Building blocks of past, future

Allen Pollock has his business model ready for his retirement

With Elizabeth Street low income housing in the background Allen Pollock poses for a photograph at the Jefferson City Housing Authority office.
With Elizabeth Street low income housing in the background Allen Pollock poses for a photograph at the Jefferson City Housing Authority office.

Building neighborhood streets in the 1970s, building miniature-scale figures and tracks in his basement, and building community partnerships over the last 30 years - Allen Pollock's life has centered around construction.

After college, Pollock said he thought he would rebuild an old milk truck into a mobile home for he and his wife Pat so they could live in the mountains. Instead, they started a family and he was hired as an engineer for the Jefferson City Housing Authority 38 years ago.

Many of the mature trees lining downtown and commercial streets today were planted under his watch, as were many residential roads improved and blight cleared, through federal community development and urban renewal funding. Within eight years, he had earned a master's degree in public administration and was appointed to replace long-term executive director Ted Herron.

It's the ongoing development that has kept him here, he said. But now, he's ready to give more attention to his locomotive and model business.

Pollock has seen funding decline through the last several decades, and he anticipates that trend will continue, presenting a great challenge for his successor.

Unlike other housing authorities that are struggling, Jefferson City is in a better situation since it diversified, he said. Their budget is augmented with grants, tax credits and other sources in addition to the U.S. Housing and Urban Development.

The local office also is unique in that it serves both as the Housing Authority and as the Land Clearance agency.

"That allowed us to do more than each could do apart," Pollock said.

The local agency also owns and operates about 750 units for low-income elderly people, young families and individuals.

"We're helping people; we're making a difference in their lives," Pollock said.

Positioned in the Capital City, Pollock has served on the legislative committee of a number of statewide organizations. He particularly is proud of legislation in the 1980s that established the Missouri Housing Authority Property and Casualty Insurance group.

With a knack for administration, Pollock also finds himself involved in state, regional and national leadership positions in both professional and volunteer roles.

"If I join a group, I can't just be a member," Pollock said. "I'm willing to step forward and try to solve problems."

As his children - Jennifer, Zach, Patrick and the late Willie - were growing up, that meant he took an active role in Boy Scouts, St. Peter and Helias Catholic High schools' boards, and church.

Pollock was vice president of the YMCA when it acquired what is now the Firley YMCA building. And he has been with the Old Town Revitalization Company since it formed.

Over time, Pollock said, he has enjoyed seeing the older areas of town revitalized, such as the Riverside Drive neighborhood and the South Side.

"It's fun to see areas change after development," he said.

But he won't miss some of the more tedious parts of his traditional job when he retires this spring.

Then, he hopes to grow his part-time basement business of creating specialty items for model railroaders into a full-time operation.

His structural engineering interests have given him a love of building bridges and trestles, though his three business entities also build locomotives and figures.

Pollock also has a large-scale model railroad planned for the backyard of his home - rebuilt in the same footprint after the original burned in 2007 - which he hopes to complete when he has more time.

Most of his business sales are by Internet or at national shows. He attends about six major shows a year and enjoys visiting with the people as much as making a sale, Pollock said.

The figures business developed when Pollock noticed the lack of good-quality, unique figures.

Similarly, his second business circus wagons are not generic; they are, in fact, modeled from historic wagons featured in circus museums. His locomotive business, however, has been a long-term interest.

When retirement comes, Pollock no longer will have to ask himself of an evening, when he heads to his basement workshop - "Fill an order or play? I'll have time to devote to both."