Handy neighbor

It’s good to live next door to “The Tool Man of Newman Lake.”

When Terry Andrews’ pump froze during her first winter at the lake, she was beside herself. Her husband, Dick, was out of town, the temperature was below zero, snow was falling heavily and she had no idea what to do. Panic seemed the only option.

Instead, she turned to her neighbor

R.R. “Romie” Hankel is known throughout the community for his tool collection and his ability to use them all. He responded to his neighbor’s frantic call, diagnosed the problem and did what was necessary until a pump repairman could be summoned.

That’s just the kind of thing Hankel does. More often than not, he has things repaired before anyone else knows the work needs to be done – from maintaining the dock and gazebo at the community beach to maintaining the community irrigation system.

“There have been many times when I’ve gone down to his house and said, ‘Hey, don’t you think it’s time we did something about this or that?’ ” Dick Andrews said. “He’ll say, ‘I’ve already done it.’ He’s just that kind of a guy. He doesn’t ask for any recognition for it – he just does it.”

“I’m the Tim Taylor of the community,” Hankel laughed. “It supports my hobby. I told my wife a long time ago that if she’ll buy me the tool, I’ll do the building. It works out much cheaper that way. In the process, I’ve collected about every tool known to man. That goes with my other hobbies: the boat, the car, things like that.”

To be honest, Hankel is less like the main character of the TV series “Home Improvement” than he is a cross between the guys from “This Old House” and Norm Abram, host of “The New Yankee Workshop.”

“You should see his house,” Dick Andrews said of Hankel. “When he and his wife, Joan, moved out here some 17 years ago, it was just a cottage. He’s taken what was essentially a beach cottage and completely rebuilt it into a beautiful house. Some of the specialty stuff he had contractors come in and do, but most of it he did himself.”

Andrews said his wife wanted to do some kitchen renovation, so he asked his neighbor where he should go for the work.

“She wants to take the solid-core doors off the kitchen cabinets and replace them with leaded glass,” he said. “So I walked down and asked Romie about it, and he said, ‘Why don’t you do it yourself? It’s easy.’

“You have to see the work he did – and he did it all himself. He put in leaded glass and stained glass.”

Hankel’s biggest job, his home, is finished now.

When the Hankels moved to Newman Lake, their house was small. New, but small.

“The house was darned near new when we bought it – maybe a year-and-a-half or two years old. It was a small house. We ended up hauling about 70 percent of it to the dump and building a whole new home. It was a seven-year project.”

Retired seven years from Burlington Northern, Hankel says Newman Lake was the ideal spot to settle.

“I came from the desert in the Tri-Cities,” he said. “This is heaven. My wife always wanted to live in the trees and I always wanted to live on the water, and we both got what we wanted.”

In the Hankels’ 17 years at the lake, the area has grown up around them.

“Right now, I’m among the oldest in the neighborhood,” he said. “When we first moved out here, there were maybe two other people out here year-round. Now there’s probably 14 year-round homes here, but there are still a few cabins left.”

Over the years, Hankel has been a primary force in the neighborhood.

“It’s a community operation, but he’s been the main mover on it,” Dick Andrews said. “He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t sit around and wait for the community to vote on something. He just goes and does it. He’s the kind of a guy who, when he sees something that needs to be done, does it. And he doesn’t say a word about it.”

“If a person doesn’t do something, nothing ever gets done,” Hankel said. “You have to credit a list of people who have worked hard to make this community what it is.”