Wiscasset’s highway department is back to full strength following the hiring of Ted Snowdon as the new town mechanic. The town mechanic is in charge of the care and maintenance of the town’s fleet of highway and emergency vehicles.

Snowdon isn’t new to town; he’s lived on Old Dresden Road since 2009. He’s been a familiar face at the transfer station where he’s filled in part-time. He has also worked as a part-time truck driver plowing snow and sanding for the town.

Being Wiscasset’s town mechanic is actually Snowdon’s second career. After graduating from Morse High School in Bath in 1981, the West Bath native decided to become a firefighter. He worked for Bath’s fire department and later was hired on full-time at the Brunswick Fire Department. Over his 25-year career with Brunswick he took on the responsibility of maintaining the fire trucks. He also cross-trained for Brunswick’s ambulance department before retiring in 2011.

One thing he likes about his new job is there’s something different nearly every day. This past week found him facing the challenge of changing the rear differential on the town’s F-550 Ford. Monday he was waiting for a part needed to repair a plow on one of the highway department’s four dump trucks.

Along with the highway trucks, Snowdon is responsible for maintaining and repairing the other heavy equipment including the front-end loaders and road grader. He also maintains Wiscasset’s two ambulances and all the fire trucks. This includes a lot of preventative maintenance like changing the oil, fluids and filters on a regular schedule along with rotating and changing the tires and doing whatever else is required to keep every vehicle road ready.

“Keeping up a regular maintenance schedule will keep all these vehicles running well for a long time,” he added.

Snowdon said all of the vehicles have been well cared for and are in good running order. He credits Mark Jones, the town’s former town mechanic. Jones recently retired after 27 years of service to the town.

When not on the job, Snowdon says he enjoys the outdoors. He loves both camping and fly fishing for trout, rainbow trout in particular. He said he often visits the White Mountain National Forest and knows the region well, having worked two years as a camp host at the historic Dolly Copp Campground just outside Gorham, New Hampshire.

With another winter storm predicted for later this week, spring and summertime seem a long way off. That’s fine for Snowdon, who said he enjoys coming to work and really likes both his new job and all of his co-workers at the town garage.