Village Buys Back Long-Time Employee's Vacation Time

Village trustees approved a one-time buy-back of six weeks vacation time for highway superintendent Charles "Skip" Gardner worth about $8,000.

According to Newsday, Gardener, 61, has been working for the village for 45 years and had amounted thousands of hours of unused vacation.

"Here's a guy who has devoted his life to Babylon Village," Mayor Ralph Scordino told Newsday. "We wouldn't be where we are today after Sandy" without him, he noted.

Gardner was noted as one of the heroes in Babylon following Hurricane Sandy, driving into flooded areas along with Scordino to help stranded residents escape the rising flood waters.

"It was really the right thing to do at this point in time."

Gardner is also the village's highest-paid employee – he was making a salary of $121,890 in 2011, according to seethroughny.net.

The move will minimize the total amount the village will have to pay Gardner when he retires, deputy village treasurer Jane Barth told the newspaper.

"Aside from being a job, this is also my hobby," Gardner told Newsday. "I enjoy working and serving this community."

The resolution made in August limits future employees from selling back more than two weeks of vacation time, which is the same allowed by union employees in the village. Gardner, according to officials, was the only employee eligible for the buyback at this time.