By Ray Chandler
Anderson Independent-Mail
WESTMINSTER, Ga. — When a tanker truck carrying thousands of gallons of gasoline overturned on U.S. 76, in Rabun County, Ga., two weeks ago and threatened to dump a lot of its load into the Chattooga River, Bobby Williams responded.
The response itself was nothing new for 48-year-old Williams, a Westminster city councilman and long-time chief of the Oconee County hazardous materials team.
Over the years he’d been called out at all hours, in all kinds of weather, to deal with all kinds of spills and clean-ups. But this was the first time he’d responded only weeks after open heart surgery and while walking with a cane, his left leg partially paralyzed by a stroke.
He was also left with a hospital bill of about $600,000.
“I really don’t know how much I owe,” he said. “My insurance pays 80 percent of some things and all of some things and none of some things. It’s very confusing, but it’ll get sorted out eventually.”
He figures he might face at least $100,000 out of pocket. “I hope I’ll be able to satisfy that debt,” he said. “If a person owes anything at all, they should pay it.”
But it’s not a debt Williams’ friends and community at large intend for him to pay alone.
They’re holding a fundraiser for him March 3 at the Westminster Masonic Lodge from 11 a.m. until 8 p.m., complete with barbecue plates for sale, raffles for a Browning 12-gauge shotgun and a quilt and an auction of donated items.
“We want to raise as much as we can,” said Bob Winchester, one of the organizers of the benefit. “Bobby has been contributing to this community for years, and now it’s our turn.”
The weeks in the hospital and then in therapy meant that Williams, owner of G&B Enterprises, heating and air conditioning contractors, couldn’t earn for himself, Winchester said.
Winchester has served for years with Williams on the Local Emergency Planning Commission, which plans for dealing with emergencies and conducts drills of emergency service responses. Williams has served on the commission since 1988.
It’s as chief of the hazardous material team, though, the Williams has often been the most visible.
“You know, Bobby really is the one who built that team,” said Rhett Smith, another long-time friend and another organizer of the benefit. “He went around to a lot of the industries around here and said, ‘Here’s what we want to do and here’s what we need and it would be to your benefit to help us get it’ and they contributed to it.
The hazardous materials team took shape, even if some of the equipment had to be improvised. The first response truck was a converted soft drink delivery truck. Other equipment had to be invented.
Williams had an association with Alltel at the time, Smith said, and explained to company representatives that he needed a device that would enable him to communicate from the field to other emergency management agencies about the specific materials the team was dealing with and enable him to receive faxes about how best to deal with the specific hazard.
“They developed it for him,” Smith said. “And then they patented it and made a fortune selling them, but it was Bobby’s idea.”
Williams has himself taken part in many similar benefits over the years but wasn’t keen at first to be the object of one.
“I tried to talk the guys out of it,” he said. “But the people in this community, like’em or not, they’ll help you if they think you need it.”
Williams went to the AnMed Health Medical Center in Anderson on Nov. 21 for emergency open heart surgery after he was found to have an aortic aneurysm. At some point in the week after the operation he suffered the stroke. He wasn’t released until Dec. 23.
“And I had to beg to get out even then,” he said.
The recovery has been slower than his apparent agility indicates, and getting back to his business has been slower still. “We’re lucky, though, this is our slowest time of the year anyway,” he said. “If this had to happen, this is the best time it could have happened.”
He feels his left leg strengthening and he’s confident he will eventually shed the cane. Whatever the case, however, at least he’s free to roam and even respond to the next emergency.
“The four walls of that hospital room was more than I could cope with,” he said with a chuckle.
Copyright 2012 Independent Publishing Company