Joe Whalen – Town Highway Superintendent
Joe Whalen has been the Town Highway Superintendent for the past 8 years.
A life-long resident of Saratoga County, Joe has lived in the Town of Ballston for the past 15 years with his wife Mary and two children, Caitlin and Jack. A graduate of SUNY Brockport, Joe has attended Cornell University’s Local Road Programs for the past 9 years. He has been a member of the Ballston Spa Lion’s Club since 1996 and is active in area community services such as children’s baseball and soccer and the trail system at the Ballston Spa Central School District. Joe has also coached in the BARC soccer program since 2004 and is entering his first year as a coach in the Ballston Spa Pop Warner football program.
As Highway Superintendent, Joe has replaced the salt shed, improving capacity by 2,700 tons. He has updated equipment for the highway garage, paved 33 miles out of 47 miles of Town roads and installed school zone traffic lights with grant money for Ballston schools. Joe added three more bays to the highway garage so that all equipment is stored inside. He has updated all town road signs with signs having larger letters for easier reading. He has had County Waste pick up leaves and brush for all town residents at no charge to residents and worked with the BH/BL Rotary to start a program called Town in Bloom which plants and maintains flowers at various locations.
Joe has maintained 30 hours of NYS water certification annually, initiated a storm water management program, which is now state madated and improved the municipal water pump station. He added a chlorine system to chlorinate the water supply necessary for 6 new water extensions and put a new 400,000 gallon water storage tank into service. He has maintained 341 fire hydrants and 44 miles of water line–all with a 0% highway tax.
Joe has also served on the Board of Directors of the Saratoga County Town Highway Superintendents Association for the past 2 years, after having served as vice president for two years and president for an additional two years. This organization raises funds to send local children to the Double H Hole in the Woods camp annually. He is a member of the NYS Town Highway Superintendents Association and the NY Rural Water Association.