![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/john-wiens-retires-1-edit.jpg\")
All of those years he served the state, he was based in\nHutchinson, most of it at the District Five Office. And in those four-plus\ndecades, he developed rapport with co-workers and customers. So, on the eve of\nhis retirement, John said, it was hard not to feel sentimental.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He put it this way: \u201cIt\u2019s kind of like saying goodbye to a\nfamily member, you know?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As Engineering Technician Senior, John has worked out of a\ncool, calm basement \u2013 sort of a library for highway plans in the District\nOffice. His job has had varied roles. He has been keeper and provider of\nhighway plans and contract paperwork, some of it going back more than 100\nyears. He has assisted with computer-aided design. He has been responsible for\ninspecting 34 airports in the district. (He is a licensed commercial pilot.)\nFor nearly 30 years, he has helped set up and maintain KDOT\u2019s State Fair booth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The lion\u2019s share of his job has been keeping and retrieving\nhighway records, copies of which hang in that basement. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of\npaperwork involved with building a highway,\u201d John noted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He has been the archivist of original construction sheets\nfor highways that have evolved over the decades. He knows the history. He\npointed out a sheet diagraming a brick-paved 96 Highway from Hutchinson to\nNickerson, dated 1919. He appreciates the significance: \u201cIn 1919, the car was\njust barely on the road.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John, born and raised in Hutchinson, started out in the\nHutchinson Construction Office in 1979. During his KDOT career, he has always\nworked in some aspect of highway construction or inspection. In 42 years with\nKDOT, John has experienced it all: \u201cI was working here in the basement,\u201d he\nsaid, \u201cwhen they brought our first computer into the district.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Near John\u2019s retirement, District Engineer Brent Terstriep\nsaid: \u201cHe\u2019s always willing to help people.\u201d District Construction and Materials\nEngineer Nick Squires said: \u201cHe has a wealth of knowledge on our district\u2019s\nhighway system that is going to be hard to replace.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
John and his wife, Michele, will continue to live in\nHutchinson, but he plans to visit relatives and friends in Europe. He said his\n10-acre property will keep him busy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By Tim Potter John Wiens has worked for KDOT longer than many KDOT employees have been alive \u2013 42 years. All of those years he served the state, he was based in Hutchinson, most of it at the District Five Office. And in those four-plus decades, he developed rapport with co-workers and customers. So, on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-kansas"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19523,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19521\/revisions\/19523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}