HURON — Mike Hall didn’t set his alarm clock last Monday morning. For the first time in 31 years (and three months) not counting holidays, he wasn’t pushing to get up, out the door and off to work.
“Nope, no alarm clock,” he said with his familiar smile. “I guess I just kinda enjoyed the day.”
Hall retired, effective June 23, from the Street Department for the City of Huron, a position he has held since 1986. Most of that time was spent in the cab of one of the city’s street sweepers.
You could say that Mike Hall knows the streets of the city of Huron better than anyone.
“Well, half of them at least,” he quipped. “I did everything west of Dakota Avenue and there is another guy that does the east side.”
He said that he was looking for something different when he applied to the city for an opening in the Street Department. “I got interviewed,” he recalled, “but they hired someone else. Pete Schorzman, who was the department head at the time, said that there was going to be another opening in a couple months and he would like to keep me in mind. He called back and I went to work.”
Hall and his wife Barb had moved to Huron when she was hired for the USDA office. Hall found work at a local farm and home store, but with three youngsters at home, was looking for a career that involved fewer weekend hours at work and more of them at home with them.

“I basically have run the sweeper from whenever we could in the spring to the fall,” Hall said. “Some years it starts later, but like this last year we were able to go out in February.”
Like the rest of the Street Dept. employees, when weather, or the seasons curtailed other work, Hall helped maintain the machinery and tools that the city uses to maintain the streets.
With his years of experience, Hall was able to set his own routes, keeping the city street gutters cleared of debris, both natural and human caused.
The biggest change he has seen in the improvements in the street sweeping equipment. “The sweepers have certainly gotten better and are more comfortable,” he said. “And they have been talking about a new shop almost since I started. I am happy to see that the Street Department will get a new building, and that the other departments will be located there as well.”
But now he has traded in his mobile sweeping office for time at home. Barb retired three years ago, and with their three children - Amy, Nicole and Eric - in Huron, as well as three grandsons, there will be ample opportunity for ball games and family time.
“You know, I guess I don’t have any major plans,” Hall said in response to a query about post-retirement activities. “We will probably travel a bit to see family and such - there are a couple of weddings coming up - but mostly I expect to do what I want to do when I want to do it. We sat outside the other day when it was so nice out and just tossed the ball to our dog.
“That’s kind of the point of retiring, I think,” he added. “To be in a position to do what you want, right?”
He did allow that ice fishing, a pastime he enjoyed earlier in life, may get another try in the winter months and he is an avid hunter, with trophy deer and elk mounts in the Hall living room.
“I will probably not be so squeezed on time when hunting season rolls around,” he said, the grin breaking through once again. “I expect to be out in the field a bit more I suppose.”
Barb said that she has no list of things for her husband to do, now that he is home during the day. “We both kind of do things as we see them needing to be done,” she said.
Hall said that in actuality, not a lot will change in his life.
“We’re still gonna go down to watch DWU basketball games when we can,” he said. “Since we don’t need to wait until I get off work, we can probably catch both the women’s and the men’s games, and I expect we’ll be back in Huron Arena when the boys’ basketball season begins this fall. It’s just a part of our lives.”
Some things change, some stay the same. And sometimes you can just decide to forego the alarm clock.