HUNTINGDON, Tenn. —Carroll County Electric Department is preparing to say goodbye to two of its longest-serving employees, as Danny Toombs and Cary Don Smith are both set to retire on March 5.
General Manager Ryan Drewry made the announcement at the board’s regular meeting on Thursday, February 26.
Toombs currently serves as Operations Manager, and has spent 44 and a half years with the department. He worked his way up through the ranks, starting as a lineman’s apprentice before becoming a lineman, then assistant foreman, and ultimately Operations Manager.
Smith is a Serviceman who will retire with 51 and a half years of service. He also began his career with a lineman’s apprenticeship.
“Those two together got more experience than this place does as an organization,” Drewry said, explaining that the department was established in 1938. Their combined years of service exceed the age of the organization itself.
During the meeting, Toombs reflected on some of the major projects he was a part of over the decades.
In 1982, he recalled, crews built a line from what is now the bypass four-way stop at Veterans Drive and Paris St, running past the hospital, up Northwood Drive, past the Sheriff’s Department, and out to where VP Racing is now located.
“There was a lot of climbing on that,” Toombs said.
Around 1984, he said, crews built lines from Sunny Slope Hill on US Highway 70 to Leach, and from Beaver School across the interstate to Highway 79, in McKenzie.
“Lot of climbing, lot of work back in those days,” he said.
Much of that construction coincided with the widening of Highway 22 and the bypass.
Board Chair Lori Nolen praised both men for their dedication.
“The testament you speak just by the years of service , it doesn’t happen like that anymore,” she said.
Toombs took a moment to praise Drewry and the board during the meeting.
“He’s your best manager you’ve got, guys,” Toombs said of Drewry. “I know he’s put a lot of time and effort in. He’s got his plate full and it’s running over, and he won’t take off when he’s supposed to. Up at two o’clock in the mornings and things like that. So you got a good one right here. Hang on to him.”
He also had kind words for the board.
“Y’all have been great to work with. Y’all are great,” he told them.
Looking ahead to life after retirement, Toombs joked about his alarm clock.
“Next Friday morning, that alarm will not be on,” he said. “I’ve been having to be somewhere on time for 50 years. And I won’t be nowhere on time no more.”
A retirement celebration for Toombs and Smith will be held Wednesday, March 5, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Colonial Tea Room.
Drewry also announced that Mark Simpson has been selected to succeed Toombs as Operations Manager.
The board’s next regular meeting is scheduled for March 26 at 2:30 p.m.
