John Jaussi has been in charge of the Summit County Mosquito Abatement District since it began in 1983. At his retirement party last week, co-workers reminisced about the district’s humble beginnings and Jaussi’s thankless work.
Jaussi first began working for the Abatement District during the summers when he wasn’t working as an English and German teacher at North Summit High School.
“For the first 20 years, before West Nile came to the county, the district only covered North Summit and was mainly a summer thing,” he said. “When it expanded to the whole county I retired as a school teacher and became the manager.”
Bryan Stephens, a co-worker, said when Jaussi first began leading the fight against mosquitoes in the county, he had three other employees and used his home as the Abatement District’s office.
“The Abatement District had really small beginnings,” Stephens said. “Today, the district has a beautiful building and the necessary trucks and resources needed to manage the entire county.”
Jaussi said running the Abatement District out of his home and the storage shed where the chemicals were kept was never a problem, calling the whole operation a “mom-and-pop type thing.”
“I have just loved doing this every year for the past 30 years because I have such great co-workers,” he said. “We work with teachers and college students every summer and I love that many of these students have been able to put themselves through school by working with us. Many employees have been with me for 10 or 15 years.”
Thirty years later, Jaussi said he is proud of what the Abatement District has become and said he likes that the board has always been very conservative with taxpayer dollars.
“We use old, used trucks and they worked just fine and allow us to be fiscally responsible,” he said. “Even though it has been so long, I never got sick of this work and have always loved it.”
Stephens added that the success and growth of the Mosquito Abatement District can be attributed to Jaussi’s continued efforts every year.
Park City Mayor Dana Williams served on the Mosquito Abatement Board with Jaussi and said the county would still be facing a serious mosquito problem if it wasn’t for his leadership.