for the Southern Standard

Street maintenance supervisor Danny Tittsworth has worked 31 years with the city of McMinnville. (Amy Satterwhite photo)

Any given week, Danny Tittsworth and his crew have a general idea of the work they will be doing, but they can never tell for sure.

That’s Tittsworth’s approach to doing his job as a street maintenance supervisor who has worked for the city for the past 31 years.

“The different things that come up are what I like best,” he said. “You probably won’t do the same thing for more than a week at a time.”

Tittsworth and his crew of four or five men are responsible for just about any type of street repair or large-scale project requiring heavy equipment that comes up in the city – either for the public or for city departments. Tittsworth has even been known to jump on the back of a garbage truck if necessary.

Since August, members of his crew have been heavily involved in demolition for the downtown project, which, if contracted out, would have cost the city an estimated $500,000.

While that project is one of the largest he can recall being involved in, the routine responsibilities of the crew vary greatly.

When the old swimming pool was demolished, it was his crew that tore it down. The crew is also responsible for installing city sidewalks, sidewalk repair, patching streets, repairing potholes, clearing storm drains, helping with downed trees and doing snow removal in the winter. The Barren Fork River dam repair was also in the crew’s hands in conjunction with the water department.

“You name it, we do it,” he said. “We are never without something to do.”

Tittsworth began his career with the city after losing his job to politics. He had worked as an equipment operator for the county for about six years and began working for the city in the same capacity in 1974. In 1985, he became a crew supervisor, but said the name of the position has changed over time.

While he said he doesn’t see a downside to his job, things can get tricky from time to time. For example, a 911 call came in at the last minute Friday for a downed tree city crews were expected to help out with, pulling Tittsworth and others away from what they had planned.

“It’s a challenge,” he said of managing multiple problems simultaneously. “But you figure out how to make it work.”