The man who has helped maintain the city’s 80 miles of streets and alleys for nearly half a century has retired.

Ralph Graham has left his role as streets foreman of Butler’s Streets and Public Improvement Department, which is responsible for repaving and managing all the city streets and alleys, as well as handling street signs, storm sewers, and winter maintenance. His last day was Saturday.

“I think I’ll work on my golf game now a little bit,” Graham joked. “I want to enjoy my retirement.”

While he’s ending his career as the supervisor of the department, Graham had to work his way from the bottom up.

He first worked for the department in 1966 as a summer employee at the age of 16 while he was still in high school.

In 1971 he was hired to a full-time position as a general laborer, repairing the city’s streets.

“Out of high school I enjoyed that work,” he said. “I had an opportunity to get on full time and I jumped on it.”

After years of manual labor helping to maintain the streets, Graham was promoted in the early 1990s to his current position as the streets foreman.

“It’s been enjoyable to me,” Graham said. “Not many people can say they’ve been with the same employer for 42 years.”

His retirement makes for a tough goodbye for the people who have worked beside Graham for any part of his tenure.

“We’re losing a big asset in Ralph Graham,” said Councilman Richard Schontz Jr., who serves as the director of Streets and Public Improvement.

“We’ve had a great working relationship ever since I’ve been on council, and we’ve accomplished a lot of things. We’ll miss him and his expertise,” Schontz said.

That feeling was mutual with Mindy Gall, the city clerk.

“Ralph was a joy to work with,” Gall said. “I wish him nothing but the best, and I hope that he’ll stop to visit from time to time.”

While the personal goodbyes are tough, replacing a man with four decades of experience carries an additional challenge.

“His professionalism and his knowledge of the city will be missed terribly,” said Gall, who is leading the search to find his replacement.

Graham said he’s seen a lot of changes over the years in the department and in the city.

He said the biggest change he has had to handle is the reduction in the size of the department.

“When I started in 1971 there were 19 men in the work force and a supervisor,” he said. “There are four men and a supervisor today.”

Graham said it was a challenge to deal with, but it coincided with the financial troubles facing the rest of the city.

“We lost more programs than we gained during my time,” he said. “When I started there were five men employed for curb replacement. That’s the size of the whole department today.”

Graham said that perhaps the biggest challenge he faced as streets foreman was explaining to the public the limitations within the department.

“Out of the general budget, we get about three to four cents out of the tax dollar,” he said. “The hardest part is relaying that information to the public to let them know that, and explaining to them we couldn’t do everything we wanted to do.”

While there were some struggles along the way, Graham emphasized the challenges were brought on by the changing times, particularly the growth in outlying townships, not the city’s management.

Graham said he enjoyed working alongside the political leaders of the city throughout his career.

“Working with the political people — they all have their hearts in Butler,” he said. “They try to make it the best they can.”

For the city’s mayor, the feeling was mutual toward Graham. “We’re sorry to see him go,” said Mayor Maggie Stock. “He’s done a wonderful job for the city. And he’s done a great job at keeping the streets safe.”

Graham said he was happy and thankful to have served the city for all those years.

“The city of Butler has been good to me,” he said. “I have no regrets whatsoever.”