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City el~gineerudes e

D'Ar

F D'Arcy Dutton had his way, measphalt would be heaving andLo would becrawling witn construction worKers.City hall and public services would beautomated and idId

1h e positions the city engineer hasluring thi 5t-ipopular 1 lt-L apologis ck

aown.Clea n-1 scity nan, uutton speaxs slowly andarticulately from behind his unclut-desk. As city en@ is

t tne department ana aaminis-L I ~ L U I f more than 500 employees.)m garbage.eatment tcrol, and the11usqucare of London streets . But it stopserhepublic u

HIS work, nonetneiess, nas pinedhim repeatedly London'siiitiyui, ldermei ivitably, thepublic. Ana wniie it nas rewardedhim with about $68,000 a year, it haspect of hispeers."He knows the civil engineeringie11 tell you'sn t ana ne 11 nna ~dvery refreshing ir si-nes~,''Mayor Tom Gosnell says. "He'sbelieved iis job to beiional an( ;r it's goodvs, he's got to tell youwnat it is.The recycling inpoint.Despite mounting puoiic pressurefrom energetic environmentalists,:pressed c usofficials, determinedLU ~ul~vincehe iiiayui and city coun-

recycling garbage is economictse. "The principal ngand appealing to ln-mental kind of person. The practical-doesn't n mn to them.

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T H E L O N D O N F R E E P R E S S o S E P T E M B E R, 1 9 8 ' 8P A G E F O U R

D'Arcy Dutton,second fromleft, discusseson-site detailswith fellowengineers, PaulChoma, left,Karl Grabowskiand Art Flynn.

Nor does the cost. Nor does thebenefit."And while recycling advocateswill argue the cost to the environ-ment necessarily precludes the costto the city, and will point to themore than 50 Canadian cities thathave recently begun to recyclenewspaper, tin and glass, Duttonrefers to his own engineering reportwhich carefully lists the argumentsagainst such a program."It would extend the life of thelandfill site by 21weeks over a peri-od of 15 years. It is such a drop inthe bucket that it means absolutelynothing as far as I'm concerned. Itcertainly doesn't justify the expen-diture of millions of dollars over thenext number of years," he says.Though Gosnell admits that,from an engineering perspective,the program is clearly not cost-ef-fective, he remains one of the manywho favor it. "It projects an attitudein the community that we are goingto be more sensitive to cleaning up

garbage and protecting our envi-ronment and trying to recyclewherever we can. And I think thatis worth something."To Dutton, however, the situa-tion is more complicated. "I thinkthe aldermen are under a great dealof pressure. . . . t's an election year.What the heck are they going todo?" he says."I've found that to be the case sooften in the political arena. You'renot getting people that are takingpositions for the benefit of theworld, they're taking positions be-cause of certain groups that theythink that they'll get votes from."It's that kind of blunt, pragmaticand often singular stance whichcharacterizes both Dutton's careerand private life. That the 61-year-old engineer is strong in his opin-ions and forceful in expressingthem was obvious from his arrivalin London almost eight years ago.The decade of council debate over

ceased almost immediately withDutton's insistence on the project.' H e just said this road shouldhave been built a long time ago forthese reasons. Bang, bang, bang,"Gosnell says. Though the street'swesterly extension across theThames to Springbank Drive washeatedly opposed by area residentsand some councillors, Dutton's pro-posal before council won a maforityvote and the project was completedwithin three years.When it comes to the city's roads,Dutton is consistently outspoken.Take, for exampte, his (unheeded)recommendation before council toforce downtown developers tocommit to widening city streets."Now I'm interested to notethey're being criticized by variousdowntown groups saying to thealdermen, because you didn't forcethe widening on King Street, you'regoing to endup wit ha blankd(mall)wall and it's going to look like hell,"

the Horton Street extension-project Dutton says."~he~'reight. It will,

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T H E L O N D O N F R E E P R E S S 0 S E P T E M B E R 3 , 1 9 8 8P A G E F I V E

and I can sit back and say, 'I told ervoir surrounded by water, with - "They couldn't see me and Iyou so.' " cars and cows coming by and roll- could hardly see them, and the onlyDutton has been on a street-wid- ing down the river asa result of theening campaign for years. He says flood. It was quite a scary exper-that, because councils "fought like ience," he recalls.banshees" and could come to no And, off the job, Dutton has filled

'He knows the civilengineering code and, if hedoesn't,doesn'talwayshis job

he'll telland find out. He's

believed that it'sto be professional'

agreement, London "blew itschances" of a freeway circling thecity. Dutton says the existing roadsystem is "inadequate as hell" andis certain it won't be long beforetraffic stagnates and public pressureforces through his recommenda-tions.

