ROCKLAND, Maine — This Labor Day will be the first one in 52 years that Raymond Athearn will not be a city employee.
Athearn turned in his resignation, effective Friday. He has been on paid administrative leave since May, but neither he nor the city has revealed the reason.
The separation agreement between the city and Athearn calls for him to receive 13 weeks of severance pay at $661 gross per week starting from the resignation date. The city also will contribute $264 per week for the cost of his health insurance through Nov. 27.
In addition, Athearn will receive, per union contract, any accumulated vacation and compensatory time, as well as half any accumulated unused sick time.
The agreement states the two parties wanted to end Athearn’s employment with the city on an amicable note.
Athearn was honored by the Rockland City Council in April 2014 for his lengthy service to Rockland. The 84-year-old began working for the city’s public works department in the fall of 1963.
Athearn said after the 2014 presentation that he has done it all in working for the city: driving trucks, plowing and sanding roads, digging ditches and picking up trash. He last worked as the attendant at the city’s transfer station.
In all those years, until he was placed on administrative leave, he only missed work one time — a six-week period in 1999 when he was recovering from a hernia operation.
Before coming to the city he had done various laborer jobs.
His resignation leaves tax collector and treasurer Susan St. Clair as the city government’s longest serving worker. She began working for the city in September 1974.