T H E W A T E R C O N N E C T I O N News For Clayton County Water Authority Employees & Retirees

March 2014

Jim Poff and Kevin Osbey Named

New Assistant General Managers

C CWA General Manager Mike Thomas announced in February the selection of the Water Authority’s two new

Deputy Managers - Jim Poff and Kevin Osbey. In their new positions, Jim and Kevin will carry the title Assistant

General Manager.

When former Deputy Manager Mike Bennett retired in January, it was a great opportunity to look at restructuring CCWA’s

Management Team. Under our previous structure, there were 13 employees who reported directly to the General

Manager.

The structure of having two Assistant General Managers provides many benefits. According to Mike, there were many

areas of our operation that were not getting the attention they needed, including emergency response preparations,

security, tracking our success with our levels of service and redesigning our processes to improve service.

“This will also free me up to be more involved with water policy at a state and regional level and to focus more on

important community and Board relationships,” he says. “Finally it fits our new succession planning model of providing

more opportunities for people to grow.”

As Assistant General Manager - Support Services, Kevin’s direct

reports include: Program Management/Engineering/Stormwater;

Customer Service; Finance; IT; HR; Public Information Office and Risk

Management & Procurement.

As Assistant General Manager - Operations, Jim’s direct reports

include: Water Reclamation; Water Production; Distribution &

Conveyance and General Services.

Mike’s direct reports are now Kevin, Jim and Executive Coordinator

Cary Santoyo.

Look for more information on this organizational change in future

newsletters.

Distribution Crews Work The ‘Over Night’ Shift

On Panola Road Widening Project

Asst. General

Manager Operations

Jim Poff

Distribution crews recently had to

make a water main tie in along

Panola Road (as part of the

Panola Road widening Project in

Ellenwood). This tie in was done

between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m. to

reduce the impact on customers

who would not have water service

during the work.

Now that is quality service!

Asst. General

Manager Support

Services Kevin Osbey

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Our Condolences

Promotions

&

Transfers

New Hire

Please keep the following employees

in your thoughts and prayers:

Sandhill Cranes Enjoy a Stop Over

at CCWA’s Huie Holding Ponds

Hundreds of migratory Sandhill Cranes stopped over at the Huie Holding

Ponds on the afternoon of February 19. The large south pond was mostly

drained at the time, providing perfect stop-over habitat for these long dis-

tance flyers.

Many of us had seen and heard huge flocks overhead for several days

before this event, as they travel to their breeding grounds in the northern

Midwest and Canada. Their conservation depends heavily on available

stop-over habitat remaining intact for them to feed and rest.

Bernard Franks (D&C) and his

brother Jonathan Franks (D&C) on

the loss of their Grandmother, Mrs.

Sallie Mae Franks, who passed

away on February 14, 2014.

Amanda La Pierre (Finance) and

her husband Adam (D&C) on the

loss of her Grandfather Mr. William

McCollum, who passed away on

Saturday, February 22, 2014.

Darlene Tuggle (IT) and her family

on the loss of her mother, Ms. Helen

Rebecca Crowell, who passed

away on February 25, 2014.

Ellen Heimbrecht (Water Reclama-

tion) and her family on the loss of

her mother, Ms. Linda Lynch, who

passed away in February.

Cary Santoyo

Executive Coordinator

Carla Clark

Stormwater Office Assistant

Jim Poff

Assistant General Manager

Kevin Osbey

Assistant General Manager

Jay Mathis

Lift Station Technician

Hire Date: 2/4/2014

CSU Students Plant Live Stakes

Along Camp Creek Restoration Project

A group of Clayton State University (CSU) biology and ecology students

partnered with CCWA’s Storm-

water Utility and engineering

firm Brown and Caldwell to plant

permanent vegetation along a

recently repaired segment of

Camp Creek off of Walker Road

in Riverdale.

CCWA performed a stream

restoration in 2009 along a

2,500 linear feet section of

Camp Creek. Some of the sec-

tions degraded over the past

few years so a contractor went

back in to stabilize the area with

rip-rap, soil and fabric.

CSU students volunteered their

afternoon on February 21 to

plant the willow tree live stakes

and learn more about the

stream repair project.

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New Training Room In HQ Building

Now in Use

CCWA’s new Training Room is ready and in use. The room, which is in the

HQ Building’s old 2nd floor board room, gives Training Staff Pat Heinzerling

and Alaine Mort a permanent space with plenty of room. They would like to

send out a special thanks to the following for moving all the boxed furniture

out of storage and up to the training room: Jeff Jones, Lance Kelly, Danny

Haynes, Mike Hooper, Obed Mathurin, Mike Sneed, Chris Cummings and

Walt Burdette.

