As
a lad I was a muscle car kind of guy, and during college I switched to
having a car that would get the most mpg instead of mph.
After
graduating from CSUN I moved to Mammoth Lakes to get out of the city to
ski and hike. After eight months in Mammoth I started to work for
Mammoth Mountain Ski Area
For well over twenty years I've had a deep interest in energy management and energy conservation. I conducted,
with the California Energy Commission, a wind energy study at Mammoth.
As the manager of a 45,000+ sq ft maintenance building in a very severe
weather environment I consistently lowered the energy usage in the
building. I
conducted some initial energy audits in some of the smaller buildings at
Mammoth and followed up by implementing the recommendations, and was
getting amazing energy reductions. I also constantly lobbied the senior management to do the same Ski Area wide.
During
the California Energy Crisis in the early 2000’s the senior management
at Mammoth realized that there was a critical need to control the
facilities energy costs across the corporation and I was transferred to
the newly created position. Oversight was minimal and the mandate was
simple: Do something to lower, or at least manage, the energy costs. The
new position was within the Facilities Dept and I was given additional
responsibilities, such as preventative maintenance management, along
with some responsibilities carried over from the previous position, such
as UST-AST management. I
was given no budget or capital to speak of, lukewarm support, and had
to come up with innovative ways to finance the energy
management/conservation part of the job. It’s not just about the money spent, it is about the results; which were spectacular.
When I first started with Mammoth Mountain I worked in vehicle maintenance. I started a detailed PM program, designed extensive modifications to different vehicles to fit the extreme environment. Because
the terrain is so extreme I concentrated on making the the summer
construction equipment braking systems work better, which sometimes
meant replacing the type of braking system. From wedge air
brakes to cam type, from hydraulic brakes to cam air type, adding
additional parking brake capacity, and adding Jake Brakes or
electrotarders. The idea was to make the equipment much more safer,
increase productivity, and lower the cost of maintenance. I designed
and installed a brake cooling system for CAT 966D loader inboard brakes,
which CAT engineers looked at as part of their effort to fix a
big problem. I designed and installed a trailer brake air
system for CAT 966 loaders so when 40 ft trailers were towed on steep
terrain they could stop. Re-manufactured five GI 5 ton
dump trucks to make them almost indestructible (Cat 3306TA engine w/jake
brakes, Allison auto trans, air brakes, double frame rails, positive ft
wheel drive, cold weather kits, modular hydraulic and snow plow
controls). Re-powered numerous pieces of equipment to make them work better and be more reliable. I also re-designed a lot of hydraulic systems to make them more reliable. Extensively
studied diesel fuel in cold weather operation and came up with procedures and
ways to reduce downtime due to gelling.
In
addition I was responsible for maintenance on pickups, autos, buses,
snowmobiles, snowcats (for a short period), snowblowers (large and
small), generators, chairlift aux drives, and many pieces of misc
equipment. Next to Caltrans Mammoth runs one of the largest snow removal fleets in the State.
I had the
opportunity to work with some people with extraordinary talents at Mammoth. We pushed each other along and complimented
our individual strengths
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