Moments in Time
Moments in Time is a weekly series featuring recollections of area residents. To suggest someone to feature in Moments in Time, please contact Mary Jane Grenzow, editor, at editor@themonroetimes.com.
MONROE - How loyal was Nate Klassy to Monroe?
So much so that he turned down a job offer to be the streets superintendent in Beverly Hills.
"I was plowing snow one night in Monroe and stopped to use the bathroom and that's when I saw a copy of American City (magazine) and an ad for the position," said Klassy. "The idea of not plowing snow? I couldn't resist."
In Los Angeles, he interviewed with a candidate from Minnesota and one from central Illinois.
"I asked them, "Why three guys from the rural Midwest?'" Klassy said. "The interviewer said, "I want a drug-free workaholic.'"
He weighed all his options, reminded himself he had a daughter with a year left of high school, and again hit the streets of Monroe, where he'd become director of public works in 1989 until his retirement in 2003. Far from done with government, the 72-year-old stays involved as a member of the Monroe Plan Commission, the Green County Solid Waste Management Board and the governor-appointed Southwest Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, where he has served for 18 years.
"I never get tired of being a resource," Klassy said. "I still want to see Monroe go forward."
And what better way of being on the go than having solid roads underfoot? Klassy prides himself on the work he's done in helping design roads with more base, thus better at holding up to the heavy trucks and farm equipment that often rumble through town.
Then there are the potholes. He's fixed too many to count, his most memorable being the one on the east side of the Square in front of Mayor Clifford Reasa's Waffle Shop in the 1970s.
"He stepped in it and broke his ankle," Klassy said with a cringe.
That was the exception, he said, to an otherwise stellar effort to keep them patched.
"I remember when Joe Dearth (of Dearth Motors) sold a car to a guy in Freeport who complained the car made a rattling noise," Klassy said. "Joe asked him to drive it up to Monroe so he could hear it, but the guy said, "No, your streets are too smooth.' I felt good about that one."
Back in the day, he knew the streets so well his crew could plow them in one night from start to finish with just three plows. "Today, they use 12 or 13," he said.
Weather and streets were his life, and he's a walking almanac when it comes to remembering dates when they combined to create chaos.
"March 4, 5 and 6, 1976 - the great ice storm. That was rough," he said. "We had four fire calls because the fallen power lines had caused electrical fires, so I led the fire trucks through the streets with an end-loader to push them out of the way. One of the live wires came right across the windshield - so that was interesting."
What was the nastiest pothole winter of all?
"I'd say the winter of '78," Klassy said. "We had a lot of snow that had to melt, and when it would a bit, it would freeze right back over, again and again."
Other projects he's proud of include the creation of the city's industrial parks and the shaping of the airport's runways - ones which have the reputation as some of the state's finest, he said.
Klassy came to Monroe at age 5 in 1947 and graduated from Monroe High School in 1960. Earlier in his career, when he started in 1962 as a draftsman in the city's engineering department, he helped design the municipal parking ramp and the new City Hall. Klassy gets a chuckle that both are front-burner topics today around town for being so outdated.
"Back then, they were a real achievement," he said.
When Monroe streets superintendent Jack Erb passed away in 1968, Klassy stepped in as his successor. He survived his California temptation a few years later, only to later often find himself knee-deep in sewage as public works director.
"I learned pretty quickly that you couldn't control what people put down into the sewer system," he said. "It could be the weekend, it could be 20 below zero, it didn't matter. When people had a back-up in their basement, they called you to come out."
He says he never recalls feeling exhausted from such a hectic job description.
"There was always too much adrenaline kicking in," he said.
In fact, he hardly takes it easy these days, and he certainly hasn't forgotten his babies - the streets of Monroe.
"I still get up every day at 4:30 and drive around, checking on the streets, maybe grabbing breakfast somewhere around 5," he said.
"I should just let go, but I can't."
So much so that he turned down a job offer to be the streets superintendent in Beverly Hills.
"I was plowing snow one night in Monroe and stopped to use the bathroom and that's when I saw a copy of American City (magazine) and an ad for the position," said Klassy. "The idea of not plowing snow? I couldn't resist."
In Los Angeles, he interviewed with a candidate from Minnesota and one from central Illinois.
"I asked them, "Why three guys from the rural Midwest?'" Klassy said. "The interviewer said, "I want a drug-free workaholic.'"
He weighed all his options, reminded himself he had a daughter with a year left of high school, and again hit the streets of Monroe, where he'd become director of public works in 1989 until his retirement in 2003. Far from done with government, the 72-year-old stays involved as a member of the Monroe Plan Commission, the Green County Solid Waste Management Board and the governor-appointed Southwest Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, where he has served for 18 years.
"I never get tired of being a resource," Klassy said. "I still want to see Monroe go forward."
And what better way of being on the go than having solid roads underfoot? Klassy prides himself on the work he's done in helping design roads with more base, thus better at holding up to the heavy trucks and farm equipment that often rumble through town.
Then there are the potholes. He's fixed too many to count, his most memorable being the one on the east side of the Square in front of Mayor Clifford Reasa's Waffle Shop in the 1970s.
"He stepped in it and broke his ankle," Klassy said with a cringe.
That was the exception, he said, to an otherwise stellar effort to keep them patched.
"I remember when Joe Dearth (of Dearth Motors) sold a car to a guy in Freeport who complained the car made a rattling noise," Klassy said. "Joe asked him to drive it up to Monroe so he could hear it, but the guy said, "No, your streets are too smooth.' I felt good about that one."
Back in the day, he knew the streets so well his crew could plow them in one night from start to finish with just three plows. "Today, they use 12 or 13," he said.
Weather and streets were his life, and he's a walking almanac when it comes to remembering dates when they combined to create chaos.
"March 4, 5 and 6, 1976 - the great ice storm. That was rough," he said. "We had four fire calls because the fallen power lines had caused electrical fires, so I led the fire trucks through the streets with an end-loader to push them out of the way. One of the live wires came right across the windshield - so that was interesting."
What was the nastiest pothole winter of all?
"I'd say the winter of '78," Klassy said. "We had a lot of snow that had to melt, and when it would a bit, it would freeze right back over, again and again."
Other projects he's proud of include the creation of the city's industrial parks and the shaping of the airport's runways - ones which have the reputation as some of the state's finest, he said.
Klassy came to Monroe at age 5 in 1947 and graduated from Monroe High School in 1960. Earlier in his career, when he started in 1962 as a draftsman in the city's engineering department, he helped design the municipal parking ramp and the new City Hall. Klassy gets a chuckle that both are front-burner topics today around town for being so outdated.
"Back then, they were a real achievement," he said.
When Monroe streets superintendent Jack Erb passed away in 1968, Klassy stepped in as his successor. He survived his California temptation a few years later, only to later often find himself knee-deep in sewage as public works director.
"I learned pretty quickly that you couldn't control what people put down into the sewer system," he said. "It could be the weekend, it could be 20 below zero, it didn't matter. When people had a back-up in their basement, they called you to come out."
He says he never recalls feeling exhausted from such a hectic job description.
"There was always too much adrenaline kicking in," he said.
In fact, he hardly takes it easy these days, and he certainly hasn't forgotten his babies - the streets of Monroe.
"I still get up every day at 4:30 and drive around, checking on the streets, maybe grabbing breakfast somewhere around 5," he said.
"I should just let go, but I can't."