CCWA’s annual Mini Conference

was approved for six (6) Continu-

ing Education Points at the state’s

last board meeting.

The 2014 Mini Conference will be

held at the Shamrock CUB on

Wednesday, April 30 from 8 a.m. -

4:30 p.m.

Space is limited so sign up on

SharePoint or email

trainer@ccwa.us.

New Water Industry Class Provides

Overview of CCWA and Industry

Mini Conference

Being Held

At Shamrock CUB

on April 30

Upcoming Classes

A few spaces are still available in

the following classes. If you are

interested in signing up for any of

these, have your supervisor email

Trainer@ccwa.us.

Resume Writing

Thursday, March 20

8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

Interviewing Part I

Wednesday, April 16

8:30 am. - 12:30 p.m.

Interviewing Part II

Wednesday, April 23

8:30 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

CCWA’s internship program provides opportunities for both college and high school students to, “earn while they learn”

at the Water Authority. Summer positions are available in Water Production, Water Reclamation, Engineering, GIS,

Stormwater & Customer Service. Contact Pat Heinzerling, pheinzerling@ccwa.us to request an application if you know a

student who is interested or for additional information.

College application deadline: Friday, March 28, 2014

High school application deadline: Friday, April 18, 2014

Nine employees attended a new CCWA class being offered to learn more

about the Water Authority, its

history and current operations.

They were also given the chance

to tour the Hicks and W. B. Casey

Facilities and the Wetlands

Center. The first class included:

Carmen Burns, Jacob Cannon,

Chris Cummings, Fred DeHer,

Christina Hollywood, Kevin

Lunsford, Willie Moore, Jasmin

Sosa and John Sweatman.

CCWA 2014 SUMMER INTERNSHIP PROGRAM

Tap into Future Careers

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Sean Ware

Celebrates 15 Years of Service

NTS staff performs a controlled burn of CCWA’s

constructed treatment wetlands this time of year to

reduce the amount of biomass that builds up in the

system.

According to NTS Maintenance Foreman Mark

Cochran, this time of year is best for controlled

burns because the previous season’s growth has

died and the new season’s growth has not yet

emerged.

Shown in photo is part of the controlled burn at

Panhandle Wetlands in late February.

Cynthia Johnson worked in Billing

for 16 years. She left in February to

join her husband in Kentucky. Here is

a note from Cynthia:

“I, Cynthia Johnson (as the mail-lady),

would like to thank you all for a

wonderful 16 years here at CCWA.”

Love you all. Kentucky, here I come.”

‘Mail Lady’ Leaves CCWA for

Bluegrass State

Congratulations to the following

winners from our

February drawing:

Scott Cantrell

D&C

Amanda Fortson

Meter Services

Beverly Steward

Customer Service

Mike Holt

Water Reclamation

Carol Cameron

Finance

Controlled Burn at Panhandle Wetlands

Career Day at Smith Elementary

D&C Equipment Operator

Sean Ware celebrated 15 years of

service on February 1, 2014.

Sean is shown above with General

Manager Mike Thomas and D&C

Manager Bernard Franks.

CCWA’s Water Resources Engineer Shayla Nealy and D&C CCTV Crew

members Gerald Fuller and

Dean Howell participated in

Smith Elementary School’s 2014

Career Day event.

Gerald and Dean talked to

students about their work

televising sewer lines and showed

them how the robotic camera

works and some video of what it

finds in a sewer line.

Shayla gave students a glimpse

into her work as an engineer in

our Stormwater Utility. While

they had many questions for

her, the two most asked were,

“do you like your job?” and “how

much money do you make?”

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CCWA Reservoirs Open for 2014 Season

The Shamrock/Blalock and JW Smith reservoirs opened to the public for the

2014 Season on Saturday March 1. The reservoirs are open March 1 through

October 31 every year.

Clayton County residents pay $5 per vehicle, or $30 for a season pass.

Non-county residents pay $10 per vehicle, or $40 for a season pass. Season

passes are good through the month of October and are sold at the entrance

offices of Shamrock/Blalock Reservoir and J.W. Smith Reservoir when CCWA

staff is available. Temporary season pass forms are also available at the pay

station areas when CCWA staff is not present. These temporary season pass

forms may be filled out and deposited with payment. The season pass will

then be mailed to the individual.

