Maryville's Johnny Garner receives Murphy Snoderly Award

By LISA HOOD SKINNER
Tennessee Public Works Magazine

The city of Maryville is on a winning streak. For the second year in a row, Maryville had the winner of the Murphy Snoderly Award. Last year’s winner was Doug Strickland, the city’s heavy equipment operator in engineering and public works. 

This year’s award, a prestigious annual TCAPWA statewide honor given to a highly deserving public works employee, goes to the city of Maryville’s Johnny Garner.  

Garner began his career on July 13,1993, first starting out on the city of Maryville’s rear load garbage truck. After a half year of hard work, he was promoted to grounds maintenance, mowing the city’s parks and right of ways for the next seven years. 

He then was promoted to the sanitation department, where he learned to operate many different pieces of equipment, including the rear load garbage truck, the front load dumpster truck and the knuckle boom trucks.  

About Those Knuckle Boom Trucks…

Brad Hurst, Garner’s supervisor and Sanitation Superintendent for the City of Maryville, says Garner “found that his true love was operating knuckle boom trucks,” and that for the past more than 22 years, Garner has been the standard for the city’s knuckle boom operators.  

“When a new employee came along and thought he would ‘outwork’ Johnny, he found out real quick that he had bitten off more than he could chew,” Hurst said. 

Hurst added that during Garner’s more than 32 years at the city, “Johnny has maintained a tremendous safety record and always takes time to train the new employees or show them some “old tricks” that might help them learn.” 

Throughout those years, he’s been known to take great pride in his work, receiving many compliments on his operating abilities and stellar customer service.  

Origins of the Murphy Snoderly Award 

Murphy Snoderly, for whom the award is named, was a long-time engineering and Public Works consultant for the state’s Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS). 

He felt the working person, the man or woman who day in and day out picks up garbage or patches streets or performs dozens of other chores at a relatively low pay scale, should be recognized for dedication and service to the community.  

Guidelines say the award recipient must be “an operation level or ‘working person’ employee.” It is presented annually at the Tennessee Municipal League Conference. 

Hurst said that as one of the city’s most caring and loyal employees, Garner “truly is the picture of what the Murphy Snoderly Award represents. Johnny is a ‘working person’ who is nearing retirement and deserves recognition for a great career.” 

“The city of Maryville is very fortunate to have an employee like Johnny,” Hurst added.