McCann retires after 17 years at GMU

A fascination with the design and workings of the power system in Greenfield and the people he worked for and with are a few reasons Steve McCann says he enjoyed sticking with his job for the last 17 years.

McCann retired Friday as the Power Plant Foreman for Greenfield Municipal Utilities (GMU). A retirement celebration open house was held for him that afternoon in the city hall meeting room.

McCann joined GMU after working for Schildberg Construction Company. He credits Dave Weber and Joel Olson for helping him get into the job and for helping him learn his way. His wife, Becky, encouraged him greatly to apply for the position.

After a time at GMU, he transitioned into the Power Plant Foreman position. In this job, he spent most of his time maintaining equipment and either repairing or fabricating things that were needed out in the field.

“It was interesting how the electricity feeds through the town and how the system works in the town,” McCann said. “The generators always amazed me, especially just how big they are and what it takes to make the electricity to serve the town and surrounding towns. It was a good place to work. I liked the people I worked with.”

McCann says there were always tasks to be done. While the position mainly oversaw GMU’s power plants, some tasks that may not all have been power related required “all hands on deck,” like water main breaks, leaks or power outages.

Technology is ever-changing. GMU publically celebrated the Downtown Generation Plant’s opening in September 2021. One of its capabilities is to automatically fire up when the power goes out. A future goal for GMU is updating systems so that the whole town can benefit from generators that have that capability, McCann said. A connected piece of that is transitioning all power lines that are above ground to be underground.

McCann’s co-workers thanked him at his open house for always knowing how to fix whatever was broken on the job.

McCann additionally wanted to thank all of his co-workers, plus GMU General Manager Scott Tonderum and Assistant Manager Craig Ford for their support of his work with them.

The McCanns recently relocated to Lake Panorama, outside Panora. He’s excited to have more family time, travel and tinker around with his own projects in retirement.