Loyal like Bonnie Lamb

Port's administrative services manager has respect of those who know her

MOSES LAKE — In her 24 years as administrative services manager of the Port of Moses Lake, one might think that Bonnie Lamb has seen a lot of upheaval and comings and goings.

Not so, she reports.

"We kind of keep the same people working here all the time, so we really get to know people and work together with them," she said. "In a nutshell, it's really the people that make the job interesting."

Lamb said she has enjoyed working with her bosses — past Port managers Clyde Owen, David Bailey, David Senne (whom, she updated, is running for mayor in Hattiesburg, Miss.) and current manager, Craig Baldwin — and with the Port's board of commissioners.

Lamb's enthusiasm for her workplace is apparent as she talks about it. She said she thinks the Port is a great attribute to Moses Lake.

"It's been a great place to work," she said, adding that she finds the balance of the routine work and those constantly new things that continually come up interesting. "Everything needs to be done right away, and there's always enough to do that you never have a chance to think about, 'Gosh, if I was at home, I could do this or that,' because you're always really busy here."

Originally from Glasgow, Mont., Lamb and her husband of 37 years, Dan, moved to Moses Lake from Utah in 1974, when her father-in-law passed away. Dan found a job while helping his mother get things settled; the couple moved within two weeks after that, Lamb recalled.

"When we very first moved up here, I thought, 'this is just really a small town,'" she said. "'There's no place to shop or anything.' But after we had lived here for about two years. I just loved it. The people were so friendly; I had never lived in a really small town … Now there's no way I would ever leave."

Lamb was hired at the Port on Sept. 15, 1980.

"The mountain blew in May, and so I always say, I waited for them to get the airport cleaned up and then I came to work here," she said with a chuckle. "Kind of worked out that way."

Lamb had started her career in banking, then worked a legal secretary for several years before deciding to take some time off to be with her children — sons Jodie and Jamie.

When an opening came up at the Port, she applied.

The title of administrative services manager brings several duties with it.

"Everything," she responded with a laugh when asked what all the job entails. As office manager, she takes care of Port finances, and also works as executive secretary, records management, among others.

"Being a small organization, everybody kind of has to pitch in and do a little bit of everything, so we have a lot of different things going on and everybody kind of helps work it all," she said.

In her spare time, Lamb said she likes to be outside.

"Being in the office all day long, as soon as you get home from work it's just nice to get outside," she said. "I like to garden — big pumpkins and little pumpkins, for my grandkids. Just all the regular vegetables … but pumpkins are the best thing. I like to camp (and) we do a lot of boating in the summer."

Lamb said that she has four grandchildren and two daughters-in-law. Jodie and wife Kathy live in Spokane and Jamie and Kim live in Moses Lake.

"She's got a great personality," said Jerri Gillespie, who said she has known Lamb for about 20 years. "She's fun — you're always laughing around her some way … she's very family-oriented. She's very caring, and she wears her heart on her sleeve."

Lamb was hired during the administration of former Port manager Col. Clyde Owen said that he has "very much" kept in touch with Lamb, with frequent visits to the Port office.

"She's just a very, very wonderful woman," Owen said of Lamb. "She's very efficient, very easy to get along with."

"I have always found that she was, by far, very loyal to the Port (and) very loyal to me, and I have always found that Bonnie was extremely trustworthy and would always give me her opinion," second Port manager David Bailey said. "I valued that very much."

He added that Lamb gets along with people very well and garnering the respect of the Port commissioners, noting again that Lamb has been with the Port through all four managers.

"She's mother-henned all four of us," he said.

Opal Lamar said she has known Lamb for years. They met because they belong to the same investment group, and went to the same hairdresser, and Lamar works with Lamb's husband,

"Family is very important to her," Lamar said. "If they can't do things as a family, they don't do it, which I think is really neat. She's got a very demanding job, and it amazes me that she can smile and laugh as much as she does sometimes … She'll do anything for you that she can, and she goes way out of her way to try and help people."