Latham retires after more than 40 years with Union County

Union County employee Larry Latham retired last month after nearly 42 years with the county.

Latham, a lifelong resident of the Creston area, began working for Union County Secondary Roads in 1975. He was assistant to the engineer when he retired Dec. 30.

When Latham started, after working at Wellman Dynamics for nine months and doing plumbing and heating for nearly two years, he had no college experience. A graduate of Creston High School, Latham began as an inspector before his responsibilities changed.

“The housing crisis went bad, so I had to find a different job. I started here in 1975,” Latham said. “The first day on the job, they picked me up and took me out on the Kent paving, the first day they paved it. I started out there. I was there about an hour and then I went to the lab, which, at that time, was a school bus, and we did gradations.”

The inspections required Latham to make sure road materials had the proper proportions of each individual ingredient at the proper amount. The lab, which has since been moved to the secondary roads office, was located on a school bus. The windows were closed in the summer, with no air conditioning and hot plates running.

“I went home and told my wife I didn’t know what I had gotten into ‘cause I spent all day cooking rocks,” Latham said with a laugh. “Since then, I’ve been involved in every piece of pavement that’s went down in Union County.”

Other projects

After his first major projects of the Kent pavement southwest of town and H-24 northwest of town, the 62-year-old Latham, who retired Dec. 30, worked with various other road, bridge and culvert projects throughout the county, working many jobs within the secondary roads system.

“It’s easier to tell you what I haven’t done,” Latham said about his various responsibilities throughout the years.

In 1982, after seven years on the job, Latham replaced the former assistant who passed away. He and the engineer at the time also inherited duties belonging to the maintenance superintendent, who retired and was never replaced.

Latham has worked under five engineers, Rich Michaelis, Tom Donahey, Scott Nixon, Curt Greenfield and Steve Akes, and has seen the employee numbers decrease from 36 to 22.

“I like being outside. I like dealing with people,” Latham said. “That’s probably the best part about it. There are a lot of good people in Union County, made a lot of good friends.”

The first bridge Latham said he worked on was on High and Dry Road, a project he learned a lot during.

“I just watched it being built, as far as how they did it, and over the years, as far as maintenance, we’ve had some of the best people probably in the state, work here in maintenance,” Latham said. “Learned a lot from them.”

Another bridge project he reminisced about was near Lorimor, and it was redesigned four times, and each time the property owners nearby would not agree to it. After 25 years, the project was designed, the right of way was purchased and the bridge was built.

“I learned a lot from him when I had the opportunity to become the road foreman,” said Union County Secondary Roads Road Foreman Bob Marquart, who worked with Latham for 18 years. “I had the opportunity to learn all those things in the construction industry, ... he taught me a lot. I just hope like crazy that I can remember all the things he taught me.”

Changes

Since his inception with Union County Secondary Roads, Latham said he’s seen plenty of changes through the years concerning technology and other work aspects.

“The biggest change was probably us getting a lot of computer stuff to make it a lot easier. Equipment is another big thing,” Latham said. “I can remember going to the board (of supervisors) and arguing with them about getting radios in the truck. ... It was quite an argument.”

Latham said other changes include going from three employees surveying land with a chain and rod to one employee using GPS, and the price of rock increasing from $2.50 per ton to $10.65 per ton, while revenue did not increase proportionately.

“I don’t think it’s any easier,” Latham said. “If we had all kinds of money, we could do all kinds of work. Just, with limited funds we have to work with, and the cost of everything going up, it’s a little tougher.”

North Cherry Street

Latham said the North Cherry Street project was probably the one that made him most proud. The project took 10 years, from design to build, to complete because of changes in funding and standards.

Latham said the road was originally done in 1969 with bad concrete and needed to be redone. This was the first time rubblization was used in the state of Iowa and across the nation. Rubblization is when the old road is turned to rubble and new road is laid on top.

“No one had ever done it. We did that. That was an experience,” Latham said. “We couldn’t get it rolled down, and we were out there picking the old tar out. We got it done and the contractor, they had three guys out there full time changing tires because they were blowing tires on the trucks on the concrete. It was pretty expensive.”

Now, rubblization is an industry standard.

Having gone through five engineers, countless road, bridge and culvert projects and seven major natural disasters, Latham continued learning on the job, using his experience for a better Union County.

“I’m going to miss him, but I’m happy that he’s able to be off with his wife and enjoy time with his grandkids,” Marquart said. “He’s a wealth of knowledge. I mean, 42 years working with the county, there’s just a lot of stuff he knows about.”

Latham plans to spend his time with his wife, Nancy, and their family of three children and five grandchildren.