Shamrock/Blalock Reservoirs

Shamrock/Blalock Reservoirs are located at 2610 Shamrock Road (off of

Freeman Road) in Jonesboro and are open Wednesday – Sunday from 7 a.m.

– 7 p.m. during March and October and 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. April – September.

J.W. Smith Reservoir

J. W. Smith Reservoir is located at 143 Northbridge Road in Hampton and is

open Saturday – Wednesday from 7 a.m. – 7 p.m. during March and October

and 7 a.m. – 8 p.m. April – September.

Shoal Creek Reservoir

Clayton County residents with season passes to CCWA reservoirs will once

again have the opportunity to enjoy prime fishing as CCWA’s Shoal Creek

Reservoir opens this spring for limited public fishing. The reservoir will be open

for boat fishing only from 7 a.m. – 3 p.m. on the following three Saturdays:

March: 15, 22 and 29

For more information on the Authority's reservoirs and motor boat restrictions,

call Jep or Kevin at 770.603.5605.

ACS Dress Down

Stickers On Sale

American Cancer Society Relay for

Life Dress Down Stickers may be

purchased and worn until May 8,

2014.

The cost of stickers is 1 for $2, 5 for

$8, and 15 for $20. You can pay with

cash or checks made payable to The

American Cancer Society. You may

purchase stickers from:

Rhonda Coots

Mandy Lindow

Candace Court

Suzanne Brown

Mary Safrit

Denise Smith

Zoe Bernal

Linda Allen

Karen Riser

Sue Simmons

Clayton County’s Relay for Life will

be held on May 9, 2014 at Charles

Drew High School

Do you store your files in a safe place? If you are storing your files on your

desktop, my documents, or C drive the answer is NO!!

If you have important files that need to be backed up regularly then you should

be saving them to either the P drive, H drive, or Sharepoint. Those drives are

fully backed up on a regular basis, which gives IT the ability to restore your file

in case of emergency.

Just remember to clean up your folders periodically so we don’t use up all the

space. You don’t have to save every file to the P drive, H drive, or Sharepoint…

just the ones you want to keep safe!!!

Welcome to another episode of the CCWA Newsletter’s TECHBYTES. This is

a special communications forum from the IT department to spotlight a “Did you

know…”, “How do you..” , or a “Tips and Tricks” article geared specifically

towards making your job easier. After all, YOU are OUR customer!

TIPS and TRICKS…

A Jonesboro property owner wrote in

to commend the work Stormwater

Staff did to correct a flooding

problem at 121 and 125 Irvin Street.

“Job well done” he wrote.

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YOS

Oscar Blalock 3/1 4

Rodney Givens 3/1 4

John Westervelt 3/1 11

Stacy Doerr 3/4 18

Melissa Hammond 3/8 9

LaRee DePaolo 3/10 2

Adam Horton 3/10 11

Brandon Powell 3/10 2

Michael Shinn 3/10 11

Chris Biles 3/12 3

Walter Burdett 3/15 29

Rocky Autrey 3/16 16

Bennie Rose 3/16 5

Bobby Jones 3/17 28

Leonard Moore 3/19 6

Shane Wingate 3/19 6

Joey Martin 3/20 14

Jeremy Storm 3/20 8

Chris Cummings 3/21 3

Pat Hensler 3/23 5

Karen Sims 3/23 8

John Sweatman 3/23 1

Phoenix Hunt 3/24 17

Keith Lowry 3/24 14

Nick Adams 3/26 7

Rhonda Daum 3/27 8

Brandi Head 3/27 4

Daniel Salmons 3/27 14

Lynn Brooks 3/30 5

Carla Clark 3/31 17

Pat McKiness 3/31 6

Mark Brown 3/1

Mandy Lindow 3/1

Jim Quattlebaum 3/1

Gerald Fuller 3/4

Rase Kelley 3/7

Casey Watson 3/9

Sophia Haynes 3/10

Carol Lambert 3/10

Shayla Nealy 3/12

Wayne Wilkerson 3/13

Kenny Davis 3/15

Amanda La Pierre 3/20

Dexter Norris 3/20

Lesley Rathburn 3/21

Cornell Sims 3/22

Jonathan Franks 3/24

Nate Lee 3/26

Kevin Lunsford 3/26

Liz Forshaw 3/29

Takesha Blossomgame 3/30

Chasten Burns 3/30

Torrey Mund 3/30

Leslie Fitzgerald 3/31

Jay Maxwell 3/31