After 49 years of working for the Corporation of Hamilton, superintendent assistant "general" Edmundo V. Faria knows every pipe, light and drain in the city.

When Mr. Faria, 72, retires in September, the city will have lost a valuable source of information.

"Not long ago Corporation of Hamilton workers dug up an old rusty pipe that wasn't on any map or diagram," said City Engineer with Corporation of Hamilton. "No one knew where the pipe led or whether it was active."

Mr. Faria, the longest serving employee in the Corporation was one of few people who still remembered what the pipe was for.

"It was an old oil pipe," Mr. Faria told the Royal Gazette. "Many years ago the oil ships came to the Number One Dock and to the Number Six. Oil was pumped from there to Belco. There were three different lines going to Belco from the city."

He also remembered things like the mountain of bricks under the City Hall car park designed to fill in a giant hole left by an old hotel.

"Sometimes people call me before they build to ask what is under the property," said Mr. Faira.

He was born in Rabo de Peixe, Sao Miguel, Azores. He came to Bermuda in 1959 at the age of 23 to work as a gardener.

"I worked for [POUNDSTERLING]9 per 45-hour week," said Mr. Faria. "At that time Bermuda law said one third of my pay had to go to my father in the Azores, because I was single, or if I was married it went to my wife. So I collected six pounds a week.

"When I signed the contract I agreed to that. It was because at the time some people never sent back money to the wife, and there was a problem in the Azores. Then Bermuda made this law. I never saw the money taken from my pay; it was sent straight to my family."

A year after being in Bermuda he was transferred from gardening to engineering. In the 1960s, he helped to complete the fishpond in front of City Hall which was just being built when he first arrived.

"I worked with masonry for so long, and years later I was foreman with a group," said Mr. Faria. "From there I became a supervisor. From there I went to superintendent assistant "general" which is what I am now."

For the first ten years, he spoke no English because his entire crew was Portuguese.

"When the boss asked me to be supervisor, he said it would be a good thing if I learned some English," said Mr. Faria.

Mr. Faria married after nine years to Maria and they have three grown children, and a home of their own. Mr. Faria, who only had three years of education in the Azores, was very proud to have educated all of his children.

"My daughter works as a teacher at Mount St. Agnes," he said. "One of my sons works in the Gibbons Company Bank and the other works for the Department of Youth & Sport. He organises sporting events for schools, and things like that."

Mr. Faria has Bermuda status and considers Bermuda to be his home. He does visit the Azores regularly, although he said he doesn't have much family left there. In Bermuda he remains active in the Portuguese community. He is involved in the Portuguese Association, and is on the Portuguese School committee, and attends Santa Theresa's Cathedral.

One of his favourite times of year with the Corporation is Christmas, when he is in charge of decorating the city. On the homefront, his Shelton Road house has won the Belco Christmas lights competition twice in a row. Last year he received second place.

"At Christmas time, sometimes so many people come to see my lights that the road gets blocked and they can't turn back," he said.

Over the years, Mr. Faria has seen Hamilton change a great deal. When he first came to Bermuda there was a single carriage to collect trash for the city.

"When I came there were four theatres in Hamilton," he said. "We went to the movies all the time back then, because there was nothing much else to do. But I often worked in my extra time doing mason work.

"One of the biggest changes are all the big buildings that have been going up. When I first started, there was nothing on Par-La-Ville Road. There were no buildings. There was nothing there. Where the Bank of Butterfield Rosebank office is, there were some fruit trees. That has been changed. They built the Rosebank theatre there. Then they knocked down the theatre and then built the bank."

He remained optimistic about all the changes, saying things were more convenient today. He said in the old days the roads had to be made by hand without the benefit of heavy equipment like payloaders.

"Things took more time to do then," he said. "There were no computers at all, and no calculators. Everything had to be written down by hand. When I became a supervisor I had a blackboard that I wrote down where people worked and their job numbers. I rubbed it off and wrote it again."

He said today there are computers, but he refuses to use them.

Mr. Faria said he loved his job with the Corporation. Although the official start time is 7.30 a.m. he is always there a half hour early.

"Sometimes you have bad days in the Corporation of Hamilton, but other days go fine," he said. "All the staff respect me good. I have no problems with the staff."

At home, Mr. Faria is passionate about gardening. His garden won the Garden Club of Bermuda Bermuda in Bloom competition and was feature in Bermuda Homes & Garden last fall.

"You should have seen my garden last month," said Mr. Faria. "Now it has started going down because of the heat. I enjoy my garden. I work day and night in my garden. I have fruit trees. I have four different types of grapes. I have sugar apples and fig trees. I grow everything from seed. I don't buy plants."

Mr. Faria also loves birds and has pet birds of every description including cockatiels, love birds, finches, canaries, doves. He sometimes raises birds for friends.

When he retires he hopes to spend more time playing with the grandchildren. He has a grandson and a granddaughter who are toddlers.