Joseph Richardson - My Stay at the Lark Ellen Home for Boys - 1960-62 - Page 3

In 1985 I was hired by the City of Ventura to supervise the maintenance and operations of the City Water Dept. I was very successful with the electronic atomization of their water system and during the drought of the early 80's would use my mechanical skills to upgrade and maintain our City water supply. The politics of the 80's on the other hand was not in my favor and eventually I would leave the City in 1992 for a job offer from an Engineering firm in Santa Barbara that needed someone to work with the Mobil Oil Company on a major project on the oil platform and gas plant in Goleta California. I would eventually spend five years on a project, 'Clearview', that would have removed platform Holly from the ocean off Santa Barbara and re-drilled the wells from shore, a job that proved to be the highest earnings of my lifetime, until the more radical environmentalists of Santa Barbara would shut the whole thing down.

While working for the City of Ventura running the Water Dept I had gone back to College, got another degree, this time in Water Science, also got my licenses from the State of California in Water Treatment and Water Distribution. These certifications would lead to my eventually accepting a position as a part-time instructor at the Ventura Community College teaching science classes for people to work in the water and wastewater field - something I am still doing 20 years later as a part time job two evenings a week.

After the shutdown of the Mobil Oil project I accepted a position with the City of Port Hueneme and the United States Bureau of Reclamation to build and run a pilot water treatment plant comparing the costs of three different 'membrane' methods of improving potable water. The project was extremely successful in that I was able to configure the operation of the plant such that one of the historically major problems with membrane failures was overcome. The five years that the pilot plant ran we had Engineers and Politicians from all over the world visit the facility to see what and how we ran the plant and to verify all the data that we were putting out on our internet site firsthand.

It was during the last years of my work at Hueneme that my son decided he wanted to 'go racing'. I would help him build and compete at our small dirt track here in Ventura, and eventually move up and have built and race an IMCA Modified all over the western United States. I could build and maintain the cars and he sure can drive. After five years, I was broke as far as being able to continue with the Modified. We had been successful with getting support with parts and things but never any cash. $100,000 dollars in four years at a time when I was looking to retire - couldn't do it any more. Then, a friend, and fellow racer asked for my assistance with HIS racing program, and, gave a ride in one of his Sprint cars to my son. That has now grown to my being the crew chief of a five-car race team. Our owner has won the Senior Track Championship, my son won the Rookie of the Year last year and we now have another driver that was a five time champion from the Dwarf Car ranks moving into our third 360 Sprint car. Racing has become our life as I start my retirement, I still teach at Ventura College in the Water Science field, but building and racing at the Dirt tracks in California has become a nine months of the year endeavor.