Homer Mayor Rachel Lord recognized the work and contributions of the city’s wastewater management team during last Monday’s city council meeting, following the team’s reception of an award at a recent state conference.
City of Homer staff attended the Alaska Water Wastewater Management Association Conference in Anchorage earlier this month for continuing education credits toward maintaining their certifications and licenses.
During the conference, they were presented with the Large Wastewater System of the Year award for the City of Homer Wastewater Treatment Facility. The award recognizes the performance of wastewater systems serving communities with a population of 2,500 or more individuals or that processes an average of 250,000 gallons or more of wastewater per day.
“This is a rather prestigious award in the state, meaning our community beat out much larger municipal systems such as Juneau, Anchorage and Fairbanks,” Lord said Monday, reading aloud from her written recognition. “This award demonstrates the commitment of our talented staff in the entire water/wastewater department, and their exemplary skills.”
In addition to the wastewater system award, two of Homer’s water distribution and wastewater collection staff members competed in the conference’s Hydrant Hysteria Contest, in which staff members work as a team, competing against other municipalities’ staff members, to assemble a fire hydrant in the shortest time possible. According to Lord, Anchorage has consistently won this contest for several years in a row, as they are a large enough municipality to employ staff members who only work on hydrants.
Homer’s Michael Swoboda and Sean Love won second place in the hydrant contest, with a time of one minute and 49.94 seconds — only losing to the Anchorage team by one-tenth of a second.
“This is a remarkable feat when you consider that 1/10 of a second is essentially the difference in reaction time of the two timers clicking a button,” Lord said. “This is a testament of their dedication to their craft, a testament to the senior staff who have trained them, and the City for providing them the resources and training opportunities to the top notch in their trade.”
A video of Swoboda and Love competing in the hydrant contest is available in the June 9 meeting recording at www.cityofhomer-ak.gov/citycouncil/city-council-regular-meeting-342.