Bechtel to call it quits – OPALCO general manager wants to spend retirement years serving the community

“It’s time to do something else,” said Orcas Power and Light Cooperative General Manager Doug Bechtel.

With that, Bechtel told the OPALCO board Jan. 17 that he will be retiring no later than the end of the 2002 calendar year. Bechtel, who has been at the helm at OPALCO since 1988, says he’d be willing to stay on for 11 more months, but could step down as early as this summer or fall, if a new manager is hired and oriented by that time.

And what is that “something else” Bechtel intends to do? Foremost is expanding Actors Theatre of Orcas Island, the theater company Bechtel created in 1999. It currently performs full length, one act, and Readers Theatre plays, and offers acting classes for the community. That makes for a pretty hefty work load, yet Bechtel believes that still more opportunities exist to expand theatre participation and offerings on Orcas Island. He particularly wants to reach out to young people. He says, “I want to take some people who show up once in a while and get them to do this regularly.”

Bechtel also intends to do more volunteer work in the community. A member of the Kiwanis, the board of the Orcas Island Community Foundation, and the Sportman’s Club, Bechtel now finds it frustrating having to turn down their requests for help with worthwhile community service projects because there simply isn’t enough time in the day to accommodate them. “I want to give them time,” Bechtel says, “but it’s time I don’t have right now.”

The point is that Bechtel won’t be spending his retirement years sitting around the house. He says he has already told his wife Marie that he married her “for better or for worse, but not for lunch.”

But even should he take on many volunteer projects, Bechtel is certain that life will be easier after he retires. Noting that he ends every week feeling physically tired, Bechtel says, “I don’t want to work myself into an early grave by exhausting myself.”

When Bechtel first moved to Orcas in 1988, he didn’t believe for a minute that he would be making a lifetime commitment to helping this community. He had been directing a small utility in Alaska and, when he took the OPALCO job, he told colleagues and friends, “I’m going to get a job, show them, and come back.” They’re still waiting in Alaska.

OPALCO is in good shape

Bechtel feels that OPALCO needs a general manager with more energy, but his boss, board President Ed Marble, says he is doing a terrific job.

“The board is pleased with the results we’ve had in Doug’s tenure. We are happy to have had the benefit of his abilities all 14 years,” Marble says.

Bechtel feels that OPALCO is in excellent shape, and has a secure future. The last major construction project for the next 10 years, a new substation on San Juan Island, is scheduled for construction this summer. Rates are tentatively scheduled to go up at half the inflation rate, and the underground wiring program is progressing.

The board will soon be undertaking a national search for Bechtel’s successor. They’ll be inviting a consultant with experience conducting searches for chief executives to spend a day on Orcas advising the board on how to proceed.

There are no assurances that the consultant’s views will be utilized. Either way, Marble believes, some excellent candidates will apply. That’s what happened in 1988, and Marble thinks it will happen again.

— Ted Grossman is editor of islandssounder.com and The Islands’ Sounder. He can be reached at (360) 376-4500 or email.

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