Rayburn Township Man Honored After 38 Years of Service

by Nathan Lasher

Rayburn Township Supervisors Jeff Livengood, Sam Duncan, and Randy Slease dedicated a newly-built addition of the Rayburn Township Municipal Building to 38-year township worker Tom Painter during a Supervisors’ meeting held yesterday evening.

“I think it’s just great,” said Painter in a telephone interview following the meeting. “I’ve worked all of these years and tried to do the best that I could, and this is a great honor for me. There are a lot of wonderful people out there.”

Painter has been working for Rayburn Township for 38 years. Many of those years were spent as a Township Supervisor.

“Whenever I first started, I was going to quit about the second or third day I was on the job site,” said Painter. “I was very young, I didn’t know anything, and at that particular time we just had one truck and an old tractor with a bucket on it. It was just pretty rough. Through the years we’ve gotten better equipment and the people have gotten change for the better. We’ve gotten them water, sewage, and cable. So, it’s really progressed. We’d like to have more water through the Township, but it’s awfully hard this day in age to get any grants or anything because money is tight. It’s an interesting job. Sometimes you’d like to go out and scream, but you have to stick with it. We’ve always found that if you get out there and try to do what the people ask you to do or try to fix their problems, then they’ll work with you. ”

When asked if he had any good stories he wanted to share from his nearly four decades of service, Painter replied, “There have been several good stories, but I don’t think you’d want to print them. So, we’ll just skip that.”

Although Painter is no longer a Supervisor, he is still working for Rayburn Township by filling the position of Road Master.

Current Rayburn Township Supervisor Sam Duncan had a few comments after the meeting regarding the dedication. “Thirty-eight years is a long time to dedicate to your community,” said Duncan.”He helped this township tremendously over the years, and naming that addition after him was the least we could do.”

According to Duncan, the bid for the new addition for the building came in at $39,000. “We didn’t have to raise taxes or anything,” he said. “We had money set aside because we were at the point where it was either update that old, worn out trailer that we got from the Armstrong School District back when Spaces Corners School was open or build the new addition. The trailer was getting to be in pretty sad shape; in the wintertime you froze, and in the summertime you roasted. It was almost to the point where we could have dumped an endless supply of money into it and we would still have an old, worn out trailer.”

The new addition of the Rayburn Township Municipal Building has been under construction since the beginning of December, 2009. Citizens can feel free to stop by and check it out during one of the Rayburn Township Supervisors’ Meetings which take place the first Monday of every month at 6PM.

Rayburn Township Municipal Building Expands

Supervisors Jeff Livengood, Sam Duncan, and Tom Painter (left to right) stopped by the Rayburn Township Municipal Building yesterday to inspect the work being done in order to expand the building by 18 feet.

by Nathan Lasher

The Rayburn Township Municipal Building is going to be expanded by 18 feet. This expansion will allow for a new bathroom, new windows, office space, and handicapped access to be added to the building. “The building was getting pretty bad,” said Supervisor Tom Painter. “There were a few leaks in the roof, and something had to be done about it.” The plan for the building also includes adding a catch basin for water drainage. “We get about a foot of water outside of our entrance,” said Supervisor Sam Duncan. “Hopefully that will take care of the problem.”

The new space in the Municipal Building is planned to have many uses. According to the Supervisors, the most important use will be to move Township meetings out of the current trailer they are using and into the building. “We’re adding on so that we have room for the monthly meetings,” said Supervisor Jeff Livengood. “We also wanted to make sure that everything was handicap accessible. It would just be nice if more people would start coming to the meetings and voicing their opinions.” Duncan added to this statement by saying, “We’re hoping this will start some sort of a domino effect. Hopefully more people will start coming to our meetings and maybe we’ll be able to bring a few more businesses to the area.”

The work for the addition is being done by Roy Crissman. “He’s done a lot of good work for us, and he was the lowest bid for this contract job,” said Painter. Yesterday, Crissman’s crew began pouring the footer for the addition. “After that, we will be adding the floor and putting up the walls,” said Livengood. “Hopefully it will be done in about a month.”

“We’d like to dedicate this project to Tom,” said Duncan. “After all he’s done over the past 30 years; it’s the least we could do for him.” Painter accepted the dedication and had a message that he wanted to stress to the residents of Rayburn Township. “We just want to make sure that everyone knows that we have the finances to build this addition. We have been putting money aside for the past three years, and we decided to use some of it to build. We won’t be raising any taxes because of the project.”

Rayburn Township meetings take place on the first Monday of every month at 6:00PM. They are currently held in a trailer beside the Municipal Building, but they will soon be in the newly-added office space.