About three dozen family, friends and former colleagues of Jack Hansen stood in a light snowfall Tuesday to dedicate the new gazebo outside Town Hall to the former Riverhead Town financial administrator.
“I have been an observer of town government in the Town of Riverhead for the past 50 years,” said Town Justice Allen Smith, who was town supervisor when Hansen was first hired in the 1970s. “Jack Hansen was the most honest, most dedicated, most inspired person I’ve known in public service serving the Town of Riverhead in the past 50 years.”
Hansen met his wife Denise, another town employee, at Town Hall in 1976. They fell in love and married a year later.
Denise attended today’s ceremony with her daughter Lisa, and mother Lilian Celic. She told the crowd the gazebo is an appropriate memorial to a man who found his calling and his love in the building it stands in front of. It will host marriage ceremonies performed by the town.
The gazebo was donated by the town’s Labor Management Committee, of which Hansen was a founding member. The town’s buildings and grounds crew set the gazebo in place, stained its wood and landscaped around it.
His brothers, Chris, Mark and Pete Hansen also attended. Mark called the gazebo a touching reminder of his brother, who he said “seemed to live here” at Town Hall.
Hansen died of gastric cancer on Dec. 4, 2006, after 30 years at his post. He was 53.
“He trained and mentored me and I was new to government, coming from the private sector, and Jack took me under his wing. It was really beneficial to my career,” said Recreation Superintendent Ray Coyne, who was hired by Hansen in 2005.
Supervisor Sean Walter said Hansen was a perfectionist who was able to step in and pick up slack for colleagues or subordinates when he felt a task needed to be done better. He was loyal to any supervisor he served, however much he may have disagreed with decisions being made, and he carried out his duties diligently and as effectively as possible, “even when on a fool’s errand,” Walter said, citing Hansen’s warnings about the landfill debt.
Three new positions were created to fill his shoes after his death.
Smith said Hansen’s dedication also produced a great amount of stress.
“It was not good for his health,” said Smith.
Councilman James Wooten said Hansen’s deep institutional knowledge was what made him such an effective administrator.
“He just had a handle on everything. He was labor manager: complaints, labor relations, contracts – he did it all. He was almost like a town manager, really,” said Wooten. “He was Jack of all trades.”
Photo captions, from top: 1. Denise (left) and Lisa Hansen unveil the plaque on the gazebo dedicated today to longtime town employee Jack Hansen, who passed away in 2006; 2. Denise and Lisa Hansen during the dedication ceremony. 3. Jack Hansen in an undated family photo. 4. dedication of a gazebo to the memory of longtime Riverhead financial administrator Jack Hansen.
RiverheadLOCAL photos by Micah Danney. (Except photo of Jack Hansen courtesy of Lisa Hansen.)
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