In my roughly three decades of covering Bridgeport, I have talked about one of my choices of a person I encountered during my reporting I would put on my personal Bridgeport Mount Rushmore. Until recently, the list included just one name – the late Mayor Carl Furbee.

 

On this date, there is a second name. Ironically, it is also a former mayor for Bridgeport.

 

Since it is my personal Mount Rushmore, I cannot be incorrect. However, even the harshest critic of individuals on any level would be hard pressed to find a fierce debate to not include L. Joseph “Joe” Timms as someone worthy of a spot on the pantheon of greats to make an immeasurable impact on the City of Bridgeport.

 

I already knew of Timms’ contributions to the city going back even prior to his time as a two-term mayor. I knew of his contributions to the city serving the Bridgeport Sanitary Board for more than a decade and making key contributions to an infrastructure system the envy of many in the state.

 

I knew that. I know more. I guess, though, I did not know everything on an already impressive list.

 

This all came into my thought process Monday, July 8 at the Bridgeport City Council meeting. Timms was being recognized for his service to the community for decades.

 

The reason? Joe Timms and his wife Annabel are moving to Lake Norman in North Carolina. Not because his love for the City of Bridgeport has waned, but for another reason.

 

“We have family down there. We’re at the age now where we need to be close to family. I have two sisters, and a daughter Becky living there. Our daughter Cindy lives here, but she spends about half her time there so it will make things easier for everyone,” said Timms, who has a third daughter Sarah.

 

When Joe Timms departs later this month, he will be taking a whole lot of his personal belongings with him. His impact will remain. And trust me, Joe Timms has had an impact.

 

Before talking about his time as an elected official, he was a leader in his profession – the oil and gas industry. And as a leader, his office may have been local, but his impact was national if not global.

 

Timms served as president and CEO of Consolidated Natural Gas Transmission. During that time, he ran an efficient ship and was responsible for many things, including overseeing the largest underground storage operation in the world. Not only did those facilities help deliver natural gas to utility companies mainly along the East Coast, but CNG grew by 50 percent under his stewardship.

 

It should be noted Joe Timms is a Professional Engineer, which is the “P.E.” people often see after names. It is an earned designation, and one Timms used in his job and one he used to help oversee governing bodies for engineers nationally and in West Virginia.

 

Timms also shared his knowledge as an adjunct professor at Salem International University for 15 years. On top of that, he sat on the Davis & Elkins College Board of Trustees and served as the chair.

 

Timms’ educational impact? Look no further than Bridgeport City Engineer Beth Fox whose early career included working side by side with Timms on many complex projects after he affixed his name to her diploma as the president of the West Virgina State Board of Registration for Professional Engineers. The beautiful irony of that is she continues a lengthy line of outstanding city engineers for Bridgeport that have the city light years ahead of most communities nationwide.

 

“You are a man of compassion and support for your family, your colleagues, and your past employees, providing us all the opportunity to grow within our individual journey,” Fox said to Timms at Monday’s meeting, often becoming emotional as she talked about him.

 

One additional thing Timms did before coming on board as an elected official – he, along with Annabel, are founding members of the Bridgeport Presbyterian Church that celebrated its 50^th anniversary this year.

 

If I stopped there, you could make an argument for Mount Rushmore inclusion. But Timms decided in 1997 to run for mayor in Bridgeport. Eight years and two terms later, when the city charter did not allow for a mayor to serve for more than that, Timms’ elected run was over. Again, the impact was not.

 

“One of the things I am most proud of is that I was the first mayor to put in a strategic planning process,” said Timms of what turned into the city’s first comprehensive plan that came out in 1999 and is still updated and used as a blueprint for city development to this day. “For months we would meet and do planning, and we got the citizens involved in numerous ways.

 

“Until that time, Bridgeport did a great job of running and maintaining the city before the days of the charter, but there was no plan to move forward,” Timms continued. “We have that now with the comprehensive plan.”

 

The plan is mentioned frequently. And it set the stage for Bridgeport to plan for just about any endeavor. Current Mayor Andy Lang has frequently mentioned Timms’ name to me about his bringing the corporate planning vision to the City of Bridgeport that takes place to this day.

 

To say it has not worked would be disingenuous. Bridgeport plans for roads, for Parks and Recreation, downtown improvements, plans for escrow accounts to pay for new police and fire vehicles, and, well, just about anything you can get a jump on.

 

As for one of his own personal highlights, it involves State Route 279 – or Jerry Dove Drive. Timms said initially the plan was to go from Route 50 to Route 131. He and former City Manager Kim Haws helped change that.

 

“Kim and I went to Charleston, sat down with state officials, and told them, ‘Look, it’s only a mile over to the interstate.’ We told them having that would be well worth it to everyone to get over there,” said Timms. “They also planned on doing a two-lane initially, but we let them know they should consider a four-lane, and they found the money to do that.

 

“It’s been nice to see the development throughout there,” he continued. “It was also nice to work with United Hospital Center on the infrastructure and the process needed for that to happen.”

 

Mistakenly, I was under the impression Joe Timms – as well as his father Leonard J. Timms Sr., (who served on Bridgeport’s charter committee in 1993 and was another community stalwart) – lived in the city his entire life. While he has more than 50 years to his credit, he started elsewhere.

 

Timms roots to Bridgeport go back to 1970. His roots to Harrison County go back to 1963 when the family moved here on a day he cannot forget.

 

“We moved to Clarksburg the day John F. Kennedy was shot,” said Timms. “We spent seven years in Clarksburg and then we came to Bridgeport.

 

“This has been a wonderful place to raise a family and to be around so many friends,” Timms continued. “People are low-key and very friendly here and will go out of their way to help you. It’s been a wonderful experience.”

 

That experience, at least to many in the public eye, was highlighted by his time as mayor. And if you want to know why Timms found success and that success continues, he summed up his time on the city’s governing body in a manner only capable by a true public servant.

 

“I was pleased to be able to serve with a bunch of people who were statemen and not politicians,” said Timms. “A politician plans for the next election. A statesman plans for the next generation.”

 

Timms’ tenure on Council, as well as his 54 years in Bridgeport, has already taken care of generations and will take care of future generations. Because of that, spot number two on my personal Mount Rushmore is now secure.

 

Enjoy your time with family Mr. Mayor. You have earned it.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Joe Timms at a past Bridgeport Utility Board meeting, while the rest are from Monday's Council session. In the photo of the foursome just above this editor's note, Timms is joined by, from left, Jim Christie, Andy Lang, and Robert "Bob" Greer, all past mayors with Lang currently serving. Bottom image puts Timms on board of Bridgeport's Mount Rushmore - the non sports-related one.