If it hasn’t been done already, it may be time to print up a new staff directory at the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Buford Dam office.

Several personnel changes have been made recently, starting at the top with Chief Park Ranger Mark Williams, who retired June 1.

Williams has been replaced by Chris Arthur, formerly a park ranger on Lake Lanier.

Chris Lovelady, who was chief ranger over lakeshore management, was reassigned to natural resources program manager. Ernest Noe, another Lanier park ranger, has taken over Lovelady’s old job.

"Chris and Ernest got the big promotions out of this whole deal," said Tim Rainey, operations projects manager, himself elevated from interim status on June 21.

Kevin McDaniels, the assistant operations manager, has left for a position in the corps’ Little Rock District as deputy chief of operations. He began working there June 21.

The position he left behind is vacant, Rainey said.

Much reshuffling in the corps has been done with money in mind.

"A major part of this relies on our budget," Rainey said. "... Our budgets have been reduced, which over the years has reduced our staff. We’re continually trying to find the most efficient ways to operate.

"Through one retirement, we were able to consolidate a couple of positions and create some lower-graded positions still in a supervisory role. I just feel we have a better structure here and are able to do more with the fewer staff that we have."

But change is constant.

Stimulus money is helping provide some hiring, as well as physical improvements, in federal operations.

"But over the years ... the Office of Management and Budget keeps slashing federal agencies’ budgets, which trickles down to us and when we have a vacancy, they don’t let us fill it because we don’t have the money," Rainey said.

Buford Dam used to have 45 people on staff.

"We’re now down to 34. We try to restructure the best we can. The old adage ‘do more with less’ — we have to do less with less," Rainey said.

For example, the corps focuses more in the summertime on park visitors and keeping people safe.

"We can ... accommodate (lake) residents and dock permit issues more in the fall and wintertime," Rainey said. "It’s just a matter of managing the workload with the staff we have."

The Lanier office is divided into park operations and shoreline management. It also has "a very small in-house recreational maintenance staff," Rainey said, adding that the corps contracts out most of the cleanup efforts.