Stonington COOP Gets New Manager

by Sandra Dinsmore

When Stonington native, Ron Trundy, took the helm as manager of the Stonington Lobster Co-op, he found more than enough to keep him busy.

The recession, which hit the lobster industry in October 2008, brought with it lower demand, as people stopped spending on anything non-essential. This resulted in lower boat prices, which, in turn, led to the co-op postponing needed maintenance projects. But by March of 2011, when the co-op hired Trundy, although the economy had just started to recover, co-op president Jason McDonald said the co-op’s board felt the time had come to begin working on those necessary maintenance projects.

Any change of management is difficult for employees, but during this recent interregnum between Stonington’s co-op managers, McDonald said that the 11-member board of directors and two “very good and helpful” secretaries, “stepped up and [did what was] needed to be done,” which helped make the transition, fairly smooth. Meanwhile, he said, co-op members were, “All holding our breath [while] hoping to find somebody who was willing to do the job.”

Co-op members knew of Trundy, even if they didn’t know him personally. The owner of a bait business, he had sold and delivered bait to the co-op for 13 years and had done maintenance there during his father’s years as manager as well as intermittently in later years. So co-op members and its search committee knew Trundy’s strong points: maintenance and bait.

As McDonald said, “We wanted a manager that was really good at the maintenance part and the physical plant itself.” Then, too, Trundy has all those years of experience in buying herring from seiners and selling it to various people. The down side was his lack of marketing experience, but clearly, the board and membership felt that Trundy’s pros far outweighed his one con.

Although Trundy had previous vacation plans and had but a single week to start any maintenance projects before leaving, McDonald said Trundy seemed eager, and after the board hired him, “He came down the very next morning to get his feet wet [and] that first week he got a lot of things going that needed to be done.”

Trundy also saw to it that other maintenance projects would be ready to start when he returned. When co-op members saw Trundy replacing the worn out conveyer belt that helps lift crates out of the water, fixing the worn-out hardware that holds the dock’s skip floats together, greasing the blocks on all the hoisters, and ordering parts for the spare lobster car that he and the crew plan to build, it raised everyone’s spirits to a surprising degree.

“I do believe since Ronnie’s been here, there seems to be a better attitude,” McDonald said. He added that since Trundy had projects already going or in place by the time he left for vacation, it “made a lot of people feel better.”

After his vacation, Trundy attacked his other strong point: bait. “We're trying to come up with a better method to sell our bait,” he said. “We buy bait from several people.” He explained that, operating for the co-op, he buys bait from the bait dealers and then re-sells it to the individual fishermen who are co-op members. “There's always shrinkage on the bait,” he said, admitting, “It's always been a problem. It’s a general problem for anybody that deals with bait.”

Asked his aim, Trundy replied, “Just to make sure that they have a good supply all the time and that we can supply a proper amount of bait and at the same time, try not to lose money on it.”

As to the possibility of making money on bait, Trundy said, “Not really. Nowadays you handle so much bait, if you [just] break even, most places feel they've accomplished something.” He went on to say, “My goal would be not to have any loss, but it’s not realistic. I just want to get the shrinkage down as low as possible and still be fair to the fishermen.”

Trundy, 54, has large shoes to fill. His father, Penny, had successfully managed the co-op for the eight years between 1999 and 2008. In fact, board member George Boyce explained, “You know how once in a while you get someone that’s a perfect fit for a job? I think Pen was perfect for that job.”

Ron, aware of the esteem in which his late father is held, made a point of telling the search committee, “I'm not my father,” according to former president Frank Gotwals.

Nevertheless, Boyce said, “When his father was there, Ron assisted him in doing a lot of the maintenance at the co-op.” He noted, “We’ve hired him some in the last few years to help us with some maintenance. He’s helped with the conveyers and that sort of thing we’ve got on the premises. So he was familiar with a lot of the stuff we had in the facility.” Boyce also noted that Ron’s father, when he became ill, suggested that Ron consider the job as manager, but that at that time he hadn’t been ready. When he did accept the job on March 8, McDonald reported that he did so with the proviso that he’d put his bait boat up and try it for a year.

Asked what led him to apply, Trundy replied, “I can't say I’m sick of fishing, but I’m sick of the crap that goes along with the fishing: people telling me where I can fish, the regulations.” Although Trundy has done about every fishery but lobstering, he complained, “I'm down to two or three different fisheries that I’m allowed to do now.

“The government just keeps changing the rules,” he said. “You don’t know from one year to the next where you can fish, what day you can fish, how much you can catch. Like in the herring business: they let you go fish two days a week, and it takes you the rest of the week to make out paper work. There’s so much reporting, and you have to have these black boxes so they know where you are all the time.” Trundy thinks the younger fishermen, “have it a lot easier because they’ve had to deal with some of it right along—it's just a way of life for them,” but said, “I’m just sick of it. I don’t know what to do or which way to turn.”

Told there have to be a lot of fishermen who feel the same way, Trundy said, “Oh there are. No question about it. [The government] just makes things so difficult.” As an example of whether or not to buy a boat, and if so, what size, he asked, “Do I buy a new boat?” then answered himself, saying, “Well, I might not be able to go fishing next year. Well, I can only fish so many days, so I need a bigger boat. And then,” he said, “once you do what you think is the right thing, they change the rules on you.”

But on the positive side, Trundy said he applied for the job because he said he had been around the co-op for a long time, and because, “I think the co-op is a great thing.”

As for what he hopes to achieve, he said simply, “I guess at the end of the year, if we’ve paid a decent price and can pay a decent bonus, and the place is in good shape, I’ve accomplished something.” Like the board, which voted unanimously for Trundy, Boyce said he hopes the job, “will work out great, and he’ll want to stay forever.”