Newest Member of the Team is a Familiar Face

A Visit with Tim Furlong

By Dale Dauten, Syndicated Columnist

Because he was in charge of updating the HDTV/internet at the parks, I talked with Tim Furlong once a month or more to get progress reports. As that project enters its final stages, I was sorry to think that he’d soon be moving on. And then, in early April, park GM Rhonda Ciacco surprised me: Tim wasn’t going anywhere. He’d just accepted the job as Maintenance Manager for The Resort and Silveridge. So we have a chance to get to know Tim a bit better.

Tim grew up in Kennewick, Washington, raised by a pair of Southerners far from home. His parents were from South Carolina and then his father, a mechanical engineer, took a a job at a major nuclear disposal plant in Washington. (When his dad retired, the folks moved back to South Carolina. His dad has since de-retired and works for the city where they live, Camden, while his mother retired from her job as a nurse.)

Tim went from high school into the Navy, and ended up as a Fire Control Officer on Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyers. The “fire” in the title is a bit misleading, because it has nothing to do with fires – the fire fighters on ships are “damage control” – no, Tim was responsible for firing missiles. The ships Tim served on spent most of their time in the waters around the Middle East, serving as a deterrent that worked – they never needed to fire upon an enemy.

You hear that old line, “join the Navy and see the world.” That was partly true for Tim – Jerusalem, Rome, Bahrain, and the Seychelles – but he mostly saw the confines of his 600X80-foot ship, including one stint of 67 days without docking. So, after six years, he was ready to move to Florida, where he took up studies for an Engineering degree. He eventually transferred to Arizona State, and then decided to take some time off to work fulltime. “You can call it a gap year,” he said. “Maybe a few gap years.” That’s how he ended up at GDS, the company tasked with completing the update of the HDTV and internet at The Resort and Silveridge.

How did Tim come to head the project at the parks? “I volunteered,” he said, then added, “I always volunteer. That’s how I am. That’s how you learn, and that’s my goal – to always learn as much as I can.”

And Tim is learning plenty at the parks, telling us, “We have two good crews and boy, am I glad to have them. I have complete confidence in each of our Maintenance Techs. And if there’s anything we can’t figure out, we have Rhonda – she was once Maintenance Manager, remember.”

STATUS UPDATE ON HDTV/INTERNET & THE CLUBHOUSE

HDTV/INTERNET

Asked to summarize the current state of the HDTV/Internet project, George Igualt, head of The Resort’s management company, told us,

“We’ve got the service locked-in and we continue to have everyone operating and stable. Now it’s just a matter of finishing up the construction work while we fine-tune the system.”

RECONSTRUCTION OF THE CLUBHOUSE

As for the reconstruction of the Silveridge clubhouse, George smiled and said,

“The office is finally back inside where it belongs.” He added, “It took a lot longer than we expected but we’re very pleased with how everything is turning out. The building is ready to have the existing furniture put back in place and the new furniture to be added.”