He started in 1977 as laborer at $3.85 an hour
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
After 36 years of climbing the ladder in the township’s public works department, Ernest “Buck” Sixt is retiring on top.
His retirement as director of public works was set to be accepted by the Township Committee on Tuesday night. The notice is effective Feb. 1, but his last day of the office was yesterday, Wednesday.
Mr. Sixt said he came to the department in June 1977 as a laborer earning about $3.85 an hour, he said. He worked his way up all levels of laborer, to equipment operator and assistant supervisor 1986 and deputy director in 1999 before gaining the top job in 2004.
The lifelong township resident, who said he considers himself a workaholic, said he has no plans to slow down.
”Fun to me is being in the garage and working or fixing things, mowing grass, working on vehicles or equipment,” he said. His neighbors know he is the man to whom to turn when something isn’t working right.
”I told my wife to save her ‘honey do’ list for about a year, because that’s about how long mine is,” he said.
Mr. Sixt and his wife, Liza, own and operate a residential and commercial cleaning business, called Routine Maintenance, with 11 employees. He’s owned such a company since 1976, he said, starting what was originally Buck’s Janitorial when he was in high school.
The township job was right for him, he said, and an easy commute from Orchard Road to the South Branch Road garage yard.
”Three miles and sometimes when I come to work I don’t pass a car,” he said.
Mr. Sixt said the death in August of assistant DPW supervisor Bill Neidlinger, a high school buddy only a year older, was “without a doubt, an eye opener.” They both worked at the DPW for more than 30 years, he said.
Besides being the DPW director, he’s the safety director and won many awards, and the Clean Communities grant director
Universally known as Buck, only his birth certificate and driver’s license show his given name of Ernest.
Even his Rutgers certificate for public works manager has ‘Buck’ on it, he said.

