Ryan McFarland

Weight room expansion

Originally uploaded by zieak

Last week city staff finished up the siding on the weight room expansion. Now the interior can be finished and opened up.

New bridge at Sandy Beach Park

Originally uploaded by zieak

On Sunday evening a Boy Scout called me about working on a part of his Eagle Scout project on Monday.  By 11:30 we had the old log bridge cut from the way and cleared from the stream.  By 1:30 he had the beams decked.  Now he’ll finish up by putting in another 75 feet or so of gravel trail.  All the materials for this project were paid for with a Forest Service Resource Advisory Committee grant.  One more bridge will go in at the end of the gravel the scout puts in and then this project will be completed.

On Monday one of my staff members called my office because someone wanted to talk to me about building a half pipe. I went down and met Will Coffey who is stationed in Petersburg with the USCG. He asked if i would mind him building a half pipe. I dragged him up to the ball fields, opened the container van and showed him the equipment we had purchased with grant money from American Ramp Company. He said he would have some friends get working on it Wednesday morning. By 5:00 Wednesday the container van was unloaded by hand by Will, Josh and me and pieces were staged in their approximate location.

Thursday afternoon i talked with one of the design engineers and got a walk-through of the steps to putting the system together. Matt Gerrits, Holly and Paul, Will and i worked on getting one ramp put together and the frames for the rest assembled.

Friday at 10:30 Matt and i met and started plugging away at the project. I called Earl Warner and he helped for an hour or so and when school let out kids started showing up. Word was out that the skate park was coming together. Will also showed up late in the afternoon and by 6:00 just about everything was bolted together and ready to ride.

As Matt said, he had been waiting 16 years for this day…

A huge thank you to the volunteers that put in the time to assemble the park. Future expansion is possible and with the interest that has been shown so far quite probable!

I spent today on “the hill” advocating for recreational programs and funding.  Unfortunately we didn’t get much time with Senator Stevens or Murkowski.  The Senate went into a “vote-a-rama” and was voting on budget issues every 10 minutes or so.  Apparently Dick Cheney had to come in at one point to break a tie.  Anyway…  our appointment for 2:00 with Stevens  was during the vote-a-rama and so we were led to the capitol building via the underground subway that connects the Senate offices to the Capitol.  We saw Lisa Murkowski in the hallway and then met Senator Stevens in between votes but he had a committee meeting he was off to so we just had a moment to greet him.  We then sat down with one of his staff members - Kate - to discuss some of the needs that Alaska has for parks and recreation.  We wrapped up and were headed back down the hall when we passed Joe Liberman and Jim and i each said “hi” while we all turned our shoulders to let the other pass (the hall was that narrow).  We happened upon Senator Stevens again and i asked if we could take a picture for our association newsletter.

I’m in Washington D.C. right now.  I left Petersburg on Monday’s morning jet and stayed in Seattle last night because it isn’t possible to make the flight in one day now.  I have to stay in Seattle on the way back home too.  I have mostly spent my “free” time doing sudoku puzzles, watching HGTV and working on the taxes for Zoom Bikes.

I am suffering from food lag.  I have plenty of rest so don’t feel jet lag but my hunger is a little behind.

I have meetings all day tomorrow and then Thursday have meetings with Senators Lisa Murkowski and Ted Stevens on Thursday.  Friday is followup meetings and then Saturday i begin the return trip home.

I drive my own vehicle for work. I get an extra $100 per month to do it. That’s a lot less than it would be for the City to buy another rig for me to drive. Yesterday afternoon i went up to the ball fields and opened up a crate of signs that were paid for with a grant. The packing slip said the signs weighed a total of 260 pounds. I loaded them up in my car to show some of the other people that helped out with the grant. When i turned up a steep hill downtown the load shifted and blew out the back window of my car.

