Joe Anderson
 In January 2009, Sunset Hills maintenance workers were called to prepare the roads for a winter storm. Joe Anderson, a seasonal employee, was one of those called at 3:30 a.m. Unfortunately, Anderson did not have a working transmission in his truck. Without hesitation or excuses, Anderson hopped on his bicycle and began the eight-mile trek. An hour later, he was at work.
“I may be old school, but to me, you find ways to get to work,” Anderson said.
Anderson, a truck driver for the past 14 years, was originally hired at MoDOT as a seasonal employee and has since been hired as a full time maintenance worker.
“I am very grateful for what I do have,” Anderson said. “Jobs are hard to come by these days.”
When Anderson’s supervisor, Kathy Gettemeier, regional maintenance supervisor, got to work the day Anderson rode his bicycle she was very surprised to see a bicycle leaning up against the wall.
“When I got to work and saw the bike there I was completely shocked,” Gettemeier said. “Some of the guys told me that Joe had rode it to work. When I called (that morning), I didn’t know his transmission was out. Joe came without hesitation, it was awesome.”
Later in January when a full-time position opened, Anderson decided to apply.
“The interview was a little intimidating, I had never interviewed in front of three people before,” Anderson said.
“I don’t think we could have hired a more dedicated employee for this position,” Gettemeier said. “But I was impressed, Joe volunteers for all of the overtime and works hard at it.”
Anderson’s truck is up and running now, but he still keeps his bicycle close by for emergency situations. |
I recently lost my keys and they were found by a MODOT mower. I am not sure about the mower's name, but Jerry Kliethermes was the employee who did the investigating and found me. The only way to identify my keys was through the gym membership key card. He called Wilson's Gym and was given what turned out to be an old number. The number now routes someone to a national number for the American Cancer Society. He then contacted the gym again and was given a cell phone number...but unfortunately, the cell phone number was a digit off. After realizing he had the wrong number, he took the initiative to call the local American Cancer Society office. He explained the situation to a co-worker, who soon realized that he was talking about me because he mentioned JJ's name and she knew I had lost my keys! 
In early August, I received an e-mail from Rich Jones, St. Louis District Landscape Supervisor, that a large tree had fallen on our security fence which damaged the tower guide wire and guide wire protection at the House Springs Tower site due to a recent storm. I went to the tower site the next day to assess the damage so I could schedule crews to assist with debris removal. To my surprise there was some heavy damage to the security fence and the guide wire protection fence was totally wiped out! However there was no tree or debris. The landscape crew -- Al Muratovic , maintenance crew leader Mike Freeman, maintenance worker Ray Keune seasonal maintenance worker Andy Totten --
Several years ago I was driving down route C to replace a road sign. When I drove pass route NN I happened to glance down the road I saw something that didn’t look right. The more I thought about it the more curious I got so I turn around at the next driveway to check it out. When I turned on route NN the closer I got to the area I knew something wasn’t right. There was a tractor with a mower on the back of it across the ditch with the front end of the tractor in the air and I saw that there was someone lying by the inside left rear tire on the ground. I got out of the truck to check out the person (Harold Jackson) that was lying on the ground. I asked him if he was okay but didn’t get a response from him so I ran over to the truck called MoDOT and told them that I needed them to call for emergency assistance. Then I went back over to the gentleman and kept asking him if he was all right after a little while he became responsive kept saying that his head hurt and wanting to get up. I kept encouraging him to lie still until the emergency personnel arrived. They life flighted him to Columbia hospital and later he was okay. A week or two later he and his wife sent me a thank you card to my house thanking me for all I did.
