When he installed the first new water line in the Fowler Building more than a year ago, Ed Harris, the water cop, was sporting a GI haircut and had no beard.

What's a water cop?

A water cop is a bona-fide, card carrying, certified inspector who has the final say when a new water line is safe for the delivery of water for consumption.

Ed Harris has been a water cop for some of the largest construction projects in Durham's history, the largest shopping center, and now the largest historic restoration project at the 16 acre, 1,000,000 square foot American Tobacco Historic District.

When every new water line is installed, the water cop checks it for back-flow or any possible source of contamination. Consumers, for their safety, get to turn on the tap only after Ed Harris says they can.

Restoring an old-time style is a major theme of the work at the American Tobacco campus. It should be no surprise that some workers are themselves a restoration of an old-time style. Ed Harris personifies that phenomena.

On any construction site, hard hats are a firm and fast requirement. Since Ed's work is often outside, he chooses a hard western hat, something akin to a ten gallon hard hat with a wide brim to shade him from sun, wind and rain.

Some of us are old enough to remember the movies about Jesse James and his followers, who, allegedly, were good-guy bad guys. On one trip to a bank to make a substantial withdrawal, the Jesse James group rode up to the bank wearing trademark ten-gallon western hats and long raincoats, a prelude to the modern trenchcoat.

Ed Says, "I've got the whole outfit, the slickers and everything."

It is refreshing to walk across the construction site for the American Tobacco campus and see workers who take their work very seriously, as Ed does, and at the same time exhibit a tasteful side of individualism.

I first thought the words "water cop" emblazoned on his ten-gallon hard hat were more for style than anything else. Ed showed me his inspector's license. His license number is the suffix following the words "water cop."

While he projects a Jesse James style, he works like Wyatt Earp in protecting the public.

One has to wonder, if Ed started this job over a year ago with a GI haircut and cleanly shaven, whose character will he most represent when the last water line has been installed and inspected?