Mr. Fix It: Minson recognized for work at St. Regis school

Rich Minson moved to St. Regis from Columbia Falls four years ago for a change of scenery.

“And my mother,” he laughs. “Ah, let’s just say family” as he points to his stepbrother, Matt Eisenbacher, who is sitting at the end of the table with others at the St. Regis Senior Citizens Center. 

Minson has been the St. Regis School maintenance supervisor for one year next month and was surprised, and pleased, that he was selected as employee of the month having been there for such a relatively short time.

When asked about his work ethos, he said, “I work from 5 a.m. to 1 in the afternoon and I am responsible for anything that is needed for the school to operate.” 

Minson is one of those talented guys who can fix or build anything. 

“When I got out of the Navy, I went to work in Seattle in a ‘mom and pop’ sheet metal shop and I was taught the sheet metal trade by some elderly gentlemen in the prime of their career,” he said. “I started out sweeping floors and then in 4 years I worked my way up to being a benchman. They had two 70-year-old benchmen that did sheet metal layout that took me under their wing.” 

His dad was in the heating-and air conditioning business so he has been comfortable with all tools and working in cramped spaces but Minson also acknowledged that he has been very fortunate to be mechanically inclined. 

He enjoys his position at St. Regis School because he likes a challenge and with of the age of the school, there are plenty daily. 

“It could be a door, to a sewer drain to a vacuum cleaner to landscaping to desks, to plumbing, electrical, to boilers.” 

His one employee does the janitorial duties and Minson handles the mechanical side of things with exception to the busses as they have a Transportation Officer, but he still follows up on everything.

“We put all new security locks on all of the classroom doors for security reasons. We built a carport on the bus barn for another bus to be sheltered when parked. I’ve also redone the dust collection system in the wood shop which was probably 50 years outdated and brought it up to this century in operational standards.”  

This was completed with about $1,000 in materials needed because everything else required was close by. “This made it into a complete woodshop now, that is fully operational.”

It was Saturday morning having coffee with buddies and eating chocolate chip cookies where he said that he only gets down there on the weekends anymore because of his Monday through Friday job.

 “I like to check in with these knot-heads and make sure they’re still upright,” he howls.