Today was the last day on the job for Habersham County Senior Public Works Director Derick Canupp.
During a day that might have seemed like any other day in the office, with department meetings to attend and lunch with coworkers on his schedule, he reflected on his eight and a half years serving the county, and enjoyed the company of his “Habersham family” for one last workday.
Canupp said that over his years, he’s most proud of his work on the Habersham County Airport, which he says is a whole new facility now than what it was when he started. He’s also proud of the department’s accomplishments under his leadership such as bridge work and matienance, changes to the road department and the work done to restore New Liberty Road after its drainage pipe collapsed in Hurricane Delta.
“That [New Liberty drainage] structure is there, and my grandkids will be able to go there one day and see that, and it’ll outlive my grandchildren,” he said. “I’m proud of that, to know that we improved it to what it is now.”
The best part of his job, he says, was working with people in the Habersham community, and taking care of their needs. He says that over his last month as public works director, he’s been contacted by several citizens thanking him for his work to fix issues that they had with their roads over the years. He says that while those might have been day-to-day jobs for him, it means a lot to know how much they helped someone else.
“There’s a lot of satisfaction in knowing that what you do for a living is something that helped make everybody’s life a little bit better,” Canupp said.
He has a few tips for the county’s next public works director as he makes his move to White County.
“Meet as many people as you can, and make as many friends as you can,” Canupp says. “You’d be surprised in a small county, how connected people are to one another.”
He says that those small town relationships can be a double-edged sword, but building relationships with the people you meet, and putting trust in those who work in the public works department makes it run like a well-oiled machine. He says that the county’s public works staff are capable, and that without them, he wouldn’t have learned all that he has today.
While he is leaving his position in Habersham, he says it isn’t because he’s unhappy with his job, it’s to grow professionally by stepping out of his comfort zone.
“When you get in a position where you get kind of complacent because when you do something for so long, it just becomes so natural to you— you need to move on, learn other things, take on new challenges, keep it fresh,” Canupp says. “That’s what I hope to do. Maybe one day I would come back to Habersham, I wouldn’t be opposed to doing that later on in life. And I think that I could, leaving on good terms, but we’ll see what the good Lord has in store for me.”
Canupp now moves on to his new job as public works director in White County. His first day on the job there is November 15.
