ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, June 8, 1996 TAG: 9606090024
SECTION: EDITORIAL PAGE: A-9 EDITION: METRO
FOUR DECADES is a long time for anybody to stay in the same job. For a local-government administrator, it's nigh unto incredible. But when John Lemley retires Sept. 1, as he announced this week he would, he'll have served exactly 40 years as Christiansburg's first, and so far only, town manager.
A lot of changes have come to Christiansburg in those decades, not all of them worth celebrating. But had Lemley been less than capable, and he and his community less of a fit, he presumably would have been gone long before he became the longest-serving municipal manager in Virginia.
The post Lemley accepted as a 27-year-old in 1956 has the same title as the one from which he'll retire in 1996, but it isn't really the same job. He started as the manager of a town of one square mile and a 3,000 population, and will retire as the manager of a town of 14 square miles and a population of 17,000 - without leaving Christiansburg.
Moreover, what at first was basically a civil-engineering job - overseeing the town's water, sewer and streets infrastructure - has become a public-administration job requiring a measure of expertise in not only engineering but also in such specialties as accounting, budgeting, community planning, law, personnel administration and public relations.
Unlike the length of Lemley's service, such growth in the complexity of local-government administration in Virginia is not at all rare. It's another reason, though, that few administrators stay 40 years.
LENGTH: Short : 34 linesby CNB