I’d like to back up to when you were appointed superintendent of Crater Lake in 1978. What were the circumstances behind that?
Okay! Well, I think we have covered a little bit of the background with the group office in Klamath Falls. During that period, of course, there was the water system fiasco that got national attention. Out of that grew some special project and funding for improved water and sewage utilities at Crater Lake. We gained a water treatment specialist for testing the water system. We also acquired a water lab which you probably still have going. We even gained a full time nurse on the staff.
Oh really!
Yes, as a result of that sickness. When I arrived there, employees were taking advantage of having a full-time nurse on board. The nurse happened to be the wife of one of the equipment operators. That was very convenient, but it was a result of a reaction to the Water Crisis. There was some good that came out of it, with increased employee morale. They’d come a long way, but there were some other things that weren’t moving along as fast as we would have liked.
Was that one of the reason why Russ Dickenson sent you down there (33)?
Part of it perhaps, yes. Again, this was kind of a programmatic thing. It wasn’t just me and Frank Betts, who was the superintendent of Crater Lake at the time. Frank was kind of anxious to have another bone to chew on, so to speak. There was a employee morale. They’d come a long way. But there were some other things that weren’t moving along as fast as we would have liked.