Council paid more attention,however, to his proposal for a com-puterized traffic control system. To-day, about 120 intersections in Lon-don run in relation to each otherthrough a centrally controlled sys-tem. It is the kind of system hepushed through in the Kitchener-Waterloo area, where he served asthe commissioner of engineeringfor eight years, after 19 years as thecity engineer for Waterloo.There is obvious ironv in his em-Jployment history. It was with vi-sions of engineering as an "outsidejob" that he entered the Universityof Manitoba in 1945. After graduat-ing, he wanted to work in "thewoods or the wilds," or in ThirdWorld countries developing roadsystems and bridges or constructinglarge-scale monuments.His first job, however, in PortArthur's city engineering depart-ment, was the beginning of his ca-reer as an inside worker. Today,churning out reports, answeringphone calls, meeting with bureau-crats and running the department

leave Dutton with only about twohours a day with which to ventureoutside his office.Still, his on-site work has had itsexciting moments. During histhree-year engineering stint in Eto-bicoke in the '50s, Dutton foundhimself battling the ravages of Hur-ricane Hazel in an attempt to re-store the city's mangled water sys-tem. "I spent the night of thattornado on a pumping station res-

his hours and years with experienc-es and hobbies that reflect a broad-minded outlook. In Port Arthur, hespent his leisure hours acting insuch productions as My Sister Ei-leen. Out of the experience came,he says, an ease for public speakingwhich has left him feeling comfort-able in radio or televisionAnd it was also through his workwith the Community Players Asso-ciation, the non-profit theatregroup of which he eventually be-came president, that he met hiswife, Patricia.

He forfeited his plans to practiseengineering abroad when he mar-ried in the early '50s, and had hisfirst child, Darell. They moved toEtobicoke in 1951, where Duttonwas challenged with more than justHurricane Hazel. In 1952, Dutton'swife was struck with polio.The family was quarantined andconfined to its two-bedroom apart-ment. Aside from a daily visit from apublic health official, Dutton andhis wife were allowed no direct con-tact with the outside world. But theDuttons were lucky - he poliowas not debilitating and it passedwithin a month.In 1954, Dutton and his familymoved to Waterloo, where, withintwo years, he became the city engi-neer. With two more children,Derek and Deborah (he has alwaysenjoyed the alliteration in his ownname), raising a family became hissecond occupation.During that time, Dutton becamefascinated with scuba diving. Hespent weekends and holidays at hiscottage on the Sauble River or ex-ploring the underside of Lake Hu-ron's marine life. It, too, presentedits challenges to Dutton. He speaksof the time when, finally out of air,he surfaced to discover he wasmiles from the boat.

way you can swim with that thing ison your back because of the weightof the tank. And I didn't think I wasgoing to make it," he says. "Withthese waves, they were just enoughto be chopping on my back, chop-ping over my head, coming into mymouth and I was breathing and Iwas struggling for air and I didn'twant to drop the tank because itwas too valuable."

Admittedly frightened by similarexperiences, and bored with thebareness of the local lakes, Duttonfinally gave up scuba diving andheaded for safer ground.Leaving Kitchener-Waterloo in1980 was part of his search for new-er territory. Separated from his wifesince 1979, and with his childrengrown up, he says he wanted afresh start, and London providedthe opportunity."I was warned against cominghere. The city of London has a his-tory of firing its city engineers," hesays. "I was told of the terrible po-litical turmoil within the city andthat the city of London was not avery good place to work."But to London he came, and withlittle fear of political opposition. "Iremember when I was a young guy,if the mayor said, 'Jump!' I said,'How high?' I don't do that anymore. To heck with it," Dutton sayswith a shrug. "I'm older than any ofthe aldermen. From that standpointalone, I think that gives you a cer-

tain amount of authority, or pres-tige. But, on top of that, I have allthese years of experience and it'svery difficult for an alderman tosay, 'Well, I know better than theengineer.' "After 39 years of writing reports,Dutton has no firm plans for retire-ment. He says he still hopes to workfor a development organizationoverseas but to a single, aging man,he adds, the option is less enticing.So, with little contact with his fam-ily, his work and hobbies continueto consume him.And, after a full day's work, witha cigarette and a drink, he spendshis hours at his computer or loseshimself in a spy novel. Among thefriends he's met since coming toLondon is Subdivision and Devel-opment Engineer Nar inderSharma. The two men share a loveof international cuisine."I invited him for dinner," saysSharma, "and he always told me hecould take hot food. But when wehad some chilies, little green chiliesfrom Toronto, well, I thought hewas on fire. And then he was justgulping water and beer . . . Hefound out he wasn't as tough whenit comes to really hot food."With hot chilies, it seems, Duttonhas finally met his match. 0