Just like the early retirement package offered to 11 firefighters 10 years ago, the latest farewells from city employment will leave a gap.

Pat Waletzke, the "meter maid," a fixture in Austin for almost 33 years, was the first city employee recently to seek early retirement.

A $4.2 billion state deficit and pending spending reductions has caused the city to seek ways to trim expenses, and retiring its senior employees is one of the options.

Four applications have been handed in at city hall and a couple of those are still waiting for signatures. But once completed, those employees will be automatically accepted by the city council for retirement.

The council set the first six applications for automatic approval. After that, each application will be voted on. If any more of the 17 eligible employees decide to take advantage of the package -- two months severance pay and $416.66 a month for health insurance -- they will have to do it by May 12.

One person who is taking that option is Larry Helgeson, who officials say changed the Austin cityscape forever.

"Whenever I drive around town, I see the handiwork this man has done for the city," said Mayor Bonnie Rietz. "This man is extremely talented. I just want to say 'thanks' for all that he has done for the city."

Helgeson prefers letting his work speak for itself. He's a man who chose the work he enjoyed.

"It was a fun job," he said. "I enjoyed what I did and worked with a good crew. It was a pleasure to work for the city of Austin."

Helgeson will leave his job with the city's parks, recreation and forestry department June 30.

The last big project he has helped create are new baseball diamond dugouts at Riverland Community College.

But Helgeson's craftsmanship can be seen all over the city.

He grew up near Corning, the son of a road construction worker and his homemaker wife. His father is deceased, his mother, Mary, survives.

He has a brother and three sisters.

He graduated from Austin High School and went into the U.S. Army, where he was a demolitions specialist for a combat engineering division.

When he was honorably discharged, he returned to Austin to work road construction and farm. Then, he accepted a job offer from the city of Austin.

"I was just looking for work," he said.

He found it in the city's parks, recreation and forestry department. It was 1976.

"Bob Auer, the director, and Bob Schaub, the supervisor, were in charge in those days," he said. "I started in maintenance and a year later in 1977, I was working construction."

He replaced Raymond Iverson in the department and made a good living for his wife, Cheryl, a registered nurse, and their three children: Bryant, now a college student, Mike, a graduate school student studying to be a nurse anesthesiologist and Stephanie, who works in the accounts department at the Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester.

The first new construction project he touched was the four-plex of softball diamonds at Todd Park. Finished in 1978, it gave Austin one of the finest softball complexes in the upper Midwest and made it a top attraction for hundreds of tournaments.

"In those days, we had a 12-man crew. Now, we only have nine and it may get smaller before the year is out," Helgeson said.

Next came the five baseball diamonds at Todd Park -- also a mecca for baseball and softball fun in Austin.

By 1984, the department's maintenance and sign shop moved to its current location in Todd Park.

Helgeson's employment with the city mirrors some of the city's most ambitious outdoor recreation development.

There was Shirley Theel Park in west Austin, new bathrooms and playground at the revitalized Horace Austin Park around the Mill Pond Pathway and the Cedar River, new bathrooms and a popular gazebo atop a knoll accessed by a handicapped walkway in East Side Lake Park, bathrooms at the new soccer complex in Todd Park, a striking gazebo at Orchard Creek Park in southwest Austin, the Veterans Pavilion (formerly St. Paul Lutheran Church) in Austin Bandshell Community Park and dozens of other improvements.

"Larry Helgeson is a jack-of-all-trades," said Tom Graff, PRF department supervisor. "Since starting with the park and rec department he has been involved in all of our construction. He has built ball fields, bathrooms, gazebos and play equipment.

"From plumbing, block-laying, concrete work, electrical work and finish carpentry, Larry has done it all and the park and rec department will miss his expertise."

Arguably, Helgeson's career parallels the most expansive period in the city department's history.

"I think there's more use of the city parks than ever before. We now have 26 parks. We also have the new bike trails and we're just seeing more people use our parks for more reasons than ever before," Graff

said.

Helgeson said is one of the lucky ones in life, who put his self-taught skills to work by doing something he enjoyed and leaving a legacy behind.

"That's why I like the work so much," he said. "When you walk away, you can see what you have done."

So can all of Austin.

Lee Bonorden can be contacted at 434-2232 or by e-mail at

lee.bonorden@austindailyherald.com