Lunch lodged in your throat? Being electrocuted on the work site? No problem…as long as Jeffrey McMahon is around.

An employee with the Water and Sewer Department, McMahon has received two Citations of Honor for valor in action.

The latest, which Selectmen gave McMahon on Tuesday, Sept. 24, is for saving the life of his friend and former boss Wesley Bowman.

While helping his son install a sewer tie-in, Bowman jumped into a trench of water and grabbed the metal head of an electric pump. Unfortunately for Bowman, the pump was plugged into a faulty circuit, and it began to electrocute him.

“All of a sudden, I just started shaking and the juice was going all through my body,” said Bowman. “It’s like a big ball jumping up and down inside of you. You can’t get the thing out of your hand.”

Lucky for Bowman, McMahon happened to be on the scene to inspect the tie-in.

“I heard the scream. I looked, and I saw his face. I knew what was happening right away,” said McMahon.

Without thinking, he went to the rubber part of the hose and pulled hard to get it out of Bowman’s hand.

“He’s a friend of mine, so I’m glad I could help him out,” said McMahon. “I work in trenches all the time, and I don’t really think about it. I don’t remember seeing anything like that.”

The two go back a number of years. Bowman, the town’s former highway surveyor, hired McMahon more than a decade ago.

McMahon, with Bowman’s blessing, later moved to the water department. Bowman, who has since retired, said he sees McMahon around town often.

“We’re very good friends,” said Bowman. “When he worked for me, he never ever gave me any lip. No matter what I gave him to do, he did it.”

That being the case, McMahon used some of his stored up brownie points to persuade Bowman to go to the hospital.

“See, I didn’t want to go,” said Bowman. “Jeff said, ‘I’ve never asked you for anything, but will you go to the hospital for me?’”

McMahon’s plea convinced the “old stubborn Yankee” to get his heart checked out at the hospital where he received a clean bill of health.

For McMahon, the incident shows a propensity for quick thinking.

Several years ago he was at work during lunch and one of the guys starting choking on a hamburger.

“He was turning blue. I just grabbed him and squeezed it out,” said McMahon.

Like many heroes, McMahon doesn’t think he should be called one.

“It could be anybody in that situation. You just don’t know. Obviously, they’re not scheduled,” he said.

But both his former boss and his current one, Nick Nicholson, are quick to praise him.

Nicholson said, “Have you’ve heard of Johnny on the spot? Well, he’s Jeffrey on the spot.”