Rumor has it the heat wave has broken.  Now, the weather prognosticators are saying there’s a chance of rain later in the week.  Go figure.  That said, it occurred to me that, except for a fluke in the calendar causing Labor Day to fall on September 7th, this past week and weekend would have been Fleet Week.  Thank goodness for small favors!

We continue to monitor our financial situation very closely.  Like most businesses, we have more control over our expenses than our revenue, so most of our focuses has been on cost control and efficiency.  Of course, some things must be dealt with immediately, like rent, insurance, utilities, taxes, etc.  Which leads me to a discussion of Restricted versus Unrestricted Funds, something I know I’ve discussed before.

Restricted Funds are called this because the donor has placed limitations – restrictions – on how their donated funds can be spent.  Some examples of restrictions are Education, Operations, IT, Training, and Deck repair.  A big example of this is the California grant for constructing the Park and Pavillion building.  Restricted Funds cannot be used for normal, day-to-day, operating expenses, like rent, insurance, utilities, salaries, taxes, etc.  Those items need to be paid from Unrestricted Funds, also referred to as Operating Funds.  Unrestricted Funds arise from ticket sales, general donations, Vicky’s, the gift shop, filming, and loose change we find in the parking lot.

Restricted Fund grants/donations, especially those involving larger dollar amounts, often involve a written agreement.  (They’re never referred to as “contracts”, although that’s what they really are.)  Violating an agreement can do more than damage a relationship with a single donor.  Once it becomes known a charity doesn’t live up to its agreements, reputational damage takes over, and it may not be recoverable.

Leaving on a brighter note, next Sunday is the 1st Sunday of the month, so you’ll be rid of me, and will get Nui’s Monthly Controller’s Report.

Many Thanks,

Ross

From the desk of the Chief Engineer

Another riveting note from the world of engineering and capital projects.

We had a bye week last Saturday, but we’re back at it today.

Pavilion news: After several weeks of conversations, meetings, phone calls and a site survey, we have arrived at a plan for the removal of the pipelines. The short version of the process is that we’ll use pipe “stopper” technology to isolate sections of each line, remove any contents for proper disposal, and cut the section out. Sounds simple, but it isn’t. Our pipeline contractor, Doty Brothers, will begin work on Monday morning and with the intention of finishing by the end of the week. Fingers crossed.

 The foundation design problem continues to be worked on by the engineering consultants. Again, trying to shorten the description of the issue into a bite-sized format, the row of pilings parallel to and next to the dock (and associated seawall) needs to be able to withstand a “slump” of the adjacent land during a seismic event and likely liquefaction of the soil. This is forcing a redesign of that row of pilings, which is very likely to be replaced by large steel pipes instead of the post-tensioned concrete columns normally used. It seems pipes and pipelines will dominate our immediate work.

 Still, we have some good news. After months of hard work by Larry and team, we appear to be extremely close to having a “grading permit.” So, once pipeline removal is complete, we should be able to grade the site, while adding or subtracting dirt as needed. This allows us to bring the entire footprint to the correct height, setting the stage for drilling and pounding pilings for the foundation.

 A little more than a week ago, we had what I’m calling 75% success in relocating our four heavy items from the construction site. We were successful in moving 66,000 pounds of items to other locations, but the barge was simply too heavy, much heavier in fact than our admittedly poor documentation claimed. For the record, the barge is about 34,000 lbs., the anchor was spot-on at 30,500, the rangefinder was a little heavier than we thought at 26,500 and the 20-foot wood container was around 10,000. Following an old movie reference, we’ll need a bigger crane.

 I’ll take a moment to add information regarding our continuing effort to reduce our electricity bill. Getting a little technical, when we started in late July, the amperage on each of the three power phases was nominally: A-phase 323 amps, B-phase 288 amps, C-phase 228 amps. Now down to 261 amps, 230 amps and 170 amps respectively, representing a little over 20% reduction. We will now work on “balancing” the load on each phase, thus allowing the power meter to view the load as lower on average across the phases. We still have work to do and may need to find more power reduction opportunities to reach the 30% goal.

Closing out a busy few weeks for the engineering team, we’ve been dealing with multiple pipe leaks on 3rd deck aft associated with the new air conditioning units. This has caused flooding under the LED wall, and in the most recent occurrence, sent water all the way down to 5th deck. The culprit appears to be an interface between plastic and brass pipe fittings, and repair efforts are underway.

Back to storytelling…

It seems that pipeline issues have followed me, gratefully in a modest way, during my career. This time, they allow me to extend my old relationship with the Doty Brothers company.

 After leaving the Aquarium of the Pacific some years ago, I took on a role as the general manager of a very large central plant in downtown LA. This place was huge and held enough cooling capacity to cool almost 5,000 homes. It provided heating & cooling services to almost 9,000,000 sq ft of Class A office buildings and high-rise residential buildings. Located directly across the street from the Disney Concert Hall, it was a rather amazing plant with several miles of underground pipelines which distributed those services, spreading like tentacles underneath the area.

 In addition to cooling water distribution, we provided high-pressure hot water to many of the buildings, mostly used for hot water heating, kitchen work and space heating. Customers included the Bonaventure Hotel, the Union Bank Building, and 600-unit high-rise condominiums. Unfortunately, the piping was old and much of it was directly buried in the soil, allowing for corrosion to gain a significant foothold in the then 40-year-old system.

 Sadly, the inevitable occurred one day about a week before Christmas. We heard a loud bang and ran outside just in time to witness hot water and steam geysers blowing out of the ground much like the fake features of the old Disneyland mine train ride. Obviously, a high-pressure pipe had ruptured, venting into the adjacent sewer system and blowing manhole covers on the street more than ten feet into the air. Holy moly.

 What a week. My boss, and the owner of the plant, was out of town for many days to come, I was essentially alone, had a horrible cold, and we had just shut down the Bonaventure Hotel and removed heating from 600 residents. Everyone wanted a piece of me including the local news media. But after four days of hard work and spending $400,000.00 with Doty Bros., we reestablished hot water service just hours before a 2,000-person event at the hotel. It was December 21^st.

 I’ll take these old, abandoned pipelines any day of the week rather than repeat that experience.

As always, I am grateful to be here,
Mike

EDITOR'S NOTE: Mike really appreciates feedback on these posts. If you have any questions for him or you'd like to share anything with him, please drop him an email.

Here's what Kyle Aube and development have in its sights for September:

- Freedom of the Seas Awards Planning for Oct. 23-24th

- Continued focuses on organization and prioritization across departments to ensure resources are being optimally used and efforts generate a positive ROI.

As for the rest of the team, Sue is finishing up chief season and moving rapidly into the last minute details of the annual crew dinner. Sources close to the volunteer department tell me it's Mediterranean themed this year.

Are you signed up? No? Be a genius and do it now!

And finally, comms is proud to drop our - believe it or not - 96th podcast episode. Did you know two guys from Washington State built a *19-foot LEGO* model of IOWA? Join us on Scuttlebutt 09/03/26 to get to know them and check out their work. The detail and accuracy they achieved is simply stunning.