City of Morris honors Al Siron for 39 years with the water department

The City of Morris honored 39-year water department employee Al Siron at Tuesday evening’s meeting, celebrating one of the city’s longest-tenured employees.

Morris Mayor Chris Brown said Siron has been a wonderful employee for Morris.

“We’re sad to see him go,” Brown said. “We did appoint Dalton (Gordon) at the last meeting, so we’re happy to have him but sad to see Al retire. He’s going to travel and do some fun stuff.”

The City Council stuck around after the meeting to celebrate with Siron and have some cake.

Siron said he’s proud of the crew they have at the water department, and the crew he’s leaving behind is going to kick butt. Siron shared a story of a time they stepped up in a major way to benefit the city’s residents.

“Three years ago in February, well, today it was 50 or 60 degrees but on Feb. 8 of 2021, we had a main break on Route 6 east of town,” Siron said. “We lost about 750,000 gallons of water in about an hour and a half, and they’d already fixed another main break on Sunday. Then they fixed a leak Monday morning and another Monday afternoon. I hated to call them at 10:30 at night. These guys got out there and we ended up not having to fix it that night. We were able to isolate it.”

Siron said the ground was shaking when the crew first got there like it was an earthquake.

Morris Alderman Jim Black said he’s known Siron since he was five when Black was in fourth grade.

“I talked to many people in the community who told me Al is their public works employee,” Black said. “He treats everyone fairly and with respect, and he has the same easygoing personality today that he had when he was a kid.”

Alderman Julian Houston thanked Siron, and said his last 17 years serving on the water and sewer committee wouldn’t have gone as well without him.