FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
THROUGH HARD WORK
FORT MYERS, Fla. (November 5, 2002) – The Board of Lee County Commissioners today recognized the efforts of five county utilities workers who saved utilities ratepayers more than $175,000 by painting their newly expanded facility themselves instead of contracting out the work.
Fiesta
Village Wastewater Treatment Plant recently underwent a $6.9-million expansion
that increased the capacity of the plant from 2.5 million gallons-per-day (mgd)
to 5 mgd. The expansion also
included the construction of a 2 million gallon reclaimed water storage tank
that has a new reclaimed water transfer pump station with eight reclaimed
transfer pumps – allowing maximum use of reclaimed water.
During the expansion, the cost proposal to paint the facility came in at about $200,000. The plant’s maintenance crew, which normally doesn’t do such large paint jobs, decided to do it themselves and save ratepayers a bundle of money.
They purchased 360 gallons of paint and 245 gallons of sealer. Then, in addition to their normal duties, they took shifts to paint the entire facility. The final in-house cost, including 740 hours of labor, came to $24,400.
The
employees are Doug Bohn and Jeff Reno
(who were the primary painters), and Eugene McCartney, Jexel Cabrera and Eduardo
Gonzalez (who assisted).
Commissioners today praised the employees’ efforts as an example how good ideas and ingenuity by employees benefits citizens and their pocketbooks.
The county’s Utilities Division serves 55,000 water and 39,500 sewer customers in portions of North, East and South Lee County. The county operates five wastewater-treatment plants – Fort Myers Beach, Fiesta Village, Waterway Estates, Highpoint and Pine Island – with a total of 12.5-million gallons of capacity per day, and five water-treatment plants – College Parkway, Corkscrew, Green Meadows, Olga and Waterway Estates – with a combined 26-million gallons of capacity per day. The Utilities Division has an annual operating budget of about $30.3 million.