April 2009

Craig Mongeau - April 2009

December 21 — three months later, after snow, wind, cold and three colds (each one progressively worse), spring finally arrived March 20.

That, in and of itself, is not breaking news. After all, it’s happened 44 times in my lifetime and varying numbers of times in your lifetimes. What’s changed, though, is that I now want the three months of winter to pass more quickly than it used to — or at least feel like it comes and goes faster. In this way, winter isn’t really the problem anymore; rather, it’s that I want time to go by in a blink. But we don’t want time to be like that, and tragic events serve as reminders that we’d (I’d) better value any time we have.

In this issue, you’ll find a story about Randy Jensen, the superintendent of streets of the village of Penn Yan, who died suddenly a couple of months ago. He was 57. A loss of a life is always tragic, but when it occurs at a moment when there was supposed to be so much more time left, it’s even more heartbreaking. I didn’t know Randy, but I should have. When I received the call from his deputy superintendent, Don Rapalee, telling me that his boss had died and that he hoped we could do a story in his honor, he added that Randy always wanted to be profiled in this magazine. It never happened and I wished we could have worked together to have made that happen — I wish there had been time.

The sting of the snow, the force of a burning wind on one’s face and the relatively mild inconvenience of a cold are all things I’d gladly experience next year, again … with much more patience I hope. There’s no rush.

Randy was and remains a member of our family, our industry and is in our thoughts and prayers. We at Superintendent’s Profile express our deepest sympathy to Randy’s family, friends, coworkers and village at this very difficult time.