|
|
||
| Privacy | Legal | Back | Cover | Next | Issue 1 | 2006 |
|
|
||
As the National Forests of North Carolina’s budget and program manager
for engineering, Tim is responsible for the preparation, justification, and
administration of an engineering budget that totaled over $17 million last
year (with carryover) and for program implementation.
During September of 2004, the mountains of western North Carolina were inundated by the remnants of three devastating hurricanes. The extensive flood and wind damage was unprecedented. The National Forests of North Carolina received a $47 million emergency appropriation to rebuild the damaged infrastructure and restore damaged ecosystems. An incident command team was established, and Tim was chosen as the team’s deputy planning chief/engineering branch director.
Tim has worked in this role 6 days a week for more than a year and continues to do so, coordinating the planning, design, construction, reconstruction, and contract administration for $35 million in infrastructure repairs. In July he helped secure an additional $5.5 million in Emergency Relief of Federally Owned Roads funding, which he administers. Tim directs the efforts of more than 50 engineering detailers each week, and is the contracting officer’s representative for three A/E (architect/engineer) design contractors who are working on road, road bridge, and trail bridge designs.
While his participation on the incident command team is demanding and time consuming, Tim continues to execute many of his responsibilities as assistant forest engineer, particularly with respect to planning and managing the annual budget and program of work.
During his tenure with the National Forests of North Carolina, Tim has been promoted temporarily to acting forest engineer four times and his skills and leadership have been recognized with 12 merit awards. In 2005 Tim received a platinum award from his peers for his storm damage work and he has received merit awards for planning and managing carryover and current-year projects (2004), for demonstrating leadership, initiative, skill, and extra effort in preparing the Nantahala/Pisgah Roads Analysis Process (2003), and for outstanding leadership in implementing the Electronic Road Log III software throughout the Southern Region (2002).
Tim is responsible for securing and implementing virtually all of the new technology that the National Forests in North Carolina use today, beginning with the first desktop computer and continuing through the years to AutoCAD for design, GPS for location work, GIS for analysis, and complex software for budget and data management. He continues to aggressively pursue the application of appropriate hardware and software technology.
He developed and conducted training sessions for forest and regional engineering personnel in implementing the roads analysis process, the use of Electronic Road Log III software, facility master planning, and transportation planning. During 2001, he was on the team that helped train others in the Southern Region on the new roads policy and related regulations.
Tim has been a leader in implementing new and reemphasized engineering initiatives at the National Forests in North Carolina. He researched and developed processes and techniques for accomplishing the workload associated with these new initiatives, including infrastructure for facilities and roads, deferred maintenance data collection, and implementation of the new roads policy. He has actively participated in forest, regional, and national meetings on these issues, and has attended and been a guest speaker at numerous conferences involving discussions of natural resource issues on both public and private lands.
In 2004 Tim served as the project lead when the National Forests in North Carolina became a pilot forest for implementing the National Off-Highway Vehicle (OHV) Mapping Project.
In addition to his valuable service to the USDA Forest Service’s engineering program, Tim has led numerous community service projects. In 1997 he was named the Kiwanian of the Year in the Carolinas District for designing, raising funds, and constructing a new public playground in the city of Asheville (the first playground geared primarily for preschool-aged children) and for his leadership on the Asheville Kiwanis Club’s board of directors. He was awarded the 1996 Kiwanis Carolinas District Single Service Project Award.
Tim chaired the PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) committee at his son’s elementary school, raising more than $100,000 to design and construct two new playgrounds using volunteer labor. His long-term dedication to improving the health and safety of area children has resulted in numerous certificates of appreciation for his work with the Western North Carolina Safe Kids Coalition, the Buncombe County Children First Organization, the Glenn C. Marlow Elementary School PTO, and other community organizations.
Since Tim joined the Forest Service in 1975, he has consistently received superior and above-average performance ratings. In 1982 he applied for and was accepted to the highly competitive long-term training opportunity at the University of California at Berkeley, where he was awarded a master’s degree in civil engineering and transportation planning.
 E-mail: wo_mtdc_webmaster@fs.fed.us |
Back | Cover | Next | top |  |
|
E-mail
this link |
|||
|
Past Issues of Engineering Field Notes |
|||