To: Honorable Mayor and Members of Town Council
From: Mark Marlowe, P.E., Utilities Director
Title
Announcement: John Chrestensen, Castle Rock Water Field Services Superintendent, Water Distribution System Operator Award for 2016
Body
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Executive Summary
It is my pleasure to inform Town Council that our own John Chrestensen, Utilities Field Services Superintendent, has been selected by the Rocky Mountain Section of the American Water Works Association (RMSAWWA) as recipient of the Water Distribution System Operator Award for 2016. John was selected from a pool of award nominations submitted by water utilities in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico, and is being recognized for his excellent qualifications and commitment to the industry. John has been employed with Castle Rock Water since January 2005 and has demonstrated tremendous dedication to the Town and serving the citizens of Castle Rock as the Operator in Responsible Charge for the water distribution system. He has progressed from a Maintenance Worker I into a Superintendent role and has done an excellent job supporting Castle Rock Water’s Vision and Mission. During John’s tenure with the Town, he has helped advance Castle Rock Water through his instrumental role in the Field Services Division. John holds the highest level operator certification in water distribution and his notable accomplishments and contributions include:
• Creating and implementing numerous maintenance programs (valve & hydrant, tank cleaning, hydrant painting, flushing). Prior to this the Town had only a rudimentary and largely undocumented program. The implementation of these programs has enabled the Distribution team to hit the challenging goal of inspecting and performing maintenance on over 50% of the fire hydrants per year. They exercised and maintained 5,916 of 10,600 valves and 2,475 of 3,700 fire hydrants.
• Converting to secondary disinfection with chloramines, including creating a method to track migration of chloramines during the conversion with almost no water quality complaints.
• As part of a Castle Rock Water-wide initiative, John was a leader in implementing an Asset Management system and the data associated with appropriate tracking. He and his team were instrumental in providing information to help populate the data base.
• Excavating and restoring a century old wooden waterline. He and his crew safely excavated the antique pipe and then with the help of other Castle Rock Water staff members restored it and prepared it for display. This was an important project as it relates to the history of water distribution systems and educating our citizens on how we have come a long way in protecting human health and delivering safe drinking water.
• Creating effective relationships with other departments, such as the Public Works Inspectors (who do the inspection of new water lines for Castle Rock Water) to ensure that water quality is preserved when new installations occur, saving us time and money.
• Ensuring a safe environment during emergency responses - over 50 line breaks/leak repairs since last safety incident on a repair.
• Implementing use of mobile technologies to improve effectiveness and efficiency of maintenance tasks. John has helped implement mobile computer and IPad connections with the Town server, providing the technicians with immediate online access to GIS Mapping and the Town’s Asset Management Program (Cartegraph).
• Training others, including the Castle Rock Fire Department, on proper use of fire hydrants.
• Additionally, John managed the Town’s annual leak detection contracts and helped keep the Town’s non-revenue water below 10%.
• Training and encouraging his team to help them obtain further certification.
• Presenting at Action Now seminars on topics, such as tank cleaning and water hammer.
• Assisting the Fire Department in saving the life of private contractor when engulfed/buried by an improperly shored trench excavation.
• Reducing the amount of corrective maintenance and the amount of overtime.
• Increasing attention to safety and operating efficiencies.
• Operating the water system in such a way as to minimize water quality complaints, thus keeping our utility in the top quartile, according to AWWA Standards.
• John helped Castle Rock achieve zero deficiencies on our 2013 Sanitary Survey.
• John was part of the team that helped Castle Rock achieve a Gold Award in the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, “Pursuing Excellence Program.”
Attachments
Attachment A: RMSAWWA Award Notification