Mark Wendelsdorf doesn't really have to report to work today, but he says he's not planning to quit after 22 years on the job.
"We've just got a really great group of people who work for Caldwell. They're great friends and I'd really miss it. I'm planning on staying on," said Wendelsdorf, fire chief for the past eight years.
About 40 firefighters and staff work for the Caldwell Fire Department.
Wendelsdorf, 48, and his wife, Kim, 50, went public Wednesday with their big win, a ticket sold for the Sept. 19 drawing that matched all five numbers but not the Powerball number. After taxes, they took home $672,000.
Mark Wendelsdorf said the two typically play Powerball a couple of times a month, and they had never won more than $5. Mark bought the winning ticket at the Stinker Store at 704 Cleveland Blvd., a block from the fire station.
He waited a day before he told his wife that they had won.
"My mind was spinning a million miles an hour, literally," Wendelsdorf said. "I just knew she wasn't going to get very much sleep."
When he did tell his wife, she didn't believe him because he has a reputation for practical jokes.
The windfall has naturally helped the couple, who have three grown children and are raising their 3-year-old granddaughter. They paid off their mortgage and vehicles and soon will be debt-free. They also purchased two new pickup trucks, a pair of Chevy Avalanches they are supposed to pick up this week.
Kim's is "Bronco blue" and Mark's is black.
"We decided we were going to get one," the fire chief said. "Then we decided we were going to get two."
Kim Wendelsdorf has worked as bookkeeper/exhibit supervisor for the Canyon County Fair for six years. She lost 80 pounds this year by counting calories with a cellphone app and needs some new clothes, her husband said, so the Wendelsdorfs are planning a shopping trip to Park City, Utah.
"We're just going shopping and not worrying about life this weekend," Kim Wendelsdorf said.
Copyright 2012 - The Idaho Statesman
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
