Steering Group draft report discussion at noon

All Fermilab employees and users are invited to attend today's presentation and discussion of the Fermilab Steering Group draft report at noon in Ramsey Auditorium. The draft report is a roadmap for the future of accelerator-based particle physics at Fermilab. Fermilab Deputy Director Young-Kee Kim will lead the program.

Lake bank shoring begins

Repairs to Swan Lake's eroded south bank will begin Monday.

Starting Monday, construction crews will begin repairing the 3-foot drop off on the southern edge of Swan Lake. All lanes of traffic will stay open, but traffic may be slowed. At the earliest, work would finish in a week.

The creation of a new bank will repair the steep, and potentially dangerous, drop off created by wind-generated waves striking the shore for years. FESS personnel have lowered the lake water level about 2 inches during the last few weeks in preparation for building a gradual sloped bank filled with natural vegetation and repairing the two culverts that empty into the pond.

The plants and grasses, set on a soil shelf in 6-to-8 inches of water, will act as breakers for the waves, preventing future erosion. During the last quarter century, erosion has expanded the pond about 30 feet. The old banks used to sit at the edge of the culverts that jut out into the lake.

The bank design is an ecologically-friendly - not to mention more attractive - alternative to the rock banks common in neighborhood detention ponds. A similar design was done at the pond in front of MINOS building near Pine Street and exists at Prairie Landing golf course at DuPage Airport in West Chicago.

Animal lovers will also get a bonus from the new design. Not only does the vegetative bank fit with the trend in "green" development that has taken hold in the last five years, but it deters geese -- a perennial problem at the lab ponds. Unable to see if predators lurk in the tall grasses along the pond edge, geese tend to stay away, leaving more room for other birds and animals.

Construction of the bank will occur in two phases. By winter, the shore will be raised and the water level increased about four inches. Next spring, planting will occur and the water level will rise another five inches.

--Tona Kunz

Bill Pritchard retires today

Bill Pritchard poses in front of the coordinate measuring machine, which he operated to inspect the scintillating plastic fibers for the DZero fiber tracker.

The first time Bill Pritchard filled in as a temp at Fermilab, he knew he wanted to stay. It took a little while, and a layoff from Caterpillar in Aurora, but in 1988 he launched a 19-year career with the lab that enabled him to have a role in some of the most important physics research projects of the last two decades. "I just liked the work atmosphere here, the variety of things to do and the broad cross-section of people," said the 56-year-old technical specialist for the Particle Physics Division.

Contact with interesting, friendly people from all over the world is what he'll miss most when he turns in his badge today to start retirement.

He'll also miss being a part of massive, history changing projects that he humbly says he was just a bit player in. He helped create the backbone of the DZero experiment by spending nearly 10 years building the largest fiber tracker in the world. He ran the coordinate measuring machine to position nearly 70,000 plastic scintillating fibers on each of the eight 750- pound cylinders that made up the fiber tracker. Without the new machine, it would have been impossible to study the higher collision rate of the Tevatron, which was souped-up after the discovery of the top quark.

"He has always provided a polished product, with attention to every detail," said John Krider, supervisor in the Particle Physics Division. "It has been a pleasure to work with him."

During his career, Pritchard inspected and maintained parts in the Main Injector and Recycler, designed the office space in building 3 of the Particle Division, worked with AD shutdowns, the installation of MINOS, the transfer of iodine crystals from the KTev experiment to Japan, and various projects, including CMS and NOvA. "I have got to see most everything here over the years," he said. "That has been very fascinating."

Pritchard plans to spend his retirement fixing up a new home in Arizona with his wife, Marilee. He'll also revive an old hobby of working on classic cars, including his beloved 1969 Cheval.

--Tona Kunz