Page 12 12 The next project waiting for me included a trip to Sun’s Toledo, Ohio refinery to meet with the manager of plant security. His security group monitored video and remotely controlled several gates at the refinery and he was enthused over our department being interested in doing an upgrade in the main guard shack. His big question was who was going to pay for it? He said, “Hey, I am for it but my budget will not cover the cost!” I told them that it was already approved in the Philadelphia office at the top! I gave him my boss’ name and number to call and after their conversation, he said that he was unaware that there was an approved project and he had been trying to get something done to improve the equipment for a long time. But money for such a task was hard to come by. With a copy of my proposal on his desk, I explained the operation and discussed my preliminary drawings of the new console. He liked the plan and he had additional thoughts on how to arrange the new system. I made notes about our discussions and promised to inform him on our progress as the construction progressed at Sun’s Devon, P. A. communications shop. I felt great about that first meeting and the agreements that I had with the Toledo refinery security manager and on the flight back, I began listing the material, including the console, pushbuttons, selector switches, wiring, plugs and cables. Listed also was the approximate man hours of shop time and travel cost, all to be checked with our Head shop technician, Al Kilgo to be sure that I was not missing anything before turning in my final estimate at the Philly office. I drafted a pencil letter to engineer, John McKeever and N. E. Region Telecom. manager, Lowell McDaniel, detailing the agreed plan. Arriving home late Friday evening, I called in a report and typed my letter for the Monday morning meeting. I had all of the paperwork done and we met with the engineers in the Monday morning meeting to go over the details of the project. Al Kilgo had some input about how we could manage the installation when the equipment was completed. The comm. shop owned a van type vehicle that could hold the console and all of the wiring and one of the technicians could drive to Toledo and assist me with the installation. So, we were in business!
Posted on: Fri, 26 Jul 2013 20:08:28 +0000
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