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The final drive home - respected 32-year Cambridge employee Tom Minar retires

Posted Online: 11/5/02

By Greg Hunt

An "Everyman" who served the residents of Cambridge in multiple capacities, Tom Minar is beginning a well-earned retirement after 32 years as a public works employee.

A ceremony was held at the Cambridge WWTF plant on Oct. 31, with Mayor Marlys Palmer providing the opening comments on the city's appreciation of Minar's dedication.

"I offer you, Tom, congratulations from the city of Cambridge on your retirement, and I give you great acknowledgement for the work you did for us those 32 years," spoke Palmer. "Gathering comments from your co-workers, I heard some very meaningful remarks: "Tom is very dedicated." "Tom is conscientious." "Tom always took great pride in his work."

Minar began his career in a smaller Cambridge back in 1970.

"When I first started, you knew everybody in town and everybody's house. You would go to Mrs. H. E. Olson's house on the corner or Mrs. Waters' corner. We had street signs, but you didn't go by them," recalled Minar. "And we did everything for jobsñstreets, water and sewer, parks, airport, the whole works. Then afterwards you got switched to more specific jobs."

"We had one guy that worked full-time at the water works, and the rest of us would help him out, taking one weekend out of the month. Everything was done by hand at the water works back then. There were no automatic controls of anything," he said, laughing.

"Through the years, of course, came more people and better equipment," continued Minar. "In the first years, our portion of the snow removal we were shoveling sidewalks by hand, now we have the snowblowers on the trucks. We had some cold days working with those scoop shovels, and we used to go all night.

"But our jobs were pretty much the same as they are now, street patching and so on. The airport is tarred now, but back when I started it was a grass runway."

Minar also showed his dedication to the city by working as the Chief of the Cambridge Fire Dept. for 16 years.

"When I first started, Tom showed me the ropes. His knowledge of the city was amazing, and he was always ready to pitch in when needed," said Steve Wegwerth, Cambridge Public Works Director. Wegwerth also took over as CFD Fire Chief after Minar retired from that position three years ago. "Tom had amazing commitments to both sides of his public positions, as a works employee and as Fire Chief. He put in a lot of time on both jobs."

Minar and his wife, Sue, have a great set-up for the retirement. They are finishing a new home in the countryside by Sunrise (east of North Branch) which is set on 80 acres of woods and fields, one mile from Wild River State Park. The area will be perfect for one of Tom's passionsñ deer hunting. The Minars have three children who will be visiting the country home: Scott in Cambridge, Tammy in Plymouth, and Mark, presently in the U.S. Air Force stationed in England.

The new homestead has features which play on Minar's skills he learned in public works. The house, garage and large storage shed ("toy shed," as he calls it) will be heated by an outdoor wood burner which pipes in heat through water lines. The sidewalks are even heated. So in his spare time, wood cutting will be a necessary chore, along with working on his tractor and other equipment.

"Working for the city all these years, you got to learn a lot of stuff," he finished.