J.P. retires

J.P. and Laurel Stemply can’t drive around Jasper without J.P. pointing out some project or work he contributed to through his 44 years of service in Jasper Parks and Recreation.

“My wife has heard those stories too many times,” he laughed.

Regardless, with a career dedicated to maintaining the many parks in Jasper, J.P. has likely fixed, installed or replaced something in every one of them. He’s never hesitated to take on a project and he’s never been one to limit his skills to the workweek. If it took extra time or hours outside of Monday through Friday, he didn’t mind as long as a project got done.

J.P. stumbled into the job when he was about to graduate from Jasper High School in 1978. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do, and then, he happened see an advertisement in the paper for a full-time position as the assistant maintenance superintendent.

“So I answered the ad and blah, blah, blah, long story short, I was hired,” he said of the beginning of his long career.

He started on May 1 as he ended his last few weeks in school. A special arrangement through the co-op allowed him to leave school at noon every day to head off to the parks department.

“It was pretty much just grass mowing, baseball field prep and general maintenance,” he said of the position when he started.

But he likes to point out that he started as assistant maintenance superintendent right off the bat. “The funny thing about it was there were only two full-time employees,” he laughed.

J.P. knew he didn’t want to head to college; he just wanted to work. “It just opened up at the right time,” he said about the job. “And I just happened to fall into it more or less.”

One of the first projects J.P. worked on was installing a huge piece of playground equipment in Parker Park located at the corner of Ninth and Mill streets. “The first piece we had in there cost a whopping $13,000,” J.P. said. “You could nearly build a house for that much back then. That was a chunk of money.”

The redwood and metal structure was taken out in 2000. “Even by today’s standards that was a very big piece of playground equipment as far as height-wise,” he added.

He promoted to maintenance supervisor in 1996 and has been there ever since. In all of those years, he hasn’t really considered doing anything else — even if he did, it was only a momentary thought gone with a quick reminder of how much he loved where he was at.

He loves it because every day provides something different to work on, another problem to solve, something needing to be fixed. And J.P. likes keeping his hands and mind busy on projects that support the city. He likes learning and the parks department has given him an opportunity to do so. Electrical, construction, welding, mechanical. “If you can envision any trade that’s out there, I’ve done it to a degree,” J.P. said.

There were days he didn’t enjoy. Like his second winter on the job when he and a couple of part-timers sandblasted the municipal pool. “It didn’t have a liner and it had a concrete bottom,” J.P. said. “We sandblasted the whole pool with a wet-type sandblaster. There were days I didn’t enjoy, but it didn’t bother me.”

His feet were constantly wet and cold during the project. They carried 100-pound bags of sand out of the dressing room where they had staged them. “My arms got really big,” J.P. said. “I got to the point where I could carry two bags at a time no big deal.”

He’s always been dedicated to his work. His third wedding anniversary dinner had to end in time for him to get to the municipal pool and accept delivery of the new slide at 7 p.m. This after spending his anniversary the year before at an extrication school for the fire department.

“I loved this job so much, I didn’t want to go home at the end of the day,” J.P. said. “We got paid for a 40-hour workweek but I always took it as you worked until you got it done.”

He can’t speak highly enough of his wife’s support through all the years as he served the parks department as well as rushed out to emergency calls as a member of the Jasper Volunteer Fire Department — he retired from the fire department in 2018.

“You know what, I’ve tried to keep this a secret from her,” J.P. said. “But I tell people all the time I’m married to the greatest woman in the world.”

J.P. and Laurel met the month after he started working for the City of Jasper. He ended up connecting with her through some radio chatter over a CB radio — kinda like sliding into someone’s DMs these days — that led to a meet-up with her and some friends on the hill where the Jasper VFW used to be. With some encouragement from a mutual friend, the two got together. J.P. and Laurel will have been married 41 years as of May 23. They have three children — Dawn and twins, Christian and Katie.

With all of this support and all of this love for what he does, only a few things are compelling him to retire. Two men with whom he spent much of his career are no longer in the department — Ken Buck and Mike Oeding. Buck retired in 2020 and Oeding passed away in 2015.

“I felt like I grew up with Mike and Ken because they were both here when I started,” J.P. said.

There was also Phil Volz, golf course superintendent who started as a part-timer a couple weeks before J.P. got his job. And then Mark Mehringer who was the maintenance supervisor at Ruxer until he retired a couple years ago.

He can look around and see that it is time for fresh eyes even in his position. It is a new team’s turn to move Jasper’s parks forward.

Also, technology is putting him behind his desk more often when he would rather be outside or in the shop. A desk that holds small treasures in the thank you notes he keeps finding as he’s been cleaning up these past few days.

And, it is time. “I am doing it because I can,” the 62-year-old explained.

His family’s properties near Patoka Lake need his skills as do his numerous friends and family that regularly reach out for help.

He’s also ready to finish a cup of coffee at Hardee’s in the morning with a few of his buddies instead of running off to work early as they continue talking and reminiscing.

He knows he’s going to miss the people and it won’t be easy leaving the 44 years of responsibility behind. He figures he will have those moments when he is driving by a park and sees some treelimbs are down. J.P. will make a note to get them taken care of on Monday but then he’ll remember, it’s no longer his job.

“I loved it. I fell in and really, it was such a good fit,” he said about those years. “I just absolutely loved it from day one.”