Bertram utilities boss celebrates 30 years on job
BERTRAM — To many who have lived and worked in Bertram for several years, Charles Shell is the backbone of the city, the smart supervisor with a sense of humor who over the years has brought more water and better living conditions to the small but fast-growing community.
Dressed in blue jeans with the top of his head hidden beneath an ordinary bill cap and hands as large as a catcher’s mitt, he is the very picture of honest hard work.
As Shell observes 30 years today as a city employee, the Bertram utilities superintendent carries the same healthy physique he had years ago, while he played guard and tackle in 1971 for the last Bertram High School Panthers football team to win a district title.
Shell administers the Bertram water, sewer, solid waste systems and conducts building and street inspections. He maintains a desk at City Hall to help him manage and schedule his duties, but don’t expect to find him there often.
“Most of the time, I’m in the field,” Shell said Thursday. “I like to talk to people and get out and do stuff. But as the years have gone by, it seems the paperwork has increased greatly.”
The city has been very lucky to have him as an employee, City Secretary Polly Krenek said.
“He is a very dedicated and wonderful person,” Krenek added. “We have plenty of water now because of him. He has brought the city to where we are now.”
Shell started working for Bertram in 1978, seven years after he graduated from high school and “the school of hard knocks,” he recalled.
“I was just a laborer,” Shell said. “I worked on the streets and the water system. I did just about whatever needed to be done.”
Why has he stayed in Bertram for three decades?
“I don’t really know,” Shell said, laughing. “I was born here, I went to school here. It sort of seemed like home.”
Every two weeks, Shell delivers a report to the City Council and keeps them informed on several projects affecting the infrastructure and economic development of Bertram.
“I have always had a good relationship with the council,” Shell said. “I keep sight of the fact that they are the boss, the people want them to run the city, and they make sure everything goes right, and they make Bertram into a nice place to live.”
Shell is proud of helping the city expand its water resources and installing a more efficient sewer system.
Bertram has more than 700 water meters today, compared to 370 meters more than 20 years ago. Most of its water comes from two wellheads located in the Felps well field along CR 340, Shell said.
Prior to 1988, the city relied on eight wells tapped into the Trinity Aquifer, he recalled.
“They couldn’t keep up with us during the summer,” Shell said. “We ran out of water almost every night.”
Shell and his wife Brenda have a son, Curtis, who lives in Greensboro, N.C.; he supervises groundwater cleanup for Lone Wolf Resources. Their daughter Jennifer Montgomery lives in Florence with her husband Doug Montgomery, a salesman for Texas Outdoor Power Equipment, and their children, Tyler, Colton and Charles.
Bertram has a bright future, Shell said.
“We’re in an economic downturn now, but that doesn’t last forever,” he said. “They come and go in cycles. We’ve seen it all before.”
Although he is getting closer to retirement age, he has no plans to depart City Hall just yet, Shell said.
“I still like to work,” Shell added. “I’ve seen too many people settle into the rocking chair, and then, the hearse comes along. I want to avoid that at all costs.”
He was born in the Allen Clinic on South Water Street in Burnet, Shell recalled.
“When people ask me, have you lived in Bertram all your life? I tell them — not yet,” he quipped.
When he does decide to retire, he would like to continue assisting the council as a part-time consultant, Shell said.
“They have been very good to me,” Shell added.
raymond@thepicayune.com