Employee of the Year (Informally)

So last week I attended a quarterly meeting of all the employees of the City of St. Helens. In these meetings, the City Administrator shares the progress of projects, resolutions adopted by City Council, and other issues that concern or impact city employees. The City of St. Helens, like most municipalities in Oregon, is managed by a City Administrator who reports to the Mayor and City Councilors. This system ensures stability and continuity of management of City Hall operations since the Mayor and City Councilors are elected positions for 2 years. (FYI, most City Councilors/Mayors are paid nothing or token compensation for their work.)

Anyway, as the meeting starts the Administrator turns on the projector and puts up one of my maps. That map was one of a series that I made earlier in the month. The administrator proceeds to talk about City Hall business, not mentioning the graphic on the screen. After forty-five minutes or so, he turn the topic to grant applications that are in progress.

Finally he talks about the map up on the screen. He said that when they started the grant for the acquisition and development of the Dalton Lake Recreation Area, he thought the didn't have a shot at the money. They had a tight application deadline, and that city employees went above and beyond in their work for this grant. He singled out me, the City Planner Jacob, and my boss the Engineering Supervisor Sue as putting time into this project.
Showing the next in the map series, he says that now he is amazed at our work. He feels strongly that we are likely to receive the grant because of the work the 3 of us did. In way, we might have made his job harder because he'll now have to find the match funds the city has to pony up with the grant award.
With the final map on the screen, he asks everyone to applaud Sue, Jacob and Me. Sue interjects that she her contribution was minor and that it was Sarah and Jacob who did the real work. The administrator builds on her comments and thanks Me and Jacob for the GPS collection of trails and the amazing maps of the area that we made. He said that Jacob and I are the employees of the year!

For those who might be curious, Jacob and I walked all the de facto trails in the area while I recorded the location with the GPS. He made notes and took pictures. Back in the office I processed the geospatial data and put together the 3 maps. Jacob is an excellent editor, giving me important government verb-age and direction with improving the symmetry and design. I got to wow him with some of my advanced GIS skills in the production and representation of the data.

On a final note, this last Wednesday my supervisor Sue offered me a continuation of my position with the City. The have secured more American Recovery and Restoration Act (ARRA) money for a big stormwater project and I will be paid from that funding. I now have a job through all of 2011, maybe even 2012. So the next time someone you know complains about the waste of money the President's "recovery bailout" is, think of me and the fact I have meaningful work because of it.

Cheers!

Seaside for the 4th of July

Nina and I spent the 4th of July at Seaside, Oregon. We had a lovely time and the Sun even graced the sky for most of the time. I showed Nina how to fly a kite - something she has never done before. (!?!) I hadn't flown a kite since I was a tweener in Kaysville, Utah.

On another beach walk we happened upon an abandoned camera tripod. Joey the Beagle started barking ferociously as we neared it. Since the beach was deserted, with not even a bird overhead or in the sand, I felt real puzzled at what Joey's protection bay was warning us of. It was the tripod - which was standing upright on the sand. This picture is rather poor of Joey and I and the Tripod "beast," however I'd like to point out the large hill or mountain in the background. That is Tillamook Head, where our next hike took us somewhere near the top.

I'd like to describe the hike on Tillamook Head as: up, up, mud, up, mud, scramble over a ancient fallen tree (wider around than I am tall), mud, up, up, mud. Repeat this for three hours, then reverse for 2.5 hours. We climbed into the ocean mist, so our view of the ocean was whiteout. This is us taking a break on the way down on a tremendous fallen tree.

Hugh And His Trench

About a month ago Hugh began digging our yard beside the back sidewalk. 

Now, he's about to finish an expanded walkway, retaining wall, and French drain!