Glass everywhere. I pulled over, smiled and shrugged at the driver of the car that had been 30 feet behind me and then i drove home. I called the police to tell them about the glass and that i would be returning to clean it up. I grabbed my shop-vac and cleared the signs and the back of my car the best that i could. Then i threw a shovel, broom, and plastic tote in the open back window and swept the street clean. I took the panels the the pool and while unloading them realized that the city has a post-accident policy that might apply to me and the situation. I’m a city employee and was on-duty and an accident resulting in damage occurred. So i went downtown and we decided that it is better to have myself covered in case someone (like someone that reads this) thinks i received some preferential treatment. The decision was in the City Manager’s hands but he was not present.

So i spent from 4-5 PM at the hospital taking a breathalyser and peeing in a cup. Then of course the paperwork and everything. It is kind of funny to have someone that you’re on a first-name basis with ask for your ID. But once again, nobody can say i was treated any differently. (Although i bet most post-accident drug tests don’t start off with the technician saying “You don’t drive a city truck!”)

Since i have the minimum insurance possible i’m certain that i i’ll be paying for this out of my pocket. I’m not really looking forward to that bill. Maybe it is time for me to buy a motorcycle. Then i can still do the primary stuff that i need to do for work — going through parks — but i can’t load up 250 pounds of anything on it. I probably could save a lot of money. I’d still end up having to get Motorbike Insurance. I wouldn’t be paying for broken windows. And gas would probably be less expensive.  Just kidding.  A motorcycle would be completely unpractical here.

Today was Sam Bunge’s last day with the city.  His retirement party featured a few of us with eyes taped to goggles, sunglasses or glasses.  It was my idea.  Sam seemed to doze off during meetings and i thought this would be a funny way to razz him about it.  This is what i look like after clipping Heath Ledger’s eyes from the cover of an Entertainment Weekly magazine.

If i put in 30 years with the City of Petersburg i can retire on February 1, 2030.  It will be a few days before my 56th birthday.  That’s 22 years away or approximately 5,724 work days.  Perhaps early retirement will become part of my financial plan after crawling out of debt.

Two temporary employees have been working on a skate park at the ball fields. Today the frame for the structure started to go up.

It is that time.  I’m sort of casually hunting for jobs.  I’m not going to hide it.  The last time that i did job hunting was when i was trying to move to Juneau or Anchorage to keep my marriage together.  The time before that it was because the City Manager had left and i had no idea what kind of boss i would end up with.  Well, we have a new mayor, largely new City Council, and the City Manager position is open.  That spells a lot of uncertainty for the future.  As long as i can continue to work as i have (recognizing that i do mess up on occasion) i am quite happy in my position.  I have been extremely successful in bringing grant money to town for projects.  I love feeling like i can make a positive impact on the community.  In the last 8 years i have definitely developed a sense of purpose and a knowledge of my position.  A supervisor that were to micro-manage or a significant change in direction for the department would probably be difficult for me to handle.  And i don’t want to be a difficult employee.  So it is time for me to keep my eye on jobs.  I really want to stay with the City for at least another two years though.  A position in Juneau caught my eye…

Ooooh… Parks and Landscape in Juneau!  It pays well - 64,099.62 - 73,039.98 (well over $10,000 more a year than i am paid now) and i exceed the job requirements.  The biggest problem?  It closed on October 12th.  A position in Juneau really is the best move for me right now.  I can stay in the PERS retirement system, work in a significantly larger city with a strong P&R program, and live in a city with quite a few more social, shopping, and recreational opportunities.  Of the positions in their structure the Parks Superintendent is actually the best fit with my professional strengths.  Alas, my casual approach to considering that i might need to think about possibly looking for a new job has caused me to miss perhaps the best career move at one of the most opportune times.  Maybe my approach should be more aggressive.  But as i said - i don’t want to leave - it is just looking like it might be wise to.  I had an number of people ask me not to leave the city after the pool project was built -people that must understand that without such a huge project consuming much of my time and energy that my position would feel easy in comparison afterward.

Jeff was kind enough to show Jack Mosby around the Challenge Alaska offices and equipment. As a bike shop owner this mountain bike was particularly intriguing. You can use your chest to durn the bike while propelling the cycle using your hands.