Mobile County Health Department retirees recognized for their service

Harry Bolt, who has cared for the grounds of the Mobile County Health

Department for 19 years, is officially retiring from the agency Aug. 1. He is 

pictured above with Health Officer Dr. Bernard Eichold, who presented him

with a special brick used in the original structure circa 1800.

MOBILE, Alabama -- Two longtime Mobile County Health Department employees who are retiring later this month were honored for their service to the agency on Wednesday, July 17. Health officer Dr. Bernard Eichold presented plaques to Labaron Laster, a custodial worker, and Harry Bolt, a public service worker, during a management council meeting. Both men also recieved special citations from the Alabama Department of Public Health and the Mayor's Office of the City of Mobile.

Bolt grew up in Pennsylvania, serving in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War and then later working in steel mills and construction before heading south. Beginning in the early 1990s, he spent nearly two decades maintaining the flower beds and hedges hugging the historic brick fence that surrounds the Health Department's downtown campus, among his other duties. Most recently, he's worked the better part of four months creating new brick flower beds for several areas behind the Keeler building.

So far, the job has required about 1,000 burgundy-colored bricks, he said. For the next two weeks, Bolt said he plans to finish the project as he painstakingly cuts each brick by hand, using a chisel and hammer.
"If I hurry up, I'll probably lay 30 bricks a day," Bolt said. "A lot of them are half circles with angles."

Dr. Eichold presented Bolt with one of the bricks used in the original military hospital that now houses the Health Department and dates back to the early 1800s. A small plaque on the brick includes Bolt's name and the beginning and end date of his employment. Dr. Eichold said he wanted to give Bolt the memento because of his work to restore and maintain the historic structure. Bolt said the brick will have a place of honor on a special cabinet in his home.



Labaron Laster accepts a special citation from Dr. Bernard Eichold in

recognition of 25 years of service to the Mobile County Health Department.

The keys to the building

Laster, a Mobile resident, began his career with the MCHD in 1988 after working at the Mobile County Sheriff's Office. He also plans to retire August 1 after 25 years with the health agency. He said he spent about 18 years of his career as a supervisor.

 "They gave me the keys to the building," he said, smiling. "That made me feel good." He will retire as a Custodial Worker II and plans to enter the workforce again as soon as he finds another job.

Laster said he enjoyed his duties with the Health Department and came to see many of his coworkers as friends. "I got to like the people," he said. "I had to interact and talk to a lot of people everywhere." Through the years, Laster has helped dozens of other MCHD staff members with moving equipment and offices to clinics across Mobile County.

As for Bolt, he said he knows exactly what he's going to do come August 1. "I'll have a new job," he said, chuckling. "It's called honey do's. My wife already has a list."