John Voss came into a little extra spending money this month.
How he got the bonus bucks and what he did with them tell a lot about Voss, Jefferson City's 2016 Employee of the Year.
Voss is a construction inspector for the city, now in his 14th year serving as the liaison between the city's professional engineers and the private contractors who keep its many projects on schedule and budget.
A proclamation and cash honorarium were presented to Voss in recognition of his selection at the City Council's Oct. 3 meeting.
"Mr. Voss contributes to the quality of life of citizens and visitors to the City of Jefferson and exemplifies the outstanding employees we have serving the city," City Administrator Steve Crowell said. "Mr. Voss is a dedicated, caring, thorough and professional member of the City of Jefferson team. The citizens of the City of Jefferson are fortunate to have a person of Mr. Voss's character and professionalism serving the city."
Of his work, Voss said, "No project ever really goes exactly according to plans. As good as the best engineers create it and the best contractors try to build it, there are always those things that don't turn out just like the engineers draw them and they're supposed to. So every day there's a constant back and forth from the job site to the engineers."
Typical day for municipal construction engineers? Not in the world of John Voss.
"There are a whole lot of good contractors out there. Jefferson City is lucky to have them," Voss said. "But every day and every job has challenges. That's putting it mildly." The challenges begin about 7 a.m. each day and continue unabated until 3 p.m., Voss said. "It's a stressful job, but I try to make it fun and, for the most part, I think I get that done."
Voss graduated in 1982 from the State Technical College of Missouri at Linn, his hometown and the site of the farm where he resides and works today with his brother, Lennie; father, Leonard, and mother, Rosalena.
After college, he worked from 1982-2002 with Bryan & Associates Consulting Engineers, where he found his career niche as a bridge inspector, traveling throughout the state, hopping from job sites on the Missouri-Arkansas border one day, for instance, to the Iowa-Missouri border the next.
Twenty years of bridge inspection took its toll, Voss said, although the experience with Bryan & Associates was positive. "I enjoyed every minute of that, except the travel. I had to make a change for the good of my family," he said.
The births of his sons, Jacob in 2000 and Jackson in 2001, provided the necessary motivation to find more local employment. Enter the construction inspection position with the city.
That explains the "how" of this story.
The "what" is certainly much more interesting to Voss, his co-workers, friends and especially his large family in the Linn area.
Voss took the framed Employee of the Year proclamation to his farm home and turned the honorarium into a surprise trip with Jacob and Jackson to Bass Pro Shops. The boys are now wearing new fall hunting togs bought with their dad's honorarium.
Both of the boys are avid hunters, Voss said. In fact, Jackson is quite the archer. Last weekend, he took a turkey with his bow and, earlier in the deer season, bagged his doe.
"We have our hunting spot at Frankenstein, and we never seem to have enough time together when we are out there," Voss said.
That doesn't surprise his older sister, Sharon Voss Monroe, a bit. Sharon, the long-time executive assistant in the office of the director of the Missouri Department of Transportation, said, "That's so Johnny. He devotes all of his time, energy and efforts to those two boys."
Nor did it surprise Crowell.
"I am not surprised that John chose to use the recognition award he received on his family. In his personal life and professional life, John thinks of others and what he can do to better serve them," the city administrator said.
The Voss family is a large clan, with many still on or close to the home farm on Route CC in Linn. John is the sixth of seven Voss children.
Voss said he did not see the honor coming, that he was surprised and humbled by it and was proud to have been chosen.
"There's never a dull day around here," he said.