Sawyer keeps Florence running after 40 years

FLORENCE — Tommy Sawyer has been the man with the plan if anything electrical has gone awry in Florence in the last 40 years.

Sawyer is the city’s electrical department supervisor, a position he’s held since 1977. He joined the electrical department in 1969.

“I love the city of Florence, it’s about like my country,” he said during an interview in his plush office a sniff or two away from the wastewater treatment plant. “They’ve all been good to me around here. They let me do things at my own pace as long as I get the job done.”

The city maintained the stoplights when Sawyer came aboard. There were 17 then, most of them downtown. All were mechanical.

“There were 100 stoplights when the city turned the maintenance over to the state,” Sawyer said.

But being mechanical instead of solid state like they are now how its advantages and disadvantages.

“You could give those mechanical lights a swift kick and they would go back to working,” Sawyer said with a laugh. “You could go to them and see lots of policemen’s footprints on them.”

Just about everything was mechanical when Sawyer started.

“We had 900 miles of wire stretched around town with the old fire alarm pull boxes on the poles,” he said. “That was a blessing when they took those pull boxes down and replaced them with telephone systems. I can’t tell you how many false alarms we had. That was a real headache.”

The public works department was on Church Street in Sawyer’s early days.

“They built a new public works, added the Freedom Florence Complex, upgraded the tennis courts at Timrod Park and the recreation department got a fine, new building,” Sawyer said. “The police department has also grown a lot. It was in the back of the old courthouse back then.”

And city hall was in the Colonial Theater.

“The city manager had one of them little holes in the wall on the right and you paid your bill on the left,” he recalled. “You went through the center of the building to go to the movies. The old city hall had a big clock on top of the building.”

The Boston Care was on Dargan Street; the poolroom on Irby and Roney’s Restaurant was nearby.

“Roney’s had the best hamburger steak in town,” he said. “I used to go down there every Friday and eat lunch.”

Sawyer said the sewer plant has grown. It’s undergoing its third renovation under his watch.

“The sewer plant has probably gone from treating a million gallons a day to treating 12 million,” he said. “And it’s gone more solid state than the electrical it used to be.”

Sawyer met his wife, Belva, at the 301 Drive-In around 1960. He was driving a straight-stick 1957 black Chevrolet convertible with a white top. It also featured a continental kit on the back and dual exhausts.

He paid $1,495 for the convertible. It was three years old when he bought it from a friend.

“Belva wanted to go for a ride in my car,” he said. “So I took her for a ride with the top down. That’s how I met her.”

But Sawyer has also been interested in motorcycles through the years. The day of this interview, he was sporting a Harley Davidson hat.

“I bought a Heritage Harley eight years ago,” he said. “I always wanted a Harley but couldn’t afford one. Belva told me when I turned 60 to get one. I ride it three or four times a month.”

Sawyer is a member of the local motorcycle group called Rolling Thunder.

“Rolling Thunder does good work,” he said. “They are all for the veterans.”

Meanwhile, Sawyer said he gave up golf when his grandchildren came along because “they take up most of my time now.”