Bart and Maura Gillman stand inside Bg’s. Ledger Dispatch photo by Scott Thomas Anderson
The title of Citizen of the Year will be split between co-winners this October — though the two honorees happen to be a husband-and-wife pair who view keeping Amador County vibrant as a joint operation.
Bart and Maura Gillman each grew up in iconic families in Jackson, and both feel lessons they learned were not about popularity, but about “old school” values, such as hard work, perseverance and community spirit. This year, the Amador County Peace Officers Association is recognizing all of those traits in the Gillmans, hailing them as model volunteers for keeping life rolling on in the Gold Country.
Starting in 1956, Bart’s parents, Mel Gillman and the late Nancy Faye (Schmidt) Gillman, owned and operated one of the most well-known businesses in the history of Jackson: Mel and Faye’s Diner. Mel served as mayor of Jackson at one time and Bart’s childhood was filled with seeing how his parents enjoyed volunteering for city efforts and sponsoring local sports teams.
Maura was raised in Jackson. Her father, Ned Vukovich, was also a highly involved resident who developed most of south Jackson and owned an insurance company with offices in seven counties.
“My dad loved this community,” Maura recalled. “He was a lot like Mel and Faye. He wanted to be part of the solutions for this city in any way he could. What our parents had in common was that, when members of the community asked for help working on something — whether it was big things, or small things — they never said no. I think the other thing our parents had in common was they raised families where work came before play. So Bart and I had similar experiences growing up, and took a lot away from that. We try to live the same way.”
The ways Bart and Maura attempt to follow in their parents’ footsteps are numerous. For more than 20 years, Bart cleaned and maintained — without really telling anyone — a creekside bend of Highway 88, which had previously been entirely overgrown with weeds. He also routinely helps the Lions Club with Jackson’s July 3rd extravaganza, no matter how crowded his restaurant is. Every year, Bart and Maura host a dinner for the Push America bicycle riders, as they travel across the United States raising money and awareness for people with disabilities. They’ve also been known to step in and feed local youth sports teams. Working with their long-time employee, Joyce, they set up collection jars for local fundraising efforts and families in need.
“A lot of times, Joyce will just hear about someone who is struggling, or read about something bad that’s happened, and she’ll get a collection jar out where our customers and employees can contribute,” Bart said. “We try to help out that way, and we also let local charities use our parking lot for car washes and other events.”
Adding to her husband’s thought, Maura said, “We just want to try to be cogs in the larger machinery of the city — it’s not that we look to do anything grandiose, we just know there are things here and there we’re in position to help out with, and we feel a responsibility when it comes to that.”
Feeling that responsibility led the Gillmans to donate more than 300 gift certificates to different local fundraising efforts in 2010. According to customers and employees, they’ve also worked countless 18-hour days to make sure the business stays viable — this in the face of being victims of contractor fraud and embezzlement in Amador County history. Bart and Maura see that level of work as second-nature, and also an obligation to the 53 people they employ. In fact, they learned about being Citizen of the Year while they were, of all things, working. Mel & Faye’s was holding a banquet for the Lions Club when Amador County District Attorney Todd Riebe took a microphone up and announced, “I know who this year’s Citizen of the Year is, and they happen to be standing in the room.”
Bart and Maura described listening vaguely as they worked, never thinking it would be either of them, let alone both of them. “It caught us off guard,” Bart said, laughing. “We certainty didn’t expect that.”
Maura said the entire Gillman family was proud of the award. “We believe in this city and in this county,” she said. “For Bart and I, these streets and walls built us, they made us who are, and we wouldn’t want to be anywhere else.”
The Amador County Peace Officers Association will present Bart and Maura Gillman with the Citizen of the Year award on Oct. 22 during a special ceremony held at the American Legion Hall in Martell. Amador County sheriff’s detective Michael T. Rice will also be presented with Peace Officer of the Year that night. No-host cocktails are at 6 p.m. and dinner is at 7 p.m. Tickets are $30. For tickets, call 267-1820.
The ACPOA was founded in 1966 and is a non-political organization of active-duty and retired law enforcement personnel who live or work in Amador County.
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