Second Major Award this Year for the Port Orange Garnsey Water Plant
PORT ORANGE, FL – Port Orange’s Charles B. Garnsey Water Plant has received the “Most Improved Class A Water Treatment Plant” award in the State of Florida from The American Water Works Association. This award was presented at the 2014 Florida Water Resources Conference on April 7, 2014 at the Coronado Springs Convention Center in Lake Buena Vista, Florida.
This is the second major award the Garnsey Water Plant has received this year. In March, the plant was recognized by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection with the “Plant Operations Excellence Award” in the large plant category.
“We are 100 percent committed to clean, reliable water for our customers,” said Jason Yarbrough, Public Utilities Director. “This award is recognition of our commitment level to that goal.”
Chief Operator Steven Miller expressed his thanks for the efforts of all the plant operational personnel, along with the maintenance, field operation and lab divisions that made it possible to win these prestigious awards. “Our staff has done the City of Port Orange proud through their professionalism and commitment to excellence.” Mr. Miller stated, “Constant improvements over the years in the plant’s infrastructure, process control, and efficiency of operations has been the key to gaining positive recognition from the State regulatory agency, and standing out among our peers.” “The employees of the Port Orange Public Utilities Department are committed to making this a tradition going forward and setting their sights on winning future awards for the citizens of their community.”
Great job!
To be consistent council should bring in the people that were directly involved in this achievement and give them awards or recognition. These people did the design and specification work themselves and performed much of the work with minimum contractor and engineering help saving the city major money.
This is proof that if you enable employees to use their experience and knowledge to make improvements, to set and accomplish goals positive things will get done.
This was primarily done during the transition period between previous management and the new management at utilities. When the interim manager ( Thank you Donna) Let the employees do their jobs the way they knew how without interference and glory grabbing….
Congratulations and thank you to those employees that did the work to make these awards possible.
Keep up the good work.
WAY TO GO PORT ORANGE WATER DEPARTMENT STAFF.
THE MAYOR, COUNCIL AND CITY MANAGER SHOULD BE VERY PROUD OF THE WORK YOU HAVE ACCOMPLISHED ON YOUR OWN FOR MANY, MANY YEARS, MAKING OUR CITY’S PLANT ONE OF THE BEST AROUND. WHAT WOULD A CITY BE WITHOUT SAFE WATER FOR IT’S RESIDENTS YET IT IS SOMETHING THE AVERAGE PERSON GIVES LITTLE THOUGHT TO…..UNLESS THEY DON’T HAVE IT.
WHAT SURPRISES ME IS THAT NO RECOGNITION EVER SEEMS TO BE GIVEN DURING COUNCIL MEETINGS EVEN THOUGH I SEE POLICE, FIRE AND OTHERS BEING COMMENDED FOR THEIR GOOD WORKS.
AGAIN..CONGRAT GUYS. IN MY MIND YOU ARE THE ”A TEAM”
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I remember taking a tour of this facility back a few years ago when they had an open house. Having been an professional engineer throughout my life, the first thing that struck me about the plant was just how clean and well maintained it was. Everywhere you went it was freshly painted with no rust on piping or equipment. I thought to myself, how does the number of staff employed here keep this place so spotless?
Another thing that struck me was the encyclopedic knowledge that the staff conducting the tours possessed and their ability to convey their knowledge and make it easily understandable to the people taking the tour. I remember the operators that lead the tours explaining all the in house projects and undertakings that were done to improve the process and save the citizens money. I was really impressed with the staff explaining their in house plan to convert the plant to a high level tertiary virus removal process. They also explained a number of other in house projects that saved hundreds of thousands of tax payers dollars.
In my opinion, with over 40 years of engineering experience, the personnel that work at this facility have developed a first rate operation and are a top notch team. I hope they have another open house in the future that I may attend to see what further innovations they have implemented. Keep up the great work for the citizens of Port Orange. Thanks!