Public works director Barchus is retiring

BARCHUS

After beginning his tenure with the City of Anderson in 1977 as a surveyor, Public Works Director Rich Barchus, 59, will officially retire on Friday May 1.

He is leaving the city after 32 years of service due to health concerns.

The city has scheduled interviews today with three finalists for the position.

Kevin Kidd, the city's Deputy Director of Public Works, is among the three candidates. Kidd currently serves as interim director of the department.

Throughout, Barchus has had a "remarkable career," said Scott Morgan, Anderson's city manager. Morgan noted that the city's new public works director will be selected in May.

"He's leaving us a legacy with a lot of improvements to the City of Anderson," Morgan noted. "He knows where everything in the city is. We will definitely lose a lot of institutional knowledge (of the city)."

The job of the city's public works department involves technical planning for sewer, water, streets and storm drains. As director of the department for nine years, Barchus became "intimately familiar" with those aspects of the city, Morgan said.

"I'm very proud of Anderson," Barchus said. "We have the best streets in Shasta County. When you're driving down them, you're not driving around potholes."

He added that the city has great fortune in that it is "situated above the best aquifer in Shasta County. It's very clean, good water" he said, comparing Anderson's water supply with that of Redding.

Anderson gets its water exclusively from wells, whereas some of Redding's water comes from the Sacramento River, Barchus said.

Anderson's 11 wells supply the South County city with about 2 million gallons per day during the hot,dry summer months, he said. Demonstrating more arcane knowledge of Anderson's underpinnings, Barchus added that Buffalo Bill Cody was one of the original owners of the Anderson water system, which involved Anderson's original well in the Anderson Heights area.

While demonstrating a great deal of knowledge about Anderson's past, Barchus also had something to say of the future.

With increasing legal restrictions on the Sacramento river and its water quality, cities may soon have to start treating storm drainage water, Barchus said, noting especially the waste oil and antifreeze that runs off streets and into the river.

"At some point, they're going to say you can't do that anymore," Barchus said.

For Anderson, Barchus said the most logical place for treatment would be in the Anderson River Park, where sewage is also treated.

On April 21, Anderson's five-member city council unanimously authorized interim director Kidd to advertise for construction bids for a 61,100-square feet emergency storage pond for waste water and sewage sludge.

The project is estimated by city engineers to cost nearly $1.1 million. Bids for the project will be opened at 2 p.m. on May 27.

A Shasta County native, Barchus received his MBA from Chico State when he returned from three tours in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War. Barchus helped shuttle munitions by helicopter from the Philippines to Vietnam after he enlisted in 1968.

In 1983, he designed and built his home with the help of friends unemployed from the Roselawn mill.

Barchus is married to Brenda Barchus. He has one son, Joshua, who lives in Redding.

Even though Barchus officially retires of Friday, his last day of work was Oct. 14 since he had more than 800 hours of unused vacation time accrued during his career.

Barchus told the Valley Post last week that "already misses the work."

"It took up a large part of life," he said. Leaving it creates a vacuum."

In its stead, Barchus said he plans to spend extra time gardening and fishing for bass on Lake Shasta.