Michael Vice isn't exactly sure what comes next after his retirement from SD1 at the end of this month, but whatever it is, he'll be ready.
"I don't know yet," he says about what comes next. "I won't know until I retire. I've got to find something else to do. I'm sure I'll find some part-time work out there somewhere doing something."
One thing is for sure - he can't sit at home and twiddle his thumbs. "Can't sit at the house," Michael says. "That's the kiss of death, from what I understand."
Michael came to SD1 in June of 2003 as an inspector. At SD1, inspectors make sure that contractors working on projects - whether capital projects, developer projects or stormwater cost-share projects - meet the specs of what is required for the project. This entails installation of pipe and other structures as well as safety.
"First and foremost, we write up all the details on what was done each and every day," he says. "Especially on capital projects. What they're doing exactly that day. We keep tabs on everything that's put in and make sure it's put in correctly."
Inspectors also test all installed assets to make sure they are working properly.
Over the past two decades, Michael estimates that he's worked on nearly 1,000 projects. During busy seasons, he may have six or seven projects at once.
"When it's busy, we're running from site to site all day long," he says. "Checking where they're at. And certain ones I'd spend more time on - like capital projects; we spend more time on those."
Prior to coming to SD1, Michael was a geotech for three years, working mostly with construction crews to test soil. It prepared him for the kind of work he'd be doing here.
Before that, he spent 14 years in the Army.
On Christmas Eve, 1990, he landed in Saudi Arabia as part of the run-up to Operation Desert Storm. Michael was in charge of supplying fuel to an artillery unit that would quickly make its way inside Iraq. After a week-long trek across the desert, he found himself camping out for about three months 40 miles inside the Iraq border.
"I remember you could see that they would light up the muzzles each time they fired - they would light up and a lick of fire would go out of them," he says. "It was kind of cool, you know? But not for those out there in the field taking the fire."
He says it was scary for some, but he wasn't really afraid. "I remember I was fueling up the howitzers one evening and one of the guys operating the howitzer came up to me while I was fueling and says, 'Aren't you scared?' I said, 'We're not the ones taking the fire right now. They're the ones that are scared.'"
Michael says his unit only took live fire for a few days and then it was over. "That was pretty much it and we started winding down," he says. "Iraq was quick. They basically just gave up after three days of us hitting them so hard."
After Desert Storm, he accepted a cash buyout from the US Military and returned home after a seven-year stop in Alabama, where he sold automotive parts at a Honda dealership.
Michael says not a lot has changed in inspections during his time at SD1. "Basically, nothing's changed out there as far as what's getting put in the ground and inspecting it," he says. "We do more data entry now; before we'd just write everything up and turn in the paperwork - now it's much easier for us to enter it ourselves."
Michael says if he were to give one piece of advice to a young inspector just starting out, it would be to enjoy the ride.
"It's a good job," he adds. "Probably the best job I've ever had. When I came here...Darlene McGuire told me it was a great place to work and said I should come check it out, so I did. And it has been."
His favorite part about working at SD1 is working with people in the field. He says his only regret is that all of that running from project to project over the years kept him from getting to know many of the staff at the Main Office.
"I really know the contractors and the people that work for them more than some of the people at the District, and that's not a bad thing," he says. "You develop a relationship with them out there and there's really a bunch of good people out there. There's good people here too," he adds. "It's just, it's a loss not getting to know some of the people here at the District so well."
Michael has three grown children, nine grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Michael's last day at SD1 will be Wednesday, January 31. He is one of six staff retiring at the end of the month. The others include Donna Biddle, Sean Blake, Greg Braunwart, Tom Foster and Tim Friedhof.
Be sure to wish all of them well the next time you see them.
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