ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, August 22, 1996 TAG: 9608220014
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
Town Council did everything but sing "Auld Lang Syne" as it bade farewell to three longtime public servants Tuesday night.
There were plaques, certificates, resolutions, applause and handshakes to recognize a total of 87 years of work by Town Manager John Lemley, Councilman Truman Daniel and former Clerk of Council Imogene Brumfield.
Brumfield's last official working day was in June, but Tuesday was the last council meeting for Lemley and Daniel.
Lemley retires Sept. 1 as Virginia's longest-serving town manager, having assumed his present job in 1956. Daniel has served four council terms since 1980, but decided not to seek re-election.
After holding a variety of municipal jobs over more than 31 years, Brumfield's latest assignment Tuesday was to snap photographs of all the ceremonial goings-on.
For Lemley and Daniel, the meeting's business was strictly routine - a neighborhood disagreement, property rezonings and other municipal matters - until the departing town manager announced, "That's all I have to say, Mr. Mayor, except that it's been a ball."
Lemley first occupied his desk at age 27, when Christiansburg was a much sleepier place than the residential and commercial magnet it has become. Most people, assuming that Lemley and the town were inseparable, were taken by surprise when he announced his retirement in June.
Now, despite all the responsibilities he's borne over the years, Lemley is a youthful-looking 67. He plans to stay that way by fishing at his beach house.
The accolades for Lemley began with plaques from the New River Criminal Justice Training Academy and the International City Managers Association. Council also passed resolutions of appreciation, including one to place a cornerstone bearing Lemley's name at the recently upgraded Christiansburg Industrial Park.
Council member Jack Via joked that a stone column might be more appropriate for the site, because Lemley had been "a pillar of support."
Tuesday's fete was only a prelude to Sunday, when the town plans to honor Lemley with a public reception from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Christiansburg fire station on Depot Street.
Daniel got his own congratulatory resolution from Town Council and a round of applause from fellow members. "The town of Christiansburg owes a lot of credit to you people," he responded.
"I'm going to come back and sit out there," Daniel said, gesturing toward the folding chairs in the the audience.
Brumfield was noted by council with somewhat less pomp, only because her last day was June 25 and this retirement from working for the town was actually her second.
She moved to Christiansburg in 1937 and began a versatile career for the town in 1964. Before leaving full-time work in 1991, Brumfield served as executive secretary and assistant town manager. Since, she had been the town's part-time clerk of council.
At the end of the meeting, people lingered for some time in council's chambers, and Lemley fired up a benedictory cigarette, not wanting to abandon the surroundings that had become so familiar over the years.
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: (headshots) Lemley, Daniel, Brumfield.by CNB