PAGE B6, KEIZERTIMES, MARCH 9, 2018
Whiteaker forging
ahead in kindness
CIVIC: ‘We run pretty lean
around here’
(Continued from Page B1)
KEIZERTIMES/Derek Wiley
Whiteaker students Tayson Whetten, left, Eliana Berg, Macie
Nowlin, Jana Everitt, Manny Garza and Destiny Rodriguez (not
pictured) won a $40 gift card to Target from David B. Ander-
son Dentistry for their “Why does Kindness Matter?” essays.
BELOW: Students paint rocks with positive messages.
If you look around his desk, you’ll see family photos peeking
out along with notes stuck to most everything.
“I have two children and two grandchildren. My daughter
has a son and a daughter. My daughter is a stay at home mom
and earned her associates degree from Chemeketa,” he said.
“My son is 22 and just graduated from Western with a busi-
ness degree,” he said.
His son is also employed by the city as an event host. The
same job Collingham had before becoming facilities technician.
Most days begin just past 7 a.m. with him checking on the
heating and cooling system. Building comfort is a priority. He
can tell the system needs adjusting the minute he walks through
the door when he gets to work.
Every day is different, but he has a list of things he checks on
throughout the day; the generator system, safety issues, preven-
tative maintenance and scheduled repairs. Many items on his list
are checked once a week or even once a month; fi re systems,
fi re extinguishers, carpet cleaning and window cleaning.
“I’ve been in this position since 2012. I worked as an event
host for a year and a half before that,” he said. He hit the ground
running from the start, learning many of the things he needed
to know for the job while at work.
His responsibilities include programming the software that
runs the heating and lighting in the building, maintaining the
civic center parking and the landscaping around the building
out to the focal point where the fl ag poles stand, painting and
repairs of the walls at the community center; an event facility
that is housed inside the civic center.
He is certain that he probably forgot to mention a chore or
left out a responsibility. After a moment he remembers. “I am
in charge of the custodial staff. But I am not their supervisor.”
Collingham will often be found inside changing light bulbs
one minute and outside pushing a lawnmower the next.
The building, which is also home to city hall and its plethora
of departments and divisions as well as the police department, is
approximately 70,000 square feet and it sits on fi ve acres of land.
While this may seem a lot for one man to cope with he seldom
if ever feels overwhelmed.
“When the city has an event, I help out with that,” Collin-
gham said. His event host experience helps make the transition
almost seamless.
When his plate is full he gets help from his boss, Robert
Johnson, parks and facilities division manager and he is happy
to return the favor.
“I help them as well. We run pretty lean around here,” he
said.
Collingham manages to stay on top of it all by staying or-
ganized. He sets himself reminders, fl ags emails, puts up notes
and makes lists.
“I do prioritize and I try not to procrastinate,” he said.
It’s as if he were destined for the job, even if he took a round-
about way of getting there.
“I went to high school in Dallas, graduated in 1988. I moved
to Keizer in 1992. I got married and started working delivering
furniture and then moved into sales,” he said.
When the company closed he went to work for his father-
in-law who owned a custom cabinet shop in Keizer. He stayed
there until the economy crashed. There was no new construc-
tion and no need for cabinets. That is when he joined the city
as an events host.
Collingham claims he has no hobbies, but give him a mo-
ment and he can come up with a half a dozen things that aren’t
chores that he enjoys doing when he is home.
He enjoys cooking and he is the one who prepares most of
the family meals. To hear him tell it, this is not because he is a
great chef, but because he is always the fi rst one home.
“I like to spice things up, lightly for my wife, more for me.”
He enjoys trying new foods and makes jerky and sausage for
the whole family.
He is an avid garage sale shopper buying items to resell on
OfferUp.com or Facebook’s marketplace. He’s worked as a sec-
ond photographer for his wife’s photography business.
Though he may claim otherwise, Collingham is a man of
hobbies and though his interests may wax and wane, he never
gives up always returning to past interests time and again .
The newest thing to pique his interest is metal sculpture. He
is taking up welding and plans to build his work from found
metal.
“I’m already buying supplies,” he admits. He has already
started collecting scrap metal for future art projects. He plans to
make a sculpture of a dachshund from an old spring fi rst. It will
be for his wife. They have had a pair of dachshunds for many
years though they now only have one.
And of course he loves spending time with his grandchil-
dren. Family camping trips are treasured time as well.
“We spend time at Beverly Beach. The kids like camping,”
he said. “It’s a whole family excursion with son, daughter, hus-
band and grandchildren in tow.”
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