President's Message

Kevin Freber
Watertown, Wisconsin
April 2013

I can hardly believe it that we had our first day this year over 50 degrees. This winter has been brutal, not just for employees but for most every cities budgets. Just prior to the WWOA Conference last fall I took over Water and Wastewater in Watertown. I’m getting a baptism by fire on water main breaks and service laterals freezing. I hope by the time you are reading this issue that the frost is out of the ground and things are getting back to normal.

On February 13, Lyle Lutz WWOA Vice President and Technical Chair for the WWOA Conference in Green Bay, pulled together a talented bunch of members to help create what I believe is an information packed technical program for the upcoming 2014 conference. We have two pre-conference workshops, and for those who love Rick Mealy’s presentations, you’re in luck as he will be giving one of them. We have a total of 36 technical sessions Wednesday and Thursday, and a tour of the Green Bay (New Water) facility. Keep your eyes open for more information on the conference in the up coming months. Thanks for all the hard work Lyle; I’m sure the membership will agree! I have been unable to attend regional meetings due to conflicts. However, I finally was able to attend the North Central Regional meeting in Rhinelander. When I arrived at the meeting I was reminded why WWOA Board Member Jeff Simpson is pushing so hard to get Industry pretreatment operators to become members. We met a young lady who was working as the operator of a pretreatment plant for the paper industry. She was at the regional meeting for two reasons; one was to get information on the WWOA and whether it was worth their time to become members, and the second reason was the Wisconsin River TMDL. I hope that after our conservation with her she sees the value in becoming WWOA member. I was very impressed with the quality of speakers and the attendance. We got an update on the Wisconsin River TMDL that was very informative. There were also presentations on biological phosphorus removal.

I wanted to remind everyone to take a few minutes and think about nominating someone for the awards WWOA gives out each year at the annual conference. It takes only small amount of time and the people receiving them are truly moved by receiving the award from their peers. I will keep bringing this up till I hear we have at least 50 nominations for every Award. Also look at the scholarships that are available through the WWOA. I can’t believe with 2000 members we only receive a few nominations every year.

Well until next issue take care.

Kevin
WWOA President