POINT PLEASANT BEACH — After serving the community for nearly four decades, Point Pleasant Beach Department of Public Works Superintendent John Trout’s tenure in the municipality comes to an end this month with his retirement on June 30. This week, The Ocean Star spoke to Trout about his work, the responsibilities of the job and the community he served for years.
“It was 39 years ago today I was hired,” said Trout on Tuesday. “June 17, 1986 I was hired, so I’m technically starting my 40th year of employment tomorrow.”
“I was born and raised here in Point Pleasant Beach — I went to school here — and it gives me the opportunity to help, if you will,” he said. “It was a great place to grow up, a great place to go to school and, honestly, it’s been a great place to work.”
Since 2008, Trout has been the borough’s superintendent of public works, overseeing the maintenance, operation and well-being of Point Pleasant Beach’s infrastructure, including sewer, water and other utilities, garbage collection and facilities as well as public spaces. Having grown up in Point Beach, Trout said that his connection to the town runs deep.
Trout said, “I actually live in Point Pleasant Boro with my wife now, but I grew up in town here (in Beach), in a couple different locations; the best one being at 1 Ocean Ave., where my grandparents built a couple of businesses — a bait-and-tackle store, an eatery and some living quarters…That’s the greatest place to grow up, at the inlet. I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”
“This is all I know — this is all I’ve done,” he said. “I graduated high school on a Wednesday, and I started here at the department of public works Thursday morning.”
When asked for his take on some of public works’ most important duties, Trout said that, while different people in town might have different answers to the question, he sees the importance of each duty.
“There are plenty; and residents, I’m sure, have a different take on what’s most important than maybe the public works department does,” he said. “For example, (it’s) the responsibility of the infrastructure — the water delivery system, sanitary sewer systems, the garbage disposal — things that affect quality of life instantly when they’re wrong.”
“If you have a sanitary sewer backup, or a storm sewer backup, if you don’t get the garbage collected in a timely fashion for one reason or another, that can present a problem,” he said. “First of all, residents don’t enjoy that; second, it can pose health problems if it goes on for any length of time.”
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