You’re up early one winter morning– scraping the snow from your windshield and wondering if it’s worth losing your job to crawl back into your warm, safe bed– when suddenly you notice someone who’s already at work and going hard. That person is shoveling or plowing snow, salting the steps to keep visitors safe, or rushing onto the hazardous roads to see to one of the many problems the cold weather creates.

Or perhaps it’s before sunrise and you’re a reporter (who normally likes to sleep in) walking to an interview. It’s still dark out, but you notice them nonetheless and nod in their direction. You might have seen these people in the daylight before, but at that pre-dawn moment you see them more clearly and better appreciate them.

They are municipal workers, those hired by a city (or municipality, in legal terms), and hitting the grindstone at early hours is very much a part of their daily routine. Some of them are even on call 24 hours, seven days a week.

Though they are sometimes unseen as they work, their work is a vital staple in the community. Without it, without them, the simple things we take for granted every day might fall into disarray. They handle more than we even know, from repairing pipes to responding to public needs.

It really is something to live in a community in which most of us know these hard workers on a first name basis, where those in charge of utilities care enough to alert the public at large (and even local citizens on an individual basis) when schedules changes, where you make a phone call and someone is there to assist you a few minutes later, where the job is about doing it right for the people.

It takes a lot to make Tyler County work. Much of the behind-the-scenes effort goes unreported, but we sure do appreciate it, and we want you all to know that.