KTIV NewsChannel 4 Sioux City IA: News, Weather and SportsSioux City man is working at the South Pole

Sioux City man is working at the South Pole

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KTIV) - A Sioux City man is willing to go to the "the ends of the earth" for his job

Tracy Matheny runs a company that manages construction projects. And, he has a new job waiting for him in Antarctica, working in a place where only 7,000 people have ever been.

Antarctica is among the coldest, harshest places on earth... and Tracy Matheny can't wait to get there. Tracy Matheny, Sioux City: "Wouldn't miss it for the world."

For ten years, the transplanted Kentuckyan, who's now living in Sioux City, had hoped for the chance to work in a place where frostbite can happen in just a few seconds. Tracy Matheny, Sioux City: "Every year, I didn't get it. But, I kept re-signing up for it."

"It" is a job as the health and safety officer for the Amundsen-Scott Research Station at the South Pole on Antarctica. It's one of three, permanent U-S stations on the continent. But, only the Amundsen-Scott station straddles the South Pole, itself. Tracy Matheny, Sioux City:"This year, they called me up and asked me if I wanted to be on the "Top 20" list. I said, 'put me on the list.' They narrowed it down to six people, and I was one of them on the Top 6 list."

In Sioux City, Matheny runs the American Safety Company, which manages construction projects, and offers safety training for businesses with big jobs to do. Tracy Matheny, Sioux City: "I always look for high-risk projects." In Antarctica, the risk is very high. Matheny will oversee as many as 300 people, who will work nine-to-ten hours a day in temperatures of 50 to 100-degrees below zero. Tracy Matheny, Sioux City: "I'm gonna be looking for hypothermia, frostbite." All while trying to dig out the old Amundsen-Scott Research Station, which is buried under 50-feet of ice. Tracy Matheny, Sioux City: "We're gonna dig it up. We're gonna preserve it, protect it and then bring it back to the United States and put it in a Navy SEALS museum."

The work will take four-and-half months. That's four months Matheny will be away from his wife, and young daughter. But, they've been his biggest cheerleaders. Tracy Matheny, Sioux City: "My wife, and daughter, think this is the most awesome project I've ever been handed." Even though Matheny will miss Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.

Tracy Matheny, Sioux City: "But, they're just holidays. I've spent the last 10-years of holidays at home."

Matheny says now's the time to make history, not money. Tracy Matheny, Sioux City: "It wasn't about the money. It was about saying, 'I've been to the South Pole,' and part of history, and part of something that the government has set up in a place on the planet where nobody else wants to go."

Matheny brought a D-V-D player with him. You see, they don't get T-V in Antarctica.

They do have internet access... and that's how we'll keep in touch with Tracy over the next four months.