A combined 680 years of service was celebrated by long-serving members of Maroondah City Council last week.
In one of the largest Staff Milestone years to date, a total of 44 staff were recognised for 10, 20 and 30 years of service – and for the first time – 40 years of dedicated service.
Mayor Councillor Rob Steane said celebrating staff milestones provided an important opportunity for Council to acknowledge the significant length of service and achievements of staff.
"This year we have one employee celebrating an incredible 40 years of continuous service with Council, with four staff achieving 30 years, 13 reaching 20 years and a further 26 employees marking 10 years – that's 680 years of combined knowledge and experience," Cr Steane said.
"Service milestones are something that Council strongly believes should be recognised and celebrated, and we are very proud to have staff who have served their community over such an extensive period of time," he said.
Clocking up an impressive 40 years of service this year is school crossing supervisor Carmel Black (pictured).
Rain, hail or shine, Carmel has for four decades donned her high-vis jacket and dutifully waited for students between the red and white posts outside Yarra Road Primary School in Croydon.
Carmel credits her love of the local school community for her longevity.
"The changes I've seen over the last 40 years have been enormous. The uniform has changed, the weather has changed, but the people haven't," says Carmel, who now ranks as one of Victoria's longest-serving school crossing supervisors.
Cr Steane said: "This is a remarkable achievement for someone who had initially put up her hand to help out in a gesture of goodwill and a love of her local school community."
"In the age we live in, it's not as common for employees to stay with the one organisation for such a significant period, so it is wonderful to see so many Council staff reaching these special milestones and really enjoying the work they do.
"One of the strengths of any organisation is having a continuity of staff – those who 'know the ropes' and have a sense of history to draw on, and the number of milestones reflect that this is something we have and can be enormously proud of here at Maroondah City Council," he said.
