Retired Engineers Get Back to Work
By: Kelly Milner Source: AARP.org Date Posted: 2005-12-06 11:41:55
Torrington contractor Neil Newman was in a quandary.
He had won a bid from the Goshen County School District for a partial demolition of a building as well as getting rid of a Quonset hut built in 1947 for an agricultural company.
Newman knew he could tear down the Quonset and salvage the parts, but he wondered if it was possible to move the floorless structure. He could use the storage space.
"I didn't have any idea how to move it," he said of the project that happened in 2002.
Newman turned to his friend Al Guettler, now 82, who worked for Newman on and off.
Guettler had spent most of his career working on pre-engineered metal buildings and was the foreman on the job to build the Quonset Newman needed to move, which is 60 feet long, 40 feet wide and 20 feet high.
He told Newman he thought they could move it and Guettler knew just the man to help them, Guettler's coffee buddy, Harvey Poage.
Poage, now 83, was trained as a welder, but spent most of his life as a rancher near Douglas. When he sold the ranch and returned to Torrington, Poage found himself with a variety of odd jobs moving buildings. He's moved a railroad bridge, a hog farm and two other Quonset huts.
"There are not many 80-year-olds out looking for work," Newman said of the duo.
But both Poage and Guettler say they don't see why any number, including age, means they should stop working.
When Guettler returned to Torrington in 1992, he planned to fully retire, but that didn't work out, he said.
"That's when I've felt the best," said Guettler who hasn't been able to work lately due to illness. "I feel lousy; I'm not working and that bothers me."
Poage said he plans to be still working when he's 93.
"You get tired of sitting around," Poage said. "I enjoy it; how else am I going to have fun?"
People often overlook the skills of the elderly, Newman said.
"For many it's easier not to do something than accepting a challenge," he said. "But in our economy, it will become more and more prevalent for people to call on them."
Torrington resident and past state AARP president Bill Marsh agrees.
"Many people forget they have a vast number of folks who have extensive knowledge," Marsh said. "Like (Newman), you may not realize it until you need expertise that you don't use every day."
That's something that could happen more in Torrington with the advent of the new medium-security prison, which is slated to open in 2007, and is expected to employ more than 300.
Marsh has been talking to community leaders about what will happen to the community's workforce once the prison opens.
Prison employees will be state employees with good wages and benefits, Marsh said. He foresees a lot of shifting in the workforce with retail workers, teachers, city employees and others getting a job at the prison and leaving vacancies scattered around.
"It's going to impact the town in a lot of ways," he said. "This might be an opportunity for older, retired folks to work."
What will be important in that transition is to make sure employers understand the different needs of retirees - what will attract and keep them at a job.
Newman often hires older workers. He says they're reliable and often more grateful for their salary than younger workers. In this instance, they had knowledge about something Newman couldn't have done alone.
Marsh agrees. He said older workers have a strong work ethic.
"They know what work is all about and that doesn't bother them," he said. "Some of the younger generation want to make big bucks, but are not interested in the time and work it takes to earn them."
Moving the Quonset from the high school to Newman's property five-and-a-half miles away took a tremendous amount of people and logistical preparation.
That's what Newman said, but Guettler and Poage saw it differently.
"It was the easiest one I've moved," Guettler said, adding that he's moved four.
Poage used a nine-ton hydraulic jack to lift the structure, putting timbers underneath to support it and a frame around the outside of the floorless building. Once it was high enough, a semi backed underneath it and the timbers were removed.
The Quonset hut on top of the semi was too tall to pass beneath the power and telephone lines so the city and the companies involved had to raise the lines to let the truck pass beneath.
Law enforcement also escorted the semi down the highway, periodically stopping to let vehicles pass by as the fastest the semi could move was 15 or 20 mph.
"It really is remarkable to move something of this size," Newman said.
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