{"id":23751,"date":"2019-05-09T18:53:35","date_gmt":"2019-05-09T22:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23751"},"modified":"2019-05-09T18:53:44","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T22:53:44","slug":"jim-tree-celebrated-for-40-years-service-to-aurora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/jim-tree-celebrated-for-40-years-service-to-aurora\/","title":{"rendered":"Jim Tree celebrated for 40 years\u2019 service to Aurora"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s been through 14 elections,\nseen seven different mayors, 43 Council members, 10 CAOs and six directors, but\nJim Tree is still going strong at the Town of Aurora. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Tree, who now serves as\nRoads Manager for the Town, was celebrated for his 40 years with the\nmunicipality last week with a special presentation in Council Chambers marking\nhis service. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saluted by Al Downey, the\nTown\u2019s Director of Operations, Mr. Tree was hailed as someone who \u201calways seems\nto be in the background but his ideas are always in the forefront.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJim, to me, has always been a\nvery special person; he and I often agree and often disagree and it seems to\nwork good either way,\u201d said Mr. Downey. \u201cJim has always been, to me, Mr.\nAurora. Norm Weller originally brought Jim Tree to Aurora, hired Jim out of\nWestview Golf Course. Jim has been instrumental in guiding the Town of Aurora\nParks Department [as Parks Manager] as well as now the Operational Division\nthrough his tenure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cNo task seems too big for Jim.\nHe always goes there with an open mind and enthusiasm. I say he has the\ncuriosity of a kid. It is amazing to see a fellow who has been here that long\nnot satisfied with \u2018good enough.\u2019 We always have to do better, we always have\nto do something different. I feel lucky to have Jim as part of our team and you\nshould, as being part of Aurora\u2019s team, in guiding us in the past and into the\nfuture.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jim Tree officially marked his\n40th<\/sup> anniversary at the\nTown of Aurora on April 19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The anniversary itself was\nmarked prior to his Council salute with a special breakfast in his honour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Council, his tenure was\ncelebrated with a slide show presentation charting his history in both the\nParks and Operations departments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen you start thinking back\nabout 40 years ago, it gives you a little bit of a better idea of all the\nthings that have happened and all the accomplishments Jim has made,\u201d said Mr. Downey,\nhighlighting the reconstruction of Petch House and work carried out at\nSheppard\u2019s Bush among the CV. \u201cWe have a little saying over at the Joint\nOperations Centre about making a difference and Jim is one of those people who\ntruly makes a difference in everyone\u2019s lives at the Town of Aurora. I am so\nhappy to call him a friend, and I am so happy to be working with him all these\nyears.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mr. Tree was joined at Council\nby his wife, Deb, and the youngest of their three sons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt has been a privilege and an\nhonour to be part of the Town of Aurora,\u201d said Mr. Tree. \u201cI came to Aurora when\nI was two years old. I don\u2019t live in Aurora anymore, but my heart is still\nhere, my family\u2019s heart is still here. We raised our children here and it is\nthe best Town in the world. It has just been an honour and a pleasure to serve\nthe community. All the different members of Council, the Mayors, directors and\nresidents \u2013 it has just been fabulous. I never really considered it work. It\nhas always been fun to come to work and a real pleasure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe have always had fabulous\nsupport of our initiatives and endeavours, and that has made it just fabulous.\nWords don\u2019t really describe it and it has just been a real pleasure.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These warm sentiments were\nreturned by members of Council. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou come to work every day\nlike it\u2019s your first day on the job and you\u2019re so excited and everything you\napproach is an opportunity,\u201d said Councillor Sandra Humfryes. \u201cYou honestly\nhave a real refreshing way about you and I wish we could clone that so people\ncan come to work really excited like you are. You make our Town such a great\nplace to live. You\u2019ve had a huge impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner, in\nturn, said she was sitting at the table when they celebrated his twenty-fifth\nanniversary with the Town and was happy to be there to celebrate his fortieth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve benefited as a Town\nbecause of your expertise, your experience,\u201d added Mayor Mrakas. \u201cEveryone\nalways talks about how blessed we are in Aurora with our green parks, our\nfantastic trails and, quite frankly, we owe it all to you. You have done a\ntremendous job making Aurora what it is when it comes to green space. You\u2019ve\nmoved on into Roads and starting off in the same way with Roads \u2013 creating an\nincredible atmosphere in that department as well and Aurora, as a Town, is only\ngoing to benefit from that.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

He\u2019s been through 14 elections, seen seven different mayors, 43 Council members, 10 CAOs and six directors, but Jim Tree is still going strong at the Town of Aurora. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23752,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23751","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/2019-05-09-05.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6b5","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 13:35:40","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}