Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Granik honored for 45 years as ‘Mr. Fix It’

Friends, family and employees of Lowndes County gathered Friday, Jan. 3, to honor the man they have called “Mr. Fix It” for 45 years. At a party held at the Hayneville Senior Center, people of the 4-5 celebrated Ransom “Pooh” Granik, who began the new year in retirement after almost five decades in service to Lowndes County.

Minister LInda Dunn-King with the Lowndes County Tax Collector’s Office, opened the celebration with prayer. Afterwards, County Administrator Jacquelyn Thomas invited guests to share their memories and well-wishes for Granik.

Lenny Lee, who has been a neighbor to Granik for many years, described Granik as someone who is steadfast and called him a longtime friend.

“As long as I have been knowing him, he has been the same old Pooh,” Lee said. “He never has changed.”

“Back in the late 70s and 80s, Pooh had a little [Chevrolet] Corvair,” Lee continued. “He went around and picked up televisions in the community. He repaired them and he fixed a few of ours. And that’s the first time I ever saw a car that small with that much stuff in it.”

Granik, a fixture around the county, was easily recognized by the multitude of people who depended on him to work on everything from leaky roofs to office thermostats.

Solid Waste Enforcement Officer Larry Adams said Granik was always ready to help wherever has needed.

“He’s a really good friend to all of us and there is nothing he wouldn’t do to help any of us, doing anything that he could,” Adams said. “We would just like to congratulate him thank him for all that he has done for the county.”

Rutha Davis-Bonner, director of the Hayneville/Lowndes County Public Library, said Granik leaves a void in county offices and invited guests to come by and try to fill the space left empty with his retirement.

“If any of you want to do what Pooh [did] every day, come by, look at me and talk to me,” Davis-Bonner said. “You can’t find a better friend than Pooh.”

On behalf of the Lowndes County Commission, Chairman Charlie King, Jr. presented Granik with a plaque which reads, in part:

“Your retirement leaves a great big gap in all our lives and hearts. A workplace is never quite the same when someone like you departs. Thank you for 48 years of dedicated service, 1,000s of phone calls and endless projects.”

Lowndes County Sheriff Chris West honored Granik with an award recognizing “the countless days and nights that… spent servicing the Sheriff’s Office.”

Granik began his career with Lowndes County June 7, 1976, working as a contractor until December 1980 and again from January 1981 until May 1984 when he came on board as a full-time employee. On Dec.31, 2024, Granik ended his 48-year career serving the communities in his home county to enjoy projects he had saved for his retirement.