Minnesota Highways, November 1955

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VO.i..  5,  NO.   1
1246  University Ave., St. Paul  4, Minn.
NOVEMBER,   1955
Job Class
Study Begun
Highway department employees,
both supervisory and rank and file,
are giving "splendid cooperation"
to the state civil service reclassifica-
^snrvey now under way.
Tlit is the word of James Fritze,
assistant classification chief and
head of a four-man team from the
state Civil Service department
which is currently studying classifications in the Highway department. Besides Fritze, the team in-
In the Civil Service department's team
conducting the reclassification study of
the Highway department are: L. to R.,
front, Donald Anderson and John Hanson; rear, Ronald Duncan and James
Fritze.    Fritze  heads  the  group.
eludes Ronald Duncan, Donald
Anderson, and John Hanson, personnel technicians.
The study being made in the
Highway department involves 140
classifications for some 4,000 positions. It is part of a statewide reclassification survey which will
cover altogether some 800 classifications, with approximately 13,-
000 civil service positions in the
state government. The survey already has covered the Conservation department and central offices
of the Welfare department.
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Four Men Win Cash in
Suggestion Program
At the presentation in Crookston of the first suggestion award in the Highway
department, L. to R.: Albert E. Yalley and Roy E. Sievert, the joint recipients; Albert
O. Torgerson, assistant commissioner, who presented them with certificates and
checks; and Lee R. Boyd, district maintenance engineer of Maintenance District 5,
who presided.
Two of the Highway department's maintenance men at
Crookston have become the state's first employees to win the
$50 award in the State Employees' Suggestion program. The
grant was made by the Merit Award board authorized by the
1955 State Legislature.
They are Roy E. Sievert, auto mechanic foreman, and
Albert E. Valley, auto mechanic helper, who jointly designed
and constructed an extension platform to be mounted on
trucks for use in erecting and repairing traffic signs on highway shoulders.
The device,   to be built in the
Maintenance   division  from  waste
metal at a cost of approximately
$60, is expected to save  the  de-
(Continued on Page 3)
Donovan Le Doux,
assistant stockman,
left; and Arthur Anderson, field mechanic; demonstrate operation of the award
winning device to
facilitate work on
roadside s i g n s.
Standing on the extension platform
mounted on the sign
truck, Anderson uses
a capped pipe to
sink the sign post.
O'Meara Is
To Retire
John F. O'Meara, one of the
pioneer engineers in the building and upkeep of Minnesota's
modern-day state and county
highway systems, will retire
from the Highway department November 30.
His successor remains to be
appointed.
Since 1927, O'Meara has headed
Maintenance district 16, with head-
John   F.  O'Meara
quarters at Windom. His engineering career, however, dates back
half a century, with most of it having been spent in work on Minnesota highways.
He has indicated that after retirement from the department he
will engage in consulting engineering in the southwestern section of
the state.
From 1905 to 1913, O'Meara
was with the Soo Line and Omaha
railroads, rising from axeman to
assistant engineer. Between 1916
and 1927, he was successively assistant county engineer of Brown
county and county engineer of Wilkin and Bedwood counties.
Entering the Highway department in 1927, O'Meara was im-
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