Brian Lemcke, the Haines Borough’s new interim director of public facilities, said his first few days on the job have shown “there’s actually a lot going on in this little town.”
“I’ve been looking at everything from changing door locks to making sure fire hydrants are hooked up right,” said Lemcke, a former city councilor who owns the Fogcutter Bar.
From 2006 to 2008, Lemcke was a borough employee as project manager for the Haines School renovation and additional projects, before the creation of the facilities director position.
Lemcke is from Sequim, Wash., and last week stepped in for Brad Maynard, who left the facilities director position at the end of June.
“I heard about this opening and I put my application in, thinking that I could come up for a few months in the summer, and that’s pretty much what I’m thinking of, just to kind of cover the projects that are going until they can get somebody, long-term,” Lemcke said.
Borough manager Mark Earnest said three candidates applied for the interim role that will oversee public works, water and wastewater utilities during the transition.
“Road paving and water projects are the big ones that we have,” Earnest said. “We have a number of engineering/design-type projects that (Lemcke) would be providing assistance on, ranging from the school pool locker room to the (Port Chilkoot) Dock trestle, and a host of other projects.”
Lemcke also applied for the permanent facilities director position that is being advertised as open until filled.
“The same application I put in for the interim position, I did put in for the permanent one, but only because it was up against some kind of deadline, and I hadn’t made up my mind,” he said. “I really don’t think I have any interest in being in the permanent one.”
Lemcke said he is planning to stay in Haines for about three months.
Earnest at Tuesday’s Haines Borough Assembly meeting said the borough had done its first review of applications for the facilities director hire, and is “going to continue to advertise.”
Former facilities director Maynard, who in his resignation letter wrote that he worked under an “umbrella of personal attacks and indecisive management,” said he filed grievances against borough administration before his departure.
The assembly set a closed personnel grievance hearing for 6 p.m. Tuesday, July 19, and Maynard said the hearing would address his grievances.