Working on Christmas Day
From the time of the innkeeper in the original Christmas story, there have been people who have had to work on Christmas Day.
It's the same for Butler County residents who work for organizations that never lock their doors.
Well, the Butler County Prison does lock its doors, and that's where you can find guard Jeff Bailey on Dec. 25.
Originally from Massachusetts, Bailey, 38, and his wife, who is from the Butler County area, met in college in Connecticut.
The couple and their four children moved back to the county about five years ago, when Bailey started working part time for the prison, achieving a full-time position when the prison moved into its new location in 2009.
“Working on Christmas is just part of the schedule,” Bailey said as he showed off one of the unused inmate pods in the prison.
“We (guards) work together, offering to take each other's shifts to help out sometimes,” he said.
Bailey's family will spend the day with grandparents while he is at work, and then he'll be able to share a meal and open some presents when he gets home.
“The kids understand that this is just the way it is,” Bailey said.
Ray Fernandez, who works for the Cranberry Township Water Treatment Plant on Brush Creek, is another worker whose position is a 24-7-365 job.
Fernandez, who has 14 years at the plant as an operator-laboratory technician, has spent many a holiday working.
“We rotate holidays and if somebody has little kids and needs to be home on a Christmas, well we work together to make sure they are home,” Fernandez said.With all of his children grown, except for a 12-year-old stepdaughter, he said the family will go on and open presents without him.“But I'll be working a 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. shift, so I'll be home in plenty of time for dinner,” he said.“Its really not that bad. You just think of it as another day,” Fernandez said.Cathie Killmer of Butler is looking forward to visiting with patients in Butler Memorial Hospital on Christmas.Killmer, a dietary hostess, visits most patients up to three times a day to get their food orders and remove their trays.“A lot of people don't have visitors, and besides, I always have to visit with them,” she said. “I just like to talk.”Killmer has seven children and several grandchildren, but a job is a job and this one requires that she works on some holidays.But Killmer doesn't seem too upset about it.“For some people, especially those in the hospital who can't get home, it can be real sad. So I hope that visiting with them, showing I care, can help them even a little bit,” Killmer said.
