65 years of service

Jewitt Hulin has decided it was time for him to stop being a public servant.
For the last 65 years, Hulin has worked for the Vermilion Parish Police Jury or drainage boards.
This month, he stepped down as the secretary/treasurer for seven different drainage boards in the parish. For 30-plus years, he attended seven drainage board meetings once a month. While there, he kept meeting notes and oversaw the drainage board’s finances.
Before being on the drainage boards, he was the secretary/treasurer for the police jury for 30 years.
Now, for the first time in 65 years, since the mid-1950s, he is calling it quits.
The reason?
He is 90 years old.
“I think it was time,” explained Hulin on why he retired from public service. “I did it for 60 something years.”
On Wednesday, on the front steps of the Vermilion Parish Courthouse in Abbeville, Hulin was honored by being given a special plaque by John Andrus and Jimmy Meaux Sr.
“He was the person who kept the boards straight. He was the backbone of the boards,” said Andrus.
Members of the drainage boards and Hulin’s family attended the ceremony.
Hulin remembers when the drainage districts were in the red and had little money to operate.
In the 1940s, Gravity Drainage District 2 and other drainage districts were created. Hulin began working for the police jury in the mid-1950s and retired in the early 1980s.
Now, his nights will consist of staying home with his wife, Ella, who was his assistant, during his time with the drainage boards.
“I am going to miss it,” said Hulin. “But it was time.”