Some of Edgewood Mayor Robert Stearley's ideas about town government were formed in a filling station in Gibbon, Neb.

It was there, in a small town, population 1,052, according to Stearley, that his father's dreams dried up.

His father had bought a filling station and worked there "24-7," Stearley said.

"I feel very strongly about small business," he said. "They all work so hard."

As a young man, Stearley also worked there, pumping gas and washing windshields. The little gas station went under because it couldn't compete with the attractions of larger towns, Stearley said. Stearley also resolved to chart a new course, one that led away from the filling station.

"I knew I didn't want to pump gas the rest of my life," he said.

Stearley attended the University of Nebraska, where he got a degree in mechanical engineering. He came to New Mexico when he got a job at Sandia National Laboratories. While he was working there he enrolled at the University of New Mexico and got his master's degree.

Before retiring from Sandia in 2005, Stearley was project manager for rocket payloads; specifically, he worked on rockets to respond to GROW-class targets. GROW stands for Generic Rest-of-World Threat, which means anything that isn't Russian, Stearley said.

One of the major projects he worked on used Polaris-type rockets with infrared sensors and radar to distinguish real atomic warheads from decoys, he said. The project was completed before he retired, and it was launched in 2007.

Over the course of his career, Stearley was involved in underground testing, he helped design vehicles that were hardened for re-entry into Earth's atmosphere and went to rocket launches from Cape Canaveral to Kodiak, Alaska. His job even took him on a kind of roller-coaster ride, he said.

At one point, he said, he found himself traveling along rails through an underground tunnel with no lights in Nevada, he said.

"It's like a ride from Disneyland," he said. "That was all fun."

After 40 years at Sandia, he said he had done it for long enough. But he draws on the experiences he had there in executing town projects, he said.

"The library project is most like a rocket launch," he said, referring to the relocation of the Edgewood Community Library.

He said he used a technique he used for launches, which he called a strawman design, to plan and execute the move. Stearley said he lays down a plan — which may not be all that great to start with — for people to take shots at, tear down and then rebuild.

"You've got to start somewhere," he said. "The best project is where everybody on the team contributes. Each member has their own expertise."

He said Councilor John Abrams redesigned the library's entrance and the idea of lighting for some shelves was taken from the East Mountain Library in Tijeras. Kim Nuckols — the wife of Edgewood Community Library board President Dave Nuckols — created the sign on the side of the building.

"The final product is much better than any individual could have done," he said.

The project is important for Stearley, he has said, because he has come to identify with the volunteers and the pains they have taken to keep the library open. He is also a fan of Louis L'Amour Westerns — which can often be found on his desk at the town offices or spilling from a toppled attache case at a Town Council meeting — Stearley said his relationship with libraries goes way back.

"My mother made sure that we always had a book from the library to read," he said.

It was during that time that he developed an appreciation for recreation facilities, he said, and one of the reasons he is an advocate of Edgewood's Parks and Recreation Department and has supported an initiative to build playing fields on Section 16.

In early childhood — before his family moved to Gibbon — Stearley lived in Grand Island, Neb., where there were parks, swimming pools, a YMCA and access to all manner of physical recreation, he said.

"I would like for kids in Edgewood to have what I had growing up," he said.

Along with providing recreation opportunities and the town's library, Stearley's priorities in 2009 include the town's Police Department and improvements and maintenance for Frost Road and Edgewood 7.

Stearley also shared a single prediction for 2009.

"Edgewood will be stable," he said.

He said he hopes for a new business to replace The Connection in Moriarty, where about 150 people lost their jobs when the call center closed down in early December. And he hopes for other new businesses to start and for established businesses to prosper in the new year, he said.

"That's all we can do," he said.