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Utility directors tap into new water supplies

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Written by Mandy Hobby Friday, 07 April 2006

Tom Martin, Utilities Director, City of Round Rock

Tom Clark did not start his career at the top. After working in a sewer plant cleaning, he literally worked his way up to the top, the top being the director of utilities for the city of Round Rock. “I was cleaning at the plant by day and going to college at night and also married with kids,” Clark said of his early utility days. Clark has been in the utility business for 30 years, and moved to the City of Round Rock utility department four years ago after working for the Brazos River Authority. Clark will now help the city in their newest and largest water project. The city is teaming up with the Lower Colorado River Authority and Cedar Park to start receiving water in 2009 from Lake Travis.

Q What is the scope of the public works department?

A Public Works is responsible for the city’s transportation, engineering and utilities. The utility department is responsible for the operation of water and wastewater systems, as well as capital improvements.

Q What impact would it have on the community if there were no public works department?

A The utilities are the backbone to the growth of a city. Property will develop based on where the utilities are. You couldn’t have [water for] fire protection or water your yard. The utilities set the pace for the quality of life in a city.

Q In the next 5-10 years, what challenges does the Public Works department face?

A Our biggest challenge is adding more water supply. We had a supply and now we need a new one. Our next supply will come from Lake Travis. We will partner with Cedar Park and the LCRA to access the new supply. The growth of Round Rock is driving us to supply more water.

Q What is the biggest water catastrophe the department has faced?

A The biggest water catastrophe we had was two years ago at Dell. Water feeds into Dell from several different directions. Because of the building of SH 45, some of the valves were closed while others in another part of town were hit by a contractor.

A waterline broke and Dell was out of water for 30-40 minutes. This created quite a bit of a problem for the employees. It happened twice and we had to truck in bottled water for 12,000 people. Luckily, we were able to fix everything in a short amount of time both times.

Education Bachelor’s in Business from East Texas Baptist University
Family Married four months ago to Mary; two children
Contact Information 671-2755 or tclark@cityofroundrock.com

Joey Miller, Utilities Director, City of Pflugerville

Pflugerville utility director Joey Miller describes his job as easy because of the people that work with and around him. Miller is responsible for customer complaints, engineers, the utility budget, permits and making sure the public works department follows state regulations. Miller is currently in charge of tapping into the new Lake Pflugerville reservoir to ensure residents have water this summer. Without the new lake, Pflugerville would be on mandatory water rationing this June, Miller said.“The people in Pflugerville don’t understand really how good of a water system and plant they have,” Miller said. “We have enough water set aside in storage with the lake to be prepared for anything.”

Q What is the scope of the public works department?

A The Public Works department takes care of water and wastewater for the city. We supply water by getting it to the customer and after they use it and abuse it, they get it back to us and we clean it and put it back into the ground.

Q What impact would it have on the community if there were no public works department?

A There wouldn’t be a community. If you don’t have water, you don’t have a community. You could not be a city of any size or capacity without water and wastewater. A city can’t grow without having wastewater treatment. A city can’t just have septic tanks to support them because it is too much of a hassle.

Q In the next 5-10 years, what challenges does the Public Works department face?

A Growth is the main thing we face. Keeping up with the growth is our biggest challenge. We have made a lot of progress with putting in a new water system with the reservoir. Right now we are doing wastewater construction to enlarge the wastewater plant.

Q What is the biggest water catastrophe the department has faced?

A It wasn’t a catastrophe, but it could have been. When we took over the City of Austin’s water, we discovered that they disinfected the water a different way than we did. We had to change it or we were told it would come out smelling like cat urine. We prepared for the worst by hanging 5,000 notices on doorknobs just in case we couldn’t take care of it in time. We had guys working all night trying to clean the water. We had to form a battleplan and we set up a call center. We didn’t know for sure if we would be able to take care of it, but we luckily did!