Lemoore Public Works Director David Wlaschin retires following 39-year career with city

Several hundred of Wlaschin's friends, family and acquaintances were on hand Wednesday night to honor the longtime Lemoore city employee, retiring after nearly four decades on the job. It was part roast, part remembrances, and a whole bunch of fun as he was honored with stories, proclamations and even a brand new barbecue from the employees union.

The lanky, easy-gong Wlaschin is calling it quits in a few days – his final day is April 17 – following a satisfying career marked by consistency and excellence. Lemoore is his city, as Joe Friday used to say, and he placed a down payment on it when he was born and raised in this town, graduated from Lemoore High School, and then left only to earn a college degree at Fresno State.

But he soon returned, with a diploma in hand and promptly found a job stocking shelves at Lincoln Market. But it wasn’t long before the City of Lemoore came calling and offered him something a bit more respectable for a man of his talents and education.

 He began his long career with the City of Lemoore in 1976, at the bottom of the proverbial totem pole – building inspector. Along the way towards that respectability he managed to marry a sweet little local gal by the name of Mary Anne and have a few kids - Amy, Josh and Mandy – and then settled in for the long ride that was to define his legacy.

Coincidentally, Lemoore during those years grew from a Podunk berg of about 6,000 folks to a metropolis of nearly 27,000 - at last count. Wlaschin was one of the guys in charge of managing that growth during those formative years, and judging by the way Lemoore looks and feels today, he just may have done a pretty good job of it.

He’s had a hand in just about everything that came Lemoore’s way. “One of the first projects,” he said, “was the Pioneer Shopping Center at the corner of Hanford Armona Road and Lemoore Avenue. It was the first construction project I’d worked on and the largest project I’d ever been involved with.”

Pioneer Square is still here, but it’s not retiring - like Wlaschin. And the former LHS basketball player isn’t going anywhere. Oh, he’s promised to take his wife on a few trips, visit relatives and see parts of the country they’ve never seen. But Lemoore will always be his home.

“My initial plans are that I’m going to the happiest place on earth,” and he’s not referring to his old job of stocking shelves at Lincoln Market.

The Wlaschin brood has just returned from Disneyland, an almost mandatory sojourn that those who have accomplished something important, must undertake. By the way, he also took the grandkids, much to their delight.

Anyone with photos of Wlaschin navigating Disney’s famous Teacups or uttering the phrase “I’m going to Disneyland” would be greatly appreciated.

“Lemoore is my home and my city and I always wanted to do the best for my city that I could. I’ve always tried to prepare the city for the future.”

Lemoore has always grown in a positive way, he said. There have been challenges along the way though. There has always been the difficult task of attracting commercial and retail businesses to Lemoore. “Commercial has always been a challenge,” he said.

But it hasn’t always been hard to have a business in Lemoore. “People were always amazed at the number of shops we had downtown and around Lemoore back when I was in school in the sixties and early seventies. Then big box stores came into play and the number of small businesses declined downtown, which was a little disheartening.”

Leadership has come and gone, but Wlaschin has stood firm. He is the Mt. Rushmore of Lemoore, a solid rock you can always count on for inspiration. He was hired by Bill Drennan and Gary Misenheimer and worked for talented city managers like Allen Goodman, Steve Froberg, and Jeff Briltz, and for the last couple of years, short-termers Jeff Laws and interim Ron Hoggard, the latter coming on board temporarily while Lemoore searches from a new city manager.

There are challenges headed Lemoore’s way. “There are two things,” said Wlaschin from the confines of his office at the Cinnamon Drive complex. “Water and waste water are two of the issues that we’re heavily involved with right now with the decline in the water levels and the discharge that comes from the industries and the city itself.”

Like every good public servant who cares where the money’s coming from, he cites commercial and retail development as sources of concern. Sales tax and jobs are at the heart of every community’s future, and Wlaschin says Lemoore is no different.

“All cities, and particularly smaller cities have more of a challenge keeping those tax dollars at home.”

There have been innovations and creative solutions to real issues, he said. “We’ve advanced in solar power, which has been developed throughout the City of Lemoore at our waste water systems and some of our buildings. A lot of residential solar power projects have also been done on individual homes,” he said.

The city has also invested heavily in CNG (compressed natural gas), purchasing numerous vehicles including expensive refuse trucks. The investment in a CNG power station and vehicles has the potential to save the city much-needed funds which could be used elsewhere. The solar projects could save Lemoore citizens millions over the course of the next few decades.

“We’ve been very progressive in those areas,” said Wlaschin. “And our services are as good as anybody’s.”

He’s going to miss a few things. “My staff has been with me for many years. It’s a very cohesive group. There are always tough things that we have to do, but everybody pulls together and we accomplish those tasks. I will miss that.”