Brian Venua: What made you want to choose this year as opposed to last year or next year?
Jean Barrett: I had a lot of a lot of different reasons. One, I got sick last year, had some issues, I feel like I need to start taking care of myself a little better and focus on myself, you know. I've always focused on my job and my career and I've let other things kind of slide, so little did I know how busy I was going to be when I decided I was going to retire. So that. Did some soul searching after my brother passed away. He was also a radio announcer. And another friend of mine — both of them died when they were 60 and I'm soon to be 60 and I'm thinking you know, that's just got to be something into that in there. So, I better take better care of myself.
Venua: You want to take some time just to relax, live your life a little bit more.
Barrett: Absolutely. You know, I got a I got a nice new Harley Davidson last summer and I got 200 whole miles on it before I got sick. So I'm riding my Harley as much as I can, I'm putting the boat in the water, go fishing up at the lakes, go camping, you know, do some things I want to do.
Venua: So let's talk a little bit about your career. What were some of your biggest achievements, some of your best projects that you want to talk about?
Barrett: We put in some rental space down there, we have leased lots now. We've been able to keep things running on the city's tight budget over the years. I always thought that making the harbor more than just a mud hole is always a priority. So I always tried to make the give the my time to the fishermen and get them as much — because they're up here making a living there basically my customers, so I like to think that I gave them really good customer service.
Venua: What were some of the bigger projects that happened while you were there? How long were you the Harbormaster?
Barrett: Seventeen years total with the city and 14 of them were at the harbor. The projects — we got the new Napa building put in. We had another business going in down beyond it — that has pulled out, they've decided not to do anything. The bulkhead extension; when I started, there was only about 100 feet of bulkhead and now there's probably 225 feet of bulkhead which is nice, especially when people are working their boats, loading stuff, they're not having to carry stuff all the way down the ramp. We got a dock crane down there that comes in really handy for loading nets, ice offloading fish, usually halibut. We bought a grove wheel loader for the city that has come in really handy for us for putting in our float arms in the springtime. We've used it as a as a moneymaker also — we've leased it out to different places for different projects in Dillingham,
Venua: Do you have any advice for CJ or whoever is going to fill that position more regularly? Or even things that like knowing what you know now what you would what you can tell yourself when you first take one of these positions?
Barrett: Have patience. Nothing happens overnight. Working for the city, it all takes money. And we know how tight the city is with money. So take your time and have patience. Work to get things changed as you can. Small steps equal big steps eventually. That’s something that I learned working down the harbor especially because you'd like to see a lot of changes happen and you'd like to see it happen now. But when you're talking millions of dollars, it's pretty tough to find that kind of money in the coffers sometimes.
Venua: Right. Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?
Barrett: I'd just like to thank the city and the fishermen for the many years of enjoyable employment. I met a lot of really good people, met a lot of good people around the state through the Alaska Association of Harbormasters and became very good friends with a lot of them. And valuable friendships are worth so much.
Venua: Thanks so much for coming in.
Barrett: Thanks, Brian.
